Korean “sundae,” also, and less confusingly spelled, “soondae”, is one of those foods on the list with bbondegi and sannakji that brave eaters brag about eating and picky eaters loath to even image. But it doesn’t belong on this list. The ingredients, pig’s intestines stuffed with cellophane noodles, barley, and pork blood, give the impression that it must taste strange and unfamiliar. But the truth is, soondae doesn’t have a challenging flavour or a peculiar texture. It’s actually a really familiar tasting and comforting food that reminds me of roasted chicken. (more…)

I stumbled upon this coffee shop a couple of weeks ago and I have been dreaming about it ever since. I have never in my life had such a beautiful cup of coffee and I’ve had great coffee all over the world, from Brazil to Indonesia. Granted, coffee is not my drink, I’m a tea person, but there is something undeniably different about Kaldi’s hand dripped coffee, it’s complex and robust with a suggestion of bitterness. It makes the Starbucks Americanos that we all guzzled on the way to work seem like a shadowy recreation of coffee’s true essence. This is the kind of coffee you can drink without milk and sugar, you wouldn’t want it interfering with the taste. Just as you wouldn’t spike your single malt with coke, hand dripped coffee from some of the world’s best beans is a thing of purity that mustn’t be sullied. In fact, I don’t even think they have milk, I certainly didn’t see any. They do give you sugar with your coffee but I urge you to try it without. A cool cup of water is the best way to neutralize the bite. Just like great scotch or wine, this coffee should be smelt, tasted carefully and swished in the mouth with brisk sucks of air to bring out the taste. You needn’t feel embarrassed, Kaldi is also a coffee school that teaches proper tasting technique.
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Style: Pasta
Location: Downtown, Daegu
Price: approx. w80,00 for two incl. wine
Hours: 11:00am-9:00pm closed Sundays (and Tuesdays until further notice)
Contact: 053 421 3965

Even before Dijon, Daegu’s first full-sized Western restaurant, Into, the tiny bistro directly beside it, was serving pasta dishes to customers who had only heard about spaghetti. Into was established in 1992, although there are conflicting stories about when it actually officially opened.  Back then there were only a handful of English teachers from abroad and a small group of Americans working with the department of defense. Not nearly enough of a customer base to cater a restaurant to. Park Dae Yoon, chef and now owner of Into, worked along side Che Sang Young, Dijon’s current chef and owner. They were the first to introduce pasta to the locals and he still remembers the long period of adjustment before Koreans got a taste for Into’s Mediterranean-inspired dishes. Like Che Sang Young, Park Dae Yoon is self-taught, learning his chops from Into and Dijon’s original owner. After seventeen years in the kitchen, cooking school, he says, would be a waste of time.
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The fact that veganism hasn’t really caught on in Korea didn’t stop Sticky Fingers from opening up its No Milk, No Eggs, No Butter bakery in Seoul’s Shinsegae Department store. For the past four years Sticky Fingers has been introducing shoppers to pastries and bread made without any animal products at all. Most of their customers are allergy sufferers who aren’t specifically interested in animal rights or the environmental aspects of products they sell.

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Okay, I’m cheating a bit, this is way too simple to be called a recipe.  Maybe it’s the heat but I’m feeling lazy and not in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Nectarines are in season right now and available all over. When choosing your nectarines for grilling choose some that are ripe but on the firm side, they stand up better on the grill. The best kind of yogurt to use is the home-made kind but if you don’t have the time or don’t know how you can use store-bought. “Denmark Plain” tastes the most like real, live yogurt. You can also make this dish more savory by switching out the yogurt for blue cheese and garnishing with walnuts.
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What: Gerolsteiner Sprudel Natural Mineral Water. Geroslsteiner is the most popular mineral water in Germany and for good reason. This is probably the best water you’ll ever have.

Where: Shinsegae Department Store Jung-Gu, Seoul

How Much: w1500 750ml

If you spot something hard to find in Korea send us an email at info@theoneonefour.com and we’ll post it on The One One Four.

Style: Spanish
Location: Gangnam, Seoul
Price: approx. w140,000 for two incl. wine 
Hours: 11:30-2:30 and 5:30-11:oo everyday 
Contact: 02 515 1118

Spain Club Seoul, opened just four weeks ago in Gangnam,  is a Japanese franchise that employs a Japanese and Korean staff. The kitchen is being overlooked by a Spanish chef for the first three months to train the cooks in the ways of Spanish cuisine. The menu at Spain Club is massive with tapas and entrees from across the region. The wine list is also a hefty tome, that feels in the hand like a small phone book. Much of the menu is built on expensive imports and the prices reflect it. The decor is also mostly imported, from the dishes to the tiles on the wall, and the result is a wonderful feeling of  other-worldliness that transports you from the streets of Seoul to place that feels something like Spain.  That or just a really posh restaurant.

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