I finally went to Seongmin Yangkkochi, the lamb skewer place in front of Seoul National University subway station that’s so popular these days. I remember that neighbourhood having basically nothing back in the day, but thanks to food bloggers it seems a lot of places are getting discovered. When I was a student I had way too much on my plate and no money either, so hunting down good restaurants never even crossed my mind. This generation is different, I guess.
Side dishes
Yep.. the usual white balance test shot.
Charcoal
Using real charcoal at a cheap place like this is pretty serious.
Beer
Starting off with beer..
Lamb skewers
First lamb skewers in ages. Good value for the money, but I can’t really call them especially tasty. That’s what happens once you get used to yakitori..
Spice plate
Sprinkle the seasoning on and dip the skewers in.
Lamb chops
The quality here is just so-so too. But the price is really low.
Baijiu
We emptied three bottles of this strong stuff that night. I think I drank half of it.. I usually prefer Shaoxing-type rice wine, but after a long break the baijiu was actually not bad.
Hot pot ingredients
We figured we’d try something soupy and ordered this. As you can see, nothing much to it.
Hot pot
This looks weirdly serious too..
Lamb
It’s frozen, so hard to judge the taste.. but we still ordered a refill later.
Coriander
You have to pile it in for it to taste right.
Stir-fried intestines (gopchang)
We had quite a bit of liquor left, so we ordered this as a simple snack to go with it. Chewy, with the sweetness of the fat seeping out; considering the level of this place, it was pretty tasty.
So four of us ate and drank our fill for a little over 100,000 won. Unbelievably cheap. And that’s with three bottles of baijiu. It falls well short of being a real foodie destination, but the value for money is amazing. That must be why it’s so popular.
Grilled fish at the second place we moved on to
Having safely wrapped up round one, of course we had to go for round two.. we’d missed the last train anyway -_- The grilled fish was nothing special. Just something to eat with soju. But maybe I drank too much, because from somewhere in the middle my memory is gone.. that’s been happening a lot lately, so I need to reflect on it. Stress is stress.. but I have to take proper care of myself.. Anyway, since I was drinking with a friend, I didn’t end up sleeping on the street, and when I woke up I was at his place. That’s what old friends are good for. Once you move abroad, it’s not easy to just relax over a drink.