Jongno is famous for dakhanmari, and when I tried it ages ago I was impressed by the value for money, but it never really struck me as a must-eat. Boiled chicken dishes are so common in Korea, from samgyetang to chogyetang, and you end up eating them so often that there is not much to set one apart. Lately though, there is a decent dakhanmari place near where I work, so I have been there a few times.

The front entrance

This place is good, but I have not eaten dakhanmari enough times to judge exactly how good. In the old days I would have gone round every famous dakhanmari place in Seoul and ranked them, but these days if a place is good enough, I just keep going back to it. Maybe I have eaten enough of the so-called must-eat food that the old passion has largely faded.

Dakhanmari

The quality of the meat was decent. The broth was clean and refreshing, just right for winter.

The table setting

Neat and simple.

You pour in a big ladle of mul-kimchi and bring it to a rolling boil.

You fish out the rice cakes first, then eat the kimchi and chicken, and finally add the kalguksu noodles at the end. The meat is good, but the kalguksu noodles had more chew than I expected and were really tasty.

It is such an ordinary menu that there is not much to introduce, but in winter, hot pots and soups are simply the best. I will hold off for about a year and come back once the weather turns cold again.

Around the time I posted this, I started using a camera app called Cortex, which claims to improve image quality. Indoor and night-time noise dropped much more than I expected, so I am quite happy with it. When I find the time, I might do a special feature post on the Cortex camera app.

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