FatManSeoul

The only thing better than eating a delicious wrap filled with tender morsels of snail is getting served the same by swearin’ granny.

Yokjengi Halmoni Jip specializes in a pond snail cuisine. While snails are a big part of international food worldwide, Korea is a hotbed of gastropod eating. There’s several different kinds cultivated and consumed here, but this well-known restaurant keeps it simple by focusing on 우렁이/uleongi/ freshwater pond snails. These twisty, tender bits of mollusk are delivered to your banchan laden table in a piping hot mix of bean paste, vegetables, and spices.

Mix it up, and start wrapping it up in the wide variety of leaves and herbs, or mixing a little in with your rice.

The savory, slightly salty beanpaste works together with the herbal bitterness of the wrap, and nothing beats setting teeth into the small, sweet-fleshed snail. They’re ever-so-slightly chewy, but in a satisfying, toothy way. We do recommend that you stir your snails immediately to help keep them from overcooking, so you can enjoy them at their peak. However, these pond-born babies are small enough that they don’t become an awful, grisly duty to dispatch.

Banchan here are generous, tasty, and are all homemade. The wraps, too, deserve special notice both for their freshness and for their variety. There’s enough different kinds of lettuce, herbs, and cabbage here to have a different flavor combination with every bite. There’s also a marvelous, thick doenjangjjigae at the end of the meal so rustic, it could serve as a gateway drug for those who haven’t yet adjusted to cheonggukjang .

The house wine here is truly house-made, right in the back room of the restaurant: a delicious, slightly sweet and rustic brew. Similar in taste to the popular 백세주/baekseju but infinitely deeper and richer in flavor, make sure to ask for a bottle of 농주/nongju to accompany your food.

The standard set meal here costs a meager 8000 won for a very hearty meal. Alcohol is available, at pretty standard prices, but trust Fatman here and skip straight to granny’s homemade brew for 5000 won per bottle, with enough to make for tipsy times for two adults.
To find 욕쟁이 할머니집, take line 6 to 보문역/Bomun Station. Come out exit 2 and go straight until you cross Seongbuk Stream. Hang a left, and walk straight for about five minute. One block past the Michigan Hotel turn right, and go one block. Alternatively, take exit 2 from 성신여대역/Seongshin Women’s University Station and go straight for about five minutes, until you reach the Seongbuk Administrative Offices, then turn left and go one block. 욕쟁이 할머니집 is on the first corner.

ah, the proprietress herself: 욕쟁이 할머니/ the swearing granny!