The Cosmopolitan Seoul - Chef Laura in Korea (Final Installment)

There is a lot of Japanese influence in Korean culture (good or bad, that's debatable and depends on who you ask), so it's not surprise that good Japanese food is easy to find. Not to mention that Korea is a peninsula, so fresh local fish is very accessible. We dined at the Westin's Japanese restaurant, ordering a mix of two omakase bentos and some a la carte dishes.

The night before we left, Sung took as to one of the best Japanese meals that I ever had. The chef at Sushi Cho, is.... Chef Cho. He apprenticed under the best Japanese chef in Korea before moving out to start his own thing. Sung mentioned that Koreans tend to prefer white fish over red fish, and truly, I had some of the best white fish sushi. Of course, there was toro ( triple helpings for me), and abalone (triple helpings for Daryl). Fusing the Korean Hanjeongsik tradition of endless courses into the Japanese menu, we had:

Several vegetable appetizers


A huge Sashimi Platter (Actually two, check out the Toro portions)


Grilled White Fish


Cooked Abalone


Steamed Egg Custard


Ankimo - Monkfish Liver


Anago and Seared Toro Sushi


Yum.

Although less traveled than it's neighboring cities of Tokyo and Shanghai, Seoul is equally cosmopolitan. Of course, my standard metric is cuisine variety, and as they say, the proof is in the pudding, or maybe in this case, the Payard. We had tea and lunch at Payard Seoul, and the quality of the pastries and food was so much better than the NYC Flagship. Pastries were more delicate and meticulously designed and displayed, and although the food took a little while to get to our table, it was cooked to perfection. I had the squid ink risotto, and everyone knows that a perfect risotto is mark of a very high quality control - a true luxury, high end patisserie.


I made a fuss about how everyone kept trying to steal my eclair. Get your own!


We tried that dark chocolate tart


We also tried the opera cake on the left


THE French cookie - that I absolutely detest


It's better than it looks

In fact, it was not just at Payard that our western cuisine was done well. We had lunch at Vecchia e Nuovo, the Chosun's cafe, and the pasta was also cooked to al-dente, (with the perfect amount of sauce), and the fries (not mine), were crispy and fluffy (water blanched of course). I am overwhelmed with the amount of pride that Koreans put into making sure that everything that they produce is top quality.


Yes, I do have this thing for squid ink

It wasn't just the high end food that was cosmopolitan. Even the street style food was a melting pot of cultures - In Itaewon, Whole chicken on the rotisserie, Turkish Kebabs, Barbecued squid and octopus, and then Insadong with traditional Korean sweets that resembled dragon's beard, ding ding tang and muah chee (or mochi).







The last stop on our Korean Culinary adventure was the basement of Shinsegae department store, where we loaded up on office gifts of traditional Korean pastries filled with sweet filling of mung bean, read bean, dates, pine nuts, etc. Among the other traditional Korean sweets were French cakes and pastries like cream puffs, all sorts of filled breads, and imported Japanese treats like manju, which cost $5 a pop (yes, i bought them).




I had never imagined that visiting Korea would be so palate opening! The food truly reflects the cosmopolitan nature of the country, with dining traditions rooted deep in the country's history. Any preconceived notions about what I thought Korean Food was like completely disappeared the minute I stepped into Seoul, and I can honestly say that I'm so impressed with the quality, variety, and most of all culture behind the culinary scene here. They say you really have to live in a place to understand it properly, but I think eating through it might come up a close second!

Thanks for reading through Korea - Next stop, Israel!