Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken Soup

Tosokchon (토속촌) is a venerable Korean dining institution, serving one of the most traditional Korean dishes “samgyetang” 삼계탕 which is a soup with a young chicken stuffed with sticky glutinous rice, ginseng root, garlic, scallion, gingko nuts, and jujube. You can choose either a common white chicken or black chicken. In the states I have only seen this dish made with white chicken. I have never had a version in the states as good as Tosokchon’s. The flavor of the broth, perfect stuffing, and tender meat cannot be beat. This restaurant is the most famous location for samgyetang and definitely one to visit on a first trip to Korea. I highly recommend this as a tourism spot because the restaurant itself is in a beautiful old traditional Korean house with many rooms and a courtyard and serves a very authentic and tasty well priced meal. It is near other tourist spots such as the Blue House Presidential Residence, Gyeongbukgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Chunggyechon, and beautiful Samcheongdong. It is also two blocks away from a local marketplace, Tongjin Market, which has in my opinion, the best ddeokbokki in all of Korea. If you are going to Tosokchon, please save room for ddeokbokki later on.

Address Korean
5, Jahamun-ro 5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
서울 종로구 자하문로5길 5 (체부동)

Address English
85-1 Chebu-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea

By Subway: Gyeongbokgung Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 2. Go straight about 170m and turn left onto Jahamun-ro 5-gil Road.

Open 7 days a week from 10AM to 10PM, accepts credit cards, tel 82-2-737-7444

Tosokchon Streetview Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

View of the restaurant from the street, from exit 2 of Gyeongbokgung Station walk straight 170meters then turn left

Tosokchon Entrance Rotisserie Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

Rotisserie chicken roasting in the window by the entrance

Tosokchon Entrance Courtyard Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

Covered interior courtyard you walk through to get to the back rooms where they serve the food

Tosokchon Menu Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

One of the many rooms of the restaurant. Tables are the traditional style low wood tables, you sit on a cushion/mat on the floor. The old fashioned wood menu shows just a few items but the menu is more extensive.

The beautiful white or black chicken soup is served with complimentary cabbage and radish kimchee. When you open the chicken the deliciously herbed sticky white rice with jujube, ginseng root, and gingko nuts emerge. All this together with some kimchee and broth make the perfect bite.

Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken Soup Kimchee JenCooksKorean

Samgyetang, chicken soup with rice and ginseng root, with the complimentary kimchee

Tosokchon Kitchen Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

New dishes are constantly coming out of the kitchen to the steady stream of customers, this large, multiroom restaurant has 420 seats

A shot of the menu. Assuming an exchange rate of $1= KRW 1,100, the prices are
Samgyetang (white chicken) KRW 15,000 / $13.65
Ogol Samgyetang (black chicken) KRW 22,000 / $20.00
Rotisserie Chicken KRW 14,000 / $12.75
Seafood Scallion Pancake KRW 15,000 / $13.65
Beer KRW 4,000 / $3.50
Soju KRW 3,000 / $2.75

Tosokchon Menu Full Ginseng Chicken Soup JenCooksKorean

Full Menu

I was not able to take a good video of this place but it gives you a bit of an idea of the bustling atmosphere.

Rose Apple Tart

2 Replies

Rose Apple Tart

These days it seems people are often inspired by beautiful food images of blogs or pinterest. I randomly came across this beautiful recipe for a rose apple tart while actually looking for walnut tart recipes and could not stop thinking about it. Being overeager on the first try, I ended up scrambling the pastry cream and overbaking the tart shell. The second try I heat up the milk for the pasty cream less and took the pot off the flame once the milk started to simmer. I was surprised how many roses I could make with just one apple and how the apricot glaze really prevented the apples from oxidizing. I made this around noon and the apples hadn’t oxidized yet when I brought them to a friend’s for dinner later that night.

I used BakingAMoment’s recipe for the walnut crust recipe and AllRecipes for simple pastry cream. My Kyocera mandoline was perfect for getting just the right thickness for the apple slices to assemble into the rose petals. I was actually on the fence about purchasing this mandoline because I had seen reviews saying it was too sharp and some people had gotten cut by it. However I love Kyocera’s products, particularly their paring knife for cutting fruit, so I gave it a try. I was really happy with the performance of the mandoline, it gave me precision cuts, and was very easy to clean and adjust between 4 thicknesses. (On a side note the mandoline also outperforms two truffle slicers I purchased and now I only use the mandoline for truffles). For this apple tart, I used the thinnest setting of 0.5mm. I used 1 granny smith apple for the middle rose and 1 red delicious apple for the outer roses. On my long food to do list would be to remake this tart with light pink, red, and dark red for an ombre effect.

For this recipe you will need a mandoline, pastry brush, food processor, and tart pan.

Rose Apple Tart

Ingredients

Crust
2.5 C walnuts
4 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp salt
Filling
2 C milk
1/4 C white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 C corn starch
1/3 C white sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Apples
1/4 C apricot preserves
1/4 juice from 1 lemon

Instructions

Pulse walnuts in food processor until crumblike consistency. Mix with remaining ingredients with a fork and press into a 9 inch tart pan. Bake at 375 for 10-15min, check on the tart shell as it bakes, if it starts to brown too much place a piece of tin foil over the tart shell to prevent burning.
Bring milk and ¼ C sugar just to a simmer and turn off flame.
Whisk together the 2 egg yolks and egg, stir in remaining sugar and cornstarch. Add this mixture to the warmed milk and sugar slowly while constantly whisking.
Add in butter and vanilla and continue whisking until smooth. Strain this through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, place plastic wrap on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate pastry cream until chilled, about 2-3 hours.
Fill tart with pastry cream. Wash then slice apples with mandoline on thinnest setting. Heat the apricot preserves with lemon juice in microwave for 15 seconds. Start assembly of roses, either brush the apricot and lemon mixture onto the apple before use or lightly dip both sides of the apple in the mixture before assembling. Use the smaller pieces to assemble the middle of the rose and work from the middle to the outside. Place the slices down in the pasty cream in alternating semi circle shapes.

http://www.jencookskorean.com/rose-apple-tart/

Gourmet 494 Food Court and Grocery at Galleria Apgujeong

Gourmet 494

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is check out the food markets of the area. I was excited to check out Gourmet 494 this time in Korea. It is a luxury food court and grocery store in the basement of the Galleria Department Store in Seoul. It seems luxury food markets are a trend these days, and the other highly recommended grocery I saw this time was SSG Food Market in Cheongdam (dare I say even more luxurious than Gourmet 494, read my review here *coming soon*). The space is large and can be accessed directly from the street or subway by escalator. The food court features many international shops such as The Cheesecake Factory and Eric Kayser while also featuring great Korean stores such as Ho Won Dang (the best ddeok in Korea the original store is near Ewha Women’s University) and new classics such as Vatos Tacos. I really liked that this food court was so beautiful with its dark wood and brass accents. There are many places to sit and eat and also free wifi. The grocery store is also fun to look around with its vast selection of international beers, European cookies, American classic snacks, and other produce. If you are shopping at Galleria or in the Apgu area I would highly recommend a stop at this food court and grocery store. The best thing I ate here was the dark Mexican chocolate churros at Churros 101.

Address & Accessibility
494 Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu

고메이494
서울 강남구 압구정동 494
tel 02-3449-4114
By Subway: Exit 7 at the Apgujeong Rodeo subway stop on yellow Bundang line , in the basement of the West Building of the Galleria Department Store

Facebook Page

English Page

Food Court Map in Korean

Short video of some of the shops and groceries at Gourmet 494

The Entrance under the West Wing of the Galleria Department Store, accessible from street level and the subway by escalator

Some of the shops in the food court- Churros 101 (best churros! get the dark chocolate), Eric Kayser, The Cheesecake Factory, and Tartine mini pies

Fell & Cole, interesting gelato and gelato sandwich shop with cool flavors like perilla leaf

Soondooboo and BBQ Ribs

Some of the produce areas- expensive fruit, fancy lettuce, dried herbs, and the fishmonger

Gochujeon Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Jeon is one of my favorite Korean foods because it is like simplified mandoo that is easier to make and less time consuming. It’s less time consuming because there are less ingredients in the filling, easier to fill the peppers than make individual dumplings, and faster to cook. I like jeon so much I can eat it as a meal alone with just rice and soy sauce for dipping. It is also great that you can mix tofu into the ground beef in the filling to cut the overall amount of fat in the filling.

There are many types of Korean jeon which are all different variations of floured, egg washed, and fried vegetables, meat, and seafood. My other favorite types of jeon are perilla leaf or kketnip jeon (which was actually the first recipe I posted on this blog), zucchini jeon, and oyster jeon. These stuffed peppers are much easier to fill and make than the kketnip jeon.

Below is my video and instructions for Gochujeon Stuffed Peppers Recipe. In Korean it is “고추전”

Gochujeon Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Gochujeon Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Ingredients

20 jalapeno or sweet Italian peppers
3/4lb ground beef
½ package firm tofu
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
3 scallions (chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic (minced)
1/8 C flour
2 eggs
Grapeseed oil

Instructions

Cut the jalapenos in half and remove ribs and seeds. Lightly dust both sides of the peppers with flour.
Prepare the filling by first crumbling the tofu and squeezing out as much water as possible. Combine the tofu, ground beef, salt, pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, chopped scallions, and garlic and mix together by hand until the mixture is uniformly distributed.
Beat the eggs in a bowl and season with some salt and pepper
Fill each pepper half with filling.
Heat up a nonstick skillet on medium heat with grapeseed oil.
Dip each stuffed pepper half in the egg and fry both sides on the pan for 4-5min per side. If you are using larger peppers adjust the frying time accordingly.
If you have leftover filling you can make small patties and dip them in the egg and fry them as well.
Serve with soy sauce. Optional- add some vinegar, chili pepper powder, chopped scallions, and toasted sesame to the soy sauce.

http://www.jencookskorean.com/gochujeon-stuffed-peppers-recipe/