Son of a Chef

The northern hemisphere’s oceans have a unique smell. From Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic to the smaller seas, there is an underlying scent of a shared sea-breeze. While local smells vary, there is something comforting about that hint of salt water.

That salt water tickle takes me back to being a kid and visiting my grandparents out East. Pops used to take us out there every year and he would relish in the fresh seafood. I never shared his taste in seafood but the flavors have grown on me in recent years.

Despite my location, seafood was not the menu for this weekend. I had a couple of Gunsan’s famous restaurants in mind. Interestingly enough, many of these restaurants are Chinese restaurants founded in the mid 20th century. Today, I managed to get in quickly to perhaps Gunsan’s most famous restaurant, Bin Hae Won.

There are a few types of famous restaurants in Korea. Bin Hae Won (빈해원), is famous for its history, food quality and its repeated appearance as a film set. Not a bad one-two-three combo for Gunsan’s oldest surviving Chinese restaurant. The exterior humbly betrays a beautifully aged interior and great food.

Jjajangmyeon (짜장면) was the choice for today. It is a dish that the restaurant has a reputation of doing well. It’s also a dish that is so popular in Korea. If I had to try something else, I almost ordered the Jjamppong (짬뽕) but it will have to wait. I know I’ll be back.

Jjajangmyeon is a northern Chinese thick black bean sauce with vegetables and beef scooped on top of a bowl of noodles. The flavor is savory and mild. Visually, it looks like it should have a much stronger soy flavor, yet the lack of a strong soy flavor is an interesting flavor note for the dish. BinHaeWon’s iteration offered high-quality flavor with a low price.

Jjajangmyeon is not one of my favorite Chinese dishes. However, I have had a craving for it lately. I’m glad this hit the spot and now I won’t need to order it for a few months.

Next time I will have the jjampong, a spicy seafood stew, which is much more my usual style. If the seafood was less fresh where I lived, then I’d have certainly had that today in Gunsan. One advantage of Korea’s size and bustling infrastructure is that you’re never too far from quality seafood.

The architecture and atmosphere within the restaurant is a true time capsule. Given the dim lighting and well-aged look, you can see why a few movies have selected it as a set. Frankly, if you squint, it could look like a lot of movie sets. I’ve seen massive lines at this place, so I was pretty happy to get in and out in less than forty minutes today.

My second food stop in Gunsan was also a famous eatery and this one came with a serious line. When a line moves fast at a bakery, I am more than willing to stand in it and see what’s up. Lee Seong Dang is a famous bakery in Korea and the Gunsan location is their original and flagship. Its origin predates Bin Hae Won by a decade or so and I’m the wrong person to compare their fame.

A fast moving line is always a good place to test my Korean. It always cracks me up to occupy these spaces. I stick out in these types of places. Looking around, I knew today was no different. But there’s a sigh of relief that comes over the hurried worker when I tell him my order in Korean.

There are a large variety of Korean bakeries and many of the best ones tend to mix traditional Korean with traditional Western fare. The presentation at Lee Seong Dang was immaculate and I was almost visually persuaded into one of these pieces of cake or a chocolate cup. What an appetizing array of sweet colors: chocolate black, vanilla white, strawberry red and a touch of… orange orange off in the corner. I consider myself strong to have resisted this. Perhaps it was the already full bag I had.

There were three things that I wound up getting at Lee Seong Dang. The first was their signature item, the danpatppang. It’s a red bean filled pastry bun. There is much about it that’s impressive. The consistency of the bun was actually the first thing that stuck out to me. The bread is so soft and perfectly filled. Actually, it’s almost too soft! Transporting it makes it so easy to smash it a little bit and the beautiful presentation can be easily ruined. Make sure to take care if you pick some of these up!

The flavor is fantastic. The soft sweet bread pairs well with the red bean paste. The sweetness of the paste is not too overpowering and mixes back with the sweetness of the bread to produce a nice even flavor note. The bake is near perfection and it’s incredible to watch them cart them out one after another. My mistake was to not do my research ahead of time to know they have a savory version. I would have very much liked to have tried that.

The last photo and thing that I ate was a goguma sweet potato filled donut. This is something that I have come to adore since relocating to Korea. As I’ve grown older, the sugary stuffing into classic American donuts has begun to turn me off. It’s completely too much sugar. However, we still like sweet things from time to time. Enter this stuffed rice donut. With a crunchy cake-like exterior that’s rolled in cinnamon sugar and a sweet potato filling, my problems with sugar overload have been solved!

Or have they… I cannot imagine it’s truly too much better for me. Perhaps the alternative was less donuts altogether. Anyway, this was a good day of delicious food. Gunsan is well worth the visit. It was a nice reminder that the famous spots are famous for a reason and sometimes you can trust other people to know what’s good.