We got together to sort through the stuff I brought back from Japan. When you buy all sorts of odds and ends, one session is never enough. It takes two or three get-togethers before things are more or less sorted out.

This time we met at Yeonnam Blues, a place near the entrance to Yeonnam-dong. Its biggest selling point is that for every dish you order, one bottle of wine is corkage-free. The food is decent too, so it is a good spot for a casual BYOB gathering. Ever since 2chef closed, there has been no corkage-free place worth going to around Hongdae, which was a shame, so I am really glad places like this exist.

A beer to start with

We eased into it. After that we opened a few bottles of wine, and finished off with the house wine. When we ordered the house wine that was on promotion, they gave us a CD as a gift. Apparently this place is run by a record label, which would explain it.

Seafood pesce (Italian-style seafood stew)

Made with fresh ingredients, so it tasted good, though personally I found it a touch spicy. I guess it has been arranged Korean-style rather than Italian. I did think it might go better with soju than with wine.

Teppan-grilled Jeju black pork ogyeopsal (skin-on pork belly)

They seemed to be good at teppan-grilled dishes, so we ordered this. The cooking is simple, but with decent ingredients it turned out pretty good. It is seasoned on the stronger side, like it was optimised to go with drinks.

Teppan-grilled pork jowl & sliced onion

We ordered one more teppan-grilled dish, and this was tasty too. Of everything that came out so far, this was the closest to a proper wine snack.

Whelk salad

It is called a salad, but it was basically pasta. A bit more whelk would have been nice, but even like this it works well as a finisher or a starter.

Fish and chips

The best dish of this visit. The thinly sliced fried white fish even had a bit of a chewy bite to it, and it makes a superb snack with drinks. I doubt you would find fish and chips this good even in England.

Yeonnam Blues felt like an Italian-style izakaya. The prices are reasonable and corkage is free, so if another BYOB gathering comes up soon, I would like to go back.

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