[HIGH TO LOW] Korean lunchtime staple is reimagined to please the masses

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[HIGH TO LOW] Korean lunchtime staple is reimagined to please the masses

Published: 26 May. 2023, 12:48 Updated: 26 May. 2023, 17:11

Seoul is a city where you can find top-tier street food as well as world-class premium dining experiences. In this series, the Korea JoongAng Daily interviews chefs and cooks across the city, to introduce two restaurants offering the same dish at vastly different price points.

Fully Gimbap

Gimbap and tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) at Fully Gimbap in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul [PARK SANG-MOON]

Fully Gimbap in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, is Korea’s first customizable gimbap [seaweed-wrapped rice rolls] joint.

Like a typical deli or a Subway chain, the clear kitchen counter is filled with over a dozen options for rice, proteins, vegetables and sauces.

Behind it, store owner Lee Sang-min, 33, neatly lays the ingredients of a customer’s choice onto a piece of dried seaweed and then rolls it into a thick log.

The store’s unique concept instantly caught the eye of the public upon opening in December last year. Reviews poured in on social media from a slew of cucumber haters and carrot avoiders who had finally found a gimbap restaurant that didn’t put them through the tedious process of picking out every shred of unwanted vegetable from their rolls. Recently, Lee said that he had to turn back customers lined up at the storefront during lunch hours because they had used up all the food that was supposed to last until the dinner service.

“I definitely did not anticipate this kind of popularity or attention,” Kim said. The memory of shuttering his last gimbap shop was still fresh in his head.

“It was just a regular, small gimbap joint without anything special about it,” he said. “I had to close it because we just weren’t getting enough customers.”

Lee Sang-min, 33, is the owner of Fully Gimbap in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul. [PARK SANG-MOON]

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in business, Kim took an unexpected career turn and became an owner of the now-closed gimbap store in Incheon.

“Many people, including my parents, had a hard time understanding me but opening my own hansik [Korean food] eatery was my dream,” he said. “I felt that I had to give it at least one go.”

Lee’s passion for Korean food and cooking grew during some 10 years of his childhood which he spent alone in Beijing. He missed his hometown dishes but there wasn’t anyone who could make it for him so he naturally took on cooking as a hobby. His business-minded side drove his dream and passion to one day own a Korean restaurant.

“I remember even then, wondering why there weren’t many restaurants that sold Korean food, and thinking that, if there was one, many people would go to it,” he said.

But when his first gimbap store didn’t do well, Kim got a desk job at a financial firm instead.

His passion for gimbap wasn’t so easily extinguished, however, as he quit his position four years later and opened Fully Gimbap.

But this time, he had a better plan.

“I wanted to make gimbap that reflected people’s personal preferences,” he said. “When I was young, gimbap wasn’t sold in restaurants because it was almost always homemade. Moms often made it for kids on school picnic days. So all gimbap was different with every mom having a different recipe. I think many Koreans around my age will share the fun memory of trading a few pieces of gimbap with friends during lunchtime because everyone’s tasted so different. But nowadays, there are many gimbap stores and chains that don’t cater to individual preferences which felt unfortunate to me.”

With 11 proteins, 2 vegan options, 6 vegetables, 3 rice, and 5 additional toppings, there are about 260 different combinations of gimbap available. There are also several different sauces and side dishes including tteokbokki (spicy rice cake, 2,000 won or $1.52), cup noodles (2,000 won) and jjolmyeon (sweet and spicy cold noodles with fresh vegetables, 2,500 won).

The restaurant's staple gimbap is tuna mayo (6,500 won) with basil pesto (500 won) or beef bulgogi (7,200 won) with tomato gochujang sauce (500 won).

@fullygimbap_official
0507-1371-3884
Seongsu Station, exit no. 1

Endorphin Rolls

Yoo Ji-won, 58, and Han Wan-seong, 59, at Endorphin Rolls in Jung District, central Seoul [PARK SANG-MOON]

Gimbap and coffee are basically what feed the workers in Dongdaemun, Korea’s largest wholesale and retail shopping district in central Seoul.

Before Covid-19, it was one of the busiest places in the capital. Still today, young designers whiz by with rolls of fabric during the day and deliverymen run in and out of buildings throughout the night with giant plastic bags stuffed with clothes.

Gimbap is a quick and easy meal for many and alleyways inside the shopping district are filled with stalls selling it.

Yoo Ji-won, 58, and Han Wan-seong, 59, at Endorphin Rolls are old-timers in this neighborhood.

“Most of our customers are regulars who work around here,” said Yoo, whose husband, Han, made sure to establish that she was the owner of Endorphin Rolls, and not him.

“I’m just the help,” he said with a gentle smile.

Mini gimbap at Endorphin Rolls in Jung District, central Seoul [PARK SANG-MOON]

Six days a week, before sunrise, Han comes into the store to wash, chop and prep all the ingredients for the day. People are already making orders by the time Yoo comes in about an hour later and starts making gimbap.

“It's like clockwork now,” said Yoo. She looked to Han for reassurance.

“We fight sometimes, but somehow I always end up on the losing side!” Han replied.

The two have been married for 29 years and opened Endorphin Rolls together in 2018.

But Yoo’s history with gimbap goes much further back, to 1971 when her father passed away and her mother moved to Seoul from the countryside in Gyeonggi with Yoo and Yoo’s four siblings.

“Desperate but without really any resources, my mother began selling food inside Gwangjang Market,” said Yoo.

“The market today is famous for street food, but back in the day, it was widely known for textiles,” she said, remembering just one old lady squatting in the middle of central Seoul's Gwangjang Market and selling tteok (rice cakes).

“My mother tried selling many different things, but the mini gimbap rolls were the most popular, so she stuck with it,”

Once business kicked off, Yoo recalled her mother being constantly busy.

“All my sisters and brothers, including myself, had to help make gimbap,” she said. Yoo and many of her siblings carried on the business at Gwangjang Market after they became adults.

Today, the small seaweed rolls that Yoo’s mother began selling some 50 years ago are a staple snack of Gwangjang Market. Dubbed mayak or “narcotic” gimbap because of its simple yet addictive nature, this gimbap is bite-sized and filled with just rice, carrots and pickled radish.

Endorphin Rolls in Jung District, central Seoul [PARK SANG-MOON]

After years of helping her mother and running the gimbap store with her siblings, Yoo decided to open her own mayak gimbap store with her husband Han, outside Gwangjang Market. But at her new location in the Dongdaemun shopping district, she quickly realized that one dish alone wouldn’t be enough to draw in customers.

“After much thinking, we decided to create a new type of gimbap so that busy young designers and workers hustling until dawn could have a quick and healthy meal,” she said. “That is how we began mixing quinoa with rice inside our gimbap!”

Simply put, Yoo’s rolls are like mayak gimbap on steroids. Not only do her petite rolls have quinoa, but they also include protein and vegetables, just like a regular-sized gimbap.

The four types of mini gimbap at Endorphin Rolls are chicken breast (4,500 won), tuna (4,500 won), fish roe (5,000 won) and spicy anchovy (5,000 won). All of them include quinoa rice, kale, shredded carrots and pickled yellow radish.

Endorphin Rolls also offers mayak gimbap (3,500 won) and fish cake (2,000 won).

Yoo skillfully rolls the gimbap upon order, only taking mere seconds before sprinkling it with sesame seeds and serving them with a mustardy vinegar sauce.

“Simple is the best,” she said. “I learned that from my mother.”

@ndolpingimbap
0507-1411-2881
Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station exit no. 14

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]