164 Clerkenwell Road
EC1R 5DU
Tel: 020 7278 8674 
A Note about This Photo: This is purely a photo of association. In August of 2004, I visited Korea with my friends Shin and Ryan. (Shin emigrated to the US when she was 16. She was dating Ryan–a gringo–back in 2004. I was the decoy. Now that was funny.) Anyhow, this photo is from a cool little place on Jeju Island. (At least, that’s where I think I was when I took this. I unfortunately did not keep notes. And although I did have the blog at the time, I didn’t blog the trip! Idiot!)
Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The Damage: £12
The Victim: Me
The Background: So I went to bed at midnight last night. But guess what time I woke up? 11:30 a.m. I would feel pretty good about this (jetlag) except that my friend Kellie says that anyone who sleeps more than eight hours a night is depressed. This makes me slightly obsessive…am I depressed? Am I? (No, but I am just the tiniest bit obsessive compulsive. But not about washing my hands or anything. Just about leaving irons and ovens on. I finally have an iron that turns itself off, which is very helpful. Thank you for your concern.)
Then again, the entire time I was in Cabo, I seemed to be sleeping EXACTLY 7.5 hours a night. It was almost spooky.
By the time I got out of the house on Wednesday, it was around 1:30. Man, the best laid plans! I am very angry with myself as I write this. I had all these ideas…I was going to check out the Antony Gormley exhibit, I was going to look at Danish furniture in Camden. I was going to go to the gym.
Instead I had a Korean pancake and some spicy tofu soup. And I got asked out by my waiter. And I eavesdropped on some people who just happened to work for one of my company’s competitors! Too funny.
The Food: I get the spring onion pancake and it is perfect. It is presented on a bamboo mat on a pretty piece of Korean pottery. And it is delicious and satisfying. The people from the competitor at the table next to me were very jealous.
I also order some spicy tofu soup. (Note that if your Korean soup comes with a bowl of white rice, you should put the white rice in the soup.) It’s really nice and light and it’s just the right amount of spiciness. The pancake and the soup go perfectly together…although there is no meat to be had, the pancake has a thickness and doughy-ness to it that meshes well with the spicy soup and the light tofu. All that being said, I don’t think I would have been happy with the tofu soup on it’s own. I would have needed something else.
New Seoul is not the world’s most atmospheric place, but that’s okay. You don’t need atmosphere when you’re a walking jetlag zombie.
The Service: Very sweet. He was impressed with my very basic Korean ("hello how are you" and "can i have a beer please" and "hurry, hurry") and that I like the Yankees better than the Mets. Plus, he asked if he could see me again, which made me feel very alluring–for a walking jetlag zombie.
The Verdict: I’d go again. And I’d have multiple pancakes.
3 comments
I’ve passed this place 100,000 times and always thought it looked really ropey. I need to open my mind! It sounds brilliant. Cheers
Hey Kristain, It was great meeting you the other night at the taco stand. Love the blog.:) Thanks for the link to our blog, and I’m sure we’ll see you again soon!
Sounds yum, and not far from where I work – yay! I have a mission to eat in as many Korean restaurants as possible (this runs parallel with another mission I have, but this time with a Mexican theme) – with the ultimate aim, of course, of finding the perfect one. I’ve tried several now. Asadal was good, but a more upscale option, Koba on Rathbone Street fairly limited in its offerings, but a nice place to sit. Jindalle and Nara in Piccadilly/Soho areas – ok, but nothing really sticks in the memory from either (apart from terrible South East Asian pop music). I’ve only been to one of the basic cheap and cheerful places on St Giles Circus so far, Woo Jung – good value, and the mainly student clientele seemed to be enjoying themselves. Anyway, New Seoul has been added and the mission continues…….
Comments are closed.