Cycle 16 – Item 48
22 (Sat) February 2025
Post 5,527
Amaebi Uni Kajime
3.5
-Samseong, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with the Family
Honmi Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant/pub. Specializes in yakitori and other standard izakaya fare. Chain, currently with 5 locations, though perhaps not a franchise.
In a textbook case of nepotism, DJ started his first official job today (not counting the occasional tutoring gigs) as a part-time sales rep at AllSaints (W was once CEO of the company, still works for them as a consultant). In fairness, the store in Parnas Mall (Coex Mall) has a lot of foreigner customers so they were looking for someone who speaks English.
Afterwards, we picked him up and went out for dinner. The original destination had been Pro Ganjang Gejang (see generally 15.304 Ganjang Gejang), but they were fully booked. Just one block over, Honmi looked promising.
Gamtae (감태) is a type of Korean seaweed – aka Ecklonia cava in Linnaean nomenclature, paddleweed in English, kajime in Japanese. In the Korean method, the leaves are dried, shredded, then pressed together into thin sheets. However, it is not very commonly found in traditional Korean cuisine, sometimes used in place of standard dried laver (e.g., gimbap).
The food was good. Not sure if it’s an existing Japanese dish or the restaurant’s own thing, but the dan saaewoo (sweet shrimp = amaebi) + seonggae al (sea urchin = uni) + gamtae (paddleweed = kajime) combo was my favorite: immaculately fresh ingredients, well-balanced flavors – the nuttiness of the kajime pairing nicelt with the creamy brininess of the uni and sweetness of the shrimp. Everything else that we tried was also fine.
(See all GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See all RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)