I grow from food stock. If it isn’t apparent from the name of my blog, I’m particularly home in a restaurant. Pops was a restaurants guy, from slinging as an off-brand Anthony Bourdain to dealing food for a few counties.
This exposed me to a lot of places. And it made me extremely comfortable speaking with food people about food. Years later, I had a few food jobs myself and that comfort only increased. I’ll never forget the summer I spent hiding with a historic inn’s owner watching baseball games while we were both supposed to be working. God help those two should his wife find them.
Yet, flash forward to today. It’s taken me a while to get good at Korean. Now, you can find me after hours hanging out with restaurant folk in town. Well, you could do that before but now it’s more and more happening in Korean. Cheers.
So, when my food friends make a recommendation, I’m all ears. When “You like spicy food and old food, right?” is followed by, “We got a place you should check out then.” I tend to get excited.
Old town is my jam. Well, old town can be challenging. Old town upends some of the common attitudes known in Korea. People tend to say older Koreans are nicer and more friendly to strangers than younger ones. Old town has a friendlier younger generation, from my experience so far. Enough rambling, let’s start with the first course.
Spicy cold noodles with gochujang and sesame. The flavor was rich and the texture layered between bites. The noodles, ever so al dente, cut through with a tensing pull, were chewy in that wonderful Korean style. Not too spicy, though.
It was a wonderful first round. The noodles, accompanied by makgeolli, filled my empty stomach and rewarded my ten thousand steps prior to eating. As I am a fan of honoring recommendations, I am a fan of trying what restaurants profess they are good at. This place shouts out that their kalbibimkuksu is what should be eaten, along with mandu and makgeolli. I do regret, however, not splitting some mandu with friends.
Now, next I had made a mistake. Poor planning on my part has plagued a few recent trips and I appreciate my friends’ patience. Somehow, yes, the foreigner has become the tour guide. Yet, that’s one thing that’s so special about Cheonan. Cheonan is a big city but it’s still a young city. It doesn’t have the history of a Chuncehon or Cheongju as a regional capital. It’s development is mostly a 20th century affair.
Two plates of soondae, accompanied by soju as the talking carried on for a long time. The second restaurant is always where people are the loosest in my opinion and it’s maybe my favorite time of the night. Things have begun but there is much left ado.
Now, soondae has grown a lot on me. The different textures provided by various cuts of meat and their various subtle differences in flavor make for a good drinking and chatting pace. And, the original soondae, no rice stuffing, has a rich complex salty flavor that well lingers.
The makchang platter, hit home for me. Wow. Prior to moving to Korea, I hadn’t expected to come to love intestines and lungs the way that I do. Slowly, the less than choice cuts by Western standards are growing on me.
As the chatting continues on, I find myself coming in and out of paying attention. English and Korean back and forth is a challenge. There’s a peak in the night at the second restaurant and my language ability decreases after that. By the time we’re at the third restaurant, it’s more out than in. Good thing there’s always good food to think about, too.
As we march on from the old market a bit north, we end up at a familiar chicken restaurant. Holidays in town are a little wonky on what’s open and what’s not. Often I think the owner just makes a decision about what they want to do.
The first choice, get some dakbal nearby, was a no-go and most of the places around the market had been closing. So we made our way to a chicken place where we’ve had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the owner and her sons. They’re good people. That night was popping. And the chicken, as always, was fantastic.
I guess it’s a little bit of irony that the first restaurant had been recommended to me by my friends who own a chicken restaurant on the other side of town. Had we been closer, we’d have ended up there. So it goes.
This place is fantastic. One of those good places that you can still get old style fried chicken in good quantities for good prices. The spicy sauce, too, is mostly an old flavor. Instead of the overdone and over-mixed concoctions offered elsewhere, it’s a base gochujang sauce with a few other simple ingredients. 24 years they’ve been doing it this way.
One of my friends said it was the best chicken they’ve ever had. Maybe it was the beer talking but there are times I’m inclined to agree. It really is up there and I never feel bad about stopping in.
Meanwhile, the crowds are growing. Other than the owner’s sons watching soccer, we’re by far the youngest folks in the restaurant. A table full of ajeossis looked on at us. Seeming to admire that the kids still do things other than look at their phones. It was the kind of atmosphere where we’d have been called kids, at least, despite the average age near mid-30s.
The approving look of the other table as we downed bottle after bottle of beer must have tickled something. The men sent another plate of chicken to our table. Cheers to them.
Outside the restaurant, I thanked them again and we were on our way. A handful of friends grabbed their various taxis. Another friend took the long walk home with me as I tell him, “let’s go take some pictures. There’s 4km to walk and about 3 decades to cross in that time.”
Off into the night everyone went. And thus ended a happy holiday in Korea. I hope to go back to each of these places soon. As always, thanks for reading. I’ll post the restaurant locations below.
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Old Gimpo Noodle Restaurant
[KakaoMap] 옛김포식당
10-6, Sajik-ro, Dongnam-gu Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do
https://kko.to/fGw6n_ZGq2
https://maps.app.goo.gl/unRDY94A7AUxTLQg8
[네이버 지도]
옛김포식당
충남 천안시 동남구 영성로 25-19
https://naver.me/GPFHfEUK
Soondae Place
[KakaoMap] 서산집
18, Sajik-ro, Dongnam-gu Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aN3rCxi2Hb5NGje7A
[네이버 지도]
서산집
충남 천안시 동남구 사직로 18
https://naver.me/xznVwtlK
Chicken Place
[KakaoMap] 길목치킨
18, Munhwa-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do
https://kko.to/U6qGKad-1x
[네이버 지도]
길목치킨
충남 천안시 동남구 문화로 18
https://naver.me/FWPG97sj
Son of a Chef 
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