This post was written in 2010. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
We had the first round at 2chef and went to a ramen shop for the second, and the ramen that came out was truly awful. I don’t get why anyone would try to make money selling stuff like that. At the very least, people shouldn’t feel sick after eating your food, right? So I’ll skip the details.. After the ramen shop, the place we went to clear our palates was Kadoya, an izakaya in Mangwon-dong that’s apparently popular these days. It seems to be in an out-of-the-way spot, but it was packed. So we just had a quiet drink and left.
Complimentary tsukemono
Nagaimo (Chinese yam) pickled with shiso.. They brought this out as soon as we sat down. The people at this gathering are such regulars that I guess that’s why we got freebies. It had a fresh, tangy taste, and everyone was raving about it.. It’s tasty, sure, but you could get something like this at any neighborhood izakaya. Or am I wrong..
Max draft
Everyone said it was good, but to my taste Suntory Premium (Malts) is better.. The thing is, Suntory is crazy expensive in Korea. Even an ordinary izakaya in Korea charges the prices of a top-class restaurant in Japan, which breaks my heart.
Karaage
Nothing special about it, but it looked well made for Korea. I hardly ever go to Japanese restaurants in Korea, so I can’t really tell whether it was well made or not.
Pork jowl (hangjeongsal)
Great as a drinking snack, and it tasted pretty good too. For a quick beer, this is more than enough.
Geso-age
Fried squid legs. It tastes like, well, fried squid legs. Anyway, everyone really knows their Japanese food terms. Drop them in the middle of Japan and they’d eat their way around just fine.
Talisker at Factory in Hongdae
We moved on to Factory, a bar in Hongdae that’s supposedly the hot spot these days, and kept going all night. Bartenders at Japanese bars tend to be very formal and buttoned-up. Compared to that it was relaxed, but we drank until dawn and I ended up completely wasted. With my stamina these days, I really need to hold back.. sigh.
And so my long Chuseok trip to Korea comes to an end; posts from my trip to Tokyo will be going up soon.