Fancy odeng

DINNER at this just-behind-Shinsegae haunt has become our Friday night favourite.

There’s two feelings I particular love in Korea: one is riding my bike home from work on a hot Summer evening and the other is eating and drinking at this lovely little restaurant at the end of a week.

Or the night before a public holiday, as we did last night.
I think we’ve become the token western customers for this tiny little place - located in a restaurant square behind Shinsegae department store - which is always packed with groups drinking soju over enormous bubbling pots of soup and jjigae.

And while we’re always given a few minutes to peruse the menu and munch sugared peanuts between mouthfuls of soothing broth, we already know what we’ve come for and that is – without fail - the kimchi tofu.
Last night, though, we returned with another dish in mind to try – as well as kimchi dubu, of course.

On previous visits we’d spotted what looked like odeng sticks – processed fish – soaking in a brothy soup with vegetable bits and pieces.
It actually looked quite spectacular with the wooden sticks fanning out, requiring no cutlery, and seemed like the ideal drinking companion.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We ordered the wrong dish, as is always the risk when you don’t speak the local language, but what we got was worth the trade-off.
All different sorts and slices of odeng swam in a broth beside slivers of onion, raddish, mushrooms, nori and green leafy vegetables.
Little dumpling parcels were a pleasant surprise: soft bread-like pillows were stuffed with ground meat and herbs and tied with a wiry vegetable stalk.
It was a fancy odeng, with everything working together to lift it from streetside snack to restaurant status.

All together it was a delicious meal, best eaten on a night when work is the last thing on your mind and you have four weeks until you begin seven months of travelling.