More Seoul Food: SQ J to ICN and Dining in Korea

[yflyer]

Mrs yflyer finds Korea fascinating. She weeps over their television dramas. She relishes the shopping and fashion scene in Seoul. And Korean cuisine intrigues her.



When I mentioned that I would be going to Seoul for work during the term one school holiday week in Singapore, and suggested she tag along, she immediately agreed.

The run-up to the term one school break was unexpectedly stressful. This was only term one…very early in the academic year, but our children were sitting for important exams at the end of 2015, and the added pressure was taking its toll (Despite our parenting style being fairly laid back…). Yes, the education system here does that to students -- and parents too. Mrs yflyer was feeling the strain. The fact that I was overseas at work for long stretches at a time did not help either. A short getaway for Mrs yflyer and I looked to be just the thing to get everything back on an even keel.

Mrs yflyer and I were looking forward to some time together in Seoul. I think the kids needed a break from us too…

But a week or so before the trip, Murphy’s law came into effect: The business meeting in Seoul was postponed to the week after the holiday. What about our trip together? The thing about expectations is that once set, they are difficult to reset. She and I needed a break.

And this is where that stash of hotel points and air miles came in handy. Miraculously, business saver redemptions for two on SQ16/15 to and from Seoul were available. We booked these just days before the trip. At the very last minute, Hyatt Gold Passport redemption availability for a 4 night stay at the Park Hyatt Seoul opened up as well.

So I would head to Seoul myself for a work trip later in the month, but before that Mrs yflyer and I would fly to Seoul for a short getaway (Yes a real holiday, not a work/vacation combo) during the school holiday week.

I made the necessary bookings, and broke the news to Mrs yflyer…“You know all those places you wanted to try? Go book the restaurants now! I’ve sorted out the flights and the hotel. The rest is up to you!”

Mrs yflyer did her usual, thorough, research and put an ambitious eating plan together…”We have 8 meal slots, but 9 places I want to try” was her challenge.

In the event, only two restaurant reservations were needed – a couple of emails from Mrs yflyer to the concierge desk at the Park Hyatt and we had lunch dates at Jung Sik Dang and Soigne. The other meals we had planned were at walk-in casual dining restaurants, street food or in wholesale markets, such as the Noryangjin Wholesale Fish Market, Majang Wholesale Meat Market, or at Dongdaemun. We would also try an evening walking tour of Korean street food (And drink, as it would turn out…).

While I have enjoyed dining in Seoul in the past, this trip took the exploration of the Korean food scene to a new level. In Singapore we have a lot of variety in our cuisine as well, but the flavours and atmosphere in Korea are just so different from Singapore. It was both refreshing and eye opening. And I think we could learn a few things from the dining scene in Seoul.

Reader Alert : Graphic, occasionally explicit, images coming up of both the raw and the cooked. Not always pretty, but all delicious…

[yflyer]

But before we get to Seoul, a quick summary of our journey there on SQ....

SQ16 has a very civilised departure time of 9.25am, and a 6+ hour flight time which gets you into Seoul at 4.40pm local time.



We took the opportunity to head to the SilverKris Lounge at Changi T3 for breakfast prior to our flight.



I washed down breakfast in the lounge with a glass of champagne and headed to the gate to board SQ16 (operated today by 9V-SWK) to continue with another glass onboard…

[yflyer]

A fairly full flight in J today…



An iced coffee after take off…



…followed by satay, served as a prelude to lunch…





Today’s menu…





A glass of Cambria Estate Chardonnay (From Santa Maria, California) to go with my starter…





The salad with feta cheese went surprisingly well with the plump, chilled, prawns…

[yflyer]

For my main course, I had pre-ordered a BTC selection: Chargrilled Soya-Flavoured Beef, by culinary panel chef, Yoshihiro Murata, which was described as “Japanese-style beef, vegetables simmered in mirin, and shimeiji mushroom rice”.



This was an exceptionally satisfying dish, which hit all the the right notes.



Doneness of the steak was perfect as well. Tender, moist and pink on the inside. Two thumbs up!

I accompanied this dish with a very nice red wine which has been on the SQ wine list for some time now, an unusual Shiraz/Riesling combination from Dandelion Vineards of McLaren Vale in Australia.





Mrs yflyer had the roasted chicken breast, another culinary panel creation, this time by Matt Moran of Aria restaurant in Sydney, which she found delicious as well. I tasted her chicken, which was moist and tender.



Dessert selections today…





Not the most interesting cheese selection…



Coffee and chocolate to finish…

[yflyer]

IFE was excellent as usual. Apart from the usual Hollywood and International Movies and Television, there was an interesting selection of local programs as well, including an episode of the local news/satire/comedy program, The Noose, which I suspect only Singaporeans, and residents of Singapore, will find funny (I find this show hilarous!).



Another comedy program on Krisworld this month, with probably more universal appeal, is the BBC’s panel game show, “Would I Lie To You”, which was actually introduced to me by my daughter, who catches episodes of this show on Youtube. This is a screamingly funny show where a contestant makes a statement or tells a story, which the other team then tries to decide if it is true or false after a short, and usually hilarious, Q&A with the statement maker.





Wifi internet was also available on this flight, but at exorbitant prices – I didn’t sign up this time round.

[yflyer]

We arrived in Seoul and caught the KAL Limousine Bus to the city. The ride took almost two hours on account of traffic congestion in Seoul city on a Friday evening, and by the time we got to the Park Hyatt, it was almost 8pm.



The Park Hyatt is a very intimate hotel, conveniently located opposite the Coex shopping mall in Gangnam.





The hotel rooms are beautifully styled, with wood panelling and wall to wall glass windows equipped with automatic window blinds.



The bathrooms are stunning affairs, with a stone feature wall and large bathtubs, and the same glass windows (and blinds…).





More on our impressions of the Park Hyatt here.

We had arrived in Seoul after a cold spell, which saw weather in the single digits, and close to 0 degrees Celsius on some days. Thankfully it had started to warm up on the day we arrived, and for the most part, weather was mild and sunny while we were there.



Coex mall is across the street from the Park Hyatt.

The renovations within the Coex Mall are now largely complete, and large sections of the mall are now open.







That said, the mall seemed colder and less bustling than before, and the selection of shops seemed narrower, focusing on fashion and international brands, rather than the broader selection of stores they had previously.

[yflyer]

Samseung subway station is right in front of the Park Hyatt, and most of our travel within Seoul was done using the Seoul subway system, which we became quite used to by the end of our trip.


The hotel concierge provided us with complimentary subway stored value cards that came with KRW 3000 (About USD3) that we could top up ourselves as needed.

The trains run underground, as well as overground, across the Han river.





Very elaborate bike storage at some stations…

[yflyer]

One of our first stops was Noryangjin Wholesale Fish Market, about 40 minutes away from Gangnam.

This is a massive wholesale fish market which is popular with both locals and visitors.



The selection of fresh seafood on offer was quite mindboggling. Some items were identifiable by us, many others weren’t….







Puffer fish…



Octopus…



The cockles nearby should give you an idea how large this lobster was.



For some reason, these salted fish reminded me of a Dr Seuss illustration…

[yflyer]

Shellfish…



Stingrays…



Small octopuses (octopi?) were very popular in the market, all very much alive. This one was trying to escape. Not sure how far it got…



Apart from selling live seafood, Noryangjin market had a unique concept of serving raw or cooked seafood for consumption in the market as well. You picked your fresh fish (either live from the tank, or prepared on a platter) and a “runner” would bring you to a nearby restaurant where the market seafood would be prepared and cooked for you for a small fee.



“What are those things?”

Mrs yflyer pointed to a pile of strange, orangy red objects with red spikes…



“No idea…”

I watched as the stall owner deftly picked one up, cut it with a knife, and removed the soft contents from within…







Not knowing what it was called was not going to be an obstacle for Mrs yflyer…I could tell from the way she was eying the soft tender flesh being pulled from the hard spiky exterior that this would be on our menu for the day…



“Let’s have those, and some fish too…”

We headed to another stall to pick up a few of those…things…as well as a small flounder, pulled alive with a net out of a nearby tank, which would be prepared for us sashimi style…

[yflyer]

With a couple of plastic bags of seafood in hand, we were brought by a “runner” to a nearby restaurant, just beside the market, where our seafood would be prepared for us…





This was a very busy restaurant, and judging by the food spilling over the tables, they were doing roaring business…



I have no idea how they matched the food to the diners, but we were sat down, at a table, and not long after, our food began to appear.

Beginning with this, which at that point we still had no idea what it was…



Only one way to find out!



Delicious! Cold, smooth and tasting of the sea, sort of in between oysters, sea urchin and scallops…

We found out later, by matching images on Google, that these were sea squirts, a popular dish in Korea judging by how many people were eating this.

Next the flounder was served raw, sashimi style. This was a chewier style of sashimi than the Japanese-style sashimi more common in Singapore.



This was tasty in its own way, and could be eaten with soy sauce and a dash of wasabi, but we found that an even better, and tastier, way to eat this was Korean style, in a spicy dip, wrapped up with chilli, garlic and lettuce.



Between the two of us, we demolished both the sea squirts and most of the sashimi

The remaining fish, including the bones, were made into stew. We opted for the non-spicy version, although a spicy version is also available.



This hot broth was a great way to end our meal. We had a little left over sashimi which we also dipped into the soup and ate cooked, steamboat style.

This was also crab season, and many other tables were eating huge crabs, but that would have just been too much for us to eat that day, so we passed on the crabs.

A great meal, and at reasonable prices too!

To be continued!

[yflyer]

After lunch, we took the subway to Dongdaemun, getting off near the new Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), a stunning new development designed by Zaha Hadid, which is envisioned to be a cultural hub and design showcase.





Close to the markets and shopping in Dongdaemun, this has become an attraction in its own right.

From the DDP, we took an idyllic stroll along the cheonggyecheon stream, a canal that was redeveloped in 2005 into a scenic walkway / footpath, to Gwangjang Market.





Gwangjang market is a very large market selling apparel, bedding, handicraft. We arrived at the market fairly late in the day where many of the stalls were closing for the day, however the food alley in Gwangjang market was jam packed with patrons.



An array of street food was on offer...



From braised meats and noodles...







...to dumplings...



...and batter-fried vegetables...

[yflyer]

...all washed down with copious quantities of soju and makgeolli (unfiltered rice beer served in traditional metal bowls, not cups)...



Other shops sold ginseng and other dried herbs, chilli's and spices.

[yflyer]

That evening, we headed to a well known restaurant, Tosokchon, to sample their samgyetang (Ginseng chicken soup).



There was a queue to get in, but it was fairly fast moving, and we were inside this very traditional restaurant within 10 minutes of joining the queue.

Inside, seated on the floor at low tables, an assortment of local dishes were on offer, including traditional Korean pancakes with shrimp and chives.



But what we were really here for was their samgyetang. This is one of the few places which serves not just the regular chicken, but black chicken as well. We ordered one of each.

To start off, each of us was given a small cup of ginseng liquor...



The bowls of piping hot samgyetang came next...first the regular chicken...



...and then the black chicken. With each bowl of soup, you were handed a small container of fine ginseng (the fine yellow "threads" in the picture) to pour over the soup...



Both tasted wonderful. The broth was rich and intensely flavoured. The chicken was tender and meaty. Best of all the chickens were stuffed full of glutineous rice, and somehow this restaurant managed to stuff more of the tasty rice into the chicken than any other place.

[yflyer]

The next day, we had lunch at Jung Sik Dang. Very far removed from the street food and traditional cuisine of the previous day, Jung Sik Dang offered us a taste of modern Korean fine dining.

Mrs yflyer had eaten there on her own, during a previous trip to Seoul a year earlier. This year, they were now at a new location, with a new menu, and I was keen to find out what made such as deep impression on Mrs yflyer a year earlier.

[yflyer]

We began our meal with a large selection of amuse bouches, all with a distinctly Korean element...



Although an extensive wine list was available, we decided to go local and have sparking makgeolli, the traditional unfiltered rice beer, as our beverage.



A fairly unassuming beverage, the sparkling makgeolli, poured out of a PET bottle, was presented and served to us with all the reverence accorded a bottle of fine wine (and rightly so...)





As a starter, Mrs yflyer had octopus, crisp on the outside but warm and soft on the inside.



I opted for the quail egg salad, which was very refined and tasty as well.