Seoul Dining - Five Days, Five Dinners

[yflyer]

I was there for work. Hard work. Really! My job requires me to travel, and a typical business trip for me involves the airport, the hotel, the office, and the client's office. Repeat. Not too many detours or deviations from that script.

But one has to eat, right? And Koreans are such hospitable colleagues and hosts. After each long work day, more often than not, we would end up in one of many wonderful restaurants, beef BBQ, samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), you name it....I enjoyed the food immensely and always raved about it to Mrs yflyer when I got home.

Last month, I had a work trip scheduled for Seoul, and Mrs yflyer, having turned down countless invitations to accompany me on a trip to other destinations, decided to join me. She is a fan of Korean TV dramas and is quite a foodie.

So while I planned to bring her to a few of my favourite restaurants in Seoul, she had her own ideas, and did her own research around where to eat, and ended up introducing me to wonderful food which I had never tried before.

We had a great week.

For a TR on our SQ flight from Incheon to Singapore in Y, this is in a separate post here.

For more on our stay and our meals, read on...

[yflyer]

We stayed at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas. This is connected to the COEX shopping mall and convention centre in Gangnam-gu in Seoul.



This hotel has been recently renovated, with a total revamp of dining outlets and public areas, and room renovations in-progress.

The renovations were still in progress when I was there. While public areas were mostly complete, I believe some of the rooms have yet to be refurbished. This appeared to be more of an incremental renovation rather than a complete revamp, as there were many elements of the original design left intact in the public areas of the hotel. Not the most radical revamp, and I got the impression that sometimes the old and new decor elements didn't quite gel as a whole, but it remained a very comfortable place to stay, with service and staff all top notch, especially the concierge desk.







Unfortunately the COEX mall is also undergoing major renovations, and it appears that 80% of the shops are shut, leaving only a few dining outlets within the mall itself. Oh well.

But this was still a great place to stay. The Hyundai Department Store next to the hotel is still open, and still as wonderful as ever (With a huge supermarket and food court). The COEX aquarium is still open, and there are great dining options all around COEX.

[yflyer]

At check-in, I coughed up a few extra Korean Won to upgrade to a junior suite, which was more like a larger, better appointed room than a suite.











This was a very pleasant room to stay in, and we grew very attached and comfortable with it as the week went on. Mrs yflyer liked the room so much that she even declined my offer to move across the street to try out the Park Hyatt Seoul (a much newer and more striking hotel, with rooms to match) for the last day of our stay.

[yflyer]

Our dinner on the first day was Korean beef barbeque at my favourite barbeque restaurant just opposite the COEX.

This is just across the street from the other Intercontinental Hotel, the COEX Intercontinental, on the opposite side of COEX from the Grand Intercontinental. Just cross the street from COEX, it is to the right of a large temple complex.





Ignore the rather drab looking exterior. This is the real deal! Korean beef BBQ and other traditional dishes, beautifully cooked in an authentic setting.





This was as delicious as I previously remembered it to be. I would recommend going in a group of 4 or more though, rather than 1-2 persons, as this would give you a larger variety of cuts of meat to try.

Just a few pictures of the beef barbeque, as this restaurant has previously been covered in a previous TR, with many more food pictures here.

Some of the older staff in the restaurant spoke Mandarin, so it was fairly easy to communicate with the staff and order food. I used to head to this place quite often for dinner after work, and the staff did smile when they saw a familiar face enter, and with my spouse for the first time.

One of my favourite places to eat in Seoul!

[yflyer]

The next evening, it was Mrs yflyer's turn to pick a place to eat.

"Have you tried Gopchang?" she asked.

"What's that?"...I replied.

"Grilled beef intestines"

"Really? Never tried it..."

Trust Mrs yflyer to introduce me to new food in Seoul, although it was her first trip. Based on her research, this was a Korean delicacy.

This restaurant was also across the street from the COEX, but to the west, where there were streets and streets of interesting dining.



The gopchang was brought to your table raw, and marinated in spicy sauce. Our waitress proceeded to place them on the grill and slice them into smaller chunks.



Occasionally she would return to our table to turn the meat.

[yflyer]

And right before they were done, she returned the partially barbequed meat to the platter where the raw meat was served, and soaked the meat in the leftover marinade again, before returning it to the barbeque. This was done "for more flavour".



The end result was tender, bouncy rather than chewy. The marinade lent the dish a slightly sweet and spicy flavour. As with most meals here, the main course came with a variety of side dishes and kimchi.



We also ordered a steaming bowl of tripe soup to accompany our meal which was quite subtle in flavour, like many Korean soups we had on the trip.



Verdict for Day Two?

Mrs yflyer's opinion: "Never expected beef intestines to be so tender. Tasty..."

A fairly unique dish that I enjoyed, and would not mind eating again.

[yflyer]

Day Three was when things got a little more elaborate.

Mrs yflyer was keen to try traditional Korean royal court cuisine. We headed to Phil Kyung Jae, a restaurant set in the grounds and home of a royal descendant, a building dating back to the 1400's (!).



This restaurant has nice grounds and a garden, and is set up as a series of private rooms of various sizes. Some rooms are for large groups, while others, like ours, was a private dining room for two. In fact, you cannot dine as a single diner -- minimum two people.



We entered, and we were transported into another world (with modern conveniences like air-conditioning of course).



Like many Korean restaurants, you took your shoes off when you entered.



Our room had a regular table and chairs, not the traditional low tables where you sat on the floor.

[yflyer]

There were four set menus on offer.



If you had a group of two, you could only choose among the two more expensive set meals on offer.

We opted for the Mae-hwa course. This was an extensive, marathon-like menu of 19 courses -- and believe it or not this was the less elaborate of the two menus that we could select.



With the menu decided, we ordered a bottle of makgeolli (traditional Korean rice beer, cloudy white in colour and slightly sweet) and licked our lips in anticipation...

[yflyer]

We began with a salad and a small bowl of abalone porridge.



The salad was crisp and fresh. The rice porridge was infused with the subtle flavour of abalone.

[yflyer]

Then came wrapped kimchi to share, as well as glass noodles and several appetisers.



The kimchi was far more elaborate and sophisticated in both appearance and flavour than any we had ever eaten before.



Glass noodles...

[yflyer]

By now, dishes were arriving thick and fast...all were subtly flavoured but each quite exquisite in their own way...

Octopus...tender and cooked...(Not the live, wriggling raw tentacles thoughtfully suggested by Kyo...that will have to wait for a subsequent trip...)



More jelly/noodles...



Pancake of abalone, ginko nut and yam...



Grilled beef...

[yflyer]

A platter of julienned vegetables and meat came next, along with thin soft skin to wrap the ingredients in.



Our waitress showed us how the roll was to be wrapped, with a small helping of each ingredient added to the mix before gently rolling it up in the skin.





The end result was a delicious roll that combined the soft smooth skin with the crunchy textures within.

[yflyer]

Next came the Royal Hotpot, with a mindboggling 21 different items in it...

[yflyer]

And a braised dish of abalone, ginko nuts and other ingredients.



Small crispy fried fish, like "ikan bilis".



Even the seaweed was especially thin and crisp...

[yflyer]

Raw beef tatar...this was quite delicious.



Pine mushrooms...