Lassagne

I'm a big fan of lasagna, especially al forno. However most italian restaurants in korea offer only koreanised, so called 'oven spagetthi', which are eatable but nothing more.
You might understand how surprised i was when i found this instant Lasagna al Forno at Homeplus:

For around 5000 won you get 280g lasagna and an obscene amount of calories ^^. My expectations were not high because mostly pre made stuff is only convenient but not authentic. However this one blew me away. Good strong tomato sauce, much cheese which might even be mozzarella, al dente pasta plates in the middle and lo and behold: béchamel sauce under the cheese. Especially the Béchamel under the cheese was very unexpected (until now i only found one restaurant in seoul making their lasagna properly with béchamel).

In clonclusion i can say this one is well worth its price. Less then 300g doesn't sound like much but its very heavy and therefore enough for one person. The overall taste is very nice but of course not as good as a good fresh lasagna. However compared to the common oven spaghetti this dish is clearly better.

Try it out :)

Caffè Pascucci at SNU

We suffered for the last year...  i had to walk more than 100 meter to the next coffee shop. No, seriously, i think there are no people who complain about to few coffee shops in the SNU main campus, but more variety is always a good thing. So now we have also a Pascucci at SNU. While the prices are quite high, students get a 20% discount, which makes it still not a cheap coffee shop but at least acceptable.
The ice-cream is quite good, fluffy-creamy, not like the baskin robins ice-cream which is ice-.....  ahem yes just ice ^^
also do your self a favor and try the gelato honey toast... delicious :)

Gelato honey toast. Served with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate or caramel syrup 

I really like that building style :)

Instant Paratha at E-MART

We found some instant Paratha at E-MART, and couldn't stop ourselves from trying. Our expectations were not really high, mainly because until now all indian instant food we tried (except the CJ instant curry) was horrible. So without further ado the conclusion: This stuff is quite good. Quite heavy.... yeah its paratha what do you expect? ^^ Tastes very original but is a bit on the expensive side... i believe one pack of 5 or 6 for around 5000 won.

Now the next thing i expect is a decent stuffed Paratha. :P

CJ Sausages

Among korean food manufacturers CJ is my favorite. This comes on the one hand from the high quality, but more importantly from the wide range of products. CJ focuses more on the high price segment in combination with a bit more international stuff. Worth a try are especially the CJ Udon noodles, as well as the CJ curries (which are by the way excellent).

It must be already one or two years since CJ started its 'european series' line of sausages. Their first was a normal 'wiener', very authentic in taste, but maybe a bit less juicy then the ones you would get in europe / germany. Now we saw two new additions to this product line: the 'Regensburger Frank' and 'Herb Flavored Frank'.

Call me ignorant but i never heard of Regensbugrer sausages... and i doubt that there exists something like a Regensburger Frank(furter) sausage ^^. A bit of internet search revealed that i am indeed ignorant ^^. The original Regensburerg sausage is a thick sausage intended for cooking (in germany known as knacker). Here the 'Regensburger frank' was thin, a bit short well salted and with a nice meat taste. Also positive was that the sausage had some bite. Cooking fitted the sausage well but frying destroyed the smoke taste. 

I guess in germany this one would be sold as wiener. 

After i saw green, curry and tea flavored sausages in korea im always a bit skeptical when seeing something claiming its herb flavored... however i was positively surpirsed about this 'Herb Flavored Frank'. ITS A REAL SAUSAGE!!! meaty, salty enough, smoked, well spiced, this sausage is just good. The herb taste they claim is nothing special, it's just majoran (or might be oregano - difficult to differentiate, but classically it would be majoran). Which you would expect in every good sausage ^^. This sausage could be fried but cooking brought the taste out better. Also the skin didn't brown well when fried. 

This one you could be classified in germany maybe as well spiced bockwurst.

All in all, both sausages are quite nice but the 'Herb Flavored Frank' is a real treat. Worth trying. 

Hosuabi Dongkase

I noticed that i didn't share yet my most often visited restaurant. I will correct that mistake now.

Dongkase or better 돈까스 is the korea version of a cutlet or schnitzel. It came to korea by way of japan where it was called donkatsu. In korea there are two different 돈까스 styles: the korean and japanese style. Korean style is more like a schnitzel. Very flat hammered breaded cutlet with special 돈까스 sauce slightly similar to ketchup or worcestershire sauce. They are cheap and if you are hungry they help you to avoid starvation. but thats basically it.
The japanese style 돈까스 are thicker, have a fluffier crust and, if well made, are fantastic. It is difficult to say wether japanese donkatsu in japan or japanese style 돈까스 in korea a better, but among all 돈까스 restaurants in korea as well as japan Hosuabi, near SNU, is the best.

Here you see a meal for 4500 won. one delicious cutlet, appropriately spiced in fluffy-crunchy crust, one bowl of miso, shredded cabbage with a remoulade like salad sauce. The small drop next to the brown sauce on the right side is wasabi which is mixed into the sauce. The sauce itself is quite special, reminds a bit of ketchup mixed with worcestershire sauce and a slight fruit taste.

Hosuabi is a chain restaurant but unfortunately the quality varies between different places. Interestingly you also can eat vietnamese noodles there. or try a set menu with 돈까스 and vietnamese noodles for 6000 won.

Hosuabi can be found in Nokdu / Goshishon, 10 min from the SNU front gate. See here.

p.s. i said that Hosuabi is the best, this is largely true but a very close competition is a 'chicken katsu bern' in a small restaurant near the front gate of kyoto university.
p.p.s at hosuabi you can get free salad refill.

The Kitchen

When looking for italian food on the gwanak campus one has two choices: the fancy and expensive restaurant oposit the 501 building, or the much more resonable priced 'The Kitchen' behind the sports field.

They serve sanwhiches (far too small), burgers (definetly too small), pizza (also too small), pasta (a bit small) and risoto (guess what: not to small ^^).

While all things are pretty good, most dishes are just too small. To walk away from the kitchen well fed, as a man one would have to order around 3 sandwhiches or 2 burger minimum. However if one is on a diet or genereally likes smaller servings i would recomend the burger. Nothing fancy here but pretty decent meat.

The pasta is pretty good but nothing special, they offer the common fare of cream sauce, seafood and tomato sauces. Where the kitchen excells are the risotto. They are creamy, with some bite to the rice grains, well spiced and the servings are very fair. For less than 6000 won they are a good meal. Especially i would like to recomend the tomato / spinach / bacon risotto.

As far as i know the kitchen opens only for meal times, so no food before 11.30 am. The interior is nice but its often a bit crowded and noisy. But still until now the best risotto i had in seoul.

p.s. you also can find the location here

Grocery Stores in Korea

When first comming to korea, most western wonder where the grocery stores are. Well... there are none ^^. At least not in the way europeans or north americans are used to. Here are basically two places where you can groceries: supermarkets and traditional markets.

On traditional markets you get mostly only the basic veggies like potatoes, carrots, onions and salads as well as cabbages. Traditional korean food used a wide variety of leafs, be it salad, cabbage or more exotic leafs like the korean mint. And these things you mostly find on the traditional markets. As for the prices... the traditional markets are generally cheaper, but sometimes don't write the prices down. It might therefore happen that the halmoni (old lady) tries to rip you off. On the other hand it might also happen that the shop keeper is happy to see a foreigner, strikes up a conversation and gives you some vegetables for free... you will never know :)

Supermarkets and departments stores offer mostly better quality, better but still not overwhelming variety and especially a nicer shopping atmosphere. Prices are higher here than on the traditional market. While average supermarkets and large ones like Homeplus and E-MART  are just a bit more expensive than the traditional markets, the department stores are offten prohibitively expensive.

Generally vegetables are in korea quite expensive. Crazy it becomes with fruits, here a single pear might go for as much as 8000 won, just to name an example. This means that you cant always get what fruits you like but you have mostly to rely on traditional market and get what is in season.

Another useful thing are the trucks driving around and selling fruits. often they are even cheaper than the traditional market and bring stuff fresh from the fields. However this seems to hold only for fruit trucks, not for vegetable trucks.
if you experience otherwise please let me know.

So where to go from SNU?
Near naksongdae station is a traditional market, which is the closest. However the traditional market a bit north of the seoul national university subway station is better. Not necessary the closest but most conveniently reachable Homeplus is located at Mullae subway station (there is an entrance from the subway station - don't have to go out, its nice when raining) and the best E-MART is located at yongsan subway station. The closest department store is most likely Lotte at Boramae park, at 10 minute walk north of Sillim station. But lotte closes quite early, i think at 8.30 or 9pm while Homeplus and E-MART open at least until midnight.

I updated the map in this post.

Hattip to Helen for the post idea

Dabuji Budaejigae

Budaejigae is a left over of the korean war. When faced with either starvation or the need to incorporate food donated by the UN / Gi's into something eatable, supposedly people in busan came up with this interesting dish. Basically its everything thrown in a pan and cooked until a smooth taste develops. Common ingredients are sausage slices, ham (or rather spam), potatoes, beans, bean paste, instant noodles and green onions. Served its normally with rice.

When looking for budaejigae you most likely come across a noolbudaejigae restaurant. They are your standard fare. Acceptable priced with ok taste and you find them virtually everywhere.

However they are nothing special. Neither outstanding tasty nor very cheap.
So from that buildup you must already guess that this post is about a better restaurant. This one:

With 5000 won per person free rice and refill as well as free potato croquettes, again with free refill, this restaurant is significantly cheaper than noolbudaejigae. Oh and one ramyon is 500 won. That aside it also tastes better and has friendlier staff and atmosphere. In other words: definitely worth visiting.

p.s. i updated this post, it now includes the location of this budaejigae restaurant

Bennigan's Beefsteak

Today one of my lab mates brought a Bennigan's Beefsteak - an instant hamburger steak in tomato sauce, to be heated in a water bath or microwave. While heating you are rewarded with a mouth watering smell of tomato and spices. The more disappointing is the opening of the bag: a yellowish brownish blob of meat which, i dare to say, likely never saw a frypan up close. The tomato sauce was OK - better then ketchup, but nothing special. The first two things noticed when testing the meat was the lack of any crispiness or frying aroma and even worse, a consistency of a tofu sausage.

If somebody would have told me the i'm eating Tofu at that time, i would have believed it. The total absence of meat aroma made me check the package if there was indeed beef inside. And guess what... there is beef inside!!! stunning 50%. Now my korean isn't good enough to decipher the other ingredients but my guess is that the majority is either pork meat, tofu or bread.
The last nail in the coffin is a price of about 3000 korean won.

Verdict: Not even worth trying.

Food On Air

My wife left me... to go to beijing for 3 days for an internship. Luckily she came back ^^ and even better is that when she came back i could pick her up at the Incheon airport and had a bit time to eat diner there. Of course i was most happy to see my wife again but the food was nearly as good.

In the basement of the airport are a few restaurants, some better some worse. Around the elevators / escalators are a few restaurants called Food On Air. They are separated into Studio 1, Studio 2 and Snacks (at least if i'm not mistaken). The one which offers Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Italian food is the one you absolutely have to try ( i think its Studio 1).

I went there only twice but until now i had there the best thai food i ever tried in korea and the pizza is also at least under the best 3. In other words its just awesome. I can absolutely recommend the Pizza Margeritha and the Cashew stir fried chicken. The pizza has a medium thin crust a bit Napoli style, plenty of fresh tasting tomato sauce as well fresh and juicy mozzarella. The size is apropiate for one person. The stir fried chicken is very tender, with a lot mixed vegetables, cashews and just the right sauce: not to plain, to greasy, to spicy...  just right. It is served with rice and (the only strange thing so far) something they claim is naan.

Now there is certainly no shortage of good restaurants in seoul but to find one offering authentic italian and thai food is definitely rare. and now comes the kicker: it's actually affordable!!!  A Pizza Margherita for 10.000 won or a stir fired chicken for 11.500 won plus tax. If you look around in seoul the price is even still fair if you consider the subway fare to and from Incheon ^^ however spending 3 hours in the subway might be not the best idea for a date.

in other words, if you ever happen to be at Incheon airport and have some time, do yourself a favor and try Food On Air

Stir fried chicken with cashew nuts. A real treat, fair priced and large enough serving. 

 

Edit: Apparently Food On Air closes early.... We learned that yesterday the hard way: with an empty stomach. At 9.30pm they were already closed, with no opening times announced. Generally the food situation at Incheon Airport after 9pm seems to be less then great. Whats basically left is fast-food.

Chinese Cabbage Root

On a small traditional market near the seoul national university subwaystation we found something what looked like a sugar beet. The old lady called this the 'tail of the chinese cabbage'. This flowery description left me wondering if this might be indeed the tail (root) of a chinese cabbage. After asking my wife's mother we found that its indeed the root and that its neither a common nor a very rare vegetable.

The taste was surprisingly pleasant. A bit sweet, a bit nutty, not unlike kohlrabi but in consistency less 'glass like' and with overall better taste. Also in the ones we tried we didnt find any fibers as you might encounter them in kohlrabi.

Unfortunately they were too tasty so that there were none left to cook ^^
All in all highly recommended, if you can find them.

Raw, roughly 200g. peels like a kohlrabi.

Baja Chicken at Quiznos

After my recent experience with the tasty looking add in quiznos, praising the black angus sandwhich, which turned out to be a total disappointment, i was hesitant to try the new 'Baja Chicken Sandwich'.
However the food stylist made it look awesome so i thought i will risk again to get disappointed.

Actually i turned out to be quite OK. The sandwich is, frankly speaking, heavy as hell. Its loaded with beacon, chicken meat, cheese, BBQ sauce, Mayo and not a trace of this nasty green stuff called salad ^^.
The taste of the BBQ sauce goes well with the beacon but this in conjunction with the mayo overpowers the chicken as well as the cheese, which i believe is supposed to be cheddar.
The sandwich is worth trying once but thats also enough.

p.s. There are currently 2 quiznos restaurants on the gwanak campus: one in the 301 building at the top of the campus (02-871-9329), and one at the new dormitory near the back gate of the university, close to the sports field (02-881-9211). They close at 10pm in the engineering bld and at 9.30pm at the dorm.