Seoul cabbies hail pork-filled city cuisine

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Seoul cabbies hail pork-filled city cuisine

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Coal-barbecued pork ribs. By Park Soo-mee

Parking at “Seongbuk-dong Doeji Galbijip” (02-754-2420), a barbecued pork rib restaurant, could drive many men into crude competition.
The place is a gisa sikdang, a driver’s restaurant which serves humble, home-made Korean food for taxi drivers. Peering out the restaurant window, you can see the veteran taxi drivers parking during their breaks, pulling into their tiny spaces at speed.
Aside from the distressing parking, you can expect a few other treats at a driver’s restaurant in Seoul: They’re cheap, serve generous portions at moderate prices and many open 24 hours a day, though this one closes at 9 p.m.
But most importantly, the food is guaranteed to be good. Taxi drivers are noted for their meticulous taste in food.
Song Deuk-seon, a veteran taxi driver who dropped me off at his favorite driver’s restaurant one recent afternoon, explains: “If the food isn’t good, we go somewhere else, because that’s our job.”
Indeed, Seongbuk-dong Doeji Galbijip, literally meaning in Korean “a barbecued pork rib restaurant in Seongbuk-dong,” is one of the many drivers’ restaurants in the area that attract food-loving non-taxi drivers as well. It’s been in business for 35 years.
Like other such restaurants, this one specializes in pork. The theory is that pork is effective in discharging the dust that the drivers breathe in as they drive around town.
When you order barbecued pork (5,000 won/$5.29), you get a decent plate of coal-grilled pork ribs, clam soup, vegetable wraps and side dishes.
The portions are fair for one person, and rice is refilled without extra charge. But most of all, the meat is grilled to near perfection, and it’s fat free.
Service could have been better, but that’s probably because the staff knew I wasn’t a cab driver.
The drivers are politely courted for seats ― waitresses call them by the honorific sajangnim, or “boss.”
Even if you’re not a driver, your side dishes are generously refilled, and your taxi will be ready and waiting to take you home or back to the office.


By Park Soo-mee Staff Reporter [myfeast@joognang.co.kr]
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