On the last day of March, right as cherry blossom season kicked in, I went to Jinju Jip, the hugely famous kongguksu place in Yeouido that everyone in the know knows about. Cherry blossom season came earlier than usual this year, so I got to visit quietly while nobody was around. Really lucky.

Kongguksu

The price seems to have gone up a little, but the nutty soybean broth tastes as good as ever. It isn’t even kongguksu season yet, but the place was still pretty packed.

Mandu

These are seriously high-quality mandu. Not cheap, but the portions are big, so the value is fair. I had actually wanted to order some of the other dishes I’d never tried, but two of the signature dishes were enough to fill me up. With a group of four or so we could have tried a lot more, which was a bit of a shame.

Kimchi

The kimchi here is really good too.

The prices have gotten a bit steep for an everyday lunch, but for an occasional visit it’s still the best. If you live in Seoul, it’s well worth stopping by at least once.

Cherry blossoms

They were almost at peak, and since nobody had been promoting it, there was hardly anyone around. I really got lucky this year.

Hanyang Gimbap, which I stopped by on the way back

Hubris, who is well known on Twitter and his blog for economics and investing, raves about this gimbap, so since I was in Yeouido anyway I bought some.

Roughly like this…

Seriously, how can anyone call this delicious… With all the great gimbap that’s come out around Apgujeong lately… Unless the opinion comes from someone who focuses purely on food, I guess I should take it with a grain of salt.

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