Dongrak Restaurant (Dongrak Banjum) is apparently counted among Incheon’s three great jjamppong places, and since it sits near Juan I went to give it a try. Honestly, I have no idea whether the “big three” label really holds up. Plenty of shops come up whenever people list the top three, and they all look pretty good.
A place like this
There is so little around it that you catch yourself wondering what a Chinese restaurant is doing in a spot like this. And yet people just kept walking in.
Inside
When you hear Chinese coming out of the kitchen, you start expecting good things..
The table setting
Nice and simple.
Samseon jjamppong
The chili jjamppong is supposed to be the famous one here, but I just went with the samseon (seafood) jjamppong. One slurp in, though, and every single ingredient felt alive.. The clean sweetness of the plump clams, properly purged of sand, gave real depth to a broth that still carried the smoky char of the wok. It was so good that I cannot remember ever eating jjamppong at this level.
The noodles
Just ordinary noodles.
Fried rice
If you order a bowl of rice it comes out as fried rice, and compared to the fried rice served as its own dish it is seasoned more lightly and fried properly, so it goes beautifully with the jjamppong broth. It is basically a spicy version of soup chahan, and you really have to taste it once to understand why it is so moving. This is what jjamppong-bap is meant to be.
The way I see it, the food here is good enough to be worth a trip from far away. If you want to know how high jjamppong can reach, I would absolutely recommend a visit.
Market scene
Just a quick snap as I walked past. Incheon has come a long way too.
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