Food porn from Sunday!
Jaha Son Mandu
Had lunch at Buam-dong’s Jaha Son Mandu, which easily ranks as one of my favorite restaurants in Seoul. As the name would suggest, the house specialty is hand-made mandu, or dumplings. Here we have beef and shiitake mushroom pyeonsu and a very colorful rendition of tteok manduguk.
Sanchon
My wife’s Mongolian friend and her French fiancé were visiting Korea, so we took them out to Sanchon in Insa-dong.
I hadn’t been to Sanchon in over 10 years. It was one of those places my old Lonely Planet* really loved, and for good reason. Run by a rather colorful Buddhist monk and expert on Korean temple food, Sanchon specializes, unsurprisingly, on Korean Buddhist cuisine. It goes without saying the menu (which consists of just two options, “lunch” and “dinner”) is completely vegetarian. The dinner menu consists of 16 different dishes, which you can read (in English) here.
*For the record, I actually like the Lonely Planet. A lot. It was a lifesaver in East Africa, really helpful in China and served me quite well when I first came to Korea. Sure, the Korea guide isn’t much use to me now, but given how long I’ve been here, I’d better know more than what’s in the LP.
One of the things that makes Sanchon perfect if you’re taking out guests on visit to Korea is that in the evening, it hosts performances of Korean traditional music and dance. What you see above is a performance of the Seungmu, or Monk Dance.
Sin Yetchatjip Teahouse
Insa-dong is famous for teahouses, of course. Everyone has their favorite; if I had to choose, I’d probably go with Sin Yetchatjip, which I wrote about here. It’s a cozy little place, and quite atmospheric.
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신 옛찻집? Talk about an oxymoronic name!
Beautiful pics. Making me hungry…
Wow… really nice photography. Just curious what Camera/Lens combinations you used, the clarity in the available light is excellent
신 옛찻집? Talk about an oxymoronic name!
You don’t even know the new old teahouse? How can you be Korean?
Good work. Those reds are really popping and the fleshtones are good.
Yes, some of the photos are nice – but you’re getting into a lot of distortion on the extreme wide-angle end of your lens. I’d guess it’s a 10-15mm ‘fisheye’ type lens on the wide-angle side based on the distortion – it’s definitely a fast lens, or you were very good at catching the dancer during pauses
Yeah, the first time i ate at Sanchon was some 23 years ago, when it was the only eatery of its kind… and the most recent was less than 3 mos ago. A standard, for sure — but awfully expensive now, only for very special events / guests. And now there are more than a few other Buddhist vegetarian restaurants to compete, usually costing less. In my opinion, when they do the music/dance show they blast the recorded music too loud, conversation becomes impossible — it was better when they had a real woman or two playing gayageum or such.
Anyway, it’s still a good experience. Say, has anyone here eaten yet at the new Buddhist Temple restaurant above the Temple-Stay Information Center across from Jogye-sa? I’ve been meaning to check that out…
Great photos again, Robert.
I am strikingly ignorant of the tourist attractions in Seoul. Same with lifelong New Yorkers who have never been on top of the Empire State Building in their lives.
Robert, I say sincerely that you should be writing the LP on Seoul–and every other guidebook on the city and the country, too.
I think LP would appreciate your contribution, especially considering your pics. Just my thought.
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