Perhaps the Greatest Gwangju Snack
Posted by GwangJu (at 2010/06/03 10:23)
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I must admit that I have developed a taste for most of the varied dishes served on the tables of the restaurants, diners and bars in the Gwangju. Once you manage to get out of the big chains that try to pass themselves of as traditional fare then your entire culinary experience in Korea changes. The people in Gwangju are very proud of their traditional foods and rightly so. However, this same pride makes it difficult to accept some of the newer dishes as being more than just a simple snack.
Specifically, I'm talking of one of the regions greatest foods, sangchu twigim (상추 튀김). Ask anyone outside of the Honam area what this is and you will get blank stares and shrugged shoulders. Sangchu twigim is incredibly simple, fast, cheap and very delicious. Small breaded and deepfried pieces of squid dipped in soy sauce then wrapped in lettuce with a small piece of onion and very hot pepper. That is it. Nothing else. No sesame oil, no hot pepper paste, nothing. It is everything that traditional Korean food should be. Simple and clean.
Photo from toshare.kr
Recently, my favorite place to get this little dish closed and was rel\placed with a shoe store and the shop that sells all those retro-Haitai Tigers t-shirts. Most places that specialize in deep fired snacks will probably have sangchu twigim on the menu at very reasonable prices. Throughout downtown there are several places that serve up ample handmade portions. Try to avoid some of the chain shops that are starting to pop up. These places tend to serve frozen, mass produced squid bits that are simply a step up from cat food.
I would like to see a greater pride in foods like sangchu twigim. The drive to globalize Korean food might see greater success by introducing the simpler Korean dishes to an international audience and moving on from there. If you look at the way that Korea has adopted western food it is apparent that the simpler foods were accepted than options available became increasingly more complex. I think the people behind the attempts to globalize Korean food would be suprised to know that many foreign residents gain a palate for what is nothing more than Korean fast food.
I would like to see a greater pride in foods like sangchu twigim. The drive to globalize Korean food might see greater success by introducing the simpler Korean dishes to an international audience and moving on from there. If you look at the way that Korea has adopted western food it is apparent that the simpler foods were accepted than options available became increasingly more complex. I think the people behind the attempts to globalize Korean food would be suprised to know that many foreign residents gain a palate for what is nothing more than Korean fast food.
::: Comments :::
Is that the place a few stores down from Wa Bar? If so, it's great. My favorite was the deep-fried stuffed peppers.
No, the place that I would go to was over on the back alley behind Gallery Zone. That place was an institution. A shed a small tear when the place shut.