So much food so little time!

Since I arrived here in Seoul it’s been all about the food, within three hours of landing here I was eating traditional Korean Barbecue point being made! This was not just a trip to be reunited with my daughter but a culinary adventure not to be forgotten.

Many of the restaurants don’t speak English so you go by looking at the person’s food at the next table or by the pictures on the menu (if they have pictures). As you make your decision on what to try,  the excitement builds to a fever pitch while eagerly anticipating if you’d made the right choice or not. As there are a number of unidentifiable ingredients it makes for great conversation.

The first dish that came to mind was dakgalbi, a mixture of lots of vegetables and chicken that is cooked on a grill at your table. A waiter will come and give it a stir until all the hot spicy goodness is sizzling and ready to eat. You eat it straight from the grill…… Wouldn’t you know it, I came across IN NO TIME an unidentified ingredient! Nicolette explained it was toppoki, a rice cake stuffed with cheese, also there were mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage and onions, so good. This is Nic's favorite.

 



One of my favorite foods here is dumpling soup and there are many variations. The common denominator is the broth a big bowl of rich meaty, garlicky, perfectly seasoned goodness and served piping hot. The filling for the dumplings vary, most of them I have no idea what’s in them, maybe rice, ground meat, vegetables. All I know is that when you bite into that light fluffy outside your eyeballs will spin like the numbers on a slot machine in Vegas!!

garlic sauce to add to soup

dumpling soup

bulgogi soup

Next was Bulgogi this is a cross between a beef soup and a stew with an added kick to it. The broth is so flavorful and perfectly seasoned with lots of garlic maybe some soy sauce. Bugolgi is made with beef (there is not much beef eaten here mostly pork or chicken) yet again not sure what kind of beef but it is almost shaved and very tender. The dish is laden with lots of vegetables and rice cakes (disks of pasta like goodness) rice is served on the side and you mix it in your soup…so good!

Lamb masala and Naan

Seoul is a multi cultural city and as anyone who knows me, knows Indian food is at the top of my list (Nic too) so our next amazing meal was at an Indian restaurant in Gangnam. We stumbled upon this place and boy was it a gem aesthetically pleasing and off the charts food and service. Here we ordered Lamb Masala this is a spicy curry with a tomato base and Lamb Korma a mild curry with a cream base. Both of these dishes were excellent! I love spicy food so the two chili pepper symbol beside the Lamb masala did not scare me. However our waitress seemed a little concerned at this blonde haired Caucasian hijma (Korean for Grandma) had ordered something she couldn’t handle…..this would be a recurring reaction during my trip. We scooped up our curry in crispy flavorful naan bread the flavors meeting together in our mouths was indescribable. Like I said to Nicolette “This is not just a party in my mouth, it’s New Years Eve!”

chicken soup and many sides. Radish kimchi is red stuff

Nicolette explained she was taking me for lunch to a special place where you can get Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) First of all the sides came out peppers  garlic and a paste (of which we didn’t know what it was) and  radish kimchi. Kimchi is Korea’s traditional dish kimchi is the “process” not the “product” so anything basically can be kimchi if it is treated in the Korean style of fermentation) it is very spicy and has lots of chili pepper in it. THEN the big moment…… in front of me was a piping hot bowl full of broth and a WHOLE chicken floating in the middle.

chopstick master

We cracked open the breast and to our amazement it was stuffed with sticky rice, ginseng and two other things that we debated on……..maybe a fig or a date? Then you added your sides to the soup until it was to your liking. I am truly baffled as to how I could not used chopsticks in the US, but now I dissected the chicken in front of me like I was a top surgeon at any hospital! This soup is known to have healing powers for anything that ails you, like our chicken noodle soup, but much more fun!

soy sauce

many ingredients in my soup

So I decided after all the soup I’ve been eating I should give it a shot and make my own. Chopped Challenge Korean style. I started out by going to a local grocery store where no one speaks any English. I took my time perusing the fresh produce isle. I did recognize some of the vegetables, some of them not so much. After filling my bag up with the ingredients I realized I needed soy sauce. I went apprehensively to the clerks and mouthed really big “SOY SAUCE” two blank stares and lots of Korean chatter. I’m just going to take a guess, part of the fun right? So with my back-pack full I’m ready to go home and whip up some soup. As you know I love to cook so had a great time that afternoon and my soup came out pretty good. We named it SEOULful chicken vegetable soup!

Seoulful soup

Well that’s it for today but stay tuned there’s a lot more eating to do!