Some eateries

Seoul is, of course, full of places to eat. There are many nook-like diners along the side streets. As one might guess would be the case in any cosmopolitan city, US franchises have invaded. There were lots of examples; because our friend Dan is a regular in the store in C’ville, one of the invaders we were tickled to see was Smoothy King (note the no parking sign in front of the car that parked in front of the shop just as I took the photo).

However, we spent our meal times at various other places. Here’s a little run-down, in chronological order, on some of the places where we ate.

1. Sanchon—Billed as featuring “Korean Temple Cooking,” Sanchon provides more than food. The dishes were, indeed, like those we had at a very nice place in Changwon that also featured temple cooking: fixed-menu vegetarian food with an extensive array of tiny dishes. Beyond the food, there’s a floor show of 7-8 acts that starts with the owner (we guessed) banging a gong and progresses through a series of traditional dances. Located in the Insa-dong area of Seoul, Sanchon is at the end of a twisty alley that barely shows on the tourist maps; we found it by something akin to dead reckoning (and my faltering recognition of Hangul); the business card includes a map, but the Web site navigation didn’t allow me to find one there. Our waitron was a young man who was very friendly and helpful. For other notes and more details, see (a) the Sanchon Web site; (b) Jason Truesdell’s entry (lots of photos); (c) Rob Kellerman’s entry; (d) an entry by Soon-Young (Peace of Rice); and (e) Christina’s review for Zofona.
2. Cafe Florentine—For a late breakfast, we had tea, coffee, fruit-juice blend, and breads at Cafe Florentine (if I’m remembering correctly; maybe “Cafe Florence?”). It’s a tiny place (room for ~12 to sit inside, packed tightly) that has a window onto the street behind the Dongwha building, just a few meters north of the Koreana Hotel. The food wasn’t particularly special, but the proprietresses were playing nifty tunes. Pat recognized a song by Eva Cassidy and asked; the proprietresses quickly grabbed the CD to show it to us and we chatted (they spoke some pretty good English) about those songs and other music they had (a very eclectic collection).
3. Unknown Hole-in-the-Wall Place—For lunch Thursday, we walked along the north side of Namdeamun Market past about 40-11 camera shops and stopped in a little place that had room for fewer than 20 seats. We asked (by pointing to a phrase in a tour book) if the place served vegetarian dishes and the waitron said, “Ne.” She showed us a few dishes, we ordered, and had a very good meal. In addiiton to the usual spread of little apetizer dishes (yes, including kimchee), there was (a) a bowl of large noodles (kalguksu) with a few small shellfish that had a very tasty broth and wasn’t spicy and (b) a seafood soup (bugeoguk?) with vegetables and spices. The total bill was less than $10! Very nice folks; the cooks came out of the kitchen and visited with us, conversing by pointing at foods and at the corresponding names for them in our guide book.
4. Mezzaluna—Two floors below the Seoul Finance Center, Mezzaluna is a Korean take on Italian food. It has white table clothes, cloth napkins, and western utensils. Pat wondered if the fruit in the fruit salad was canned. A mozarella pizza had its advertised thin crust and lots of cheese with leaves of basil neatly arranged on each slice. The zuppa del dia was billed as brocoli cream, but it included chicken. The grilled salmon came with a half dozen pieces of different vegetables, all covered in a light cream sauce.