Complimentary Korean Hotel Breakfast of Deliciousness
During her visit to Seoul, South Korea, Serious Eats contributor Tia Kim of Bionic Bites unexpectedly came across a great complimentary Korean breakfast at her hotel, Artnouveau City, that would make me rethink my non-breakfast-eating ways if I had easier access to the same dishes:
Everyday there was junbok jook (전복죽, abalone rice porridge), a huge stone vat of bubbling kimchi jigae (김치찌개, kimchi stew) with pork belly, kim (김, roasted seaweed), rice, and some sort of japchae (잡채, stir-fried noodles with meat and vegetables) or haemul japtang (해물잡탕, seafood and vegetables in a thick soy ginger garlic sauce) with lots of oyster mushrooms, which, by the way, was my favorite. The oyster mushrooms in Korea are amazing.
Rice, kimchi, pork belly, seaweed, noodles, seafood, vegetables—sounds more like the breakfast of champions than Wheaties.
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12 Comments:
Thats so funny - my boyfriend just got back from a business trip to Korea and while he's generally a fan of Asian food, he couldn't stomach the breakfasts! He said the fishiness and spiciness of the traditional breakfast foods were just too overwhelming at 6:30am.
When I was studying abroad in the Dominican Republic, my host mother used to eat boiled root veggies with some kind of salted dried fish for breakfast. She said she had to have something "de la tierra y mar" (from the earth and sea) to start her day right.
One person's dream breakfast is another one's worst nightmare!
LetThemEatQueso at 11:19AM on 11/03/09
That's a lot of yummy food, but not so different from my typical breakfasts here in the US. I have either leftover curry & rice, congee with pork meatballs and ginger, Indian chillas (garbanzo bean pancakes), fried rice with chilis, garlic, veg and whatever protein is around, etc.
It's a fabulous spicy start to the day.
Dcarl1 at 11:27AM on 11/03/09
Im with your boyfriend... that kind of stuff doesnt even sound appealing to me in the morning, no matter what country. Sounds better as a dinner or lunch than breakfast.
plazmaorb at 11:28AM on 11/03/09
@plazmaorb: That's an interesting thing to point out...when I was little I didn't like breakfast food and I didn't understand why I "couldn't" eat food designated for lunch or dinner for breakfast.
Robyn Lee at 11:37AM on 11/03/09
Wow, that looks good!
I can see where this meal would turn some people off. But that’s not me. I’ve always been a savory over sweet breakfast person. One of my go to meals is fried rice made with whatever was leftover from the previous night’s dinner. And always with a good shot of sriracha or gochujang.
dsquare at 11:51AM on 11/03/09
This looks like an amazing breakfast. I used to eat kimchi and noodles every morning and preferred that over sugary cereals.
bearsonawire at 12:06PM on 11/03/09
I remember hotel breakfasts in Japan...moulded triangles of sticky cold rice, vegetable soup, spongy baguette, unidentifiable flakes of seasoning to put on top of the rice (I later found out it was dried seafood with seasoning). Very red orange juice, random yoghurt. I loved it all. Your choice of green tea, coffee or strong coffee (which wasn't that strong). But I would go back in a minute just for that rice.
At one hotel in Tokyo, they showed me a picture-menu of the four different breakfasts. One was a whole crab, one was a huge fillet of salmon, one was sushi, and one was eggs and bacon. I must admit, I went for the eggs and b, as Bertie Wooster would say.
That said, there is never a bad time for kimchi. I could eat oceans of kimchi, with enough Kirin to wash it down.
NotAmerican at 12:50PM on 11/03/09
this is so my kind of breakfast.
savoury flavours...hold the sweets!
hungrychristel at 12:56PM on 11/03/09
@LetThemEatQueso - They also had American food for breakfast (pancakes, omelets made to order, cereal, toast, etc.), which my BF ate every day while I ate kimchi jigae. To each his own I guess. I just liked the fact I could eat all the kimchi I wanted in Korea and I never had to worry about offending anyone! Haha, except perhaps my BF.
Tia Kim at 2:31PM on 11/03/09
For Brunch after a full nights sleep, and then lazing about for a fews hours, it looks great!
But, after being jarred out of sleep by an alarm clock, feeling nauseous and tired..... I don't want food, I want a shower, and to get moving. If I have to eat early, give me strong tea (milk & sweetner) or a cola, maybe toast & eggs, or oatmeal.
Spicy or greasy food when I feel morning nauseous? NO WAY!
peekpoke at 3:43PM on 11/03/09
I've only been in Korea for a day for reasons I don't even remember, but my Korean friend's mother made us wonderful breakfast (bulgogi and grilled whole fish, with several kinds of homemade kimchi). I used to have a stomach of steel so I enjoyed every meal, but a Japanese friend who traveled with me succumbed to garlic overdose by the end of the stay. I guess it was a good thing we didn't stay long.
hmw0029 at 6:13PM on 11/03/09
It's funny because in Korea, this meal can be either breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Love Korean food!
kaylubb at 9:05PM on 11/05/09