Pitt Street Eats

It must be the warmer weather. I seem to be out of the house a lot more in the evenings lately - eating Asian food.  Tough life. 

It had certainly been some time since I'd eaten around Chinatown - made obvious by its expansion well into Pitt Street.  I barely recognised this end of town.

Some weeks ago I met some friends at the handsome old Civic Hotel (an oldie but a goodie) for a quick pre dinner Amaretto Sour (And it was goood, let me tell you) 

before walking few meters north to Seabay Chinese Restaurant for steamed dumplings, fried pork, lamb pies, spicy chicken salad and a great little stirfy of slivered potatoes and peppers.  This place is seriously no frills and the menu is succinct but what they do, they do pretty well. I think it only came to about $20 per head  and the portions were very generous . So much so that I returned the following week with a hungry boy who needed filling. We ordered the spring onion pancake that time and it was damn good.

A few weeks later and a little further north on Pitt Street, close to Liverpool street, I was trotting down an vacant alleyway towards Madang Korean BBQ restaurant in what appears to be the start of a mini Korea town. It really felt like we were in Asia and the aromas were incredible.  Such a great vibe and full of Korean faces!  I was meeting a few fellow food writers including Leanne Kitchen who, having written an App for Chinatown restaurants (eat chinatown sydney), is kinda in the know on the better places around so I knew before I arrived we'd be in good hands.

We ordered fried chicken with spicy sour sauce, an excellent seafood pancake, dumplings, pork belly with oyster kimchee wraps and tofu with shaved bonito. Plus all the usual Korean pickled, fermented accompaniments arrived right on cue as part of the deal. We drank it down with red ginseng wine and it came to about $35 per head.

As my other half is now working near this area I suspect there will be further investigations... so stay tuned. 

Korean food in Kyoto

A Korean friend recently introduced me to some very good grub in Kyoto town. It was in a tiny, ramshackle place in the front of someone's living quarters. You could pretty much see their futon, in fact their entire tatami-matted bed-sit from your seat. 

It doesn't look much at all but wow - this woman knows her stuff. The food I ate here was better than I'd experienced in Korea! Really great iced noodles (above) with cucumber and vinegary soup (forgive me, I don't know the correct names for some of these dishes) - so refreshing on a hot Kyoto day. Bibimbap with crunchy rice base (being prepared below), excellent Kim chee and fantastic Chijimi (thin, crisp scallion and squid pancake). 

Don't ask me the name of the place.. I don't think it has one. But if you are hungry and diligent you might just find the joint. Walk east from Higashioji dori along the north side of Sanjo dori about one or  two blocks  and turn (north) left. A few doors up you will find a small doorway on your left (west) that looks straight into the place. I am sorry I can't be more specific than that but I was lead here on a chatty walk and wasn't taking a lot of notice at the time. Anyway - it is in this general vicinity so if it takes you 10 minutes to find it I am sure you won't mind -it'll be worth it -trust me. 

Get there early for dinner as there are only about 5 seats and it is very popular with the locals. We'd actually been invited for a private lunch-  which caused no end of gawkers -   you should have seen the folks desperate to get in the door...  the look of excitement on the faces of the regulars at the thought of it being open for lunch was priceless! The look of disappointment when they realised it was just a tease... Gold! Very privileged to have enjoyed such a delicious and unexpected encounter with Korean food in downtown Kyoto.

Snapshots of Seoul December 2011 part 2

You will find part 1 - here!

notice anything unusual above?

Spun honey sweets filled with nuts, chocolate etc - doing a roaring trade with the Japanese tourists (and me!)

you cannot escape!

antique shop - complete with old dog

Sounds like dinner with some of my closest friends

typical Korean sweets - which in my experience are not particularly sweet

sugar and spice and all things nice shop

Lunch in Insadong was down an alley way at a place called "setting the table" ... yes I chose it because there was enough english on the sign to advise me it was a restaurant...

Once inside it looked quite different to what I'd expected. I was the only patron and was treated very well. The staff were as friendly as could be - although I could have done without the waiter playing me each of his favourite Hillsong arias once he found out I was from Sydney...

         

                       

Shoju - I was expecting a glass but a whole bottle arrived... oh well.  

Blak sesame soup,  dumplings in both, a liquid and refreshing kimchee on the right

Crispy squid pancake

grilled pork salad

Pork belly wraps

Bibimbap with beef - yep, that was lunch for one  - about $10 AUD. Excellent value and delicious. 

These streetstall dumplings looked delish.. wish I'd had room after lunch...what I neglected to show you in the photographs was the black sesame ice cream that finished off the meal nicely...

So close to the mountains...