Cycle 1 – Item 94

9 (Fri) April 2010

Cucumber Yangjangpi

2.0

at Hong Bok

-Yeonnam, Mapo, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with MtG

A 3rd foray into the curious culinary quarter of Yeonnam-Dong (연남동), where a handful of restaurants dare to defy custom by refusing to serve jjajang myeon and instead offering dishes in the Taiwanese style that bear little or no resemblance to standard Korean-Chinese fare. The jury is still out as to whether it’s any good. And because of my unfamiliarity with this type of cuisine, whether it’s actually Taiwanese or something else entirely, I’m stumbling my way through the menus, more or less picking dishes at random based on the primary ingredient.

Take this dish, for example. At mainstream Chinese restaurants, one of my favorite items is yangjangpi. Seeing “cucumber yangjangpi” on the menu here, I was intrigued. When I asked what it is was exactly, she replied, “Exactly what it sounds like.” Intrigued even more, we ordered it without further question. It turned out to be exactly what it sounds like.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)