Bangi-Dong’s New Food Lane

It is a new food street that starts from the point across the road that runs towards Garak Market from Nam 2-mun. Each restaurant is putting out `venture menus` that mix unfamiliar recipes in new methods. Looking closely, one can also `health food` along with them.

Hong Kong-styled Chinese food imitator `Mister Chow` introduces `Roast Duck` as its main menu. Gutless duck, without cutting the head, is stuffed with 13 different spices like dried orange peel, licorice, and laurel leaf, and dipped in vinegar after being sewed with thread. The duck is, then, put in hot water and cooled repeatedly for 12 hours. The after-taste is especially good, because it is greaseless and sweet. Vegetable-sea food fried rice, wonton soup, and Hong Kong-styled sweet & sour chicken, which are made by veteran chefs from Hong Kong, are also popular.

`Papa Joe’s` family restaurant, which has the concept of European Mexican food, also opened. Manager Sul Min-Ja explained, ¡°The European style has less of oily taste compared to Americanized Mexican food, and more or natural taste of recipes. Including `Santa Fe` dish that is served roasted on 360 degrees rotation with beef, chicken, and bacon all put together, `Chicken Potato`, which is broiled with onions, spinaches, and chicken herb cream sauce, is also delicious. The sight of cocktail made in the first floor being carried in a transparent elevator up to the 7th floor is another attraction of the restaurant.

At pasta-specialized `Pasta Vistro`, there is a unique atmosphere, as various flowerpots from Seocho-gu, Yangjae-dong’s flower plant decorate the hall. `Shanghai Pasta`, which contains mixed seafoods and chili oil, is a delicious combination of Korean and Chinese tastes, and `Pollack-egg Kimchi Spaghetti` has a nice chilly taste too.

Broiled-beef restaurant `Uri Gangsan` has a peculiar procedure in processing beef. When `Special Natural Galbi`, which serves 4 individuals with the cost of 190,000 won, is ordered, 1st-grade Korean beef’s finest part, breast meat, is served with all the fat removed. 2 servings of sliced meat are served and the 4 servings are roasted. Reservations must be made in a day’s advance, and chefs slice the meat in front of customers, just like in Japanese restaurants.

In the street that is opened towards Olympic Village apartments, Japanese restaurants, `Agu-jjim` special houses, and row-fish restaurants are gathered around each other. Also, some Korean food restaurants that have renovated from family houses, like `Jeju Ddukbaeki`, can be seen here and there. At `Agu-Nara`, natural bean sprouts and `gat-kimchi` stimulate the appetite, and `Eojeon` is highly reputable that even many Japanese customers visit on regular term. A good café to have a cup of coffee, `Czar`, has an open-view through the 1st and 2nd floors, and it also has a feeling of movie studio as the interior design made a good use of palm trees and orchids.

In-Jik Cho cij1999@donga.com