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Top 5 Must Try Foods for Singaporeans in Seoul, Korea (by Daniel Gray)
Maureen
September 30, 2011
September 30, 2011
Dear Foodie Friends,
Here are the things that I know about Singaporeans: they are kind, intelligent, fashionable, and that they love to eat… and shop. I haven’t been to Singapore (yet) but I imagine it as an organized, modern country that is jam packed with shops, restaurants, street stalls, and delicious foods hanging from trees.
As an operator of cooking school and a food tour company in Seoul, Korea; I have had a chance to meet a great number of Singaporeans on their trips to Seoul. I am greatly indebted to the Singaporean people because they have been enthusiastic supporters of our company, O’ngo Food Communications (www.ongofood.com).
Having some knowledge of what Singaporeans like (I know they are adventurous eaters, not big drinkers and love variety), here is a list of my top recommendations for Singaporean Foodies visiting Seoul.
5. Nolboo’s Seoul Roasted Duck (Nolboo Yuhwangori Jinheukgui)
For more info, click here
One of the Singaporean families that joined our tour told me that they came all the way to Korea to taste this delicious duck dish.
Here a whole duck is stuff with a variety of rice (including black), sweet potato, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, daechu nuts, ginseng, licorice and much more.
This duck is then slowly cooked for 3 hours until the skin is crackle crisp and the confit-like meat melts off the bone. This duck is considered medicinal for the duck is raised on high quality feed that also has some sulfur.
Ducks can digest sulfur and then later when people eat the duck, they get the detoxifying effects from the essential element- or, that’s what Koreans believe. There are other restaurants of this type, but this location is so busy that you don’t need to make a reservation 3 hours in advance. Here you can just go “free and easy.”
Nolboo Yuhwangori Jinheukgui
Seocho-gu, Banpo-dong 118-3
02-592-5292
www.nolboo.co.kr
Located at Express Bus Terminal at Central City
4. Garmaeggisal Jeonmun
For more info, please click here
This is as local as it gets as you have an option to eat outside. The restaurant is family operated: Mom handles the hot coals, Dad cuts meat and the grandmother serves drinks. The place is always hopping as locals crowd here for restaurants fine cuts of pork jowl, back, intestine, and garmaeggisal: the sirloin-like cuts of meat along the diaphragm of the pig.
It’s all grilled on charcoal right before you and comes with a variety of dipping powders and sauces. The kimchis are made in house and you can finish your meal with a little grilled pork skin that comes gratis.
Garmaeggisal Jeonmun
Jongno-gu Donui-dong 47
02-3672-0081
Go our Jongno 3ga Station exit 6 and walk down the alley
3. Haap
For more info, click here
For those looking for something sweet and refined, this cafe offers snowflaked ice topped with homemade red bean. This dish has soft dollops of rice cake and a hint of citron. You can also get delicious rice cakes such as pillowy jeongpyeon or the gooey, oozy ju-ak. I recommend the pear tea (Bae-suk)to wash it all down.
Haap
Jongno-gu, Kwanghoon-dong 198-31 Kong Art Space Basement level 1
070-4209-0819
www.haap01.com
Located in Insadong
2. Lee Chun Bok: Korean Tuna Buffet
For more info, click here
This is a happening place that offers all you can eat fresh tuna that is prepared by a hoard of chefs that all act like pirates.
The chefs are an entertaining lot that will joke around as they cut your slice after slice of deep red tuna muscle, white abalone, and pink tuna belly. This is in addition to the plethora of kimchi’s, tapas, tempura, soups, and grilled dishes they set before you.
The secret to getting good cuts of fish is to bribe your chef. Wrap some money around a bottle of soju and offer your chef a drink. He’ll take the cash and offer you a drink in return. Later, you’ll get better service and better side dishes.
Lee Chun Bok Cham Chi
Yongsan-gu Namyeongdong 85-1
02-794-4558
Located down from Sookmyeong University Subway Station Exit 6
1. Jungsikdang
For more info, click here
This restaurant hints at the future of Korean cuisine. So if you are going to go to one nice restaurant in Seoul, this is the one.
Here the food is sophisticated yet playful. Every dish you get is beautifully presented and the young chef, Yim Jung-sik, flirts with the flavors of Korean food while putting it in a modern dress.
His take on the homely potato and pork soup (kamjatang) is to make a rich broth out of pork and dehydrate the potatoes and leave the bits of veggies and pork abstractly on the bottom of a saucer and then pour the broth over it.
He’ll make bibimbap with tiny, crisp anchovies and poppy barley rice and he’ll sous vide his pork belly and later pan fry so you get all sorts of different textures and tastes. It’s a tad pricy (lunches at 40 and dinners at 100), but you get 8 or 12 courses for that price.
Jungsikdang
567-28 Sinsa-dong Gangnam-gu
02-517-4654
www.jungsikdang.com
Located near Dosan Park
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About the Author
Daniel Gray is a Korean adoptee that returned to Korean in 2005 in order to find his birth mother and to learn about Korean culture. He started a restaurant review blog in 2007, www.seouleats.com, that became a local and international hit.
He now is co-owner of O’ngo Food Communications (www.ongofood.com), which is a culinary tourism and consulting company that offers Korean cooking classes and restaurant tours to travelers. His food tours and cooking classes are ranked as one of the top attractions in Seoul.
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