Last month I took a friend from abroad to a gamjatang restaurant near my office. I told her gamja means potato in Korean. She looked into the pot for a long time. Then she asked where the potatoes were. There was one. A small one, at the bottom, half falling apart. I did not have…
The first time I went to Hyundai-ok, the menu asked me a question I could not answer. Nambu style or boiled style. Same soup. Same price. The staff was waiting. I picked boiled style because it sounded normal. It took me a few more visits to understand what I had skipped. Kongnamul gukbap is bean…
At lunch, when my team orders budae jjigae, one person always controls the pot. She decides when the ramyeon goes in. If it goes in too early, the noodles get soft and the lunch is ruined. Nobody gave her this job. She took it, and we accept it. Budae jjigae means army base stew. It…
Malatang is on every block in Hongdae and nowhere in the office districts. A Sichuan dish that split Seoul by age — and how to order it without overpaying like I did.