Chaeun is a Chinese restaurant in Sinsa-dong with a stylish interior. This was my first time going to a meetup of a certain gourmet club in Seoul, and since the end of the year was so hectic, I showed up without knowing anything about the place. From what I heard, it specializes in Cantonese food, so I was curious to see how good it would be.
The basic side dishes
Zha cai and pickled vegetables seem to be the industry-standard side dishes.
Tonight’s sponsored bottle
A VSOP is perfectly drinkable. We ordered a few beers, and they let us bring in our own liquor too. I thought an upscale place like this would be stricter about it, but apparently not.
Steamed clams
I didn’t write down what the dish was, so I’m not sure of its exact name. It’s been a while and I don’t even remember… This one felt like it came out a bit cold. Maybe that’s because I spent too long taking photos… Prices here are a bit steep for students to order freely, so we ordered just enough of each dish to get a taste.
Duck
It’s not bad, but it’s not worth making a special trip for.
Stir-fried pork
Nicely cooked with a real wok-fired flavor. There was more bamboo shoot than pork, which I actually preferred.
Flower buns (huajuan)
These were good too. Just as we were roughly filling up on these, the main course came out.
Steamed fish
Unlike the other dishes here, this steamed fish has a special flavor. I wouldn’t regret coming from far away just to eat this. With fresh cilantro and scallions on top, the flavor comes alive even more. It’s better than the one I had ages ago at Janggang Manwol. Picking at the big chunks of fish and mixing rice into the salty soy broth, I started to get full.
Seafood noodles
This was the last dish we ordered, and it was just so-so.
Roasted chestnut cakes
These are the cakes I brought along. They were a bit sweet..
Red bean porridge
This is the dessert the restaurant serves.
Macarons
These are macarons from Guillaume that a kind club member picked up at a department store on the way. Macarons really should go with tea or coffee, so it was a little bit of a shame given the setting. They were really delicious, though~
Mojito
After safely wrapping up the first round, we headed to a place called Cuba on Garosu-gil in Sinsa-dong for round two. There, sipping mojitos and thinking of Hemingway, I welcomed 2010. Last year I was in Shibuya, and this year I got to spend it in Seoul. With no lingering regrets about the year gone by, I was happy to welcome a meaningful new year. I’m going to live this year to the fullest too.