#jonggak

It is time for dinner~

This restaurant was actually recommended by our hotel’s manager. He told us that tourists don’t normally go to this place bcos 1) tourists don’t know who the chef is, & 2) the menu & everything else looks just like a typical franchise restaurant so it doesn’t catch foreigners’ eyes. He recommended this place to us bcos it is popular among locals, & bcos it is a celebrity-chef restaurant. & lastly, it is cheap & fast. Despite it being a celebrity-chef restaurant, the price is even more affordable than most other places.

It is called Sae-maeul Sikdang.

Poster of the celebrity-chef, Baek Jung Won.

The restaurant specializes in pork - both bbq & in stew form.

Their “best hits”. Keep in mind the prices in Korean won are by portions.

Inside of the restaurant. Everywhere you look, you see either bbq or the 7-minute stew.

Brother & I are at table 15.

Yup.. . the poster behind me advertising their bbq & the 7-minute stew.

While the poster outside didn’t list the weight (per serving of meat), the menu board inside does. They also provide “half portions” for some items but relatively more expensive compared to full serving.

Super exciting!!! This photo was taken after we ordered the 7-minute stew. The timer was set for 8 minutes (1 min extra for going back to the kitchen & then bringing out the dish), & yes - they were totally on time!!! The story behind this 7-minute thing is that the chef himself believed that 7-minutes is the best cooking time for this type of pork cut in this dish (kimchi pork stew), & so he just named it as that.

During the 8 minutes of wait time, we were given 2 large bowls of rice & some banchans, including: zucchini, sugared peanuts, & spicy squid.

Ta-dAAAA! WOWW! Looked quite intimidating bcos of the color. Besides pork & kimchi, there was also scallions & onions.

Scoop the stew onto the rice, & then add seaweed, which was at every table in a metal open-lid container (self-serve; add as much as you’d like).

MIX & EAT.

It was so yummy!! For 10000, we were stuffed & satisfied. They put in so much thin pork slices in! It was great =] The beginning bites were very alarming for my taste buds bcos it was very spicy. However, the more you eat, the more the taste buds are familiar with the flavour & before you know it, you’ll be enjoying it (instead of “suffering” through the spiciness).

Selca.