Gemma’s Fat Girl’s Food Guide
If you have lived in Seoul as a foreigner, chances are you have heard of the fabulous website, A Fat Girl’s Food Guide to Eating in Korea, written and run by British expat Gemma Wardle. The site has a wealth of helpful reviews of foreign food restaurants in Seoul, recipes, and places to buy hard-to-find ingredients. Gemma’s website won the 2014 K-Blog Award in the “Best Food Blog” category, and she has written for or been featured in a number of media outlets including the Korea Times. I had the honor of sitting down with Gemma last week at Ikovox Coffee in Itaewon. Gemma is an Itaewon local, and as I wandered the narrow streets lined with quirky foreign food spots–a mac and cheese cafe, a pub advertising fish and chips, kebab and falafel, a Bulgarian restaurant–it made sense why she would be drawn to this neighborhood. Gemma is warm and wonderful to talk with, the kind of engaging friend always game for great food and stories. She has high standards; she sent back her drink when the barista brought it out in a to-go cup even though we were clearly sticking around. And she is incredibly helpful. At one point she stopped and asked me, like a friendly tour guide to Seoul’s foreign food world, “Is there anything you are looking for I can direct you to?” “Hmmmmmm….. for me personally, I miss salads, and fresh fruit for smoothies…” “You just have to shop around,” she advised. “I usually find that one supermarket will be good for cheap vegetables, and one will be good for cheap fruit. You just have to keep an eye out, and you’ll find them!” Morgan: So what first brought you to Korea, and how did you get started food blogging? Gemma: I first came to Korea over seven years now. One of my friends who I had lived with in Australia was over here teaching. I wanted to travel more, so I came here. I have been teaching more or less ever since. I started the blog about three and a half years ago now because I had so much information about food, and it seemed like my friends were always asking me the same questions over and over again. “You can buy this in Korea?” “You can really make teas in Korea?” I didn’t really have any ambitions at first. But then the blog really gained momentum and became much bigger than I ever thought it would. Since your blog has gotten so big, what has it been like? Do you ever have people recognize you on the street? Hmmmmm… that has only happened two or three times. Once someone sent over a drink though! That was pretty cool. I think my blog is memorable because of the name, and I just have a lot of content as well. How do you chose the restaurants you review? And when you go in to review a restaurant, what would you say you are looking for? What do you pay attention to? I keep a list of places I want to review–places that friends mention or new places I see in this neighborhood. I keep an ear to the ground. Sometimes I am just craving something, or sometimes I am invited to try something on the house. The places I review I have to either really love, or there has to be something special or different about them. For example, because there are so many pizza places, for me to review a pizza place, it has to be really, really good. Whereas if you are the only Bulgarian restaurant in town, I just have to like it. I can be a lot more forgiving. I don’t write negative reviews. I critique individual dishes, but on the whole I want to blog to be positive. I think that adds a lot to your blog that it is so positive. And it has a lot of good content! One thing that is hard about being a foreigner in Korea is finding shops where you can buy good ingredients for cooking and baking. You have some suggestions on your website, but I was wondering if you could tell me some of the top places that you go to shop for ingredients? Costco. Once a month we go to Costco, because it is very cheap for dairy products. And then I shop weekly at my local Korean grocery store for fruits and vegetables. And the foreign food mart in Itaewon as well. If you were to characterize the changes you have seen in foreign food in Korea during your time here–food fads that have come and gone–what have you noticed? Oh, the changes have been insane… I remember several years ago when Paris Baguette started selling little chicken tender wraps, which were like some of my favorites at home. That was exciting. And then more and more products over time came–quinoa and chia seeds. There is nothing you can’t get now. Before there were things you couldn’t get, but now it is a very small list. And if you can’t get it, you can make it. Are there any food from back home that you really miss, or are really hard to find? I miss parsnips. I even bought seeds, but I haven’t planted them yet. Oh, and rhubarb. And “American” Chinese food, covered in batter and fried…. That sounds amazing… So most of the reviews you do are for foreign foods. Have you thought about reviewing Korean restaurants? I never reviewed Korean restaurants in the beginning because so many other people were already doing it. And it’s not hard to find Korean food–it’s everywhere. I do like Korean food. But I eat mostly foreign food. So you do a lot of cooking for yourself? I read somewhere you do a diet, “raw ‘til 4”? Yes, I only eat raw food until four, but now I am not as strict with it. I always make a green smoothie
Curry Story (커리 스토리)
Review by Mo Kinsinger, ETA ’15-’16 City: Mokpo Restaurant Name: Curry Story (커리 스토리) Foods Served: Indian Restaurant Address: 18 Bipa-ro 43 beon-gil, Mokpo View Map Price: 10,000 won + Directions: Start at the most east, central entrance gate to Rose Street. Walk one block down Rose Street (south-west), and turn left. Walk one block. on the left corner of the intersection, one the second story above a Ministop, is the restaurant. [slideshow_deploy id=’4143′] Mokpo is a splendid place to live. And I have very, very few complaints. In fact, the only one I can really think of is the difficulty in finding good foreign food restaurants; we all know they are out there, lurking, hiding in the outskirts of 남악 or in the winding back alleys of 시내, and when we find one we cling to it like a cherished bottle of Dr. Pepper or the last piece of real, Chicago-style deep dish pizza. That is why me and my Mokpo buds have returned to Curry Story, probably at least five times in the last couple months. The location is great–just off of the popular Rose Street with its cute coffee shops and boutiques. Curry Story’s atmosphere is colorful, cushioned and comfortable. The place is rarely crowded, and played cheesy Indian music videos which are always entertaining fillers to lulls in conversation. But the best part is the curry–spinach, chicken, plain… it is all delicious. The curry is not very spicy, but definitely authentic–Indian, not Japanese-style. You can eat the curry with rice, but I recommend the garlic nan, which comes warm, buttery, crispy, and as big as two dinner plates. The chicken is also very good. And the mango smoothies are worth trying as well. There is free coffee and candies as you leave. The waitstaff is kind and helpful. I mean, they keep tolerating our big groups of foreigners when we show up on a regular basis. All in all, this is one of our favorite “spots” in Mokpo.
Sharky’s Bar and Grill
Review by Breanna Durham, ETA ’15-’16 City: Busan Restaurant Name: Sharky’s Bar and Grill Foods Served: Western Restaurant Address: Busan, Haeundae-gu, Jung-dong, 1123-1 2-19 View Map Directions: Take the subway to Haeundae Station. The restaurant is a left on the beach’s boardwalk. It’s near the end of the beach and is one the second floor of the Gecko building. There should be a shark sign to guide you. It also has a large sign with its name. Cost: around 15,000 won There were modern black top tables and black and red leather seats. The walls were exposed brick style. There was football playing on a flat screen. Canadian sports apparel hung from the bricks. Board games laid in the back for customers. This included cards against humanity, texas poker, connect four, chess, and a few other things. To order, you had to go upstairs and wait. But I made the mistake of waiting by the kitchen. A perky server was nice enough to take my order anyway and direct me upstairs. I ordered their steakburger. The server brought condiment bottles in a Lite Beer 6-pack paper carrier. The radio continually played pop and rock. But, it wasn’t annoyingly loud. The floor needed sweeping and some tables needed a small wipe off, but it was tidy otherwise. The staff could fluently speak English. They have the regular bar food that you’ll miss, with many different burgers being the most noticeable items. There was also Mexican dishes like quesadillas and pepper poppers. They have a grilled salmon guacamole burger [15.99] and a crispy chicken bacon burger [14.99] for those that don’t want to eat beef. The burger was good. It had real beef. The seasoning is a bit light, but is fine as long as you have toppings and condiments. I got tater tots as a side. They had actual olives on the salad, which came with the burger. It had light balsimic dressing. It took less than 30 minutes to get my food. It was a small taste of home.