Cycle 4 – Item 17

22 (Tue) January 2013

Seafood Yakisoba

1.5

at Odeng & Sake

-Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with LHS

The yakisoba took me by surprise.  It started off pretty good: well-seasoned in a combination of soy + oyster + worcestershire sauce, packed with shrimp + clam + squid, topped with katsuobushi flakes.  But soon enough, an insidious undercurrent of spice/heat quickly rose to the surface and completely overwhelmed everything else, leaving me uncomfortable for hours thereafter.  Traditionally, yakisoba is not a spicy/hot dish, certainly not this spicy/hot, and certainly not by way of components like pickled jalapeños, which also added an occasional odd sour note.  While I understand that the food here isn’t intended to be strictly authentic, I was expecting excellence based on the other dishes that I’ve had here.  Oh well.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)