Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Jjimagi in Seongnam, South Korea

Jjim

Some time ago, I asked our local Korea team about some kind of steamed seafood towers that were getting increasingly popular in Singapore and were suspiciously billed as Korean. They were puzzled though, as they had never seen something like that in Seoul. Upon doing some research, they found that you could go out to Incheon to get it, but even then, it wasn't that popular.

Later on, they heard about this place serving steamed shellfish (53-3 Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, 31-711-0663). Instead of tiered cylindrical towers though, they threw everything into a custom-made rectangular thing together with stock at the bottom. That made for a nice savory broth that eventually got mixed with noodles, quail eggs, and fried shallot dumplings. On top were a wide variety of shellfish including clams, mussels, scallop, abalone, and shrimp, all with a blue plastic pail on the floor for you to toss the shells into. The taste was naturally light, but the food could also be dipped into soy sauce or even a quasi-cocktail sauce by mixing their sweet red sauce with fake wasabi powder. Or you could use that melted cup of mozzarella cheese in the center for a fondue of sorts.

Oh, and part of the banchan tonight featured silkworms, something that I've been meaning to try for a long time. They weren't gooey like I thought they might be. Instead they were kind of gritty and without any particularly offensive taste. Actually, they tasted a bit like bread. It wasn't anything in particular that I cared for, but hey, it's a source of protein.

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