Cycle 12 – Item 173

27 (Sun) June 2021

Pesce

4.0

at Brunch & Osteria

-Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with the Family, MtG

Brunch & Osteria is an Italian restaurant.  Specializes in pasta and pizza, not really brunch or booze as per the name of the place.  Just launched 2 weeks ago.  It is owned and run by my friend MtG.

This is his 3rd F&B venture, following Lilliput (see generally 8.159 Risotto with Soy Sauce Braised Beef) and Second Ground (see generally 5.174 Chinese Spread).

The restaurant is located in Ilsan, a suburb beyond the northwest corner of Seoul, while I live in Wirye, a suburb beyond the southeast corner of Seoul.  By the most direct route, cutting diagonally through the city, the drive is 48 km.  To beat traffic, we took the beltway that loops around the city, which was 20 km longer but 30 minutes faster.

Along the way, by freakish coincidence, we drove past Goyang Aqua Studio, where part of Parasite was filmed (see 12.172 Chapaguri with Hanwoo).  The building is prominently visible from the highway.

The food was excellent.

Some of the dishes are still under development – e.g., delivery of their wood-fired pizza oven has been delayed, so they’re using a gas oven in the meantime, which doesn’t get hot enough to cook the pizza properly.  But the dough is already exquisite.  I look forward to a perfect pie upon installation of the wood-fired oven.

The best item of the evening was a pasta dish called “Pesce.”  It comprised mixed seafood with pasta in a spicy tomato broth.  The seafood included octopus, crab, clams, shrimp, and a mussel – but no fish, even though “pesce = fish” (see also 4.296 Spaghetti Pesce). When pressed about the dish’s origins, the chef just said that he’d learned it at the cooking school he had attended.  It would seem to be something of a hybrid between zupe di pesce (fish soup) and pasta pescatore (fisherman’s pasta).

In any case, it was awesome.  The seafood was immaculately fresh.  The broth was a pitch perfect balance of spicy, salty, sweet, while the soupy texture made it delicate yet powerful – like jjambbong, MtG said.  Even better, the pasta was bronze-pressed spaghettini by the venerable producer Rummo, properly al dente, a touch gritty, the thin noodles ideally matched for the light broth.  DJ and I fought over the dish, reluctantly passing the bowl between each other every other bite, eventually licking it clean – next time, we’ll get 2 orders.  Quite possibly the best pasta dish that I have ever experienced, at least in the history of GMTD.   Bravo.

I am hopeful that the restaurant will be wildly successful.  Good luck!

(See also BOOZE)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)