Last Korean Supper at La Grillia Italian Restaurant & Dessert Bar

To wrap up my grandiose “food adventure” in Korea, I decided to visit a relatively fancy Italian restaurant, La Grillia, at the Samsung Coex. My guests of honor were those who made my stay in Korea this winter the most memorable (besides my family, obviously): the WingSharer participants! I really wanted to invite all 77 students, but due to financial and feasible concerns, I contacted four boys who live in Seoul (or at least close to Seoul) and with whom I connected the closest.

La Grilia was an especially opportune place for dinner because this was the very restaurant where my involvement with the WingShaeres began last summer. We had our first WingSharers board meeting at La Grillia with Ms. Shim, a Hanwha employee who served as our primary contact person with Hanwha. I suppose I can say that I began and ended the WingSharers 2012 at La Grillia. Aw nostalgia.

The appetizer bread came our quite a while after we ordered. The focaccia bread was slightly warm, but I wished it had been toasted more. The olive oil and the balsamic vinegar had a very strong, sour flavor, which balanced out the lightly seasoned focaccia bread. Top of the bread was brushed with oil.

The waiter brought out my entrée, grilled spaghetti with scallop. This is one of the signature dishes at the restaurant, and indeed it played up to my expectation. The flavor of the light olive oil sauce was enhanced with abundant pieces of roasted garlic and pepper. The broccoli was cooked perfectly, meaning it wasn’t too mushy or hard.

The texture of the pasta was chewy, as were the clams and the scallop. When I bit in to the scallop, all the juices from the sauce oozed into my mouth. Delectable!

Three boys in my company ordered one of each risotto: the creamy risotto, galbi risotto, and seafood risotto. Based on the fact that they all cleaned up the plates, I am guessing the food was delicious. Even though risotto is a simple dish in its presentation, something about the way the restaurant “decorated” the dish was visually attractive.

La Grillia is also famous for its “dessert bar.” With each entrée, you get a dessert chip that you can exchange for two desserts. I couldn’t take a picture of what I had, but I got a tiramisu and vanilla gelato.

The tiramisu had semi-sweet, bitter cocoa powder on top of soft cake dipped in coffee (?) with cream immediately underneath. It was one of the most moist desserts I have ever had! The tiramisu was sadly “bite-size” and I found myself scraping the bottom of the little bowl for more. The milk/white chocolate straw was really cute.

The vanilla gelato wasn’t too sweet or as rich as ice cream—just the way I like it! It was refreshing to have something cold in my mouth after eating warm food all night. The thin almond cookie on top was too buttery for me so I just took a bite and put it aside.

I am glad I got to share delicious food with good company. A great way to end my Winter 2011-12 food adventure in Korea!

Koreanized Thai Food at Saint Augustine

I'm not a fan of Chinese food because its dishes are often deep-fried, greasy, and/or use exorbitant amount of MSG. Although some may argue that Thai food is similar to Chinese food, I disagree because the former has special spice and flavors not found in the latter cuisine.

On Monday I had lunch with another fellow intern from Chosun Ilbo. She was my "partner-in-crime" while scavenging around Seoul for the best shaved ice cafes, so we shared a lot of conversations about food. We went to Saint Augustin, an Asian/Thai cuisine restaurant in Apgu. The restaurant's name certainly doesn't suit its cuisine...

The menu ranged from lunch special and appetizer salad to...

rice and noodle to...

main dishes.

The first dish that came to the table was Yam Wunsen, Thai-styled glass noodle salad. The huge red mussel (it's a female!) on top enhanced the visual presentation of the dish.

The salad had onions, basil, tomatoes, celery, and other vegetables on top. It was mixed in vinegar dressing so the vegetables almost tasted slightly pickled.

Underneath the vegetables was glass noodle. Of all different types of noodles, glass noodle is my least favorite because 1) I don't really like the jerky texture, 2) it's too slimy, and 3) it doesn't have any flavor.

The mussel was warm, so I thought the dish was a warm salad. However, the other components of the dish were all cold.

The Tom Yarn Goong was red, slightly spicy Thai soup with mushroom, shrimp, onions, tomatoes, and basil.

I hated that there were oil drops floating on top. The after-taste of the broth also tasted a bit chalky on my tongue.

The long-awaited king prawn pad thai!

The eyes of the king prawn were so fierce. I could relate to his/her pain while he/she was being cooked...

The bean sprouts and the peanuts were served next to the stir-fried noodle to be mixed by the diners. There was also a side of chili pepper for those who like really savory pad thai.

The noodle was WAY TOO overcooked because it just broke and disappeared in my mouth. Also I couldn't taste that special "Thai" spice in the dish either.

I liked being able to taste different Thai dishes I usually don't eat, but perhaps Thai food tastes a lot better in the U.S. even though Thailand is closer to Korea in distance.

Red Meat is the Best When Rare

Some people are extremely squeamish and are appalled by the idea of eating something raw or rare. I try to be understandable in most cases, but I certainly don't understand how one could prefer well-done red meat to rare red meat. Clearly, the latter tastes much, much more tender and juicy...wow I sound a bit savage right now haha.

I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant in Samchundong. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the place, but it was pretty packed on a week night, so I'm assuming the restaurant is quite famous. Shortly after we made our order, the waiter brought a pot of fire to grill the meat.

The side dishes were very simple: kimchi, pickled garlic, scallions and onions, and bitter leaves. These are all garnishes for the meat, aka the entree.

The waiter placed two large pieces of beef on the grill and let them sit for a while. I was afraid the meat would cook too quickly, but he brought the scissor and began cutting them into bite-sized pieces before they burnt.

Red meat is called "red" for a reason; it's best when eaten slightly rare!

The onions and the baby portebello mushroom grilled perfectly as well. It's amazing how something as spicy and not tasty as an onion when eaten raw tastes so sweet when cooked.

By Korean standard, a meal isn't complete with only meat. I had nangmyun, a cold noodle in beef broth with cucumber and thinly sliced radish.

There was way too much ice, and the broth tasted a bit too sweet. I expected the green noodle to have some special flavor, but it just tasted like any other noodle.

Japanese Curry at the Curry Pot

As I mentioned before, I prefer Japanese curry to Indian curry because the former doesn't include cream. I was walking around the food court debating what I wanted for dinner when I saw a plastic model of a dish called "Sweet pumpkin and seafood/rice cake curry." Ohhh interesting! I walked into the restaurant, Curry Pot, and ordered the dish.

The portions were a lot smaller than I had expected, but it was fine because I wasn't very hungry anyways. The curry was sort of spicy. It had lots of seafood, ranging from mussels to shrimp to squid. The squash was disappoint because it was not sweet, and the rice tasted a bit undercooked. The salad was garnished with weird, artificially pink dressing.

The curry had little chewy rice cake that looked like snowman. The waitress brought extra curry on a bowl that looked like the genie's lamp.

A Vegetarian Meal at the Tofu Village

(apology for the bad photo quality...took them with my phone)

Before you decide to "un-bookmark" this food blog because it hasn't been updated for so long (by my obsessive blogging standard, that is), I would like to appeal to you by saying that I was stuck in Gapyeong for a week in the middle of nowhere with 80 high school students so I had no chance to eat out at a restaurant. I endured cafeteria-style food that served almost all pork entrees. As soon as the conference ended, we ventured out to Seoul and went to a restaurant that specializes in tofu. Yum!

The freshly sliced tofu with scallion kimchi and bean sprouts. The tofu tasted very fresh and it dispersed in my mouth. The scallion kimchi had too much red pepper flakes that I was afraid I would have flakes stuck in my teeth.

We also ordered a seafood scallion pancake. The pancake easily served four people. I think the restaurant made it with too much flour and egg though. When Mom makes it, she mostly uses scallion and other vegetables so it tastes more healthy. She also uses less oil, whereas this pancake was quite greasy.

The soy bean stew, called Chung Gook Jang, is slightly stronger in flavor than the traditional ddenjangjiggae. It's an acquired taste.

Kongbiji is the thickest soy bean stew. It has chunks of tofu/bean curd. Yum!

There were so many tofu-based side dishes and vegetables on the side.

Overall the food tasted fresh and healthy, except maybe for the scallion pancake that was cooked in too much oil.

Starting the Day with a Breakfast Buffet at the Seven Square

Hotel breakfast buffets are the most overrated, pretentious place ever because they provide mediocre, unsubstantial breakfast food at ridiculously exorbitant prices. While staying at the Plaza Hotel on the night before the WingSharers Conference, I dined at the Seven Square buffet on the second floor of the hotel.

Because I woke up at 5:30am, thanks to my jet-legged friend who arrived from LA that night, we decided to just go down to get an early breakfast at 7:30am. The hours are 6:30 to 10 am, and it looked like we were one of the first customers.

We were seated by the window, but couldn't see anything outside because the sun had not risen yet. Right as we sat down, the waiter asked us for coffee or tea. After sipping on my lukewarm earl grey tea, I sought out the buffet bar.

Before taking the picture of the buffet, I customarily asked the waitress if photography was allowed. She asked the chef, and he said as long as I am not disturbing the customers, it should be fine. Since it was early enough, there weren't very many diners. Score!

It was interesting that they had a salad bar at a breakfast buffet. There were seafood salad (but it looked like shrimp was the only sea creature...), olives, tomato and fresh mozzarella, and squash!

The squash was mixed with honey glaze sauce that wasn't too overpowering and topped with pumpkin seeds. I would have been happy with just a platter of these squash. The squash was slightly overcooked--just the way I like it because it is softer to chew that way. Some pieces were way too overcooked to the point they tasted jerky, however.

The overview of the buffet. See how there is only one guest? At first I thought the buffet just wasn't popular, but by the time I left around 8:30, it was much more crowded.

Fresh fruits are very expensive in Korea. Oh, how I wish HUDS would serve something like these in the dining hall! The fruit salad was a mix of semi-sweet kiwi, refreshing Asian pears, and not so special apples. The grapes were so big and fat, while the pineapple was sweet and juicy.

The rice corner...you could make a mini bibimbop with all the vegetables and kimchi. Koreans traditionally eat heavy breakfast to start the day right.

Pastries from a European bakery called Eric Kayser. The paper underneath was stained with excess butter from the pastry. Yikes. I had a bite of that orange mini muffin. It had a hint of pumpkin spice with walnuts. A little too dry for me.

Cereal and oats on top, sugared dry fruits, and nuts & seeds. I really miss having cereal for dinner...haha

Of course I didn't eat the cheese, but I took it for the sake of Mommy because she always has some brie cheese. It also reminded me of ancient Greeks gorging on grapes, wine, and cheese.

Baguette that you can slice from the table.

Different types of sausages and other meat. My friend said they had two types of bacons as well: crispy and tender.

There were pea soup and abalones porridge in the black pot with various toppings on the side. Porridges are sort of like the Korean oatmeal.

The waffles with whipped cream, blueberry jam, and maple syrup. By far one of the worst waffles I have ever had. They were extremely dry, bland, and chalky.

The pancakes were even worse...They were crispy on the outside not from being grilled just now, but from the chalkiness.

I was amazed to see how many different ways one could cook an egg! Steamed beaten eggs on the left, boiled eggs on the right.

Scrambled eggs and poached eggs!

The chef on top cooked not only omelet-to-order, but also rice noodle-to-order. For breakfast???

From left to right are some type of grilled fish that was so dry it tasted like it was grilled for 24 hours, hashed potatoes, bacons, and egg plant gratin that looked very unhealthy. Too heavy, too early!

My first plate included squash (inevitably), fresh fruits, fried rice, poached egg, and abalone porridge. The fried rice had grilled mark from the grill and the tossed sesame seeds added a new twist to the flavor. The egg yolk in the poached egg was half cooked and the creamy yolk helped to make the otherwise dry fried rice somewhat softer. The abalone soup was bland.

The plain yogurt with melons, pineapples, and watermelon. I wished the yogurt was more sour and creamier...where is my Greek yogurt?

Although the pancake and the waffle were horrendous, the French Toast was a delight! It had the fluffiest center that dispersed and melted in your mouth. Also the blueberry sauce on top added moistness to the toast.