Around the Lunar New Year holidays I had a chance to come back to Korea, so I got together with friends I’d only been keeping in touch with over messenger. When they asked where I most wanted to go, I said let’s do the combo course: bulgogi at Bogeonok + naengmyeon at Woo Lae Oak, for the first time in ages. I still remember how moved I was eating there back when I was just getting into food..
Both places are so famous that a long introduction would probably bore you.. so I’ll keep it short and quick.
The table setting
Roughly like this..
Yukhoe
Good quality.. I also like that they’re not stingy with the portion. Probably because it’s frozen, but.. anyway, I hope it stays like this.
Kimchi
It’s tastiest when you put it in with the bulgogi
The broth
The pan is different from before. The ajumma said it tastes better since they changed the pan, but my gut feeling is that it was better before.
Time to dig in properly.
It was a really cold day, so the bulgogi tasted especially good..
Got to put the kimchi in too..
Is it good? Yes, it’s good. For the price, you’d be hard pressed to find a better place. But having already tasted the ultimate bulgogi, it felt like something was missing.. (The meat they use doesn’t seem to be a particularly premium cut.) I used to think it was so delicious, but the palate is a fickle thing.. Still, not long after I happened to eat a bulgogi that beats this place, so I don’t feel too bad about it ^_^
Apparently this place does great samgyeopsal as well as bulgogi, but that day we ate a moderate amount and headed to Woo Lae Oak for naengmyeon as round two.
Myeonsu, as always..
At Woo Lae Oak, it’s a bit annoying that they make you pay up front if you only order naengmyeon.. I vow that one day I’ll boldly order the bulgogi.
Sunmyeon
Maybe because I’d eaten well at Bogeonok, a whole bowl felt a bit much. It was tasty, but next time I should come a bit hungrier.
It was cold, but since we hadn’t seen each other in a long time we went on to round three. Apparently there’s a well-known golbaengi (whelk) alley nearby.
Golbaengi-muchim, spicy whelk salad, from a set that was 20,000 won or so
They say they use Dongpyo whelks, which taste far better than other whelk brands.. but then again, whelk tastes like whelk.. That’s the problem with everyday food: it’s so easy to come by that you eat it often, and so you tire of it quickly. That’s why, the longer you keep eating around, the more you drift either toward high-end food or toward exploring everyday food from other countries..
Here’s the spread.
Actually, these tsukidashi(?) side dishes went better with the drinks than the whelk did. Getting this much for about 20,000 won isn’t bad at all, but it doesn’t quite feel like “everyday” pricing. Then again, maybe I just don’t know what prices in Korea are like these days..
Toss it together and you get this.
In the end we got so caught up talking that I missed the last train and crashed at a friend’s place. The next day I had five or six appointments back to back starting at 9 in the morning.. I think I’ve more or less gotten used to living this busily, but if things get any busier than this, OTL.. surely that won’t happen..