#edward kwon

{Pea Puree Appetizer with choice of bread}

Sweet and salty.  I watched a little girl devour hers so that's a pretty good affirmation to the taste of this soup.

Each course came with its own explanation card.  I couldn't decide if I liked it or thought it was a pretentious ploy to get us to care more.

{Crab wrapped in gelatin with Argan Oil} 

I did not think I would like this.  I thought the gelatin would taste like slime and I would pick through to find the crab and leave the rest alone.  However, it was divine.  Soft but firm gelatin, creamy, salty, warm everything else and lots of flavor.  

{Root Vegetable Salad}

This is the type of dish I often scoff at when I see pictures of them.  Too little food, veggies cut in weird shapes, indescribable ingredients...the salad tasted nice though.  The carrots were very sweet, the tiny mushrooms were adorable and the dressing was perfectly rich and salty. 

{Lobster with Cous Cous}

This was my second least favorite course.  The lobster was "slow cooked," our waiter informed us, and you could tell.  It was almost chewy.  The foam was either too salty or too heavily seasoned another way and it affected the taste of the cous cous.  It looks beautiful, but the taste did not match its beauty.

{Truffle mushroom soup with bacon and caramelized onions}

I know you won't believe this, but this was BY FAR the best thing on the menu.  This was the creamiest, most balanced and delicious soup I may have ever eaten.  The bacon and caramelized onions only triumphed together in a three way win with the mushroom cream.  Oh my god, it was unbelievable.  

The super cute chef {that I was apparently ignoring to check my phone--rude} pouring the soup over the bacon and onions.

{Pineapple Sherbet made with liquid nitrogen}

And here is where the real gastronomy comes into play.  Another adorable chef came over and literally made ice cream before our very eyes with some pineapple juice, seasoning of some kind, and liquid nitrogen.  It was a sweet surprise in the middle of our savory meal.

{Sous vide Tenderloin with vegetables}

Melt in my mouth steak cooked to perfection.  Need I go on?

{Dessert-No Card}

Dessert looked like a work of art and tasted like bitter disappointment.  I have no idea what 50% of what I was eating actually was.  The green tea ice cream somewhere in the middle wasn't bad but that's the best compliment I can bestow on this trainwreck of a dessert.  

Perhaps it takes a finer palate than mine to appreciate a nearly tasteless, sugarless dessert such as this. The bits of cake were not sweet, the almonds were not roasted, the cranberries were kind of confusing for this type of dessert.  Nothing settled right in my head or in my mouth.  

{Tea and more {better} dessert followed}

And this is the end, folks.

  Now the restaurant itself.  The decor needs some help.  Pretentious doesn't begin to cover it with the faux diamonds laid on the table to the faux GIANT diamond napkin rings to the ugly color scheme.  The place was trying much too hard.  If it were toned down, the food would really shine but I felt like it was constantly competing for attention with the abhorant decoration.

It was also a bit too heavily staffed for the time of day and it made me feel awkward with that many people waiting on me.  I can push in my own chair, thank you.  Yes, my napkin does go on my lap but I'm more than capable of doing it myself, my good sir.  It was just uncomfortable at times.  

A quarter way through the meal I relaxed and let them wait on me the way they were trained so it became more comfortable but there was still an over-the-top-ness that I could have done without.  However, I know why they do these things.  Yuppie Koreans eat this pretentious western style garbage up.  

It's easy to compare the two restaurants because they are both owned and operated by the same famous chef.  However, I won't.  They are both on different pages with food.  Not different levels, but different concepts and ideas.  Judging only the food I would give the restaurant a near perfect score on most of the dishes.  The downsides would be the look of the restaurant and the slow cooked lobster.  I honestly never expect much out of Korean desserts, so I'm not surprised it wasn't my taste. So I don't weigh that one in my decision.

If you are in Korea and want to try upscale gastronomic food, this is your restaurant.

I recently moved to Seoul to be closer to awesome food.  :) Really it was for a better job but the perks of food in Seoul would be enough to get me to move up here.  Where there was a handful of restaurants around my apartment building in Daejeon there are literally a hundred restaurants right outside my door in Gangnam.  

Yesterday, however, my friend Phil and I traveled just a bit further north to Hannamdong to visit a restaurant owned by a renowned Korean chef, Edward Kwon. According to Phil, he worked in the UAE in a high class hotel and was once asked by Madonna to be a personal chef.  To quote Will Ferrel, he’s “kind of a big deal.”  

Phil was my Edward Kwon expert yesterday and took care of all the ordering and translating.  Our five course meal took about two hours…amazing doesn’t begin to describe it.  It is Western-Korean fusion and it is beautiful.  It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.  There was not one thing that I put in my mouth that I had ambivalent feelings toward, I loved every bite.  Even by the end, I was so full but I kept right on shoving food in because I didn’t want to leave a single thing behind.

Diet starts Monday! 

First Course: Breakfast by way of scrambled eggs with polenta and French toast with cinnamon whipped cream. 

With a side of mocha bread…yes, that’s right….mocha bread and corn soup that tasted like dessert it was so thick and sweet. 

Second Course: Salad three ways with chicken, pork and seafood skewers with dipping sauces.  I loved this presentation and felt like I was eating an incredibly special meal when I saw it.  

Third Course: Side dishes included stir fried mung beans, french fries and “the most expensive kimchi I’ve ever eaten,”~Phil.  This was served with roast chicken with garlic sauce.

Fourth Course: This is the course where Korean fusion foods were more obvious.  We feasted on LA Galbi, steamed pork with bacon and garlic sauce, frozen sweet and spicy cuttlefish salad, and barbecue chicken with apple matchsticks, grilled onions, and garlic mayo sauce.  

Fifth Course: At this point I am beyond full.  But, this was the main course and the “highlight” of the meal.  We had a choice of salmon or sirloin steak with mushrooms, garlic chips and caramelized onion sauce, so, of course, we had the steak.  

Dessert Course: This is what I would call the real highlight of the meal because I am the biggest sucker for sweets in the world.  When the tray came I thought we would be able to choose a couple of the samples.  But they were all ours…ALL…OURS. There was pumpkin and soybean ice cream, creme brulee, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cake, walnut pie, lemon cake, etc… wondrous!

And the best part of the day.  The very thoughtful and kind manager who took the time to explain all of our meal to us and answer all of Phil’s many questions, brought me a free box of beautiful chocolates—just because.  Phil explained over and over they were just for me, she doesn’t do that for everyone, because he thought she liked how nice I was. Haha…whatever the reason I was so grateful and slightly embarrassed   She was too too kind.  But, my embarrassment subsided when I ate them because they were too too good.