When I came to Korea last summer, Mom and I went to a unique restaurant in downtown Seoul that served temple food. There, I ate glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf, and it had such unforgettable scent that I had to try it again. I searched for a restaurant that serves the same dish in Andong, and found out about Andong Hwarhyun, or "Andong Lotus Flower."
You don't understand how excited I was to see the sign directing us to the restaurant, which was located in a very secluded area. Even though the actual distance was only about 18km, it took us about 30 minutes to get there because the road was windy and we came out the wrong exit twice on our way haha.
I loved the exterior of the restaurant. It looked like a residential house that I could see myself being the owner in the future ;)
Because we called in a couple hours before to make a reservation, the table was already set by the time we got there. I liked the simple white table cloth with sturdy china. The lotus leaf tea tasted soothing as well.
Mom already chose the "Lotus Flower Course Meal" (~$20/person) for the two of us. I wanted to check out other items on the menu, but it looked like the course meal was pretty much the only menu it offered.
While waiting for the food to come out, I took some pictures of the interior, which looked very homey. There were lots of traditional china and pots stacked together.
The course meal started with black sesame seed soup/porridge.
It was perhaps the richest and one of the thickest porridge ever. There were bits and pieces of lotus root, rice, and pine nuts. The porridge tasted a bit too creamy even without any cream because it was so thick!
Next course was called "Goo Jul Pan," or 9-separate dishes. It was served with sweet vinegar sauce on the side.
Basically you put all eight different vegetables (in this case, two different types of mushroom, carrots, egg whites, egg yolk, cucumber, egg plant, and radish all sliced into beautiful thin pieces) on the thin, chewy flour pancake dyed with all-natural pink dye.
You dab a little bit of the vinegar sauce, wrap the pancake, and put it in your mouth! It tasted so healthy and fresh.
When we were half way through the dish, the waitress brought us our next course. She explained to us what each dish was and how it was made.
Look at those beautiful color! It's bell pepper and other greens wrapped in pickled radish. It tasted a bit bland, to be honest.
This tofu roll was apparently made with chopped chicken breast. I would have never guessed it had any chicken in the dish because it just tasted like regular tofu. I liked the mushy texture.
The never-ending healthy dish course continued with fresh salad in dressing that tasted alcoholic and fried chicken infused with lotus leaf.
Because of my strict diet on no-fried-food, I didn't taste the chicken. Contrary to what it looks like, the sauce wasn't spicy at all.
I loved, loved, loved the fresh salad! I was glad to see that it wasn't made with iceberg lettuce.
I wasn't quite sure what the dressing was, but it seemed to have had some kind of alcohol/fermented drink.
As I mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of the glass noodle. However, the flavor and the seasoning in this japchae was spectacular! Perhaps it was a bit salty, but I loved the diverse combination of the vegetables with the noodle.
Two different kinds of Korean pancakes/jeon. The one on the top was lotus root with eggs on the outside, and the red one is made with diced tofu and kimchi. The lotus root jeon tasted too much like egg, but the kimchi/tofu jeon had strong, spicy flavors from the kimchi with soft, mushy texture of tofu.
The split mackerel steamed in lotus leaf with spicy pepper sauce on top. The mackerel had a very strong fishy taste and the slimy scale on the outside freaked me out a bit.
The white kimchi with apple slices on the outside. It was interesting to get a taste of sweet apple/fruity taste with kimchi, which is always served as a savory dish.
And finally the dish I have all been waiting for...glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf! Unfortunately, I was really full from all the previous dishes. Mom and I decided to share just one of them.
Tada! The rice revealed.
As soon as I sniffed the rice, I could smell the strong scent from the lotus leaf. It had a thinly sliced piece of lotus root on top, as well as some brown beans, almonds, walnuts, and other nuts. The glutinous rice was chewy especially on the surface. The rice tasted great even without other side dishes.
The whole table with vegetables, kimchi, pickled radish, and really spicy bean stew.
The course meal ended with Korean dessert. Clockwise from top are three pieces of grilled glutinous rice cake drizzled with honey, two pieces of apple, and cherries, ginger, and lotus root overly sweetened with sugar.
I really loved the rice cake because it had the perfect combination of chewiness and sweetness.
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