After Hwaseon Hoejip, the next stop was Mimine, a handmade twigim (Korean-style fried snacks) shop that’s been the talk of the blogs lately.
Here’s the place.
If you look closely you can see the owner… she was quite a beauty even without dressing up. Dressed up she’d be something else… it almost made me wonder if that’s why the place is so popular. She was running it all on her own that day and was really busy, and there were lots of people waiting. I wonder if she’s managed to find some part-time help by now…
Wine someone brought along
I don’t know much about Italian wine, but it seemed decent. I couldn’t drink much of it though, since I was busy finishing off the soju left over from the mineo meetup just before, and eating mackerel sushi.
The saba bo-zushi (mackerel bar sushi) I brought
We cut it into pieces with a knife. Taste? Needless to say.
The fried stuff starts coming out…
Garlic scapes, maybe? And shrimp. The ingredients were fresh and nicely fried. Of course it’s no match for high-end Japanese tempura, but considering it’s the kind of cheap fried stuff you get at a Korean bunsik (snack) shop, it doesn’t really need to be compared. I heard the shrimp is different from before. Word spread through the blogs and they apparently had trouble getting enough supply.
Tteokbokki
Honestly… I can’t really tell how one tteokbokki tastes different from another. Cheap, generous food always has its tricks anyway. Still, if I had to judge, it didn’t feel inferior to other places, but I didn’t sense anything unique to this shop either.
Making fried food the main thing under a bunsik-shop concept is fine, but on its own it inevitably falls a little short. Fried food is so greasy that, as a snack, it belongs in a supporting role rather than as the main event. It’d be nice if they offered more dishes to make up for the weaknesses of fried food, but they’ve only just started, so it’s probably too much to ask for more right away. Personally, I thought they could try a meal item like a tempura rice bowl. Though that fits neither the bunsik concept nor the Korean concept…
Squid and squid milt
They really chose the fried menu well. She seems to have an eye for ingredients… Still, keeping this quality while charging only 500 won per person, I doubt there’s much margin left, and I wonder whether the business will do well.
Gimmari (fried seaweed rolls)
We used to eat these dipped in tteokbokki sauce a lot. But the tteokbokki sauce was a bit too thin for dipping, and on their own they were a bit too oily.
Pumpkin and scallions, I’m told.
Sorry for such a sloppy post. I remembered everything at first, but later on eating became a struggle -_-;
Can’t really remember this one either…
One side is sweet potato.
That’s a lot of eating… plus I’d just had mineo right before… (and gonggalppang and dumplings on top of that…)
Fried perilla leaves
I tried every kind of item they had that day. Eating until I was stuffed and it still came to less than 10,000 won per person, which almost made me feel guilty… It’s a place with a great concept, but it’s still a tiny operation and the prices are so low that people line up. If you’re nearby, feel free to drop by casually, but personally I’d wait until things settle down a bit before going.