Costco Pizza

Costco pizza (imo) is the best pizza that money can buy in Korea, which as a pizza-lover, I find to be pretty sad, but this is the harsh reality of living in a country that regularly puts corn and sweet potato puree on pizzas.  Everything about this pizza is where it needs to be.  It tastes like what pizza should taste like.

2500(!)

I’ve actually never been to Costco back at home, but people have said the pies taste pretty much the same here as it does back there.  If I wanted to be a bit more judgmental I could say that the pizza is a bit generic and soulless.  However, I can’t really complain too much seeing how it only costs 2500 a slice.  I would easily pay 5000 a slice and it would still be totally worth it.

Jongno Bindaeddeok (종로 빈대떡)

makgeolli (막걸리) Korean rice wine that predates soju

I really love the drinking culture in Korea.  90% of the time when you’re drinking in Korea, it also means you’ll be eating too and I’m all about that.  They even have a separate word anju (안주) used to describe food that is consumed with alcohol.  It’s also interesting to note that there are specific anjus depending on what you drink (kinda like wine pairing).  With beer it’s mostly sausage, chicken, and deep-fried finger foods, with soju it’s bbq, fish, and soup/stews, and with makgeolli/dongdongju it’s all about pancakes.

pajeon (파전) green onion pancake

There’s this little hole-in-the-wall place near work that makes some delicious Korean pancakes or jeon (전).  I think it might be a chain as I’ve been to the original Jongno Bindaeddeok place in Jongno (before they closed it down), but I don’t remember the menu being as extensive as this place.  Almost every menu item has the word bindaeddeok or jeon attached to the end of it.  They also got this big griddle in front of the window to entice passersby.

seafood kimchi mungbean pancake (해물김치 빈대떡)

We got three different types of pancakes when we were here.  What I like about the pancakes here is that they’re nice and crisp.  The first one we ordered was the seafood kimchi bindaeddeok (해물김치 빈대떡) and it was probably my favorite of the bunch.  I’ve had kimchi jeon plenty of times but this was my first time eating kimchi bindaeddeok.  Because the pancake was made from mungbeans (녹두) there was a bit more texture than a regular jeon made from mostly flour and eggs.

Bone Hangover Soup (뼈해장국)

There are several types of haejangguk (해장국) or hangover-remedy soups in Korea.  After bean sprout soup, this is probably my next favorite kind.  It’s called bbyuh (뼈 = bone) haejangguk because it’s got a bunch of pork spine in the soup, which is not as weird as it sounds because it’s basically the same thing as pork ribs.  If you’ve ever had gamjatang, it’s like that but minus the potatoes.

5,000

What’s interesting about this dish is that it’s a soup that you eat with your hands.  If you were to attempt to eat this dish with just utensils, it would be a huge pain in the ass.  You gotta get your hands dirty a bit when you’re ripping apart those chunks of bone to get to that tender and delicious meat.  I also really dig the wasabi dipping sauce they give you on the side.

The beef-based broth is also great.  It’s meaty, greasy, and has a little bit of a kick to it. After I finish picking out all the bones and eating the meat, I just dump the rice right in the soup and start eating it like a bowl of cereal.  It really does help soothe the stomach after a night of drinking.  It’s also great for cold winter days.

Soho (소호)

Soho is a pretty decent bbq joint around my way.  We’ve eaten there a couple times for the bbq and sometimes for the lunch menu.  Recently they added something new to the lunch menu: dalk kalguksu (닭칼국수) or Korean-style chicken noodle soup.  I was eager to try this out as the majority of the kalguksu I see in Korea comes in a clam (바지락) based broth.

dipping sauce

The full name of the dish is 닭한마리 칼국수.  닭한마리 meaning that one whole bird is used in the dish.  From start to finish, this meal did not disappoint.  The chicken was a full-sized bird, unlike the small ones you get in samgyetang.  You dip it in the sweet and tangy soy sauce.  Also unlike samgyetang, the broth was seasoned perfectly.  It was delicious and it really warmed my bones.

noodles

The noodles are served on the side shabu shabu-style.  Some of the noodles are orange and some are green.  I’m assuming they used carrots and spinach or something like that in the dough.  After all the noodles and the chicken have been eaten, you can order the juk(죽) or rice gruel.  The rice came out with a bunch of diced veggies and raw eggs and it was cooked in the chicken broth.  The end result was a creamy and delicious chicken-flavored porridge that really rounded out the meal nicely.

죽

Sbarro

Sbarro is an American pizza chain often found in shopping mall food courts.  When I was younger and didn’t know any better, I used to eat this stuff all the time.  Even though I knew it wouldn’t be that good, I was in Coex and I was feeling nostalgic, so I gave it another try for old time’s sake.
So we got the chicken stuffed pizza and the supreme.  I made the mistake of getting the red sauce dumped on the pizza rather than getting it on the side.  Then my friend went a bit overboard with the parmesan powder.  The stuffed pie ended up being way too salty.  The supreme was also a bit subpar.

"The best premium pizza chosen by New Yorkers" I seriously doubt that

Even though I wouldn’t really recommend this place, I’ll still probably end up eating here every now and then.  To my knowledge, Sbarro has only one location and it’s in the Coex Mall food court.  Other than Costco’s it’s the only place I know in Korea where I can get East coast-style pizza-by-the-slice (seriously, if anybody else knows a good place PLEASE let me know).