시골감자국 Seoul

Sigol Gamjaguk (시골감자국) - Seoul (Korea)

Gamjatang is a pork spine soup, simmered in a spicy broth with potatoes, perilla leaves, bean sprouts and a variety of vegetables.

My gamjatang adventure could not have gone any better. I decided to try it at Sigol Gamjaguk, away from the tourist crowds and a long metro ride away from the well known neighborhoods for tourists. Here, I got to see a glimpse of the actual local life in a part of the city rarely visited.

There were no English menus whatsoever here, and Auntie looked quite surprised as I stepped inside her restaurant, as if I were there to ask for instructions. Once she understood that I was there for the soup, we had a funny interaction to figure out which variation of it I would order.

After that, I sat down to start working on the nice banchan set that she served, while she finished preparing my gamjatang.

I was the only customer there during the whole time, and although we could not understand one word from one another, auntie and I definitely connected. She gently smiled back everytime I raised my thumbs up to show her that I was enjoying the meal and at one point she even decided to get her hands dirty and show me how I should manually break the bones to free up more meat. From her laugh, apparently I was doing it all wrong.

The soup was rich, comforting and sizzling hot. The meat was tender and the vegetables were not overcooked and had a nice crunch to them. Overall, it was a meal close to perfection. But nothing comes remotely close to what I saw beyond the food there, as these types of interactions and learning experiences are what I look for the most in any of my travels. Or life in general.

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