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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Baek nyeon chueotang (Seoul)

"100 year chueotang" faces the Yeonhui Samgeori post office. If this restaurant looks minuscule from the outside, it's actually quite big and can seat many patrons on either low or high tables.

"Chueotang" (추어탕) is a popular mudfish soup with dried radish leaves or "siraegi" (시래기). If you're familiar with seashores in Korea, you've probably seen this "chueo", a grey bearded loach crawling on wet sand. The poor lad doesn't have a very exciting taste by itself, but it completely melts in a soup, so it's up to the rest of the ingredients to make this dish really special.

Here, I must seize the opportunity and praise siraegi, one my favorite Korean foods. You must try once siraegi bokkeumbap (시래기 볶음밥), provided it's properly seasoned and rich in garlic (I even had it once as a sandwich for a soccer game in Paris - to die for !). Drying leaves allows consumption even during the winter, when warm and earthy dishes are not often so green.

This restaurant's owners grow their own radishes and dry the leaves on the roof of their farm. Their soup tastes really good, but anyone can customize it by adding sea salt, garlic, hot pepper, wild sesame... Fresh gimchi and fried chueo complete a limited set of side dishes.

A very good address for chueotang lovers.

BAEK NYEON CHUEOTANG (restaurant)
133-1 Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, SEOUL, ROK
Tel +82.2.332.8059

Seoul Village 2011