Your most anticipated meal—and how was it?
On this last trip, I really wanted to go back to Mingles. The last time I went to Seoul was ten years ago, when chef Kang Min-goo was starting the restaurant. He earned two Michelin stars when Michelin first started in Seoul, and now he has three. He is an extremely talented chef. He spent months and months studying temple food at monasteries and brought back some of the culture. The food he serves isn’t temple food at all, but it’s very influenced by it. Now that it has three stars, the decor is a bit better and the service is a bit more refined. He has a good wine list. It’s a bridge between Western and Korean, and the food is really, really creative. It was very interesting to eat there: I ordered a long tasting menu with seafood like sea urchins, scallops, and clams, all with broth made from the shellfish. I also had this citrus [fruit] that looked like a lemon, but I’m not sure if it was. It was very powerful.
Did it live up to your expectations?
Ten years ago I was very happy about what he was doing, but I think he was still searching for something. Today he has found his way. It was fantastic. Maybe the best meal I had in a restaurant in Seoul.
Mingles was clearly a splurge. What was the best cheap thing you ate?
I’m not sure how cheap it was, but there was this one place called Mr. Ahn’s. It’s a makgeolli bistro with a very young clientele in a very hip area. It’s almost like a [Japanese] izakaya. They served me a gigantic calamari like… that [mimes one foot apart with his hands]. It was stuffed with rice and sliced up, with a sauce made from the ink of the calamari along with some spicy… I think it was kimchi juice? It was fantastic.
Which meal came with the best view?
There is this one temple called Jinkwasa that’s in the middle of a forest with a view of Seoul. They serve temple food—all vegan. People go there to escape the craziness of the city. The mountains are gorgeous, and you just eat, and eat, and eat while looking at them. It’s by a river so you can hear the sound of the water, the trees, the wind, and the birds. It’s probably the most dramatic view you can have of Seoul, at least for me.
