Buchu Gob-chang
Gob-chang, meaning pork/cattle intestines, is an unfamiliar name. Gob-chang bokkeum or gui is a stir-fried or grilled intestines delicacy enjoyed by Koreans especially while drinking soju. It is chewy yet palatable texture with unique characteristic flavor. It is high in iron and vitamins. When grilled, it is usually done on a hot skillet in open flames with vegetables such as onions, garlic, green onions, mushrooms and Korean hot peppers. Popular dipping sauce for this dish is a mixture of sesame oil and salt. Gob-chang is enjoyed by wrapping with lettuce. When stir-fried, Gob-chang, aforementioned vegetables and gochujang are all mixed together. Gochujang adds spiciness to the dish.  Hyehwa’s Buchu Gob-chang uses a special ingredient of Korean leek (Korean, 부추) which has the effectiveness of promoting digestion. Gob-chang is too greasy and burden for stomach digestion and the addition of leek complements well with Gog-chang and helps the digestion. A bustling greasy BBQ joint, there are a short menu and a long line. Young couples and families wait to eat a few different sizes of intestines and a range of raw beef preparations.

This is no cook-your-own deal. Sit, drink soju, and eat yukhoe (Korean raw beef, 육회) for appetizer and shield yourself from sputtering fat with aprons of soju-brand logos. There are a lot of ways you can eat Gob-chang and I recommend the grilled method (grilled – gui, 구이) for the first timers. For side dishes they offer raw liver and slightly cooked tripe that can be dipped in the sesame oil and salt mixture. You can enjoy Bokkeumbap with remaining Gob-chang. It’s a fried rice dish offered at a range of Korean restaurants. When your table is finished with Gob-chang, the waiter mixes rice with Gob-chang and makes fried rice in the same pan the meal was cooked in. Restaurants typically add Kimchi, bean sprouts, egg so on. Here they add spicy sauce and more leeks. The rice absorbs the flavor from the cooking pan and becomes crisp and rich, making you continuously eat for more. Buchu Gob-chang costs 20,000 won for 2 people.

For some people, when they eat Korean Kimch or Thai peppers, they wave their hands to cool their mouth. However, for me, when it comes to hot and spicy food, I want the extra spiciness with ground Korean red peppers and lots of green onions. Also winter is a season when hot food is an ideal complement to the colder weather, and it’s hard to beat a plate of spicy stir-fried webfoot octopus (Korean Jjukoomi). Other than the decision to order some traditional Korean dishes, there aren’t a lot of other choices to make. Most spicy stir-fried webfoot octopus recipes call for chili paste, chili powder, sliced vegetables, and, of course, the eight-legged cephalopod mollusk. Hongjjukoo which I introduce this time has a special factor attracting many people. They even guarantee balanced nutrition with low calorie webfoot octopus which is good for diet. At Hongjjukoo, you can either eat just webfoot octopus or a combination of “webfoot octopus and Samgyeobsal (Korean pork-belly, 삼겹살)”. Normally at a webfoot octopus restaurant, you stir fry webfoot octopus with pork-belly so you get to eat seafood and meat at the same time. One thing special about Hongjjukoo is you can put radish ‘Ssam’ on sesame leaf. And then, you place webfoot octopus and pork-belly on the leaf, add sauce and wrap the whole thing into a small ball and eat it. The refreshing taste of sesame leaf and clean taste of radish complement really well. Spicy sauce with chewy webfoot octopus and crunchy bean sprouts and vegetable stimulates your appetite. The pork-belly meat surrounds the webfoot octopus in the middle. The sauce is developed by the owner, which tastes well with webfoot octopus and it is not very spicy. You can’t really lessen the spicy taste, but if you want, you can add more bean sprouts to make it less spicy. Normally, in Korean cooking, they mix everything and stir fry them all together, but here they stir fry only webfoot octopus and they grill pork-belly. You can finish the meal by stir frying your rice with the sauce remaining on the plate. Put in the rice, dried laver and sesame leaf and then stir fry all of them together. Additionally, you can add some cheese and then stir fry again and you will enjoy special mixed rice. Hongjjukoo costs 20,000 won for 2 people.

This is chicken that is extra crispy yet light and the sauce is just out of this world. Notably, “Story Runs” doesn’t have the smell of typical Korean fried chicken house. I’m not sure how to describe it, but most chicken places in Korea have this strange, queasy, sweet smell that wafts down the street. It smells unnatural. This place has no smell, just great chicken, and some peppers and cheese smell. The most amazing thing about Story Runs is that it has ‘fondue’. Fondue (French) is a Swiss, French, and Italian dish of melted cheese served in a communal pot over a portable stove. If you order chicken at Story Runs, it comes with fondue and you can have fried chicken with cheese, garlic or tomato sauce. You can have 2 of them. Also with fried potato chips and salad bar, you can enjoy an exotic style chicken in Hyehwa. Story Runs’ chickens are more expensive than normal chicken franchises but they are worth it. Story Runs Chicken and salad bar with 2 sodas cost 29,800 won.   

dalbon86@kookmin.ac.kr