Icheon Salbap Restaurant experience

[Domestic Goddess]

I met up with Jason and his lovely Hiromi for an authentic Icheon Salbap Restaurant experience...

Icheon rice is cooked by putting rice with ginseng, jujube, pine nuts and other cereals into a stone pot. Rice in restaurants approved by Icheon City has a different look and fragrance. It is clean and transparent in color, and very sticky. The dining table, on which oily rice emitting hot steam along with dongchime (watery kimchi), japchae (noodles), saury, soy bean sauce soup and various greens, is fit for a king.

At a local's suggestion, I took Jason and Hiromi to the Cheongmok Salbap Restaurant When you enter the restaurant, you don't say anything except how many members of your dining group. I held up three fingers.

This restaurant is very efficient... everything is wheeled onto this table-sized tray...

And everything is....

... slid into place...

Our feast...

Close-ups of some of our dishes...

There's seasoned fermented soybean curd sauce beside steamed pork ssam wraps, shredded soy beef, various greens...

And for SheenaGreena... her beloved soy crabs....

Jason and Hiromi, happy and full...

Edited April 22, 2007 by Domestic Goddess (log)

[docsconz]

Fascinating report Doddie. Tell us more about the food. Korean cuisine is one that I am still a neophyte with. The sliding table is intriguing. Is that unique to that restaurant or pretty standard?

[Peter Green]

DG,

Nice post. But no pictures of the rice itself?

What does the "sal" in salbap mean?

Cheers,

Peter

[insomniac]

DG,

Nice post.  But no pictures of the rice itself?

What does the "sal" in salbap mean?

Cheers,

Peter

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I googled salbap for a meaning and got 'salvation and baptism' eek...hopefully sal = rice, bap = ?

[Domestic Goddess]

LOL... sorry for being short with my descriptions but here are more details to our lunch.

Docs - as far as I know, this sliding table arrangement is unique to this restaurant. Believe me, we enjoyed seeing other meals slotted into place and see diners just dig in and enjoy the spread.

Peter - with apologies to Jason, I have lifted some of his pics from his blog and linked it here... Here's a picture of the Icheon rice...

The different leaves for wrapping the pork ssam packages...

Steamed cabbage, lettuce, sesame leaves...

And to quote Jason's blog... gratuitous kimchi porn...

Some pickled cucumbers...

Cabbage in miso soup...

Peter - I know that Sal means "Uncooked rice".

Bap means "Cooked rice."

Hmmm... does that mean Salbap restaurant is Uncooked/cooked rice restaurant?

I have no idea... LOL

[Peter Green]

DG,

That is pretty looking rice. I can see why Icheon is famous for their bap (but I'd rather taste it!)

[Domestic Goddess]

Peter - I would describe eating it as very light and somewhat sticky rice. It has a mild fragrance and the aftertaste is very pleasing. The addition of soy beans, legumes and ginko nuts adds more to the texture and the flavor. I could eat two bowls of it if I can.

Oh, and I also found out that even if it is that sticky, it makes a heck of a plate of garlic fried rice.

[JasonTrue]

Yes, sorry I haven't been so quick to post myself... except for last night when I was so sleepy it took me two hours just to rouse myself from the hotel to fetch dinner, I've barely kept up with email and the like. I've been waking up at 6am every day, though.

I've have posted the first half of the meal we were served at Pulhyanggi Saturday night in Seoul. (two extravagant meals in one day!) (Pulhyanggi, part 1)

Here are the rest of our our Icheon trip photos, including the part where our bus driver got pulled over for violating various traffic laws.

The rest of our Pulhyanggi experience should be posted within the next day, and I'll post some Namdaemun market photos as well. (We learned that we shouldn't speak or respond to Japanese in Namdaemun market if we want even moderately fair prices).

Peter - I would describe eating it as very light and somewhat sticky rice. It has a mild fragrance and the aftertaste is very pleasing. The addition of soy beans, legumes and ginko nuts adds more to the texture and the flavor. I could eat two bowls of it if I can.

Oh, and I also found out that even if it is that sticky, it makes a heck of a plate of garlic fried rice.

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Edited April 23, 2007 by JasonTrue (log)

[SheenaGreena]

thanks for the soy sauce crab pic. oh my god I want to put a bowlful of rice in that sucker and scoop all the innards out......DELICIOUS

so did jason and hiromi enjoy the crab?

hey is that boiled pork boiled in some sort of seasoning? I think it's done with some dwaengjang paste or maybe it's just boiled/steamed plain?

all the food looks great, I love rice with grains and stuff added to it - its great winter food and really good for you. Apparently old people love to put grains, legumes, beans, etc in their rice

[JasonTrue]

Hiromi dug into the crab quite joyfully...

As usual, I didn't eat any of the carnivorous/seafoody stuff. I was less observant of things with animals in them

thanks for the soy sauce crab pic.  oh my god I want to put a bowlful of rice in that sucker and scoop all the innards out......DELICIOUS

so did jason and hiromi enjoy the crab?

hey is that boiled pork boiled in some sort of seasoning?  I think it's done with some dwaengjang paste or maybe it's just boiled/steamed plain?

all the food looks great, I love rice with grains and stuff added to it - its great winter food and really good for you.  Apparently old people love to put grains, legumes, beans, etc in their rice

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[SheenaGreena]

you're a vegetarian? I hope you enjoyed all the namul (veggies). I could eat a whole bowl of fernbracken and bellflower root - gosari and doraji. Now is a great time to go to korea because all the mountain veggies are coming in and taste fantastic.

[JasonTrue]

Yes, fortunately Korea is an easier place to be a vegetarian than Japan, in spite of higher overall meat consumption. As in Japan and China, I have to make some concessions on things like soup stocks and so on, but small requests are generally accommodated (can you make that jjigae without pork, please?) and there are more foods that are typically prepared without meat or fish than in Japan...

I was in Hyundae department store earlier today eyeing all the fresh mountain vegetables... alas, I don't think I'll be doing much cooking here, even though I do have a passable mini-kitchen in my hotel.

Tonight's dinner is likely in Insadong... I'm not quite sure where, but it will probably be a fancy tofu place or perhaps Sanchon... I can't quite eat like that in Seattle, so I'm willing to pay the premium for elaborate Korean meals on vacation

you're a vegetarian?  I hope you enjoyed all the namul (veggies).  I could eat a whole bowl of fernbracken and bellflower root - gosari and doraji.  Now is a great time to go to korea because all the mountain veggies are coming in and taste fantastic.

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Edited April 24, 2007 by JasonTrue (log)

[Joon]

Gah!!! Looks so good. Where is this place? Oh, it's in Korea. Damn.

As far as the name of the restaurant, I was wondering the same thing. Is it Sal or Ssal? If it's Ssal (rice), bap in this context translates into something like "meal" or something.. e.g. - ssal bap = rice meal, bori bap = barley meal, kong bap = sort of breaks the rule and means rice + beans)

Generally speaking the term "Ssal bap" is used only when you need to differentiate between pure white rice and a different (mixed) rice/grain dish. So if my mother had two types of rice prepared and i wanted the white I would ask her specifically for "Ssal bap".

But sal could mean a few things. Two I can think of are flesh, or soft/brittle/light.

But I still have no idea what it would mean!

Edited April 24, 2007 by Joon (log)

[Joon]

thanks for the soy sauce crab pic.  oh my god I want to put a bowlful of rice in that sucker and scoop all the innards out......DELICIOUS

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I think you got me aroused with that comment. Hah!

[JasonTrue]

My crack research team (namely, me doing jetlagged wiki and google searches) indicates that it's actually ssalbap (

쌀밥), however, in Icheon, ssalbap has a very specific meaning. Most of my Seoul friends were just thinking that "ssalbap" means we ordered rice, which in the strictest sense is true, but not quite the whole story...

However, the ceramics gallery owner I visited in Heyri knew what it was instantly. He explained to his wife in Korean what we ordered based on my abortive English explanation, and ssalbap was enough of a shorthand for her to understand. (Most likely as a pottery collector he's spent a fair amount of time in Icheon).

I'm recovering from the painful decision of some well-meaning friends of mine to take me to a restaurant I'd never heard of called "Bennigan's" last night. Neighboring Insadong, no less... I should have considered the bright green neon sign bad news, but I didn't know what I was getting into until I had already agreed. When we got inside I detected the distinctive stench that all American family restaurants serving lots of fried potatoes and large mechanically sanitized plates share.

The highlight of the meal was a fizzy frozen strawberry lemonade, which probably would have made the meal tolerable if the restaurant had the good sense to make it with three or four shots of vodka.

The overcooked spaghetti with the syrupy sweet tomato sauce and various overcooked vegetables was left mostly unfinished... it made Red Robin seem positively gourmet. I asked for some parmesan or gochu flakes, but apparently that's not Irish American enough, and the restaurant doesn't keep any on hand. I was able to dull the pain with some yakgwa and omijacha when we later went to an Insadong tea shop.

Gah!!! Looks so good. Where is this place? Oh, it's in Korea. Damn.

As far as the name of the restaurant, I was wondering the same thing. Is it Sal or Ssal? If it's Ssal (rice), bap in this context translates into something like "meal" or something.. e.g. - ssal bap = rice meal, bori bap = barley meal, kong bap = sort of breaks the rule and means rice + beans)

Generally speaking the term "Ssal bap" is used only when you need to differentiate between pure white rice and a different (mixed) rice/grain dish. So if my mother had two types of rice prepared and i wanted the white I would ask her specifically for "Ssal bap".

But sal could mean a few things. Two I can think of are flesh, or soft/brittle/light.

But I still have no idea what it would mean!

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