Cycle 15 – Item 74
19 (Tue) March 2024
Xiaolongbao
1.5
-Sinjeong, Yangcheon, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
solo
Lingongzi is Korean-Chinese restaurant. Offers the standards, plus a few dimsum items.
I’d renewed my F4 visa last August, assuming that it would be extended 2 years. But this February, the national health insurance agency informed me that my coverage would soon be lapsing because my visa was set to expire – turns out that my US passport was expiring in mid-February – I rarely travel these days, rendering me totally oblivious to the passport expiration date – so the visa extension in August was only until then. Took another month for the US passport renewal to come through. And so, I was back at the immigration office today.
The plan had been to eat at my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood (see most recently 14.216 Kal Manu Guk), but I was disappointed to discover that it closes on Tuesdays.
I walked around until coming across Lingongzi, which seemed vaguely promising. For starters, the name sounded somewhat Chinese. Photos on the outer signage showed cooks making dumplings, as confirmed by the on-line menu. Then, I saw 2 people speaking Chinese emerge from the restaurant – with so many Chinese immigrants in Korea, many processing their paperwork at the Seoul Immigration Office, I thought maybe Lingongzi is where they go to eat.
Meh. The noodles were okay but too spicy. The hargao appeared to have come out of a frozen package. Whereas xiaolongbao is a type of baozi, the skins are traditionally so thin that they seem closer to jiaoji – but here, the xiaolongbao were outright puffy, and no internal soup at all, making them more mini pork buns. Not a great meal but fun in the anticipation leading up to it.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)