Korea wedding trip day 3: a day with jang

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Thanks to a combination of need more sleep and working in my hotel room this morning, we didn't get out for breakfast until fairly late. For someone who doesn't care much for eggs, I was surprised that Foursheets wanted to see what the Korean breakfast sandwiches are all about. Well, there's an Isaac Toast near our hotel, so we grabbed a couple of them and headed back to our room.

Foursheets had the grilled bulgogi (그릴드 불갈비), but couldn't escape eggs in her sandwich.

I decided to be bold and try the bacon potato pizza (베이컨 포테이토 피자). There was a slab of hash brown as well as corn, egg, a thin slice of radish kimchi, and marinara sauce. It was definitely too much, especially given we had a lunch coming up in less than 2 hours.

I had the pleasure of attending a three-way collaboration during Asia's 50 Best Restaurants held at Onjium Restaurant (온지음), and it was fantastic. It made me want to come back and try the cuisine of Chef Cho Eunhee (조은희) and Chef Park Sungbae (박성배), to experience fully the elegance that I had a glimpse of.

I had asked Mikacina to help book our table, so Chef Cho and Chef Park took very good care of us. In fact, they served us the dinner menu at lunch time... and then some. I asked for the Korean wine pairing to learn more about them.

Pine mushroom dumpling (송이만두) - the mandu (만두) came stuffed with zucchini, pine nuts, and what is more commonly known as matsutake (松茸), or songi (송이) in Korean. The flavors of the mushroom was delicate and delicious.

Jujeonbuli (주전부리) - we have a series of one bite dishes next:

Daylily (옥잠화) - filled with shredded abalone, Korean pear, and beef.

Rice cake with beef patty (떡 떡갈비) - on top of a fluffy tteok (떡) we had some mustard and a little ball of tteokgalbi (떡갈비).

Seaweed chips and fish roe chips (부각) - bugak (부각) are always great as tasty snacks.

Yugwa (유과) - with pine nut and seaweed powder. The seaweed flavors were really nice.

Dried apple with gochujang - this has the acidity and the sweetness from the fruit, but also the spicy kick from the gochujang. Naturally, this paired well with the apple cider soju.

Omynara Mungyeong Baram Oak 40% (오미나라 문경바람 오크 40%)

Wink Sour Mead

These two were mixed together. I could definitely taste the alcohol but also the apple flavors were distinctive.

Mustard greens with vegetables (겨자채) - gyeojachae (겨자채) is a summer dish enjoyed by the royals, which involves mixing chilled ingredients with a mustard sauce. We had vegetables like asparagus, burdock, bean sprouts, carrots, strips of what seemed to be tofu, pear, chestnuts... as well as beef and spiny sea cucumber. The mustard was very strong and it clears up nostrils and sinus... and I started to tear up from it. Nevertheless, this was really delicious.

Ellyeop Pyunjoo Cheongju (一葉平舟 / 일엽편주 청주) - good acidity, nice fruitiness, too, but not really sweet on the palate. A hint of bitterness on the palate but only just a little. I guess this is a yakju (약주) after all.

Steamed abalone with soy sauce (능이전복탕) - we have some really fine chiffonade of sarcodon imbricatus or scaly hedgehog - neungi (능이버섯) in Korean, and a relative of the sarcodon aspratus found in Yunnan. This was so, so fragrant and beautiful. The broth made with the same mushroom was very delicate and tasty, with just the slightest hint of spicy kick.

According to Chef Park, the dish was partly inspired by Vicky Cheng's abalone duo, as the chefs also used both fresh and rehydrated abalone here. Needless to say, the abalone was really, really nice.

We also had a very tasty roll stuffed with mushrooms like maitake (舞茸), shiitake, and cordycep flowers.

Pickled chili peppers - served together with the abalone.

Gyeongju Beopju Choteuksun 21% (慶州法酒 超特選 21%) - equivalent of a 21% seimaibuai. This was kinda like sake, but not quite. A little sweeter on the palate.

Next came a special seasonal fish platter that was off-menu... as it wasn't even on the dinner menu we were enjoying.

We had some marinated sancho pepper as a condiment.

[Yellow] croaker (참조기) - marinated in salt and sesame oil. This was OK.

Japanese horse mackerel (전갱이) - a very familiar dish to those who enjoy Japanese cuisine. Very nice with the perilla oil and garlic, but better with the sancho pepper.

Three year-old kimchi

Grilled egg with crab - steamed before grilled on charcoal. This was nice. Also enjoyed with the kimchi.

Muneo-jeolyuk (문어절육) - beef, octopus, and abalone sausage. Flavors were pretty heavy, but this was nice. Served with Chinese yam.

The crispy pork belly came with some leafy amaranth (비름나물) and shredded spring onion.

Housemade mulberry rice wine - nice fruity notes.

Mung bean pancake and jeup jang (녹두전과 즙장) - nokdujeon (녹두전) is a popular street food but the version here is more refined. It was carefully made by pan-frying a layer of mung bean batter until the bottom was crisp, adding filling like minced pork, bracken, [kimchi?] and bean sprouts, before adding a layer of batter on top and flipping over to brown the other side. Served with some jeupjang (즙장) - one of the 10 major types of jang in Korean cuisine - made with octopus and Korean squash (조선호박).

Pungjeon Sagye Autumn (풍정사계 秋) - very enjoyable with light sweetness but not fizziness.

Pheasant noodles (꿩 백면) - at our fourth meal in Seoul and we had our fourth bowl of naengmyeon (냉면) on this trip. This would make Foursheets very happy. The noodles were very firm and chewy, and I could taste the flavors of the buckwheat. Unfortunately neither Foursheets nor I tasted the aged tangerine peel that was supposed to be in the noodles. This was served in a chilled pheasant and dongchimi (동치미) broth, together with dongchimi and pheasant terrine. So refreshing. So tasty.

Braised short ribs with soy marinade (맥적 갈비) - maekjeok gui (맥적구이) is pork marinated in deunggyeojang (등겨장), a barley-based doenjang (된장). This is an updated version that involves more than just pork. Served with strips of deep-fried burdock drizzled in rice syrup.

This version of has the pork thinly sliced along with beef short ribs (갈비) and neungi (능이) mushrooms, steamed as a galbi-jjim (갈비찜) before roasting to finish, and topped with some ground raw chestnuts. Honestly, this was still a pretty heavy dish. The chunks had a very springy texture, and it was easy to see the pork had been steamed until the myoglobin came out. Besides the meat we also had sliced jujube and diced onions. Very tasty, and definitely nothing I've had before.

A side salad of dried apple, arugula, and kimchi to help lighten our palates.

Chusa 40 degree Apple Brandy (추사 40도 사과브랜디) - we had a small taste with our meat dish. Didn't bother to dilute it with ice...

Seasonal bibimbap (비빔밥) - apparently bibimbap used to be called hwaban (화반), or "flower rice". For this season we have baekhwaban (백화반), or "white flower rice", since the ingredients all have a white hue. We had chiffonade of chestnuts and [matsutake or neungi mushrooms]. This was very delicate with a slight sweetness, and the flavors were not bland at all. We were encouraged to add a little jungtang doenjang (중탕된장) for seasoning to taste.

Radish stem (열무)

Cheonggukjang-jjigae (청국장찌개) - this was a little spicy, with soy beans, onions, and mushrooms.

Doenjang-guk (된장국) with seasonal vegetables. This was slightly spicy.

Asian pear sherbert (향설빙) - we had omija (오미자) granita, a sorbet made with Asian pear juice, and slices of pear on top with omija sauce. Also accompanied by a chunk of duyumuk (두유묵), a soy milk pudding.

Two petits fours came at the end...

Ddeulkkae gwajul (들깨과줄) - these chips were made with dubujang (두부장) and fish sauce, and came with perilla seeds (들깨).

Duteop pie - inspired by duteop tteok (두텁떡) and filled with chestnuts, pine nuts, jujube, and cinnamon.

We had tangerine peel tea to finish. We didn't get the citrus fragrance, but this did had some light and delicate tangerine flavors.

This was an amazing meal, and exactly why I wanted to come back to try the restaurant's cuisine. A lot of the recipes are historic, as documented by the restaurant when introducing the dishes, yet Chefs Cho and Park are giving them an update with a modern presentation. The flavors are often surprisingly delicate yet always flavorful. What I love about coming here is that it's a real education into traditional Korean cuisine, which is the whole point of the cultural research institute that is Onjium. I can't wait to come back for my next lesson.

While introducing the dishes to us, our server Yaewon (예원) told us about the Jang to Table: Savoring the Everyday exhibition they put together that is currently open just down the road. While initially they told us that they could get us in at a 50% discount, in the end Yaewon personally led us to the Arumjigi Foundation (재단법인 아름지기) and got us free entry. She even stayed with us for quite a while.

On one way there was a list of the names of the 10 types of jang being showcased...

...as well as jars of them.

The central display on the main floor was a series of representative dishes, each made with one of the 10 jangs.

White rice porridge table spread (흰죽 상차림), made with cheongjang (청장)

Goldongban (골동반), made with yakgochujang (약고추장).

Dubujeongol (두부전골), made with eoyukjang (어육장)

Jangonmyeon (장온면), made with doenjang (된장)

Seafood tteokbokki (해물떡볶이), made with daegujang (대구장)

Vegetable hwaryangjeok (채소화양적), made with cheollijang

Jeupjang (즙장) - we just had this earlier.

Bungeojjim (붕어찜), made with cheonggukjang (청국장)

Maekjeok galbi (맥적 갈비), made with deunggyeojang (등겨장) - we just had this dish.

Ddeulkkae gwajul (들깨과줄) and duyumuk (두유묵), made with dubujang (두부장) - we also just had these.

We also went upstairs to look at their other exhibits, which showcased products like 3D-printed jang containers and stuff. Very interesting, and quite nice and relaxing to just hang out there.