Mini Review: Seorae Reborn

Seorae Galmaegi (서래 갈매기) was one of the most popular Korean barbecue restaurants downtown. The meat was delicious and of good quality. The sides were tangy and spicy and fresh. The atmosphere was rustic and constantly buzzing with activity. 

Last year they were gutted and their facade torn down. For all intents and purposes, they appeared to have gone out of business. 

They did not. They were closed for renovations. 

The new, shiny, stainless steel and glass Seorae is just as delicious as the old, but I have to say, the atmosphere of the old wooden restaurant was much more comfortable. 

Seorae serves dinner from 5:30pm to 11:00pm weekdays and closes at 1am on the weekend. The servings are smaller than they used to be, but the service is still good. The prices are moderate (15,000 won and up for two people). And the place feels so clean these days you practically need to squint to see through the glare. 

Getting there from Pyeongtaek Station is easy if you imagine the streets as resembling the fingers in your hand. While standing in front of the station, hold your right hand palm up. Cross the street and walk down the index finger road. Turn left after three blocks. You should be able to see Seorae Galmaegi nearly in front of you down the street. It is on the right side of the street as the road bends to the left.

(Some reporting by Park Junsik.)

2015.3.4 | 지도 크게 보기 ©  NAVER Corp.

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Meat, Spice and Lots of Fire at Hwatong Sam

There is a Korean barbecue restaurant for every leaf of kimchi in Korea, and it is hard to go wrong when choosing one. However, some do stand out. And Hwatong Sam (화통삼) is one of the chains that rises a little taller than its brothers.

There isn't much of a barbecue without meat, and that is one point in which Hwatong Sam stands out. The prices are reasonable. Around 10-12,000 won will buy one of a variety of quality pork cuts. And the servings are large enough to feed a single person. I ordered the samgyeopsal (삼겹살), pork belly with three layers of fat, and gabeurisal (가브리살), a special cut of pork loin. At many restaurants the meat comes out already cut into bite-sized pieces. However, these came out as solid chunks of meat which the waiter personally cut into smaller pieces at the table. 

Sometimes Koreans assume that foreigners do not know what to do in these kinds of situations and do all the cooking for them. However, this was not the case at Hwatong Sam. They practically had to wrestle the cooking tongs away from me each time they returned because they had a show to put on. After the gogi was flipped the waiter poured a quantity of oil over the meat, and, after cautioning me and the NetBot to sit back, turned the pork into a pyrotechnics show worthy of a MythBusters episode (sorry, no photos). When everything was done, the staff turned off the hot plate so nothing overcooked. 

Meat is important, but no respectable Korean barbecue would be complete without side dishes. And Hwatong Sam succeeds in that as well. Not everyone appreciates cooked veggies, but that is how the sides come at Hwatong Sam. Placed right on the large grill plate are mountains of kimchi, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and chives. A smaller amount of garlic sprouts, garlic, potato, and pumpkin are added as well. If that wasn't enough, there are also pickled perilla leaves called kkaennip jangajji (깻입 장아찌) and Korean hot peppers. And in a unique turn, the waiter cracks an egg inside a thick ring of onion, tops it with a little cheese and leaves it to fry. On the downside, they didn't give us much lettuce to roll our meat in, but I'm sure the waitstaff, a bunch of shy, kind, highschool-aged boys, would have given us more if we asked.

Perhaps what makes Hwatong Sam truly unique, though, are their dipping sauces. Sauces are not unusual at Korean barbecues, but this place's sauces have their own snazzy twist. Typically you get two or three sauces: ssamjang, sesame oil and salt, and some sauced onions. But Hwatong Sam serves five uniquely piquant sauces. They have something resembling ssamjang but spicier, curry powder that tastes boring until you dip your meat in it (the NetBot ate all of hers and asked for more), a surprisingly spicy sauce similar to but stronger than gochujang, a tart oil and vinegar sauce, and lastly their own citrusy twist on the onion sauce. 

There are two Hwatong Sams in Pyeongtaek. The one I visited (which has 9.7/10 stars on Naver) is located in the new development near LotteMart, down the street from the intersection immediately in front of Pyeongtaek City Hall. 

2014.12.2 | 지도 크게 보기 ©  NAVER Corp.

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Big Kamjatang!

Kamjatang (감자탕), which means potato stew, really has little to do with potatoes. It is a delectably rich and spicy Korean stew made from the meaty back bones of that magnificent beast that gifted us with bacon, or at least that is what kamjatang should be.

All too often kamjatang is conspicuously lacking in the meaty part and compensated with extra veggies (not potatoes) and glass noodles. This is the kamjatang that I knew for most of my four plus years in Korea, but then something happened that changed my view of kamjatang forever.

Several months ago my academy received a substitute teacher by the name of Philip. One day during a break between classes he told me the story of a hungry night in Pyeongtaek when he flagged down a taxi and asked to be taken to a kamjatang restaurant. A Korean-American, kamjatang was his favorite meal and he was craving it. The taxi's destination ended up serving some of the best kamjatang he had ever tried. I was sold. Six months followed before I got around to finding the place myself, and what a place it is!

"Nogeol Daekamjatang" (노걸대감자탕), with six syllables, is a mouthful of a name. And that's okay, because they like things large at Nogeol Daekamjatang. "Large" is even part of their name. Dae (대) means big. And true to their name, the amount of meat in their kamjatang is really large. In four years I've eaten a lot of kamjatang at restaurants all the way from from Busan to Seoul, and I have never seen hunks of meat as enormous as the ones attached to the bones of this soup. And it isn't sub-quality meat either. It is tender, rich, fall-off-the-bone meat. It is definitely fatty, but it is fatty in a good way like a pot roast. And all that fat melts throughout the stew making everything it embraces incomparably delicious.

Unlike other kamjatangs the veggie content is low and there aren't many noodles either, but the stew doesn't need these things. This isn't meant to be a casual vegetarian's guilty pleasure. This stew is made for bold, unabashed carnivores, people who do not shy away from the prospect of rending sinew, fat, and vein from bone with their bare hands and then being satisfied with that being their only meal for the day. And the kamjatang at Nogeol Daekamjatang, true to their long name, will keep you satisfied for the length of the day. I ordered the small communal pot (뼈감자탕 전골 小), which serves three people, with my girlfriend late Sunday morning. I didn't feel the urge for a meal until after midnight.

Like most kamjatang restaurants, Nogeol Daegamjatang is open 24 hours. They are located at 963-8 Hapjeong-dong, Pyeongtaek, half way between AK Plaza and Pyeongtaek High School on the road leading up to Sosabol Stadium. Coming from AK Plaza you will find it on your left across an intersection from a Ssangyong Motors service shop. 

Prices range from ₩7,000 for individual bowls to ₩36,000 for a huge communal pot. The owner doesn't speak much English besides "hello" and "thank you" and the menu is entirely in Korean, so it may be difficult for some foreigners to order. If you just ask for kamjatang the owner will ask if you want a communal pot or individual bowls. A communal pot is called "jeongol" (전골). An individual ceramic bowl is called "ttuekbaegi" (뚝배기). If you order a pot then you have to determine if you want a big (大 - dae), medium (中 - joong), small (小 - so), or two people (2인 - du-in) sized pot.

Nogol Daegamjatang in Hapjeong-dong, Pyeongtaek

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