Thanks for sharing the details of your wonderful meal. I got really curious after reading and googled a bit more about this place. A CNN piece rates the Seoul branch of this place as one of the 10 best Korean restaurants. Set aside whether one believes in lists like these, but if one is to believe that this place is in the upper echelons of Korean places, then $58 is indeed a steal, especially for I can’t even keep track of how many dishes you got.
What would be the reason that you said its not as sophisticated as other cuisine’s banquet food? In what aspects?
I’d have to believe that this style of food would be for occasions like more important family gathering, marriage, business meetings, etc? And the parents will drag the young ones to these meals regardless of whether they want to be there or not. When these young ones grow older and move beyond the fried chicken stage, they will start to appreciate these more… With that said, if there aren’t new immigrants from the ‘motherland’ to keep the cuisine honest, all cuisines will start to ‘stray’, not just Korean.
On the Gaesung style North Korean cuisine (from that same article):
If the Jeollado style of royal cuisine is, as Gang says, the “boss” of Korean food, then the food from Gaesung, the former capital during the Koryo dynasty, is its main rival. Where Jeolla food is boldly, almost aggressively, flavored, the food of Gaesong is clean and more subtle.
I’d be curious how popular this cuisine is back in South Korea. I’d assume this type of cuisine in North Korea would only be accessible to rich people with ties to the ruling party so wondering how the knowledge of this cuisine gets passed on outside North Korea with the state not open for immigration. Any idea where the chef came from and trained?
