Cycle 3 – Item 246
7 (Fri) September 2012
Tomato + Cucumber Jeon
2.0
at Hannam Bugeot Guk
-Hannam, Yongsan, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with W and DJ, Dad
Hannam Bugeot Guk is a Korean restaurant. On old-school establishment that’s been popular with locals long before the area became a food mecca. Their namesake specialty is bugeo guk (the alternative spelling of “bugeot” in homage to an archaic regional difference in pronunciation). Other house favorites include various jeon. The place is always packed, especially later at night when the dinner crowd makes way for the drinkers, who order the pancakes to accompany mageolli and then the soup as a hangover preventative.
Based on tonight’s first visit, I’m not quite sure what the fuss is all about.
The jeon featured for this post were unusual for their central ingredients. Technically, while jeon can be made with any thinly sliced vegetable or meat, I’ve never seen it done with tomatoes or cucumbers. The tomatoes were unpleasantly mushy. But the cucumbers retained their crisp, while maintaining a delicately sweet flavor, both balancing well against the egg coating. Not too bad overall, but not that good. 10,000 won for the plate.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
