korean restaurant / Seongbuk-dong pork ribs – 262

Knight Diner Road

Episode 20

<Pork ribs with 48 years of history, Seongbuk-dong pork ribs >

I am often surprised when I walk through the streets of Gangnam, Seoul, where my company is located. The store that had an “A” sign until yesterday changed to “B” after the weekend. Food stalls, hops, noodle shops, and even dessert shops are filled with new signs and new faces that I don't even know about.

It may not be easy to wear an apron and last a few years (even just a few months) in a country where the recession continues, but honestly, I feel a little sad when I see something like this. Certainly, when the owner started vigorously with a new sign, the taste and aroma he wanted to show to the customers, and the values and dreams he sought were clearly captured in his mind. Also, their own regulars must have sprung up one by one. However, in this battlefield where new stores are born every day, restaurants that fail to win will soon close their doors. (There is no way for anyone to find that empty feeling I felt when the store I remember going back and forth a long way was gone.)

From that point of view, the long-time owner is worthy of admiration just for having endured such a long period of time. Not only the owner of the restaurant, but also the staff and customers age together. In the book “One Hundred Years Restaurant” written by Chef Park Chan-il, I pointed out what these long-established merchants have in common.

First, the food is delicious. If it doesn't taste good, it won't last long.

Secondly, the owner works himself. Wherever you go to an old restaurant, the owner starts a fire early in the morning, puts up a soup pot, and neatly prepares a table to welcome guests.

Third, the long-established employees have been working together there for many years.

The restaurant I visited on Kara Diner Road today also adheres to the above principles: “Seongbuk-dong Pork Ribs,” which has been protecting Seongbuk-dong for 48 years. This place is located right next to Ssangdari Pork Back, which I covered in the last article, Diner Road, episode 2. Both houses are very popular, so when it's time to eat, the whole area is overwhelmed by the crowds of taxis and regular customers. The last time I came up here, I took a green town bus, but today I got a taxi because time was running out, and the driver was amazed. It is said that it was just enough to eat here. He boasted that he has been a regular for 10 years, but there are so many regulars here (?) He throws a farm.

Together with the driver, I walked inside through a cute, crooked sign. The exterior of the store had a simple look, reminiscent of a nostalgic grandmother's house, but the interior is quite unique. Memorable round cards are all over the wall. I sit back and watch the amazing sight for a while. The main character of this unusual interior is the boss. My hobby is collecting old tickets and money. The empty cab holes in various places are marks of young customers falling apart one by one. (It's a valuable collectible, is it OK to go in groups? When asked, I can't help it, and she smiles heartily.) The boss, who was born and raised here, continues the family business after his retired parents.

Simple exterior with a cute signboard. Even if you just look at the signboard, you can feel the smell of meat.

It is divided into seated type and standing type.

Simple menu

Memorable stickers on the wall.

Every wall is full of clouds.

Before even sitting down, the hostess sees the driver's face and shouts “Rib Baekban” to Dae-mok's kitchen. The frequent chauffeur is memorizing things like his favorite menu and favorite side dishes. Imagine going into a knight's restaurant and sitting down and ordering “whatever you've always eaten.”

The menu here is simple. It's yakiniku white rice, where you can fully enjoy the tough flavor of the meat by grilling thinly sliced pork on briquettes, rib white rice topped with a slice of meat with ribs attached to it, and teokgalbi and cold noodles.

The difference from other bulbaek restaurants is that they buy the whole pork without removing it. Except for the head and pork ribs, it has all the rest. This meat is butchered to a size that is easy to eat on the meat steamer at the back of the store, and they use it, and they say they consume about 2 fish every 3 days. Shredded meat is handed over to the hands of a chef who has been working with him for over 30 years, and it is aged in the refrigerator for just 24 hours after being heavily seasoned with soy sauce. Then, marinated meat is harvested every day starting at 6 a.m. The store opens at 8:30 a.m. The front of the store continues to be visited by taxi drivers, drawn by the smell of grilled meat.

You might be disappointed with the amount of meat that comes from a man's palm on a plate, but it's perfect for a meal eaten with rice and wrapped vegetables. When you pick up one item and taste it, the unique smell of briquettes hits first, and the more you chew, the lighter the flavor becomes less greasy.

The reason this place has been popular for a long time even with its simple menu is because of the side dishes that go great with meat. The side dish, made by marinating small pieces of garlic in gochujang sauce, invigorates your mouth with a tangy flavor every time you might get tired of the meat.

| The meat with white ribs (7,500 won)

| It contains one piece of meat with ribs on it. This is 500 won

Well-grilled meat

â—‰ It's better if you wrap it with garlic.

| Bob the Thief

Tteokgalbi made from minced pork is also available. The thick rice cake ribs contain around ten points, and like yakiniku, they are not salty and have just the right seasoning, but they are a bit greasy.

I was distracted by the main menu, and after eating for a while, I looked at the side dishes, and a unique side dish stood out. It's just shellfish. I wonder if the yakiniku restaurant had shellfish, but I think the balance was right by thinking about the shrimp that comes with bosam or the meltō (anchovies) that are often eaten as a dip in Jeju black pork.

Shellfish has always been served as a side dish since the restaurant started, and in the past, salted fish was also marinated directly. Then, around the beginning of 2000, the number of customers gradually increased, and it was too difficult to prepare only the main menu, so I decided to buy it and use it. It is said that they then wandered around the country in search of tasty clams worthy of being presented to their customers. The final destination I visited was Ganggyeong in Chungnam, a city famous for salted fish. Only one family has been receiving shellfish for 15 years.

Salted fish has a salty flavor and a refreshing flavor unique to clams, and when chewed with rice, it has a savory flavor. I think it would be good to roll cold water on rice and use only shellfish as a side dish. Although it is contained on a small paper, its presence is as strong as Sohojeong's steamed sesame leaves or pollock from any Makguk collection in Gangneung.

The owner and his wife handed over this store to their current son and his wife three years ago, and they still come down from time to time to check the condition of the meat and side dishes. (There was a time when I left the store to someone else for a while due to circumstances, but even at this time, the owner's husband and wife's intellect (?) It is said that it continued.) Because of this difficulty, my son and I don't even dream of a branch or branch point.

Regarding the “45-year tradition” attached to the signboard, the owners and others casually answer, “I change it once every 5 years, but I changed it 3 years ago, so I'll change it again next year.” For a typical restaurant, “5 years,” which is an incredibly long time, doesn't seem very important to this restaurant, which is already running towards half a hundred years.

The goal that this restaurant is pursuing now is “old-fashioned taste.” No matter which customer visits at any time, they must be able to continue to recreate the flavors that have settled in their memories in the future. The young boss knew that better than anyone else.

[Epilogue]

I spent a few months looking for knight restaurants in and around Seoul. It seemed like the other day when I was starting curiously wearing a thick coat, but before I knew it, my camera bag strap and small notebook were soaked with sweat. Now, when you take a taxi, it automatically asks, “Where did you have lunch today?” The question came up, but I remember the taxi driver from Bundang who gave warm encouragement to leave a cheering comment, and I can laugh now even when I think about the experience of being misunderstood and kicked out as an advertiser while trying to interview a restaurant!

While covering various restaurants, for one reason or another, the records of some restaurants are still hidden in my computer, and I will post restaurants that I haven't introduced here on my blog intermittently. If I get a chance, I definitely want to visit Jeju or the knight restaurant at the end of Namhae at least once.

Finally, when it comes to knight restaurants, most of them stick to the bargain method because of the image of cheap food prices, and they are directly hit by the recession these days due to increasingly higher rents and rising prices. It's a pity that there are so many knight restaurants that disappeared into history and couldn't taste that food even in the middle of preparing for the interview. As a result, the last episode of Kite Diner Road was marked from the beginning to post this house. I sincerely hope that every knight restaurant with a difficult business will be reborn as a “restaurant that can overcome decades of time” like this place…

<그 동안 부족한 스토리를 구독해주신 많은 분들께 진심을 담아 감사의 인사를 드립니다>

Tips for eating

•Address: 114-2 Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

• Menu: Bulgogi Baekiban, Tteokgalbi, and half are all 7,000 won; Ribs are white rice 7,500 won; Father's cold noodles are 6,000 won; Bulbaek Father's cold noodle set is 11,000 won

• Opening hours: 08:30 to 21:00 (closed on the first and third Sundays)

• Add rice: free for the driver

•Vending machine coffee: free

•Parking space: 45 cars