Hong Bok (Seoul)

The Yeonhui-dong (my "Yummy-dong"!) - Yeonnam-dong area is full of authentic and affordable Chinese restaurants, each one with its own flavors and specialities. Like some of its neighbors (e.g. "Ha Ha") Hong Bok serves authentic food from Northeastern China.

Today, we tried lamb skewers, fish mandu, and hwang mandu from Shandong and Jilin provinces.

Fish mandu? a true delicacy, boiled to perfection. Hwang mandu (pork) being filled with big chunks, each ingredient comes with a bang.

Lamb skewers taste terrific, and not too strong for Korean palates (many locals have a poor memory of lamb following a doomed promotion ages ago, and the smell of this meat can be an issue). Marinated, seasoned with herbs, and served with paprika, the dish makes you travel even further than across the Yellow Sea. Central Asia, maybe?

Don't be afraid to order the set of 14 skewers: each one is not bigger than a tiny finger, and they're fun to BBQ at your table. We started to line them like rows of table football players, but the tenants told us to hold them in packs because it's as efficient, and much less tedious to turn them in bulk. See the small dents on each corner of the stove? You use them to push the meat to the end of the sticks.

Hong Bok is on Seongmisan-ro (formerly Dongjin Market street), the first street between Donggyo-ro and Yeonhui-ro South of the railway.

Hong Bok (restaurant)
224-41 Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, ROK
(new address: Mapo-gu, Seongmisan-ro 189)
Tel +82.2.323.1698

Seoul Village 2011
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Kalguksu alley and Gamegol mandu (Namdaemun market)

Say you're at Hoehyeon Station and you want to enjoy a quick, power lunch in an animated place, but you don't have time to go through all the alleys of Namdaemun Market. I suggest a couple of mandu at Gamegol to tame your hunger, and an express full course in Kalguksu alley to fill you up.

Take the entrance at exit 6 and about twenty meters to your left, you'll see Gamegol's yellow sign. There's no place to sit inside but a busy team preparing the dumplings, check this video out :



Gamegol proposes two main varieties of dumplings for pick-up : meat and spicy. I like hot stuff but the latter doesn't have anything special. On the other hand, the meat mandu, always a classic, tastes just perfect. Their medium size makes them an ideal snack on the go : king mandu are usually big and inconvenient, a challenge when you're walking across a busy market. Furthermore, with a giant dumpling, not every bite has the right skin / filling mix, and the temperature can't be even all the way (even for I, ever the voracious wolf).

Now move back a few meters towards the market gate. To your right (same side as Gamegol), a kalguksu place signals the narrow entrance to Namdaemun's famous kalguksu alley (in Korean Namdaemun Kalguksu Golmok / 남대문칼국수골목).

Like in Gwangjang Market with gimbap (see "(Gimbap) Drug Wars in Gwangjang Market"), a me-too war is raging in this short covered corridor where a dozen mini restaurants propose basically all the same menu for the same price (around KRW 4,000).

That's good marketing : competitors don't fight on price or on quality because in the end all players would lose money, and they don't make much to start with. So all noodle soups have the same ingredients, which are transparently exposed for every visitor to see. The actual battle lies at the "seobiseu" level : the "service" goodies offered in the package (here a soup, there an extra naengmyeon...). Tenants bark at you from all directions to nail you on their table. Even when all stools are occupied and a second row of customers is waiting. It's part of the game.

I opted for the furthest afield to the left, Seoul Jib. They propose a choice between different dishes, but eventually you eat all of them : a full portion for the main one, three smaller yet significant portions for all others. I majored in bori bibimbap (barley), and enjoyed the kalguksu / soup / naengmyeon combo. They call themselves "Seoul House" but the cooks are from countryside Gyeongsangdo. Simple, delicious, fulfilling food for only 3 euros / 4 bucks (KRW 4,500) !

As you can see, this short alley is relatively quiet but still busy long after rush hour (video taken around 14:15 PM):



Gamegol son wangmandu / 가메골 손 왕만두 (mandu)
Namdaemun Market - Tel +82.2.755.2569
Seoul Jib / 서울집 (kalguksu)
Namdaemun Market kalguksu alley

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Ha Ha (Seoul)

"Ha Ha" ? Funny name for a restaurant, but I guess pigs don't share the joke since this place specialized in Shandong cuisine serves, among other delicacies, their ears, brains, and guts (all in the same sauce and cucumber mix). Also on the menu : great hwang and tong mandus (황만두 and 통만두), light galettes (총유병), a mix of buchu and gaebul (부추 개불 볶음)...

For non-initiates : buchu means garlic chives, and if you've been to a fish market you've probably noticed gaebul (pink spoon worm) swarming in water buckets.

With its no frills decor, Ha Ha remains one of the last typical small Chinese restaurants, and one of the more numerous two storey houses in this section of Donggyo-ro lined with platanus trees. With the right weather and mood, it almost looks like a lost part of old Shanghai or Paris XIIIe Chinatown, and I hope they won't let high rise buildings ruin the magic.

If eating spoon worms or pig brains is your idea of magic, that is.

HA HA / 하하/ 哈哈
Yeonnam-dong 229-12 (Donggyo-ro), Mapo-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel +822.337.0211

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KUAI 19 (Seoul)

Restaurants and shops come and go on Garosugil, but KUAI 19 has been here for relatively awhile because it's a good mix of location, food, atmosphere, and cost.

On the Eastern side of the "tree lined street", this Chinese restaurant is a bit closer to Shinsa Station than the other end. The building is not very old but has been smartly refreshed : a balcony focusing on plants instead of the non-existent view, layers of pink and purple paint enlivening bare walls and ceilings... you almost feel like in an old country house. Heck, the other day, between bright summer sun and a quick rain, I almost felt like in onet's home in Giverny ! Inside, it was rather like a bistro in old French Shanghai.

Following a classic formula for Chinese joints, the ground floor is for the take-out and the upper level one big room packing as many customers as possible (about fifty with a quite fast turnover). The room is rather narrow and long : noisy, but you're never far from a window giving on either the balcony or Garosu-gil.

Service is both efficient and friendly, including within the staff of youngsters (ie the closest girl dashes to help you, a boy instantly relieves her from her trays).

Food is more than OK : mainly noodles and mandus, with tasty classics (fried rice, jjajangmyeon, jangpong...), and some innovating twists and a fair price-quality ratio. Perfect for a quick lunch or a power snack.

KUAI 19 (restaurant)
Garosu-gil, 545-19 Shinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, ROK 135-889
Tel +82.2.511.8119 / +82.2.3444.7919 Fax +82.2.3444.7918

Seoul Village 2010

Myeongdong Gyoja (Seoul)

If you're into Slow Food, this one is not for you. If you like fast food, you may need some training to catch up.

50 people queueing in the ground floor line, plus 60 in the first floor line ? No problemo : they say it's going to take 7 minutes, and 4 minutes later I'm seated. 10 more minutes and I'm out, filled up with meat dumplings and kalguksu (KRW 7,000 each).

Nothing exceptional about the food : a Chinese touch for the 8 dumplings, some pork and 4 mulmandu for the noodles...

Myeongdong Gyoja has been around for over 40 years and it's the closest thing to a factory I've ever seen here : pervasive advertising for tourists, an ISO9002 smile on every face, a team devoted to optimizing FIFO logistics, no time wasted... but no tension either - customers have to be compensated for the line, and the noise.

Some may add "and the food" because for this price tag you can probably find better elsewhere, but come on. This is not a rip-off.


SM 2009


Myeongdong Gyoja / 명동 교자 (Restaurant)
33-4 Myeongdong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel : +82.2.776.5348

Gongxi Myeongwan (Seoul)

I read many orthographs for this place (Gongximyeongwan, Gongxi Myonkwan, Kkongsimyongwan, Gongsi Myeongwan...) but settled for this one, in two words : the name sounds like "welcome to the noodle house" in a mix of Chinese (for the "gong xi" / welcome part) and Korean (for the "myeon gwan" / noodle fine restaurant half).

What matters, once more, is the food. And this one happens to be both fine and inexpensive. There's even a take-out booth on the first floor, so you can either pick-up a snack before strolling Myeongdong (their xiaolongbao / Shanghai dumplings are more than OK), or seat upstairs and overlook a small busy crossroads not far from the Chinese Embassy. The menu provides solutions for delicate palates, fire eaters, vegetarians, or "maneul maniacs" (ie garlic pork ribs).

Gongxi Myeongwan / 꽁시면관 (Chinese restaurant)
22-13, Chungmuro 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel : +82.2.778.8863

SM 2008 / Seoul Village

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Cheonjin Poja (Seoul)

One of my favorite spots in Samcheong-dong ? Cheonjin Poja (천진포자 - or Tianjin Baozi / 天津包子).

Receipes may come from Tianjin, the founder came from Taiwan decades ago. Since she couldn't find any decent dumplings in Seoul she decided to make a job out of it.

The result is both good and cheap, which explains the success : an annex opened just meters away from the original place, and you often have to wait to get one of the happy few seats. But you never have to wait for too long : it doesn't take that much time to wolf down their treats.

The menu goes from 3 to 5,000 wons and includes 5 categories : noodles (chow mein, chow bing), fried flower bread, and dumplings : in soup (mandu guk), with meat (pork mandu), or with veggies (an amazing half open leek / buchu mandu).

Reaching this Shangri-la is quite easy. Take Gyoyuk-gil at Anguk Station (exit 3), that's the small street facing Ujeongguk-ro. You pass the schools and a few eateries and that's it, to your left, just before ArtSonje Center and Bukchon-gil.

Cheonjin Poja / 천진포자 (restaurant)
127 Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel : +82.2.739.6086

SM / Seoul Village 2008

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Hamheung Naengmyeon (Seoul)

A tiny hanok in the small market street behind Gyeongbokgung Station serves delicious cold noodles with raw skate fish (hoe naengmyeon), along with fantastic mandu. North Korean style (Hamheung is a city located in Hamgyeongnam-do, on the other side of the DMZ), but not as lethal as Ojangdong Hamheung Nengmyeon.

Hamheung Naengmyeon (함흥냉면 - 전문점)
Pilun-dong 205-1, Jongno-gu, SEOUL, ROK
Tel +82.2.3210-3337

Seoul Village 2008

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