Yesterday we had the excitement of going for two
Michelin star rated food in
Seoul. Previous attempts at fine dining here had seen us having to serve ourselves a starter from a buffet.
Carpaccio looks pretty when arranged by a chef, when arranged by a
cack-handed, half drunk northerner it looks like a pile of raw meat. That's why we have chefs.
Coex Inter-Continental is a pretty soulless hotel, very much the chain in a big old department store hotel but the lift was fast and the view from the Sky Lounge on the 30
th floor was pretty good. River views, mountain views and Seoul traffic views. You can't ask for too much more.
It is a nice dining room set up to take advantage of the views, which seems a no
brainer but you would be surprised how many places get it wrong. We have tables set with linen, we have nice crockery and glassware. All good.
Lunch had two menus, one at 65,000w, about £33, and one at 55,000w, roughly £28. The more expensive had the choice of lamb(!) or beef for the meat course with an additional course of saffron risotto. Saffron is pound for pound one of the most expensive foodstuffs around and anyone with half a taste bud knows it is
minging. It is one of those flavours that could be so subtle as to be indistinguishable and I would still distinguish it. Hate the stuff. It once ruined a meal in Milan sat at the table next to
Benito Carbone. Anyway, because of saffron I opted for the cheaper menu. Unusual for me....
First up was a glass of Piper
Heidseck. Now, I should have learned from the £25 glass of Bangkok
Moet but when you are out for a good meal it really is difficult not to start with Champagne. Isn't it? This was a reasonable 20,000w(£10) glass and was very yeasty and was to match up with the first two courses.
On to the food. First up was goose liver with scampi. A thin slice of rich, fatty goose liver topped with a
langouistine/scampi/Dublin Bay Prawn. Call it what you like, I love em. The plate was topped with three big strawberries. The goose liver was
Foie Gras, unethical and delicious, the scampi was everything a tiger prawn isn't and the strawberry worked really well to cut through the richness of it all Though three strawberries were excessive they made my pairing of the Champagne with the first two courses look inspired.
Next up was a Lobster Ravioli, three corn yellow ravioli served up with a nice chunk of pure lobster meat, three tiny cubes of beetroot. a fat oyster and a garish pink sauce/foam. This was pretty subtle and a touch disappointing. The ravioli were good, combining that lobster sweetness with a hint of the sea, the oyster was very good in a should I really be eating this fashion, the beetroot was pointless, give me a decent slice of the beets so I can really taste it, and the sauce really let it down. It was creamy and pink, possibly under-seasoned and dare I say it, possibly microwaved. I very much doubt this but there was evidence of a skin and it did come out very quickly.
The third course was the beef and this consisted of a beef
tartare with beef and
polenta. The plate is presented with a tower of
tartare, ground raw beef topped with a
tapenade topped with a tiny, raw quails egg yolk. To its right sat 2 slices of
rareish beef and two diamonds of
polenta in a rich brown
jus/gravy. One
polenta was topped with a tiny slice of truffle. I've never had a
tartare before, my fair share of raw beef yes(
Yukhoe was one of my first Korean dishes and is still one of my favourites), but never the classic
tartare. This was good but the
tapenade was a pretty strong flavour and masked pretty much everything else. I guess raw beef and raw egg yolk aren't exactly hammering home their flavours but it just seemed a touch over the top. The grilled beef to the right was everything a meat dish should be in a place like this, perfectly seasoned with a
jus/gravy that really brings out the meatiness of it all. The
polenta I didn't like. Give me potatoes over grain this just tasted a bit healthy for a plate like this. The truffle was earthy.
We drank a Chianti
Classico with this and despite being a 2005 and my fears of it being too young it was a very modern cherry rich glass with a smell of the sweaty leather in there. A good match to the cooked beef, the
tapenade herbiness messed with it a bit.
Pudding/
Dessert was an apricot
thingamybob. It is hard to describe fancy puddings. There was a sorbet whose flavour I couldn't distinguish atop a set vanilla cream atop some poached apricots atop a
spongey,
biscuity fella. Served with a fantastic, I mean really fantastic, black fruit compote and three cubes of apricot jelly stuff. Like I say, it is difficult to describe fancy puddings. It was good though.
All in all it was a pleasure to be eating in that manner in Seoul. Fine dining is not something that seems to be easy to come by here and I will be honest, I miss it. I don't eat like that often for sure but as an occasional treat there are few more pleasurable ways to spend ones time.
Tokyo has just been showered with stars in its first Michelin review. I simply cannot see that happening here. You can eat incredibly well in Korea. Incredibly well. However at the top end of things, when we move out of the peasant, homely cooking that is the basis for all cuisines into the subtle, well presented and exciting, there seems to be nowhere to go. This is a shame. There is food here that could be elevated into the sublime at the hands of a truly skilled chef.
Tables that came in after us all went for the most expensive menu and all had lamb. We need to start seeing lamb here!!!
Christ, that was long. Spring feels like it is coming and I have gone white wine crazy. Wednesday is the next Herald article and it is going to be on a white theme I reckon.
Sauv Blanc,
Viognier, Chardonnay and
Semillion. I just need to find a cheap bottle
because everything I have bought
recently has been over 20,000. A sign of
inflation or something else?
