Korean cuisine goes all noveau at Miss Park’s busy restaurant

Home > >

print dictionary print

Korean cuisine goes all noveau at Miss Park’s busy restaurant

테스트

dakbaeksuk, or a boiled whole chicken, with kimchi and house wine.

Can Britney Spears, champagne and kimchi possibly mix? At Miss Park, a new dining bar in southern Seoul, Korean trendsetters are embracing a new cultural fusion that used to be thought impossible and they are doing it with enthusiasm.
Yes, Miss Park offers all the things that are currently de riguer in a trendy Seoul restaurant, be it a pop sensation, an “it” drink, or oysters fresh from the south of the country. But it is all being done in an ingenious and original format created by the pretty and perky Miss Park, aka Park Ji-young, who has now become a fixture of the Cheongdam-dong fashion scene. Wearing pumps with five-inch heels and gold earrings purchased from a neighborhood boutique, she can be seen table-hopping and chatting with around 70 customers each night.
Las week, I was there in search of a good place for a late-night birthday dinner with my friends. Being vampires in a city of daylight requires some knowledge of places where one can dine long after sundown. For us creatures of the night Miss Park comes as a big relief because it remains open until 3 a.m. and serves “real” food until then, as opposed to the cheese platters served in bars and lounges.

테스트

seasonal dishes in the wintertime include saenggul muchim (spicy oyster and radish salad) and kkomak muchim (spicy cockles).

Of course, all this requires that one can get a table. On most nights, Miss Park is packed. Once diners occupy all the tables along the wall, in partitioned cubicles and two private rooms, they tend to stay for hours, and hours, eating, talking, drinking and eating again. Most of them already know each other too. And so the same people and their friends come back every day.
So who are these people? They are almost mostly designers, restaurateurs, fashion executives, PR agents and the like who work and play in Cheongdam-dong and Apgujeong-dong.
When asked about the secret of her popularity, Ms. Park says she’s adhered to a simple strategy by serving “just great Korean food and affordable drinks in a casual, but not florescent light sort of atmosphere.”
“You don’t have to move around different places to eat and drink, whether it’s soju or whiskey or wine,” she said. “I think this convenience factor has worked in our favor.” She stressed she wanted diners to visit Miss Park for its delicious Korean food, “not for the attractive single women in the restaurant.”
Korean dishes on the menu are all a la carte and relatively simple, compared to typical Korean restaurants. Ms Park says they are the familiar foods she grew up eating at home. “They are the kind of dishes my mother, who grew up in Jeolla province, would make for special guests who visit our home,” she said.
Everyone should start their meal with the great modeumjeon, or assorted patties (30,000 won ―$33― plus 10 percent VAT), served with spicy soy-based dipping sauce. The patties are made with slices of pollack, mushroom, green chili peppers and zucchini pan-fried in egg batter. These are classic holiday treats in Korea.
Serious meat lovers can order a pricey Korean delicacy such as cheonyeop muchim, or sliced tripe seasoned with sesame oil (18,000 won).

테스트

the interior of Miss Park

Complimentary side dishes consisted of country-style japchae made with bean sprouts and glass noodles. “This is the cheap stuff served for free at cheap diners, but it’s very delicious here,” one of our tablemates said, before asking for more. Little potatoes braised in soy sauce and chili peppers were nothing out-of-the-ordinary but are cooked perfectly, giving the right texture and taste, Korean-style.
The top dish at Miss Park is dakbaeksuk, a boiled chicken (50,000 won) served in a large bowl. My friends and I have certainly never eaten a whole boiled chicken outside of a Korean chicken restaurant. The chicken, which is pressure-cooked, takes more than 40 minutes to prepare, so be sure to order upon arrival. Because the restaurant serves about 10 birds a day, large groups are asked to reserve chickens in advance.
The white meat, enough to serve four diners, came off long and lean, the sure sign of a free-range chicken. With mild flavors of garlic and dates, both the meat and the fatty soup were wholesome and tasty. When the meat has been consumed the staff prepare rice porridge with the broth.
For both the delicate meat and porridge, kimchi added a nice kick of red spice, Korean-style.
The drinks list includes big brands from around the world, the kind that Koreans love to name-drop, including Chateau Talbot, Montes Alpha, Absolute Vodka, Kubota and Johnny Walker Blue. “I don't believe people saying they don’t look at the price of the wine they drink. My way of doing business is to offer excellent prices for a few drinks,” Ms. Park says. She prices her house wine, a Chilean red called Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon at just 35,000 won.

테스트

modeumjeon (assorted vegetable patties) in the center, with complementary side dishes, braised potatoes and stir-fried bean sprouts and glass noodles.

To coincide with the winter shellfish celebration, Miss Park serves saenggul muchim (fresh oyster salad) and kkomak muchim (spicy cockles). Large Japanese farmed oysters, fresh and plump, were mixed with slices of radish and a pungent sauce made with garlic and green onion. Cockles on the half-shell from Beolgyo, South Jeolla province were seasoned southern-style with garlic, chives, red chili pepper and sesame oil. They were fresh but a bit fishy. Both recipes have strong spices that require milder side dishes such as steamed rice or tofu.
Suddenly we found ourselves chomping down kimchi between glasses of Veuve Clicquot. The background music went from Britney Spears to Gadjo crooning “So Many Times.”
We’re obviously experiencing a cultural clash here ― isn’t it unstylish, or even improper to mix Korean food with Chilean red? But seeing arbiters of style clinking their wine glasses over spicy stir-fried octopus and rice cake or steaming kimchi stew one can only say that Korean noveau cuisine may have arrived.

Miss Park
English: On the menu; Japanese spoken.
Tel: 02-3443-2221
Hours: 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily except for Sundays.
Location: Next to Dongduk Univ. Design Center in Cheongdamdong.
Parking: Valet.
Dress code: Fashionable.


by Ines Cho
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)