The freezing winter is almost behind us and, yellow dust permitting, we should be able to explore this glorious city of ours anew any day now. If you’re looking for something a little different, something authentically Korean, or simply something damn good, we might be able to help. These five places showcase the best and the bizarre of Daegu, something for the connoisseurs, something for the crazies. Enjoy.
◆ Hongeo that Melt into Gayageum Melody – 잔치집홍어 (Hongeo Banquet Restaurant) (053-768-6114)
We’ll start with the crazies. Hongeo. Mmm, Hongeo. Fermented skate to us. Not a dish you’ll find in many places due to the skate’s unusual urinary habits. They forgo the passé bladder and kidney route and instead get rid of their ammonic waste through their skin, infusing their meat with the smell of Who’s Bob toilets at 4am. If you’re thinking that maybe the fermentation process somehow lessens the aromas, that surely no one would eat a fish that smells like urine, you’d be very wrong. It stinks.
The dish hails from Jeolla-do, a strange and unruly land, we must imagine, and that is where the restaurant’s owner, Lee Gyeongsook, learned her trade. Hongeo Samhap is the most common way to eat it, wrapping the skate in lettuce and adding kimchi and pork to mix in a futile attempt to hide the smell of wee. Connoisseurs of the dish suggest breathing as little as possible while you eat it, but this is an impractical method. It’s ultimately a dish for hardy old men, eaten to prove their manhood, and not for the taste.
To oust the taste and burn away shameful memories the dish will leave they provide accompanying Jeolla-do liquor, Hongju, which at 50% alcohol should cleanse your palette, at least. Other dishes they provide (though be aware that the stench from the skate permeates the atmosphere completely) include byeongeo jorim, known as “summer medicine”, a dish of sliced radishes, spring onions, pine mushrooms, water celeries, enokitake mushrooms, and loads of other vegetables that could well be an essential vitamin blast as your system tries to comprehend why you’ve forced so much waste product into it. Maesaegiguk, a soup made from seaweed and cockles, is another Jeolla-do specialty on offer here.
Unsurprisingly, the owner has her idiosyncrasies. As the Hongju is savored and the urine fish
struggled with, she may well begin to strum her gayageum, and the crowd start up that old classic: “Sarang sarang nae sarang (Love love my love)”. “Saega naradeunda (The bird is flying in)”. She has reason to be cheerful; prices for this delightful meal, designed to be shared between about four, start at 60,000 won.
If you turn right at the first crosswalk of KT direction from Deuran-gil in Suseong-gu, you’ll find the Hongeo Banquet Restaurant down an alley.
◆ The Chicken Noodle Restaurant with No Phone Number and Doorplate
From a tenderly strange lady to two outright mad ones. This is not a restaurant like any other; its ajumma owners do their best to ward off all customers by making the place almost impossible to find, only opening from midday until 2pm, and even if some grand miracle allows you to happen upon it you’ll be treated to a Gaddafi-esque barrage of foul-mouthed vitriol for even the slightest error in seating or manners. They get away with this inimical attitude solely because their chicken noodle soup is so good.
It is very aromatic and very spicy - not one for the faint-hearted, to be sure. The intensity is the work of a slow cooking process, while stuffed cucumber pickles, shredded white radishes, garlic, chili, and spinach ally a wonderful freshness to the richly flavored soup. You can refill your noodles and rice as often as you like, and the price is paradoxically reasonable 6000 won.
The soup is good enough that the place is usually jam-packed with people, and as they only serve one dish, foreigners should not have too much trouble ordering. You will undoubtedly incur the wrath of the women at some point, but try to think of it as their way of showing affection.
To get there, walk from the
◆ The Meeting of Janchi Noodles and Sweet Jjinpang - 철규분식 (Cheolgyu Restaurant) (054-276-3215)
This one requires a trip to Guryongpo in Pohang
The jjinpang is the real highlight of the restaurant, packed with a sweet and flavorsome red bean sauce that makes the 7/11 offerings look decidedly meek. For mere 1000 won you can order a red-bean porridge that provides the perfect accompaniment to the soft, airy buns. The noodles and buns themselves are cheap too, one serving of each totaling just 5000 won.
◆ Mother and Daughter’s Make Young Branded King Sundae - 일경식당 (Ilgyeong Restaurant) (053-753-4778)
This place is out east, near Dongbu Market. They make sundae, the ubiquitous Korean blood sausage, and through painstaking dedication to the traditional process this mother/daughter team have created a real artisan delicacy. Into the pig’s intestines go pork, sesame leaves, mung-beans sprouts, onions, outer leaves, ginger, carrots and other vegetables. Each ingredient is minced individually by hand to ensure that some texture and crunch remains. The King Sundae is simply the sausage wrapped in sesame leaves, whose lively freshness provides the perfect accompaniment to the rich sundae.
The owners are Jo Jeongja (77) and her daughter, Jeon Soonok (52), and both have been making sundae all their lives. Their philosophy is to use quality, fresh ingredients every time and make everything by hand, stating that machines and mechanization lead to bland products. Both women are incredibly passionate about their work, saying that sundae runs in their blood, and both possess an adamant desire to protect the laborious traditional methods. Given the quality of the product prices are very reasonable, with King Sundae at 15,000-20,000 won and sundae gukbab (rice soup) at 7000 won. The passion of these women certainly augers well for the future of Daegu’s sundae aficionados.
◆ The Restaurant with Strong Atmosphere of Country House - 향촌칼국수(Hyangchon Kalguksu) (053-811-0984)
This place is really impressive, its design an obvious labor of love. You enter through a bamboo gate into a garden lined with large dwenjang jars, rice jars, farming tools and all manner of other such bygone paraphernalia. It’s a very escapist place, absolutely a little slice of the countryside nestled in Daegu. Inside the restaurant the theme continues with old paintings, plates and decorations; the ambiance of the old Korea
The specialty is kalguksu, a noodle soup served here without seasoning and with barley rice served in an iron bowl that is, according to the restaurant’s owner Jo Gwangmun, the authentic taste of the countryside. You are free to add as much spicy soybean paste and kimchi as you desire, creating a wonderfully filling and healthy soup. Kongbiji, made from beans, peanuts, black sesame, meat broth and kimchi, is the other must-try dish. It is absolutely exquisite and, when followed by a bowl of cool dongchimi (radish water kimchi), it’s a surefire cure for even the most serious soju hangover. Both soups are cheap enough, at 5000 and 6000 won respectively.
To find the restaurant head from Gyeongsan market towards Namcheon. It is located down an alley to your right just before Gyeongsan Elementary School
Vocabs:
홍어 Hongeo: Skate (Kind of fish)
가야금 Gayageum: Korean zither with twelve strings
병어조림 Byeongeo Jorim: Butter fish boiled in spiced soy sauce
홍주 Hongju: Traditional red liquor
매생이국 Maesaengiguk: seaweed fulvescens
잔치국수 Janchi noodle: Korean banquet noodle soup
찐빵 Jjinpang: Steamed bun with red-bean paste filling
국밥 gukbab: boiled rice served in soup
한옥 Hanok: Korean traditional house
된장 Dwenjang: soybean paste
사랑채 Sarang-chae: the men’s part of a house
풍로 Pungno: a portable cooking stove
칼국수 Kalguksu: chopped noodles
콩비지 Kongbiji: bean-curd dregs
동치미 Dongchimi: radish water kimchi
수제비 Sujebi: clear soup with dumplings
보리밥 Boribab: barley rice
콩국수 Kongguksu: Cold bean-soup noodles
Published May 2011 by InDaegu - page 13.
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