Cycle 3 – Item 241
2 (Sun) September 2012
Jaengban Jjajang Myeon
3.0
at Dongboseong
-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with W and DJ, CJH + KKH, CSW, YI + JD, LHS + YYH
Historically, the vast majority of Chinese restaurants in Korea could be divided into 2 general categories: (i) the neighborhood joints that conduct most of their business on delivery of cheap noodle-based dishes (e.g., jjajang myeon), and (ii) the ultra-fancy restaurants that cater to special occasions with banquet feasts.
Dongboseung is a Korean-Chinese restaurant. One of those neighborhood joints that conduct most of their business on delivery of cheap noodle-based dishes.
Having lived in the neighborhood for years, we’ve ordered from Dongboseong many times. The food is consistently disappointing, but other places are even worse. Never dined on the premises.
In keeping with my long standing tradition of eating jjajang myeon prior to boarding a plane, I invited friends from my camping crew to a farewell dinner party before my trip to Manila tomorrow.
So, we went to Dongboseong, even though it was rather unusual for a big party like us to drop by on a Sunday evening and order a lot of non-noodle dishes for dine-in service. Surprisingly, fortunately, the dishes were all quite good. We ordered 2 sets, each of which came with a main dish plus a huge platter-style serving of jjajang myeon. When I asked the owner as I was paying whether they do things differently for delivery vs. dine-in, though I wasn’t trying to be facetious, just wondering in earnest if perhaps they had separate kitchens, he didn’t look very amused.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
