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I woke up stupidly early this morning for my flight out of Seoul, as I finally bid farewell to my tropical hotel room at Shilla Stay Samsung. The saving grace was that the bus to the airport picked up right in front of the hotel, and I had an uneventful trip as I tried to catch some Zs.
I arrived at Incheon a little too early, so I had plenty of time to get in some breakfast before checking in. After strolling around and finding many options less appearling, I finally got myself some seolleongtang (설렁탕). One last meal of having kimchi with my meal...
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After a few years' absence, I'm back catching up with chef friends at the awards ceremony for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Aqua Panna. This year Seoul plays host to the awards, bringing in chefs, restauranteurs, KOLs, groupies, and wannabes to the large metropolis. Most of us having been eating our way around town, but we've finally arrived at the main event.
Of course many people take pictures to commemorate the occasion, especially chefs. After a few years of trying, Hong Kong team finally got their act together to take a group picture. This year there are 6 restaurants in the top 50, plus another 6 in the back 50 - which is a slight improvement over last year.
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At an event a few days ago, Mikacina introduced me to the owner behind Geumdwaeji Sikdang (금돼지식당), the famous "Gold Pig". The place is apparently very famous, and came highly recommended by my friends including Kutsuyama, who has been there and could vouch for how tasty the food is. Well, OF COURSE Gastronaut and I were dying to go, so strings were pulled and we got ourselves seats for lunch today - without needing to line up outside the no-reservation restaurant. I was really looking forward to lunch today.
I was not too surprised this morning when I got a message from Gastronaut, informing me of a sudden engagement on his side. He won't be joining me for lunch, but others will take his place. I'll be lunching with his chef friends.
I saw a group of people lined up outside the restaurant entrance when I arrived, but the others were already upstairs on the top floor. At my table were Chef Edward Chong of Peach Blossoms (鴻桃軒) in Singapore along with family and team. As I was the last one to arrive and the boss had already set us up with a selection of goodies, Britney arrived shortly and began her introduction to the different pork we would be having.
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This was one of my most-anticipated meals for the trip. I had heard pretty positive feedback about the cuisine at Eatanic Garden, although I hadn't done too much homework to know what to expect. I did hear from Mikacina that Chef Son Jong-won is very handsome, and she had wanted the opportunity to introduce him to Kutsuyama.
Well... I'm here with Kutsuyama tonight but Chef Son is nowhere to be found. Of course, I did make the mistake of booking the restaurant on the same evening as the Chefs' Feast being held for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, and this is the time when no chef from any decent restaurant in town would be in his or her kitchen. So... Kutsuyama would have to find another opportunity to meet the handsome chef.
As I'm not here with the love of my life, I did not book Kutsuyama and I into one of the window-facing loveseats with spectacular views of the city. As I was being taken to be seated at the large, U-shaped "Chef's Table", I was greeted by that annoying yet familiar voice belong to none other than PR8.
FUCK. I have to sit through an entire dinner in close proximity to HIM?!
So, yeah... half the counter is filled by people from Hong Kong, including Juve Fan and, of course, Giona. In fact, I don't think any of the diners at the Chef's Table was local - other than my date.
As each course is served, a card is placed in front of us, with a drawing on one side, along with a blurb on the ingredient drawn that comes from a staff member.
Our welcome drink was made with birch (presumbly the bark?) as well as some "spring flowers". The flavors were, not surprisingly, very, very, very light.
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I really messed up my itinerary today.
Besides all the eating I had planned for this trip, I really wanted to do some sightseeing around Seoul. Having explored a couple of palaces within city limits on my previous trips, I figured I should look for something outside but not too far away. Namhansanseong (남한산성) Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that's just outside the city, and it's only a short trip from my hotel in Gangnam. Since I hadn't booked anything for lunch today, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to go for a visit.
Well... while the park is open year-round, the palace within the grounds is closed on Mondays. So... I guess no sightseeing for me.
Instead, I met up with RAW Yeah for coffee this morning. He was incredibly kind to have picked up something from Foursheets in Hong Kong to pass to me, and we ended up hanging out for a little bit at Peer Coffee inside Starfield COEX Mall. As a lover of Ethiopian Yirgecheffe coffee, this pour-over from Haru Suke was right up my alley.
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After our very big lunch, the Man in White T-shirt decided to accompany me on my hunt for cute clothing for our CCDogcow. I had seen a few recommendations for Café Bite Me, and their online shop had a lot of cool stuff, but unfortunately the physical location was mostly a pet cafe with some pet supplies. Most of the nice clothing had to be purchased online. That was disappointing.
My day got a little worse when I returned to my room at Shilla Stay Samsung to discover that the temperature was 30°C inside. Apparently the hotel does not turn on the cooling function in winter, so instead of lowering the thermostat to a more reasonable temperature, my only choice was to keep the heating on or turn it off... WTF.
Well, this made me somewhat look forward to getting out of my room for dinner, some 3 hours after the end of my big lunch. I thought there was an event I didn't know about at Vinho (빈호), a wine bar which had recently gotten themselves a little macaron. As it turns out, the Man in White T-shirt wanted to check out the place and simply asked me to join him.
With a name like Vinho, I thought there was some Portuguese connection to this wine bar. The reality is that co-proprietors Jeon Seong-bin and Kim Jin-ho wanted to name the place after themselves, so "Bin" and "Ho" together made for vinho. I guess that works, too...
The setup here - with a long, C-shaped counter around the open kitchen - reminded us a little of the old Florilège... which was where Jin-ho spent some time. There's a 2-hour period at the start of the evening where a tasting menu is served, but then it becomes a casual, bar-like service where ordering is à la carte. As the two of us arrived somewhat early, we would be trying out the whole tasting menu.
Clam - the clam came with mini cucumbers, oriental melon (참외), and pickled miyeok (미역) - the latter of which provided both umami and acidity. The creamy sauce was made with peanuts and had a slightly grainy texture, and this was meant to evoke the classic dish of kongguksu (콩국수).
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I'm spending the whole day with the Man in White T-shirt.
He wanted to grab a coffee before we headed off to lunch together. After cleaning up, I headed his way via the subway. This was when I encountered serious problems for the first time in 3 days - both in terms of inter-line transfer as well as the train not reaching my desired destination. After switching to taxi, I managed to arrive at Nudake for the second time in 3 days... albeit much later than I had wanted to be.
Since I was incredibly late and we were running out of time, I just got myself an iced long black and kinda gulped it down.
Lunch today was at Born and Bred in Majang-dong (마장동). Almost 7 years after I first experienced the magic of the best Hanwoo around, I finally had the opportunity to come back. Except I'm not dining at the original "speakeasy" upstairs from the butcher shop. This is the newer, multi-story restaurant that owner Jung Sang-won (정상원) originally described as inspired by the movie Kingsmen before the restaurant opened.
Once everyone had arrived, we moved to the private counter in the basement. I had missed a group outing here in late 2019 not long after the place first opened, but at the time I was already so busy flying around the world for work that coming in just for a weekend - in the middle of an already hectic schedule - just didn't make much sense. What followed was 3 years of effective border closures for Hong Kong, and here we are.
Chef Min Kyung Kwan was taking care of us today while his kitchen team works on their upcoming collaboration with Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends. He wants to showcase the best they have to offer, but is well-aware that everyone here has been - and will continue to - eating nonstop. He has chosen to serve us smaller portions of each item, so that we wouldn't feel like throwing up by the end of our meal from being stuffed...
One of our dining companions very generously brought a bottle of Krug to share with the Man in White T-shirt. The rest of us became beneficiaries of this generosity by default...
2000 Krug, ID 313058
Galbitang (갈비탕) - the morel was stuffed with different types of mushrooms, and we also had finger meat. Gotta say that stuffing was really tasty, as was, of course, the soup itself.
Yukhoe (육회) - made with chuck tender, and mixed with oi gochu (오이고추) peppers. This was really nice, with a little fermented sauce that wasn't quite spicy but very flavorful, and worked well with the caviar and the umami.
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My 16th Earth Hour finds me in Seoul, as I had come up a couple of days earlier before the festivities that will take place next week. After a very long lunch today I had retired to my hotel room, and when the time came I decided to walk around the big block that is COEX and see if anyone around here cared about Earth Hour.
COEX has a ton of large, bright LED screens that blast out advertising 24-7, and there's one just across from my hotel room. Like all the others on both sides around the block, the screens never darkened.
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I decided to sleep in this morning. Haokofu and I decided to take a long walk after dinner last night along Apgujeong-ro before returning to our hotels, and that was a lot of walking. So... I was still in bed when the Great One went for her breakfast soup with Vicky Cheng. I did get around to having a quick coffee with her at Coffee Jinsim Bakery (커피진심베이커리). As we were about to have a huge lunch, I decided not to get one of their cute-looking salt breads and just had myself a hazelnut cafe latte. I expected this to just have a shot of hazelnut liqueur inside, but was pleasantly surprised by the presence of crushed hazelnuts and pine nuts.
A bunch of us piled into a taxi and made our way north to Onjium (온지음). We are joining one of the events of the 50 Best Signature Series, which sees Onjium host the Chairman (大班樓) from Hong Kong and Seroja from Singapore for a "6 hands" collaboration.
Now, the reason why I came up 2 days ago was to visit restaurants before the "50 Best crowd" get into town, and try out the restaurants' own cuisine instead of all these "collaborations". So many of these 4-/6-/8-hands events are simply different chefs alternative dishes from their repertoire, and they don't feel like real collaborations. I had told PR8 point blank that I wasn't interested in any collaboration meals from his clients, and most of all, I didn't want to run into some of the people who somehow always show up at these sort of events.
But... this is different. Any of the Chairman's collaborative events is worth attending, because Danny and the team insist on it being true collaborations - where many dishes actually combine elements from all participating parties. This requires actual thought and effort in planning ahead, and indeed, the teams for today actually got together multiple times to work on the menu. So... I'm always willing to make an exception for the Chairman's events.
Today's seating plan saw the same foursome that had sat through this dinner last October placed at the same table. I saw a few familiar faces around the dining space, but it was all good.
Amuse-bouche - we began with this platter featuring nibbles from all three restaurants.
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When I was planning my itinerary in Seoul, one of the restaurants whose name kept coming up was Kwonsooksoo (권숙수). I'm definitely focusing on Korean cuisine while I'm in town, and this seemed to be a place that quite a few friends have enjoyed dining at. So I roped in Haokofu to be my partner in crime and got ourselves a table out in the main dining hall.
Since we were here for the first time, we decided to take the Chef Tasting Menu, since it only has 2 extra courses in terms of volume.
The table setting was not something we were used to or had expected - having an wooden, elevated platform on which our dishes are placed.
Welcome drink with small appetizer (우리 술과 작은 안주를 곁들인 주안상) - from reading the menu, I thought we'd get the famous kimchi cart wheeled in front of us as a start, but I suppose it does make more sense to have our welcome drink first...
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I haven't seen my friend Jay Essu for a while. In fact, the last time I was with her 10 years ago we had hit Dominique Ansel Bakery together and waited in line for cronuts. My time in NYC back in 2019 was too short during a hectic business trip so I never bothered to arrange something, and then came the pandemic years... Anyway, now that she's moved back to Seoul, I took the opportunity to catch up with her.
I had asked her to pick a restaurant that she wanted to show me, so that's how we ended up in the basement at Wooga (牛家), a restaurant that specializes in aging Hanwoo beef. The menu at lunch is pretty simple, and we ended up choosing the simple sets.
First came the banchan (반찬), with a big bowl of salad plus tofu and, of course, kimchi.
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After being back in Hong Kong for less than 3 days, I'm on the road again. This year's festivities for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants are being held in Seoul, and I've decided to come back to Korea for the first time since 2017 to check out the dining scene.
After being dropped off by the bus in front of the Parnas Tower at COEX, I wheeled my luggage across the street to check in to Shilla Stay Samsung across the street. It was now past 4pm and I hadn't eaten lunch, so I was kinda starving. I knew that dinner was less than 3 hours away, but I still needed to just get something in my stomach. So I strolled around COEX Mall for a little, and eventually made my way to the basement food hall at The Hyundai where I grabbed a deep-fried halibut cutlet. Not the lightest bite I could have chosen, but it would have to do.
I made my way to Jungsik for a return visit. I had given Chef Yim Jung-sik (임정식) some small gifts last year, and he was appreciative enough to ask me to pay his restaurant a visit. So I roped in Mikacina and Kutsuyama - who played carrier pigeons for me - as well as my local kohai (後輩) to make this a foursome.
The took the signature menu, with the accompanying wine pairing courtesy of the chef. This should be fun.
First up was the banchan (반찬), which came in 6 parts:
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During the nascent stages of planning for our Korean trip, when we had roughly settled on the dates, I saw a post come across my Instagram feed. Gaggan Anand was announcing the next GohGan collaboration between himself and Fukuyama Goh (福山剛) of La Maison de la Nature Goh in Fukuoka (福岡市), and it would be around the tail end of our trip. So I shamelessly raised my hand and asked Gaggan for 4 seats for tonight. Thankfully I had asked early enough and they could accommodate us...
I had seen pictures and videos come across on Instagram showing the chefs shopping at the seafood market on Monday morning. They looked like they were ordering up a storm, with all kinds of sea creatures not normally part of my diet. It was looking very, very tantalizing...
While we were at Baekyangsa Temple (白羊寺) on Sunday, we got confirmation that Jeong Kwan (正寬) sunim would be coming to dinner tonight and join the second seating. Originally our little group was meant to be at the earlier seating, which would mean that we wouldn't get to see Jeong Kwan sunim again - but thanks to some last-minute shuffling the organizers were able to fit us in for the last seating.
I caught up with Gaggan when I arrived, and he was definitely more than a little frazzled. After all, this was the last of the four seatings. But it was more than the stress of running a pop-up. Apparently they didn't get most of the ingredients they had ordered two days ago. Whether it was a language issue - or something more sinister - we do not know. But the chefs had to scramble for substitute ingredients, and Gaggan was very pissed off.
We took our assigned seats, and OF COURSE there would be an emoji menu! And apparently, there is a specific soundtrack, too... to go along with specific dishes.
The chefs - along with the organizer Jang Eunsil - delivered their opening remarks. Gaggan asked us not to judge (harshly) the dishes presented tonight, which is understandable because of the pop-up nature as well as the disastrous lack of ingredients. We kept our minds open for the rest of the evening. At least I did...
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When I last passed through Seoul back in 2008 on my way to Central Asia, I was only able to visit one of the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the city. Jongmyo Shrine (宗廟) is closed on Tuesdays and I had only one day in town on that trip. So I was determined to check that off my list this time around.
When we arrived at the front entrance, I was surprised to find the ticketing counters closed - just as they were 9 years ago. Fortunately it turned out to be a free-entry day for the public, so I was able to accomplish my mission.
For a royal shrine in the middle of the city, the grounds are actually fairly large. The buildings are also surprisingly plain-looking, devoid of the bright colors one often sees. Hey, even Baekyangsa Temple (白羊寺) we went to a few days ago were more ornate...
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My first taste of Hanwoo beef came a little more than a decade ago, during the years when I used to fly to Seoul to visit clients. My sales colleague used to take me to a restaurant in Apgujeong-dong called MANA - which has since closed. I was amazed at the quality of the barbecued beef we were having, and my eyes were popping out at the bill we got at the end of the evening. That was when I first heard about Korean restaurants having their own cattle farm, where they slaughter cattle and serve the meat on the same day - without the meat ever having been frozen or chilled.
One of the things we wanted to check off on this trip was a good meal with plenty of Hanwoo. We knew that after a day of eating vegetarian meals at Baekyangsa, Ro Ro would be needing some, you know, ro ro (肉肉). Hello Kitty would most certainly be in Ro Ro's camp in terms of wanting beef, and as for the rest of us... what better opportunity to see what Hanwoo beef can taste like, and how well it stacks up against Japanese wagyu (和牛)?
Once again, our friend Mikacina came up with the perfect suggestion. Born and Bred is a butchery shop inside the Majang Meat Market (마장 축산물시장). It's a butcher shop by day - where one can purchase different cuts of Hanwoo beef - and 3 nights a week it turns into a speakeasy serving beef omakase (お任せ). Booking needs to be done for the entire 7-seat counter, and with thanks to Mikacina's connections, owner Jung Sang-won agreed to let us come in on a Tuesday night. And since Sang was a little shy about his English abilities - which inevitably improved over the course of the evening with more alcohol - he roped in his buddy Steven to help translate for us.
DaRC and I got dropped off by our taxi driver at the crowded end of Majang Meat Market, and as we were running late, we kinda half-ran through the place on our way to dinner. The smell of meat - especially beef - was incredible. I think my stomach started getting ready for dinner even before I sat down...
The rest of the gang had already arrived by the time we ran up the stairs, and started talking to Sang and Steven. Since we didn't have time to buy ourselves a bottle or two, Sang very kindly agreed to let us raid his cellar. DaRC went to take a look before respectfully leaving the decision up to the boss.
2013 Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Rabaja - pretty sweet nose. Smoother on the palate than expected.
Before we started, Sang told us that each of us would be served 5-600g of beef. Somehow I think we had quite a bit more than that...
I noticed that each of us had a plate of salad in front of us. Sang promised that these were the only veggies he would be serving us tonight - and the rest of dinner would be nothing but meat.
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Scanning through the list of restaurants which received Michelin stars in the 2017 Red Guide for Seoul, one of the places I had put on my hit list for this trip was 24Seasons (이십사절기). The place looked like they served Korean food with a contemporary presentation, which would be right up my alley.
But Mikacina told me that Chef Tony Yoo, who was responsible for creating the cuisine that got the restaurant its star, had already left. He had taken over an old restaurant in a traditional Korean hanok (한옥) in Bukchon Hanok Village (북촌한옥마을) north of Insa-dong (인사동) formerly known as Doore (두레), and renamed it Dooreyoo (두레유). If I wanted to get a taste of his food, this was where I'd have to go.
We arrived to find ourselves seated inside a historic hanok, with wooden beams and columns all around us. We had a big group of 8, so they put us in the back of the restaurant, right in front of the air conditioning unit. Thankfully they agreed to turn it off.
A choice of set menus was offered and, in fact, the restaurant was chasing us to choose our menu yesterday, even before we arrived at the restaurant. Given that the restaurant's website is only available in Korean - which we can't read - I wanted to know how we're supposed to make our choice without trying to copy/paste into Google Translate...
And just like Jungsik yesterday, the restaurant insisted that the entire group take the same menu. This was annoying, but we have begun to see this as the Korean way. Once again the ladies had to step up and take the longest menu with the rest of us.
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After a good introduction to contemporary Korean cuisine at lunch today, we move on to another restaurant in the same vein in Gangnam. Chef owner Mingoo Kang's proposition at Mingles is to present a mingling of traditional Korean cuisine with European and other Asian cuisines and modern techniques. I had very, very briefly met Chef Mingoo last year at the party for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in Bangkok, but of course he would not have remembered me.
We were running late tonight because of traffic, and the ones coming from across the river were very late, so we were very apologetic to the staff... and of course apologized to Chef Mingoo when he came out to greet us after our party was finally assembled. Meanwhile DaRC and I browsed through the wine list looking for a reasonably priced bottle of bong water.
Chef Mingoo had heard about our weekend excursion to Baekyangsa, and mentioned that for almost a year and a half, he made weekend trips almost weekly to spend time with Jeong Kwan sunim. Now that is some serious dedication! I guess that is sure to have an impact on the cuisine here...
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Our eating tour continues with our first foray across the Hangang to Gangnam. I thought it would be easier for us to take the MRT and walk to the restaurant, but failed to measure how long the walk would be... So we arrived at Jungsik Dang (정식당) for our lunch a little late, and a little sweaty.
I know I can be a pain-in-the-ass customer, and have been known to have been pissed off by restaurants for one reason or another. But it's still quite a rare feat for a restaurant to piss me off before I even took a single bite.
Now that we're back in Seoul, the "Michelin tour" part of our trip can begin. And we're starting at the very top with La Yeon (羅宴) - the traditional Korean fine dining restaurant at The Shilla Seoul which received the prestigious award of 3 stars in the 2017 Michelin Red Guide for Seoul.
We were always going to get the VIP treatment here. A few of us were staying at The Shilla, and Mikacina was on hand to make sure not a hair was out of place. Our group was big enough and we took the larger of the private rooms. Sunday is normally his day off, but Chef Kim Sung-il came in to work specifically to cook for The Great One. What an honor it is to be at this table!
And speaking of Chef Kim... apparently he has been working at The Shilla since 1988, and the hotel has been his first and only employer since he first stepped foot in a kitchen. Nowadays his mission is to revive traditional dishes, and apparently he is all too willing to pass on his recipes so that others can carry the torch - which is something many, many Asian chefs don't do.
We took Shilla (新羅), the longer of the two menus, for the full experience. I also took the Korean liquor pairing to get more exposure to them.
Appetizing nibbles (주전부리) - the crisps with sesame seeds tasted like the egg waffles sold as street snacks in Hong Kong. The slices of jujube were dried for a very long time, so they were really crunchy, and incredibly flavorful. We couldn't stop munching on them. Appetizing nibbles, indeed!
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I didn't sleep well last night. I guess my body's not really used to being on hardwood floors for an extended period of time, and there was that snoring from a certain friend of mine a couple of meters from me. Thankfully when my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m., I had slept enough that I felt refreshed. I quickly cleaned up and reported for duty at the Daeungjun Hall (大雄殿) promptly at 5 a.m. Thus begins my day at Baekyangsa Temple (白羊寺).
We seat ourselves on cushions inside the hall, and the morning chant began. Not able to speak or read Korean, I was reduced to trying to clear my mind and meditate a little... except I couldn't keep my eyes closed, as I needed to know when to repeat the rituals of standing up, bowing, kneeling prostrate for more bows, and sitting back down. This went on for 45 minutes or so. Then the lights went out and it was time to meditate. The next 15 minutes felt much, much longer than it actually was.
The senior monk led us on a clockwise walk around the pagoda, and after a short talk we were dismissed.
At 6:20 a.m. we reported to the cafeteria, where we took in breakfast. It was explained to us that originally only porridge (cooked with red jujube water) and pickles were offered, but based on popular demand they gradually added toast (with margarine and not butter, of course!), yogurt, and even coffee to the list of offerings.
