Cycle 14 – Item 232
25 (Fri) July 2023
Chicken, Cordycep Flower & Mushroom
1.5
at TimHoWan
-Samseong, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
solo
PopCon is a pop culture convention. It started back in 2017 as the Korean incarnation of ComicCon, which was cancelled in 2020-2021 due to the pandemic, then rebooted in 2022 under different management as the newly branded PopCon.
During the ComicCon days, our company had one of the busiest booths with a wide-ranging selection of books on movies, television, comics, and gaming, as well as music, fashion, food, and lifestyle.
Last year, however, we noticed that the surrounding booths were primarily dedicated to (Japanese) characters and cosplay (mainly relating to gaming), rather than broader forms of mainstream pop culture, so the attendees tended to be younger males, not much interest in books.
We had opted not to set-up this year, but they offered us a free space (last minute cancellation), so here we are. The event runs today through Sunday.
A bad sign, the event used to be held in the massive Hall A on the first floor of the Coex Center, but this year it’s in the small Hall C on the third floor – an even then, only about 75% of the floor space appears to be occupied.
Indeed, by the end of Day 1, we broke an all-time record for worst sales at any event that we’ve done at Coex.
Afterwards, I went across the street to have dinner at TimHoWan.
Cordyceps is a fungus. Commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine and sometimes cuisine for its supposed healing properties, now gaining popularity in the west (see for example Cordyceps Mushrooms: A Superfood?).
DID YOU KNOW: The cordyceps is a parasite that typically attacks insects, invading the host’s body and growing outwards, eventually sprouting through the head – i.e., as a “flower.” As such, cordyceps has featured in various science-fiction/horror works, mutating to affect humans, including the zombie apocalypse video game now television program The Last of Us (apparently, modern audiences need a scientific basis for zombies – see also World War Z).
I had no idea at the time of ordering, just exploring more of the menu. If anything, I was anticipating that the Linnaean taxonomic nomenclature of the dish would be fun to write about (see also 10.272 Griddle-Cooked Pleurotus Eryngii, 8.290 Pleurogrammus Aonus, 4.019 Cirsium Setidens Stone Pot Rice). But how very apropos in light of PopCon.
The dish was kinda weird. The chicken was soft and squishy, likely having been treated with a tenderizer. The whole shiitake mushroom was awkward to eat. The cordyceps didn’t really taste like much, just stringy in texture. Overall, the flavors were classically Cantonese, very simple, but to the point of blandness. As yet, I haven’t sprouted flowers out of my head.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)