Inner Journey

  Yungduck mulhoe is the unique Korean seafood restaurant near Youngdeungpo Lotte department store and subway station. There, the chef specializes in Korean East cost style seafoods. One of them is the steamed backgodong (photo I took above). Second photo above shows fermented flounders, which is also very unique way (Kyeungsangdo style) to cook this fish and practiced only in the Yungduk/Phohang areas. Godongs are mainly used as side dish for alcoholic drink, mostly for draft beer in 500 ml glass (famous place is Euljiro in Seoul) due to a chewy and light texture and are easy to cook. They are also good for snacks due to its high protein content and low fat. In Korea, We are familiar with golbangi muchim, which is Korean style sea snail salad, mixed with noodles and hot & spicy sauce. Here, the word ‘golbaengi’ is a dialect of godong and more widely used culinary term than godong or its English translation ‘whelk’. The godongs shown in the picture are commonly called Baekg...

  Cephalopods play an important role in Korean seafood dishes and they are one of my (and Leo’s) favorite dishes. Currently, the global octopus trade is worth over 2.7 billion $. Recently, there are heated debates over octopuses as food ingredients and their farming. The debates over these tentacled animals have started when the Spanish company ‘Nueva Pescanova’ revealed its proposal to open an octopus farm in a harbor in Las Palmas in the Canary Island in 2021. According to media coverages, this proposal is the largest private investment in the history on the island. In the same year ‘Compassion in world farming’ released a report, arguing that octopus farming is cruel and could cause environmental damage to oceans. The report mentions that the experimental trials to farm octopuses reveal that the mortality rate in these systems would be around 20%, meaning that 1 in 5 individuals would not survive the whole production cycle. People against the farming plan mentioned that they f...

  Ramen is one of our (me and Leo) most favorite foods. Ramen is arguably the most commonplace instant foods with powder soup separately placed with a chunk of noodle in a plastic bag. In Korea, you can just say "ramen" referring to instant ramen, especially bag ramen. Cup ramen is ramen that is packaged in the paper cup container and can be cooked by pouring water. According to the instruction on the container of cup ramen, we are supposed to wait at least for 3~4 minutes, but I usually was impatient and ate just 2 minutes after pouring hot water. Amazingly, 2 minutes seem to be long enough for cooking. Ramens are also Korea's representative foods that can be found in the menu of small eateries and snack bars. They are usually made with noodles, soup, and various additional ingredients. Common additional ingredients are eggs, onions, and green onions, and rice cakes (eomuks), sausages, and cheese are also added for the purpose of eating more plentifully. At the time of...

  Most of us may be familiar with name “Guinness” that is the most common stout found in Korea. Just few days ago, it was a rainy day, I found out a unique looking beer in the freezer of the convenient store. The can had a peculiar figure printed on it and I immediately recognize this guy, Rasputin which is the name of the stout. I came back home, and I found out some information on this beer by googling. According to explanations, it is a kind of imperial stout. Imperial Stout refers to beer with a higher alcohol content than regular stout (5 to 7%). The alcohol content of this beer is 9%, much higher than even average stouts. I had drunk from the can and didn’t pour it in the glass like drinking Guinness thus I was not sure it is right method to enjoy it to its fullest. The taste is much stronger with long lasting bitterness toward finish. I felt as if I were drinking americano or some strong coffee. It was good match with typical commonplace Korean delivery food such as frie...