One hot day I dropped by Palsun, partly as a way to build my strength back up. Korea has plenty of great restaurants, but I think Palsun might be the only one this dependable. I’ve never once worried about a miss here. All I want is to make enough money to come once a month. With three people you get a 33% discount, so it might happen sooner than expected?

Table decoration

Modern.

Side dishes

Simple little dishes, but I end up overeating them. The cashews especially..

Sculpin

A 500ml glass was 35,000 won. I barely drank any, so 350ml would have been fine.

Appetizer

We ordered the 200,000-won Bok course. The abalone came out cooked so it was easy to eat. From start to finish it was one luxurious ingredient after another.

Shark fin

Shark fin like this was a first in my life. I’d only ever eaten the scraps.. so eating a piece with its shape fully intact, the texture was perfect.

Shrimp

The exact menu name is out there somewhere, but I can’t be bothered, so moving on.. This one too had the ingredients and sauce in perfect harmony. It would put most French restaurants to shame.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

This was the highlight of the day, but the sauce was a bit similar in style to the shark fin, so I was slightly disappointed. And while the flavor is deep and slow-drawn, I couldn’t quite call it clean either.. hmm.. Honestly, I could tell it was packed with premium ingredients, but I couldn’t really see why this is Palsun’s signature dish.

Braised abalone

Premium ingredients I’d only ever seen in comics, and today I’m eating them all. From the texture to the concentrated umami, it was perfect. Only, coming right after the shark fin, the style was a bit similar.

Chinese cold noodles to finish

I ordered it because it was summer, but the Chinese cold noodles were just so-so. The peanut sauce didn’t really go with such a refined broth. To think there’s a dish at Palsun that misses.. Jjamppong or jjajangmyeon would have been better.

Dessert

Not quite on the level of a French place, but as a finish to the course it was excellent.

I ate this well, got a huge pile of premium ingredients at a reasonable price, and headed home feeling satisfied, but the real miracle happened the next morning. It was summer when I visited, and weeks of relentless heat had left me pretty worn down, but when I woke up I felt incredibly refreshed. They say food and medicine share the same root, and it really worked like a dose of herbal tonic. So this is why everyone goes on about Palsun, Palsun. I felt it in my whole body.

Growing old and visiting Palsun once a month doesn’t sound like a bad life. Not an easy goal, but I’ll have to try.

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