It’s definitely true that Korea has one of the great cuisines of the world and, for us personally, French, Japanese and Korean top the list. Of course, they have adopted some of the typical western-style dishes, but they still have wonderful dishes and styles that are unique to that country.
Over the years, we’ve had many amazing meal experiences in Korea, and it was true of our last trip too.
As I mentioned earlier, we were staying at the Hoam Guest House on the SNU campus before, and after, moving to Pyeongchang for the JRS symposium. We had many of our meals in the Guest House dining room—always breakfast, once for lunch, with the group, and a couple of times for dinner. But, often for dinner our hosts would take us out, as they were very eager to showcase Korean meals and dishes for us. And we were willing participants!
One such memorable meal was to a Korean-style beef house, called Kyungbokkung. It’s supposedly named after the huge and beautiful Gyeongbokgung, the “Palace of Shining Happiness”, completed in 1394 by Taejo, the first king of the Joseon Dynasty. It’s regarded as the #1 palace complex in Seoul, so this restaurant presumably wishes to be regarded very highly in the restaurant world too!
Our host, Myunggi Baek, took Rod and I, and Anne and Chris McSweeney (he was another of the invited speakers) to Kyungbokgung, which is within easy driving distance of Hoam Guest House. It’s on the top floor of a building, and has a series of private rooms leading off corridors.
The room we were in had a long table with two burners that are used to cook the special beef. But, the meal was so much more than beef. As is usual for Korean meals, we started with a bowl of soup each, and there were many small side dishes—kimchi, pickles, rice, sauces. A salad plate arrived, and then two amazing plates of sashimi, real works of art, as they were decorated with genuine plants and the raw fish was wreathed in an icy mist (from liquid nitrogen). The beef was a huge slab of meat, beautifully cooked by our server on the center grills, and carefully cut with a pair of large scissors. We’ve seen this cutting of cooking meat with scissors before, and it seems like a really sensible idea to us. The final plate was a whole highly salted, fried fish (I don’t remember the name, unfortunately).
We feel very honored to have been treated to such a special meal.
Experiences in Korea and Japan 