Cycle 4 – Item 338

9 (Mon) December 2013

Chips & Fish

3.5

at Gastropub

-Pangyo, Bundang, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with KHJ, PHY

Gastropub is a Western-style restaurant chain.

Self-billed as “American dining,” the gastro part of the menu offers a range of generic fare, like fish & chips, pastas, pizzas, burgers.

The pub part includes a pretty decent selection of draft and bottled beers, not a single local brew in sight, thank god.

The fish was well-seasoned, lightly battered/crispy on the outside, chunky/moist within.  Unfortunately, the portion was laughably small, just three puny pieces, each downable in two bites.

As if to compensate for the lack of fish, the chips were plentiful to the point of absurdity; I doubt that any normal person could finish them alone, more than enough for the three of us.  The dish should be called “chips & fish.”  Fortunately, the chips were excellent, shoestring thin, which can be dry/brittle if overcooked or limp/mushy if undercooked, but they were perfectly chewy here, perhaps the best that I’ve ever had in Korea.  Served with tartar sauce, ketchup, and malt vinegar–a rarity here.

Somewhat pricy at 16,000 won for the dish, considering the paucity of poisson, but everything was tasty.

(See also BOOZE)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)