Went out to have some jjukkumi (small/webfoot octopus) with a couple of friends last Sunday.
Living in Seoul metro area for 10+ years, I never knew Cheonho was famous for its jjukkumi street. Turns out it was.
Thing is I've only been wandering around a limited number of places for the past 10+ years, and still know very little about most other places in Seoul and around. Anyways in order to hit the jjukkumi street, you need to get off at Cheonho station on line 5 and 8. Get out from exit 6.
Some construction is going on under the gray sky. It's been raining or cloudy in Seoul for days.
You need to walk straight for about 100~150m before making a turn to right.
The road sign says Seongnae-dong Webfoot Octopus Street. I was wondering how '쭈꾸미' would be translated for 쭈꾸미 골목, but obviously, 'webfoot octopus'. Just wondering how many would know what webfoot octopus is before they get here.
This is where you turn right. Take the alley between KB bank(국민은행) and pharmacy(약국).
And the world of jjukkumi
unfolds! (it's actually a rather short street with few neighboring jjukkumi restaurants.)
'Jjukkumi Dosa' (쭈꾸미도사) is our pick for this day. Dosa(도사) means.. guru? expert? The red octopusman in front of the entrance must be the guru.
From the picture you can also see the blue 'Jinro frog', which is the mascot of 'Jinro Is Back' soju. It is pretty omnipresent in Korea.
Jjukkumi Dosa is actually a chain restaurant, and this one in Cheonho is the head branch.
Disposable apron with the jjukkumi mascot. 'Let-jju-gi-rit' (렛쭈기릿) should be their official chant,
cause it was everywhere with the mascot lol Thought it was cute. It's when jjukkumi spits out 'Les gitit', you know...
'JJu-doh-haet-eo' on the soju glass comes from 'soo-go-haet-eo' (수고했어), which roughly means 'good job' or 'well done'. I don't think there's exact translation of '수고했어' in English. Chinese '辛苦了' and Japanese 'おつかれさま' would be closer to '수고했어', cause this expression is usually used to appreciate one's hard work itself regardless of the result.
Anyways, I still don't get why they changed 'go' to 'doh'. 'Doh' has something to do with jjukkumi? Idk...
Mashed potato with corns. So-so.
This is where you fasten your seatbelt and get ready to be impressed. We ordered 'Jju-gob-sae' (쭈곱새) which is jjukkumi + gobchang (곱창, intestine)+ saewoo (새우, shrimp).
Largest menu on the wall with all the spotlights = easily our pick. By the way, reading from this menu, the intestine they used is 'daechang', not 'gobchang'. It's just the difference between small and big intestine (of cow or pig), the taste is not dramatically different.
I'm not a vegeterian, but trying to describe what these ingredients mean, I suddenly feel sorry for the sacrificed lives... this moral dilemma has been there for a while, but I haven't made my decision yet. Maybe I will someday...
We decide to explore 'yukjeon' (육전) while the main menu cooks. Yuk means meat, jeon means... jeon. Jeon is compared with pancake many times, but apart from its flat shape, all else is different. Jeon is where you get the ingredient (in this case meat), coat it with egg and flour (or some other types of grain-based powder), and fry it on the pan with oil.
Depending on the main ingredient, jeon can be of limitless number of types. Widely consumed ones are 'Kimchijeon' (김치전) made of kimchi, 'Haemoolpajeon' (해물파전) made of some seafood and green onion, and 'Gamjajeon' (감자전) made of potato.
Yukjeon doesn't make it into menus in many restaurants serving jeon (aforementioned are more common kinds), so it was a unique opportunity. On it is seasoned spinach.
Yukjeon and seasoned spinach were such a great combo. Congrats Jjukkumidosa, for inventing the wonderful harmony.
A restaurant staff jumps in to help with mixing and cutting the ingredients. Ready to dig in?
You can eat the cooked jjugobsae any way you want, but please do try 'ssam' (쌈), which means vegie-wrapped version of whatever dish you're having. They served mayo-based specialty sauce as well as flying fish roe as sides, so I put them all in my first ssam. The silent rule of ssam is that you don't take bites, you just have it all as a whole ssam. Better not be greedy and make it bigger than what your mouth can bear. Giant ssam sometimes leads disaster.
The leaf you see in the picture is 'ggaetnip' (깻잎), which means perilla leaf, but again, not so familiar as in webfoot octopus... right?
It's probably because ggaetnip is not grown in many other countries, but it's one of Korean's favorite ssam candidate along with 'sangchoo' (상추). The flavor is pretty strong so some Koreans don't eat it at all, but still, it's indeed one of ssam's charms.
We were very satisfied and full with jjugobsae and yukjeon, but we sticked to the another silent rule in Korea for making finale to a grilled dish - 'bokkeumbap' (볶음밥). It's where you add cooked rice and 'gim' (김), a type of seasoned laver, along with some other stuff as they serve, on the pan with some leftover of the main dish, and mix them all together.
As you can tell from the professional hand moves above, the staff comes back for the finale.
Mix it mix it
Spread it spread it (FYI, the 4 of us ordered 2 bokkeumbap. If you're already full from the main dish, you don't need to order it for each person.)
The art of bokkeumbap is that you wait until the bottom of rice is heated enough to turn crispy. But in some restaurants, for whatever reason (lack of oil? weak fire? idk...), it fails to turn crispy. When you order bokkeumbap but it lacks crispy part, your satisfaction cannot be full.
But our bokkeumbap was near perfect so we had to finish it despite being beyond full already. You know, the silent rules.
While I didn't make a video out of the jjukkumi adventure, I found a nice youtube video that shares the essential experiences of ssam and bokkeumbap. This channel (Koreanenglishman) is actually one of my favorites, so check it out.
Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnI1QBVKJEI
Hope this was of help as you decided to have some jjukkumi in Korea.
See you in the next post! :)