After Hadongkwan, the second stop on my hangover-cure course was Samho Jjangttungi, near the Eulji Hospital intersection in Nonhyeon-dong. It’s in the middle of Seoul, but in a way it’s a bit out of the way, so I can’t go as far as telling you to make a special trip, but if you ever need a hangover cure nearby, it’s worth dropping in once.
Side dishes, right-hand row
Maybe because it bills itself as a Namdo (southwestern Korean) restaurant, the number of side dishes is really impressive. I’d only just had breakfast, so I couldn’t even touch about half of them… None of them felt especially remarkable, but none of them fell short either.
Side dishes, left-hand row
These side dishes come as standard even if you order the cheapest thing on the menu, so I’d have to call it excellent value for money. Besides, they say eating lots of side dishes helps with dieting.
Braised mackerel
Nothing about it struck me as bad; it’s above average. I’d already had breakfast and there were so many side dishes that finishing everything was a bit of a struggle…
Jjangttungi-tang (mudskipper soup)
This was the main dish of the day. I didn’t pay, so I don’t know for sure, but a quick search says it’s about 10,000 won. That’s a little pricey for a set meal, but then again, look at the neighborhood. Jjangttungi is apparently a fish that lives on the mudflats, probably some kind of goby. I knew there was a fish called a goby, but I had no idea you could eat it… The spicy kick is almost the same as chueotang (loach soup), just a bit milder. It felt more Seoul-style than Namdo-style, but personally I liked it better this way. It seemed good both as a hangover cure and as a regular meal.
That took care of the hangover nicely, and I was all set to go drinking again in the evening. With the time left, I stopped by the Galleria Department Store for a bit and bought a Kobold umbrella, which I’d been wanting for ages (I didn’t go there to buy an umbrella; I went to look around the area, it started raining, and I came back with just an umbrella), then went to Kyobo Book Centre at Gangnam Station, bought F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button short story collection, and read it. It cost only 4,000 won, so I didn’t expect much, but it was the very essence of the short story, condensed. It’s the first novel I’ve really recommended in a while. If you like short stories, do give it a read…
For better or worse, whenever I come back to Korea, the pattern of drinking at night and reading and shopping during the day has been going on for years now. Even if I try to change things up, it’s been this way for so long that I don’t really know how to change it. It’s time to get a grip on how the world is moving and adjust myself to fit the new era. But work is as busy as ever, so it’s hard to find the time. I guess this is how everyone gets older. Sob…