10.357
28 (Fri) December 2019
Special Tuna Sashimi
4.0
at Yeon
-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Korea-
with the Family
Happy Birthday to Me (47) (see also MY BIRTHDAYS)
I was awakened this morning by a delivery. Frozen lobster, which my mother had purchased through a home-shopping channel. For a fleeting moment, I felt like the luckiest birthday boy in the world. “Oh no, they’re for your father,” my mother would later explain.
2020 Winter Holiday in Korea, Day 5.
- Day 1 (10.353 Vegetable Rice Bowl)
- Day 2 (10.354 Roast Lobster with Cheese)
- Day 3 (10.355 Laeng Myeon)
- Day 4 (10.356 Haemul Jjim)
Yeon is a Japanese restaurant. Specializes in tuna (chamchi) sashimi (hoe), served in the Korean tradition as part of a full-course/all-u-can-eat meal with various side dishes (see for example 2.015 Tuna Sashimi). Recently opened in Oksu.
We invited my parents to join us. They declined – “We’re not really in the mood for tuna.”
The menu offered 4 options:
- Economy: KRW 28,000 per person
- Top Quality: KRW 38,000 per person
- Special: KRW 55,000 per person
- Royal Special: KRW 75,000 per person
Typically, the only difference is in the types of tuna provided.
We ordered the Special for 3 persons.
The food was excellent.
All the cuts of tuna – different amounts of fat, different flavors, different textures – were each exquisite in their own way.
The service included an aggressive overload of sides, which were quite nice per se and would otherwise be welcome, but they took up space that could be filled with more tuna.
By the time we got our second helping of tuna, which came in one huge portion, we were already stuffed and didn’t enjoy it much.
What a fine meal – felt like the luckiest birthday boy in the world.
Concerning the lobster, I had an eerily similar experience over the winter break when I went back to visit my family. I was shocked when I saw lobsters in the fridge – but alas, they were not meant to celebrate my homecoming, but were instead bought to impress my childhood friend from China who was also visiting (my mother had completely neglected to mention this, assuming that we’d get along splendidly just as we did when we were 3 years old).
Similar indeed. However, I should point out that my mother always looks out for my father first, with me to pick up the scraps.
Also, I’m curious as to what is the anatomical identity of that unique fan-shaped cut of tuna with the thick striations of fat. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it before.
It all looks delicious. I’m unbelievably jealous.
You know, I’ve never bothered to ask about that cut, though it is quite distinctive, now that you mention it. As photoed, I love wrapping it with sprouts and dried laver, then dipping it in sesame oil – so unbearably good, maybe even better than toro.