According to the Wall Street Journal’s Korea Realtime Blog, the G20 leaders will be dining on steak (한우, of course! and fancy persimmon fed cattle, at that) as part of a three-course western-style meal.   They also won’t be serving caviar or fois gras for ethical concerns, and Fatman is a little less distraught at not being asked to join them in their repast at the National Museum.

Adding to the growing list of organic restaurants in Seoul, Mananim stands out for its singular devotion to the homemade. Now, lots of places out there feature homemade food – but how many of them make their own cheese, soy sauce, and vinegar? That’s right, everything is handmade by the owner, down to the vinegar and soy sauce used to season the dishes. At this point, Fatman wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the owner hand-raked the salt.

The restaurant is small and you’d hardly guess it was a restaurant at all from the profusion of jars, bottles, jugs, and onggi/옹기 (earthenware pots) sitting around obscuring the scant four tables. But find a seat anyway, and snack on fresh veggies and gochujang, steamed sweet potatoes, and salty 장아찌 (jangajji – pickled vegetables) while you decide from an unusually diverse menu.

Did we mention that every bit of seasoning, every slice of pickle, every scrap of just about everything is made by the owner? Just checkin’ . . .
Mananim’s menu straddles east and west, offering both organic and somewhat unique Korean dishes, from a refreshingly chilly northern-style chilled ddeokguk (rice cake soup) to rice steamed in sweet peppers, then crosses over to offer both a spicy Korean-influenced pasta and a creamy pasta made even more decadent with fresh herb cheese. It looks as homemade as it is, but the taste of the slowly melting cheese, al dente pasta, and fresh veggies add up to something that would be difficult to produce on one’s own at home. It’s humble food, but taken a step further.

The spicy spaghetti is a minor triumph, managing to balance the flavors so it still packs heat without being overwhelmingly hot, and even more uniquely manages to taste like a true fusion of western spaghetti sauce (which it isn’t – not a tomato is sight!) and the warming flavors of Korean sauces.

And just when it seems like she might be veering off course, the owner has brought the menu back into utterly traditional foods, including a tasty doenjang bibimbap. Heavy on the organic veggies and seasoned with the house 된장 sauce, the whole thing comes together for a dish that just screams wholesome.

Despite this diversity, the menu is only a page long, and includes only a few pasta, noodle, and rice dishes. All of them, even the seemingly traditional beef noodle soup are imprinted both with the owner’s unique viewpoint and with the goodness of all organic and all house-made ingredients.

In fact, the owner is half the attraction of Mananim. Funky, and almost hippie-esque in her relaxed state, she’s more than happy to chat with customers about the food, her ingredients, and the cosmic state. She’s a truly unique individual who despite her charming air of relaxation is seriously dedicated to good food in a way that goes far beyond what most enterprises or individuals can manage. Once you’ve wound down your meal with a complimentary bit of fruit and a sliver of bread and cheese, spend a few minutes investigating their vinegars, sauces, cheese and pickles, many of which are for sale for you to take home something far, far better than what you’ll get at your local supermarket.
Vegetarians rejoice! Many of the foods here are already vegetarian, or can be made without meat. And those with scant money in their pockets can also celebrate, with all dishes except bossam coming in at less than 10,000 won.

To get to Mananim, take exit 1 from Anguk Station (line 3) and turn to your right, taking the first right again to head north towards Samcheongdong/Jeongdok Library (정독도서관). Go down the first street to your left after you pass Andong Church (안동교회, and Mananim will be on the left. Alternatively, head south from Jeongdok Library and take the first through street on your right (at the 민들레영토/Minto) and Mananim will be towards the end of the street on your right.

What foods do you think have the most potential to become popular outside Korea?  How would you bring it about?  If you were an investor, in charge of bringing something to an outside audience,  what tasty dish would you be putting your money on?

Fat hat tip to reader Jaim, who apparently is triangulating efforts on samgak gimbap.

After removing ourselves from the bar to the restaurant, we were treated to a multi-course meal of some of the most elegant food we’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. The meal was ambitious in that it sought to present Korean food as high class dining. Can we move beyond 5,000won 됀장찌개 without resorting to the stale cliches of half than 한정식 places in town? What kind of preparation and presentation would work to elevate Korean food into something that can be not just internationalized, but take the world in the same way that haute French cuisine has? Is it even possible?
Ask Fatman. We tasted the future of Korean cuisine that night at the W, and it is delicious!

Fatman’s love of 육회 is well documented, and this rendition was superlative. “Beef tartare” it may be on the menu, but this particular combination of flavors was all Korean. It was paired with Fatman’s favorite tipple of the evening, a sparkling “Opere Brut” from NV Villa Santi. While we never would have thought to pair a spumante with steak tartare, we loved the combination of the silky meat with this wine ~ it was both soft and crisp at the same time, like a tutu.

From there on, the menu turned into a guessing game, matching the W’s version against more traditional renditions of Korean dishes. Any guesses what this was?

Need a closer look? This was one of the most visually stunning dishes of the evening, with a beautiful structural element to the presentation.

Fried ginseng, chestnut, ginko nuts, jujube, wrapped in chicken . . . one dip in the gloriously rich, medicinal broth leaves its provenance as samgyetang in no doubt. Other elements of the traditional meal were brought in, but in exceedingly clever ways, like the black garlic paste on the side of the soup plate that lent the dish a little extra something.

The flavor profile is exactly that of the traditional stuffed spring chicken, but refined and tailored to a much more modern, sophisticated palate.

The next plate brought abalone risotto and chili marinated black cod, for a hot-and-mild combination. On its own, the risotto was creamy and nice, but a little underwhelming and mild. However, paired with the marvelous zing of the chili marinated cod, it worked as great soothing counter. The black cod may well have been the highlight of the evening, with a riveting sweet smokey note underneath the spice of the marinade.


The next course could serve as an object lesson for those who feel that Korean food lacks the potential for sophistication and refinement. It doesn’t get much more refined than this gorgeous seafood soup. It took a few moments to register as a variation on 매운탕, but once made, the connection was unmistakeable.

The broth had a magnificent layered seafood taste, and the seafood itself had a fresh, clean taste that really put the dish into the category of extraordinary. The individual elements all held their own, distinctive, but worked together in a way that trademarks Korean fish stews. Between the fish, the shellfish, the greens, and the little bits of ddeok tucked away underneath, it covered a whole range of textures, as well. It also had the most wonderfully fragrant wine of the evening, a 2006 Daniel Rion & Fils Bourgogne. It was a stronger wine than the bouquet suggested, and stood up to the spice, but we don’t want to drink it so much as bathe in it.

Having turned up the heat with the last few dishes, Hickey and co. cooled things off with a palate refreshing sorbet that took inspiration from sujeonggwa, the ginger, cinnamon, and persimmon punch of yore. With just a hint of rice wine underneath, this did the trick perfectly, bringing the tastebuds back to readiness with the switch in flavors, temperature, and texture. Now that we’d had a bit of a break, it was time to get down to business: Beefy business.

Let the reign of 한우 begin! Bring on the Korean beef!

The hanwoo appeared three different ways on a single plate: As a meltingly soft sirloin, slow cooked short-rib, and a stuffed zucchini. Of the three, the rich sirloin was the most western of the three in taste and presentation, but let that not dissuade you ~ it was like eating beef flavored butter, a hunk of pure meat. Stuffed vegetables of any kind offer a challenge, but the zucchini offered a nice touch of freshness and helped keep things from being to heavily meat-oriented. Finally, the slow cooked short ribs were a decadent, wonderful version of the traditional 갈비찜: soft, tender, and richly flavored.

But on to dessert . . . Chef Hickey and his team really showed their committment to and knowledge of local ingredients here at the end, starting with their pepper poached Naju pears and black sesame ice cream.

The pear was beautiful, offset by just a hint of spice from the peppercorns, but the real star was the glorious black sesame ice cream. Cool, creamy ice cream was the perfect showpiece for the rich nuttiness of the sesame, enhanced by a crisp sesame cookie. Uniting both the ice cream and the pear in a single bite made for a particularly fruitful pearing, with the slightly spicy pear working as an exciting foil for the creamy, nutty ice cream.

The evening concluded with tea, coffee, and some surprising petite fours. While petite four conjurs up images of grandma-esque miniature cakes with bad frosting, these were gorgeous Jeju hallabong jellies, these were like condensed sunshine.

Fatman would like to thank the W Hotel and the staff of the Kitchen and Woo Bar again for an amazing dining experience. Seoul offers many delicious things to eat, but few so comprehensive, so elegant, or so beautifully prepared and served. We very much hope that this evening was a token of things to come, a promissory note of more Korean notes from the W Hotel and Korean food as a whole.

To read a Korean review of the evening, let us point you to the fine food blogging of 김범수 of 팟투바하의 ‘맛있는’ 라이프 스타일. Bon appetite!

For even more pictures of the meal (what?  are you saying you don’t take hundreds of pictures of what you eat?) visit our flickr page.
(we’d also like to apologize for the unforgivable delay in getting this up! mea culpa!)

A lack of chefs specializing in hansik, or Korean food, has sparked constant debate about establishing an integrated cooking program in efforts to globalize the cuisine. Now, the Korean government is taking action to address the issue.

Several local universities and hotels will start a chef-education program from next month. Under the project ― by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ― students were selected last month, and participants will instruct them in advanced hansik cooking as well as restaurant operation, foreign culture and languages.

The project aims to train top hansik chefs to prepare high-quality dishes for foreigners, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, we have a hard time believing that you’ll actually find Kwon Sang-u as your barrista, despite what this Korea Herald article on the Korean Wave cash-in among restaurants shows.

pic from Korea Herald

Meanwhile, debate is heating up again on the interwebs (well, on the Marmot’s Hole and Zen Kimchi) about Korean dog meat consumption, thanks to a post on Ask a Korean. Debate the veracity of the article and dog meat eatin’ in general amongst yourselves. Any particular favorite places to pick up a peck of pooch? Or are we calling PETA? At any rate, enjoy the annual summer debate over Korea’s most controversial protein source.