26-05-2015
Ginseng roots stacked in Noryangin, the largest fish and vegetable market in Seoul. The cooking in this Asian megalopolis is under the global spotlight thanks to the attention it has always paid to fermented food. And thanks to a generation of young chefs who are redefining the country’s culinary rules. We went to meet them
A panoramic view from the 32nd floor of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul. South Korea’s capital (which locals pronounce "sol"), with 10 million inhabitants (25 when counting the entire province of Gyeonggi) is one of the most populated cities in the world
Disfigured in the 20th century by the Japanese (in the first half of the century) and by the Korean War (1950-1953), today Seoul has a modern and rather western-like appearance
With dozens of millions of tourists every year, Seoul is one of the most visited towns in the world. In the photo, one of its most popular destinations: Dongdaemun Design Plaza, designed by Zaha Adid and Samoo and completed in March 2014
Walking in the Myeongdong neighbourhood, very popular also thanks to the strong presence of restaurants
The trip had a good start: among the edible options on Korean Air there’s the delicious Bibimpap, with instructions too
Stands at the entrance of Namdaemun, one of the most popular markets in Seoul. Anyone can sell or buy there; no license is required
Namdaemun, soaking tripe
Renting a stand at Namdaemun costs around 2,000 US dollars per month, but monthly earnings are at least twice as much
Giant mussels, very popular in Korea
Markets are endless, very clean and completely free of chaos
Inside the market there’s also a very austere and good restaurant. They serve everything: hoe (raw fish), kimchi (fermented vegetables), guk tang (soups), bibimpap…
Baek kimchi: stewed cabbage with turnips, pears, Korean parsley. It is sometimes served with chestnuts
A bowl of Bibimbap
Boiled quail eggs with garlic and edamame
To finish the meal, here comes a steaming soup (at 8 am)
Seaweed and codfish soup
Mingles, on Cheongdam-dong in Gangnam-gu, is the most interesting place for contemporary Korean cuisine. Mingoo Kang, back home after the experience with Martin Berasategui and Nobu Bahamas opened it little over one year ago
Mingoo Kang offers only a tasting menu for 88.000 won (around 70 euros). Each dish always includes a fermented ingredient
Mingles’ creative approach is based on fermented sauces, a pillar in traditional Korean cuisine: cho (vinegar),gan-jang (soy sauce), gochu-jang (a very spicy paste made with red peppers, boiled soybeans and salt), doen-jang (soybean paste), herbs and spices
Three amuse bouche to start: Schizandra (‘omija’) berry jelly, white asparagus soup, fish meat, blue berry & black vinegar foam; Pear wrapped with flounder (yuzu/fermented chilli paste sauce gochu-jang), grapes, Korean chilli
Monk fish liver sandwich, honey pastry, mushroom chip
Rice noodle salad with Korean mustard dressing, tofu foam, pickled seaweed (pickle means ‘jang-a jji’ in Korean), abalone, lobster
Foie gras torchon (marinated with fermented soy bean paste doen-jang and plum wine) with korean golden plum wine &white kimchi
Steamed seabass topped with braised little squid & combu (kelp), fulvescens seaweed broth, crab meat, white kimchi
Seaweed and tapioca cracker, truffle powder, salmon roe, egg plant, mango puree
Umami noodle (capellini, seaweed paste, squid ink), chicken & fish broth, lemongrass foam, sea urchin, deep fried oyster, prawn
As a dessert, Dessert: Jang tro crème brulee, soysauce gan-jang pican, gochu-jang grains, vanilla ice cream, whisky foam
The team at Mingles celebrates at the end of the dinner with the colleagues from Osteria Francescana. In the middle, Massimo Bottura, an illustrious guest at the Seoul Gourmet Festival (read here)
At the center Vivian Han, the owner of Congdu restaurant: it's the ideal place where to understand the double soul of Korean cuisine, laid between tradition and smooth avantgarde. Together with her, chef Hwan Eui Lee and Chris Kwon, the dining room gentleman (credits David Rosengarten)
The beautiful veranda of Congdu restaurant, 116-1 Deoksu Palace
48 hour-cooked Jeju pork shoulder meat with aged gimchi
AND dining, Jinmo Jang’s restaurant, is located on Hannam-dong, in Yongsan-gu, a lively and very hipster area on the southern outskirts of Seoul. You get to the fine dining restaurant by crossing a door, after a breakfast cafe
It is a counter seating only 8 people, with 3 people in the kitchen. Tasting menu only, for 130.000 won (around 105 euros)
Jinmo Jang, 30, and his sous chef ByeongCheol Mun, 21. The kitchen of AND has Korean foundations but then spreads across the world, with hints at Nordic Cuisine and large digressions dedicated to Spanish techno-emotional elements (siphons, maltodextrin, etc.)
Amuse bouche: Apple goat sandwich; Egg yolk; Tiger's milk and Carrot orange croquette
Scallop tatare with uni mlik & snow
Sea: edible sand made of dried enchovy, seaweed and deonjang oil mixed with tapioca maltodextrin. Served with steamed shrimp, sea snail, clam, fermented oyster and fermented sea squirt. A touch of jang and lemon vinaigrette
Sea Abalone with dried mullet roe
Duck and beetroot sauce
Red chili at the entrance of Noryangin market, another huge market (with open wi-fi)
Sea squirt in English, a very popular mollusc in Korea: once the gummy shell is removed, you take its content and fry it
The huge variety of Korean crabs, excellent when fermented in soy sauce (Gankang-gejang)
Prawns lined up
King crabs
Spoon worms, another popular mollusc
Dried whitebait. No other place in the world has such an endless variety of dried fish
Variations of fermented red peppers, a real emblem of Korean cuisine
In the background, the precious eels. What's the most expensive seefood? Abalone, 35 euro per kilo
We return outside Noryangin to discover all sorts of roots, very often used in infusions
Daikon fermented in soy sauce
The fruit inside a cactus. They use it to make juice
Gim, the beautiful dehydrated Korean seaweeds, often seasoned with sesame. «We have the best», they proudly say
Dog meat, the most controversial side in Korean cuisine. It is now much less common than in the past, when poverty forced to introduce these pets in the diet. The favourite dogs are nureongi (yellow breed). They boil them for a couple of hours and then pair them with garlic, green onion and sometimes ginger. The meat is very tasty, they say
The great sauces on which Korean cuisine is based
Korean melons, very tasty
A stand selling garlic, another emblematic ingredient in Korean cuisine
Nuns at the Jingwansa monastery, the authors of an incredibly current cuisine. We wrote about it here
Fermentation, everyone’s speaking about it. People noticed there’s a B-side to express cuisine. That raw materials cooked after being picked or caught are not necessarily better than those left to rest for months (or years) in contact with the “cold fire” of bacteria (a brilliant definition given by American writer Michael Pollan). An eternal instinct which today is the object of an evaluation going beyond the initial meaning of this technique, born to give longer life to a particular food in harsh climates or during famine.
In the west, it is true, we have always fermented cheese, cured meat, wine, beer, cabbage. For centuries we’ve been careful not to cross the boundary between fermented and rotten or decayed food. Today, however, we are more fascinated by the elements that increase the deliciousness of a fermented food because in many cases these alterations make it tastier. In this sense, no one has a stronger tradition than Asia, and Korea in particular.
GUIDES. Our exceptional guides around the markets in Seoul: Mingoo Kang (chef at restaurant Mingles) and Jinmo Jang (restaurant And), 60 years between the two
There’s pride, therefore, in the making of the great fermented sauces, the true pillars in Korean cuisine: gan-jang (soy sauce), gochu-jang (a very spicy paste made with red peppers, boiled soybeans and salt), doen-jang (a paste made with soybeans), herbs and spices. It is a complex world a one-week trip could not cover completely. Just like one would need an entire life to report on all the kimchi, the fermented vegetables, the most famous symbol of this country abroad. In the 8 regions forming the country they make it in a thousand ways or so. The most popular one (Geot-jeori) is made with fermented cabbage or lettuce in gan-jang, gochu-jang and sesame oil.
BIBIMBAP. Bibimbap as prepared by chef Mingoo Kang. This is the country’s national dish: rice with stir-fried beef and a combination of varied vegetables on the side. They often add gochu-jang, a sauce made with fermented red peppers and soybeans and salt. Mingoo’s version includes crabmeat
And let’s not speak about the universe of drinks, from the ubiquitous makgeolli, fermented rice, to the various nockha (green tea), maesil-cha (tea made with a green plum syrup), sujeonggwa (fresh ginger and cinnamon), sikhye (rice fermented in malt). We have collected all these fascinating products in the following photo gallery. A journey discovering very rich and tidy markets as well as the restaurants and protagonists in traditional and avantgarde cuisine. Delicious products that create a great ferment in other cuisines around the world.
Gabriele Zanatta’s opinion: on establishments, chefs and trends in Italy and the world
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt
