I went out to Anagoya for a get-together, and something about the mood felt off. When I arrived, this is what greeted me..

Traditional liquors from the Namdo region

Club member Nok-x-jang-x brought along traditional liquors from the Jeolla region out of his own collection, so it turned into something like a tasting session. These are not liquors you get to drink in one sitting, and I think he went a bit overboard that day. Many thanks.

Each one has its own character, and the strong ones have their charm as strong liquors, the mild ones as mild liquors. Apart from the Jukryeokgo and the Jindo Hongju I liked them all, and the Igangju, Ogokju and Chuseongju were especially good, I think. They are on a similar level and each is different, so ranking a number one seems pointless. Just pick according to your taste. Better and better traditional liquors keep coming out, so it would be fun to see attempts at pairing regional dishes with regional liquors, like in Japan.

Daeipsul, a bamboo-leaf liquor

It is only 12% and has a distinctive, herby sort of taste, so it works well as a soju substitute. You might feel it is short on alcohol, but low-alcohol is the trend these days.

Blanched octopus

Every dish here goes well with drinks, so I started to worry about how this would end.

Chadolbagi (thin-sliced beef brisket) and kimchi

The meat is nice and fresh.

Sea eel sashimi

Last time I could not really appreciate the food, but this time I ate with focus and it is excellent, just as its reputation says. It is mostly filling, protein-heavy drinking food though, so later on I ate some cucumber to pace myself.

Braised deokja

A large pomfret is called deokja, and I had never seen a pomfret this size. The flesh was incredibly sweet. It could easily be called the main dish of the night. Dishes using special ingredients like this are hard to get unless you ask for them in advance when booking, so I could not be more grateful for the thorough preparation.

A sunset cocktail made with Jindo Hongju

Float a little hongju on top of beer and you get a gradient like a sunset. It does not show well in the photo, but it was really beautiful. The taste.. hmm.. I did not try it, so I could not tell you.

Grilled sea eel

Really plump sea eel here. Sea eel specialists seem to be popping up all over town these days, but when the original is this good, I see no reason to bother trying them.

Perilla leaves and jeotgal (salted seafood)

Got to eat some rice too.

Whelks

Even after the mains, there was so much liquor left that all sorts of finishing dishes came out.

Jeotgal set

When we said the jeotgal was delicious, the owner brought out a few more. Every one of them was fantastic. With one delicious ingredient after another, it felt a bit like the nameless-restaurant concept from the film Le Grand Chef 2.

Geumpungsaengi (grilled grunt fish)

I remember having this at Namhae Bada in Mapo a while back. It is bony and awkward to eat, but the flesh tastes great. Just when I thought we were done, the drinking food kept coming without end. Luckily, though, I did not get that drunk this time.

The Ken’s Cafe gateau chocolat I brought along

On the outside it just looks like a block of chocolate, but put it in your mouth and it melts away smoothly with no heaviness at all. It was almost perfect this time too. It did not quite match the atmosphere of the place, but the people who come to these gatherings do not mind small things like that.

The whisky I brought along

I brought a small bottle of Kavalan from Taiwan. It has a distinctive taste that divides opinion a bit, but as expected, the sherry-cask cask strength is just right for Korean palates. There is so much alcohol flying around at the foodie gatherings I go to these days that a small-sized whisky, one light glass each and done, seems just right. I have picked up the habit of looking carefully for decent half bottles every time I visit a whisky shop.

Now it is really over~

And with that, the long Namdo gourmet tour came to an end.

Then on to Shingiru Hwangso Gopchang for round two.

Side dishes

The reason so many people come even late at night and in such an out-of-the-way spot must be the owner’s character and the value for money. Though Nok-x-jang-x’s blog probably has something to do with it too.

Gopchang (beef intestines)

There may be pricier and tastier places, but nowhere else in Seoul offers this quality at this price, I think.

Nicely grilled

We emptied a few bottles of soju and made it home safely. A shame I was too full to eat much of the gopchang.

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