Under the Deceptively Rosy Sky

 

The room we stayed during the short trip to the central Seoul faced west so we could see the crimson sky over the mountains surrounding the palace. It was beautiful, but lacked some sort of things that must be in the peaceful scene of setting sun. If you know all the bloodlettings of the earlier days of the Chosun, you might think the glow in the sky seemed to be blood-stained blanket. It was the very first impression I had when I saw the rosy sky above the palace. And it occurred to me that the many beings of old days with grudge might gather around the pavilion to weep and mourn. Among this horde, I bet I could meet the apparition of Jeong Dojeon, a founding father of the kingdom and later he was killed by former comrades during the coup. Of course, it was somehow little bit odd feeling because I didn’t particularly admire him or supporting his policy. However, it is because there are tons of people murdered and banished whenever upheavals happened. Therefore, the place naturally invited kind of egregores of bad auras. Later, having some foods and drink, I tried to vanish such thoughts in vain.

Although, I had mixed and confused feeling of the palace and surroundings, Leo had very good time with his charged mojo. Kids love fountains and play in there during the summer. There are many newly built fountains along the road connecting the square and Kyeongbok palace and Leo chose one of them for splashing and bathing.

 

On our way back to the hotel, we bought bindaeduk, which is Korean style pancake. You may call it Korean pancake dishes. The exact name is Jongro bindaeduk because this Korean food is famous in Jongro area in Seoul. We ordered both regular meats stuffed one and seafood bindaeduk.

Basically, bindaeduk is a kind of mung bean pancake made by mixing green beans, meat and frying them in oil. However, as flour became more common in Korea, mung bean paste rice cakes with flour as the main ingredient appeared naturally, and these days mung bean paste rice cakes as originally made with mung bean are separately called mung bean pancakes (nokdujeon in Korean).

The first record of the appearance of bindaeduk was traced back to 16^th century. At that time, it was mainly eaten in the northwestern part of the Korean Peninsula, centered on Pyeongan-do and it was called Makbuchi in Hwanghae-do and Jijim in Pyeongan-do. It was before and after liberation from the Japanese takeover when bindaeduk spread to further south of the peninsular. Before the 1960s, mung bean pancake was cheaper than other pancakes, but these days, mung bean has become much more expensive than flour thus anything using mung bean is not cheap anymore.

Although it is not that cheap anymore, the public perception that bindaeduk is such a cheap dish continues to this day. There are many restaurants and small eateries in the university districts serving assorted bindaeduk. I remember very old and famous place where I was a regular near the university I graduated from. Many argue that these foods go well with Korean traditional alcoholic beverage called makguli, but I think even some sort of wines also be good accompaniments. We carried a doggy bag of bindaeduk from the Jeongro bindaeduk restaurant to the room at the hotel and ate with Hoegaardens. They seemed to pair very well. Like pizza and pajeon (spring onion pan cake), the taste of bindaeduk seems good for many drinks and you don’t necessarily pick makduli to enjoy it.