Jongno Bindaetteok, Seoul, South Korea

After checking into our Candy Robot room, we had headed over to Gwanghwamun district, starting the evening off at Tosokchon Samgyetang with some ginseng black chicken soup. We then wandered a dozen blocks, looking out for Jongno Bindaetteok; suposedly one of the best Bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes) in town. We walk past a bustling little shop, the big glass window revealing a large flat grill, filled with pancakes, and crates of the cloudy rice wine, makgeolli, on the sidewalk thinking wow this place is awesome but unable to spot a sign wander on looking for our prey.

We have a bit of trouble seeing, or understanding, the street signs, decide to take a walk around the block, and if we can't seem to find Jongno then we would head back to this little place.



Wandering around the back alleys, we find so many interesting little places, it's a Thursday night, and the streets are bustling. We don't seem to find the Bindaetteok place we are looking for, so make our way back to the one that caught our eye in the beginning. There are groups waiting for seats, and what looks like people waiting for take-aways. We poke our head in, and there is a tiny 2 stools at the end of one table where we are ushered over to by one of the ladies on the floor, who asks if we want beer, why yes of course, and then returns moments later with a large bottle of Cass. The Cass is a pale lager, and super-light. This beer is produced by OB brewery, who brews all of their beers with rice, rather then the Western standard of malted barley.



Only another few moments have passed, and the lady then stops again with little plates filled with kimchi. There's an apple kimchi, the pieces of fruit still crisp, and with a nice, spicy coating. Theres a radish & cucumber kimchi, which is sitting in a very light, vinegar pickle, and lastly, an addictive onion, dried chilli & soy sauce.



The lady asks us "haemul ... gogi?" (seafood .. meat) We order 2 x bindaetteok gogi, or crispy golden pancakes made with fresh ground mung beans & meat. We both look around and are amazed at the variety of people that are eating in this little place ... there are young groups of people, individuals all perched around a communal bench, young kids with their parents and men in suits... oh, and 2 giant, blonde foreigners with a DLSR camera sitting on tiny little stools;) We enjoy observing the magic that all takes place on one giant flat top.



Behind the grill stands an older man, constantly feeding the fresh mung beans through a stone-grinder. The guy on the grill is spinning around and ladelling the fresh beans over into the pancake mix as fast as they are being ground...



Once they work through the backlog of orders, 2 gogi are dropped in front of us. They are a beautiful, golden colour, and have just been roughly chopped to allow for easy eating. (The Korean chopsticks are all beautiful - made of stainless steel, that taper to a pointed end with a flat, rectangular handle that is adorned in beautiful decoration.) As cutlery is placed on the table, the lady grabs a single napkin, and lays a spoon and pair of these chopsticks on that. We observe a lot of people using the chopsticks to move food to their spoon, and then from the spoon to their mouth, so follow suit. The first piece of bindaetteok that reaches our mouth, oh wow. Crispy, with little pieces of the fresh mung bean still recognisable, but the ground pieces giving the whole cake a silky texture. There are chunks of marinated meat, spring onions & kimchi. We play around with the different kimchi combinations, with this crispy pancake my favourite are the onions in soy with dried chilli.



Every table surrounding us, are drinking from these green bottles... We decide to move on from beer, and join them in the drinking of makgeolli. A green pet bottle is plonked on the table, with 2 plastic bowls to drink from. This stuff is cloudy, rice wine (similar to a Japanese amazake) that is quite strong. It's best when cold, so we drink it quite fast, although don't manage to finish the whole bottle...



After we pay, we cross the road on our way home... and notice the huge sign! We found the right place in the end, and were so glad we did.



Then we notice the giant bags of vegetables, ready to be turned into pancake filling and of course kimchi. Seoul ♥



Gwanghwamun
Dangju-dong, Jongno-gu
T: +82 2 737 1857
12noon - 2am

Is food worth your life??

Is it?? I only ask because as we were driving down the main street in Chawaeng (not a place you would regualy see us but we were shopping for white clothes for the opening white party of Nikki Beach Samui), we saw this guy doing something interesting on his scooter fooderie, we only saw it as we passed so with a cry of "ohhh whats that?"



We threw on the brakes and chucked a uwie in front of a little oncoming traffic (I'm pretty sure we're not the worst farang drivers they've seen). We pulled up and watched for a minute to see what was going on, this guy was making little rolled pancakes with two types of fillings.



First the a little batter was poured onto the hotplate the fillings added, the first filling was whats commonly called funny sausage in Thailand, like a small frankfurter.



but it was the second filling that caught out eye as the batter set a quials egg was cracked over the pancake then it was topped with a little chicken mince, white pepper and soy before being rolled.



Yes please six of those all for the bargin price of eighteen baht.  Super sweet.  With pancakes in hand it was back onto the scooter for a snack on the go.



Was it worth stopping traffic? oh yeah, the batter was a little sweet the inside salty and peppery. What a great snack I wish we had got a few more, thats the proble with the moblie fooderies you never see them again.

Okonomiyaki Ju, Niseko

Tonight another inside tip has sent us off in search of our first okonomiyaki restaurant, one where okonomiyayi is the star of the restaurant, not just one item in in a list on many on a food court menu. We love a good yaki and many a time have whipped one up at home from my step mom Akiko's recipe, and we loved hearing about the restaurants in Japan that served this dish and nothing else with all sorts of great toppings. Okonomiyaki ju has the goods apparently, the owners are from Osaka, the spiritual home of the okonomiyaki, so it's a genuine piece that we're going to try tonight. Located at turn off to Hirafu from Niseko it's kinda all by it's lonesome out here, but this doesn't seem to have slowed business, there is only a few tables spare when we arrive. Leaving our shoes in the rack and having a good laugh at trying to fit into the inside slippers (you think there'd be one pair of size 12 slippers somewhere in Japan) we plonk down at a table. The table has a flat grill in the center to keep the goodies warm and set with essential okonomiyaki tools ....



There's an English version of the menu so no pantomime tonight, we are both immediately drawn to the beef tendon and kim chii combination so we know that's going to feature soon in our future... the other we go for is the thinly sliced pork belly, but now we're face with another choice the standard okinomiyaki base or a negiyaki, a thinner base topped with spring onion, lemon and tempura flakes or nariyaki, a thin base with garlic chive, lemon and tempura flakes. Decisions decisions... in the end we go for the beef tendon on the negiyaki and the pork belly on the okonomiyaki. The order travels not far, in fact only two meters away to three huge flat grills where the magic is performed..



Sitting on one corner slowly bubbling away all night is a pot of the beef tendon, mmm!



We watch as the okonomi is the first to go on the batter then the pork, along side the negi batter is poured topped with the tendon and kim chii then a mountain of spring onion, pickled ginger and the tempura flakes, these are then left to cook as we sit and squirm in hunger with the delicious wafting around and our food with in touching distance.



As soon as the okonomi and negi are half cooked, they're flipped onto their sides.... when they're just about done, an egg is cracked onto the grill, and the okonomi flipped over onto that.. as this is done our table grill is turned on to warm for the arrival of the treats. Another short squirm later and they are flipped. The okonomi is topped with Japanese Worcester sauce, aonori, kewpie and bonito shavings so fine the dance and wave in the heat given off from the okonomi with the still soft egg sitting below... negi is topped with a slice of lemon and then both are brought to the table and placed on the grill. I was concerned that they might over cook on the grill but after the first bite there was no concern that they would be around long enough for that to happen. The negi is the first tried, the tempura flakes have been cooked in to a crispy golden crust covering the negi, the tendons are melt in the mouth and the kim chii is not so strong that it overpowers but just lets you know it's there, good times!



The okonomi is a beast of a completely different kind, with its thick batter, Worcester and mayo, it's so rich and so savoury, filling your mouth umami.



We seem to enter a fugue state, all the conversation ends and only the need to consume another mouthful exists, all to quickly we finished, really we should have known we were full but there was the possibility we were still hungry so we opted to find out by ordering a mix okonomi, this comes with pork, prawn and squid. It's just as delicious as the first two, but it is only a few bites in when we realise in fact we are full....really full! Seems sad to leave something so delicious uneaten so we give it our best shot.



All done and ready to explode we leave already making plans for our next visit, what flavors and styles to try. You know it's good when your can't eat any more yet you're already planning to....



Okonomiyaki Ju
263 Soga, Niseko
Hokkaido, Japan
Tel: 0136-44-2336
Open 4:30pm - 10pm Weekdays
12noon - 10pm Weekends & Public Holidays
Closed Wednesday and every 3rd Tuesday

Akiko's Okonomiyaki Recipe

[[ Okonomiyaki ]] serves 4 - 5
1. standard flour 250g
2. water 500cc
3. 1 egg
4. salt & pepper
5. cabbage 300g or more ; shredded
6. 1 or 2 spring onion ; sliced
7. Japanese seasoning sauce (such as Bulldog Chuno, Otafuku)
8. Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)

mix 1 - 4 and add 5 & 6.
Those are the basic ingredients. Add some meat, sausages, ham, shrimps, surimi, squid, whatever you like for flavor 'cause "okonomi" means "as you like".

Heat a little oil in frying pan and pour all of the mixture in (my style) or serving size for one person (okonomiyaki shop style), and reduce heat. When the edge sets and the surface becomes slightly dry, turn. When cooked throughoutly, spread 7. and sprinkle 8.

# tips #
shop style - add Tenkasu (little lumps of batter floating in the oil after
you fry Tempura) in the mixture.
mix Beni-shoga (red pickled ginger)
sprinkle Ao-nori (green Nori flakes) on top with 8.

Japanese mayonnaise (such as QP) goes well with okonomiyaki, chili can be
added.
The Watsons put the mixture of [tomato sauce + Japanese mayonnaise +
Worcester sauce] on top.
Lettuce is OK instead of cabbage, different texture.