Royal Table D'hote "lunch" at Ji-hwa-cha

Recently, a colleague, Prof. Lee, asked me to help her edit a paper that she will present at Harvard in February (wow! good for her!). Her presentation is about an obscure North Korean author by the name of Kim, Saryang. He was born in Pyong-yang at the beginning of the 20th century, studied and lived in Japan and wrote most of his works in Japanese. No one ever heard about him because the label "pro-Japanese" was glued to his name, and of course, it didn't help that he was from North Korea. In 2002, the nasty label was peeled off of hime because he wrote with sympathy about the mysery Koreans experienced during the Japanese colonial period. Anyhow, I don't want to bother any longer with him. Instead, I will bother you with a little restaurant review and a description of the lunch I was invited to by the paper writer in lieu of thanks for helping her out. After a pleasant ride in a big car expertly driven by Prof. Lee, we arrived to the restaurant that just recently opened. It's in Sunbuk-gu catering to the richest of the rich, the old money of Korea, the residents of the huge houses dispersed on surrounding hills and hiding behind high walls. A vallet parked the car, another person walked us to the restaurant door and handed us over to the care of about 4 or 5 wait staff who greetes us with deep bows and showed us to our table. The entrance boasts quite an exhibiton of ridiculously expensive items: Korean royal cookies - precisely cut fantasies in pale green, orange, white, black and brown colours, tastefully packed in multi-cornered boxes. A stairwell covered in rich burgundy carpet leads upstairs to the dining room, an elegant fusion of the East and West - spacious, bright ( thanks to the wall of glass on one side), luxuriously shiny lacquered dark brown floors, and - surprise- beautiful polished dark wooden tables and minimalistic leather chairs of a very simple but comfortable design. Walls are pale yellow decorated with only a couple of big posters depiciting scenes from everyday Korean life of centuries ago. Waitresses seemed to be hand-picked for prettiness and they look like gisaeng in subtle makeup and silk hanboks of dusty rose tops and royal blue bottoms.
As soon as our bottoms touch the comfortable seats, we are served steaming hot bori cha (barley tea) and given menus bound in chocolate brown leather AND translated into translated into Japanese and English. A nice touch, appreciated by anyone who's Korean is not much better than the 101 level.
We choose Nat Kot Sang or "Royal Table D-hote 'Lunch'" (verbatim from the many) . For 25,000 won/person one gets four kinds of appetizers (3-colored Korean springrolls, Pumpkin soup, white kimchi, and a salad); 3 kinds of mains dishes (assorted pan-fried dishes [a piece of tempura zucchini,1/2 shitaki mushroom and a patti made of soy been flower and vegetables, stir-fried beef with mushrooms, GInseng and vegetable salad, bibimbap); dessert: fresh season's fruit - according to the menu - that, disappointingly, turns out to be one single yet delicious straberry, slit in half, proudly standing upright supported by two parsley leaves; traditional Korean cookie and ricecake - the first the size of a sugar cube, the second the size of a baby's baby finger, and Korean punch (made from citron fruit and sugar). Now, while the dessert could have been bigger - two or even three straberries would have been quite nice, I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant. I especially enjoyed beef and mushrooms - the beef was tender, simply melting on my tongue and seducing my taste buds with wonderful flavors. Persimmon salad dressing and bright red pomegranate seeds were quite a solid salad surprise - delicious, too. Gentle traditiional music seems to be seeping through the walls and complementing nicely the rustling of hanboks and clinking of silver chopsticks and spoons. The serving dishes are simple, white, with a detail or two (a leaf or a flower) in the palest of blue. My companions were very pleasant, explaining the background of different dishes or listing ingredients. The restaurant manages to create the atmosphere of well-being and well-off. One gets a truly royal treatment there. It's not for everyday lunching, most certainly you should go there on some special occasion. BTW, the owner is Mrs. Hwang, Hye Sang, "The human cultural asset for Royal Cuisine of Choson Dynasty, The Chairman of the Institute for Royal Cuisine, The Chairman of Cultural Family for Preserving the Korean Taste" ) Wow! I just wonder: was Boston lettuce really a part of the kingly diet; same goes for pomegranates and mustard sauces? Also, bringing dishes in sequence, as opposed to having them all at once on the table seems to be a very un-Korean thing to do. Lacquered tables and chairs? Italian wine at the entrance? Obviously, this place combines elements of the East and West - I am not complaining about the combination, though. The food is good and fresh, but the real value of the restaurant is in the way they present the food. Everything looks so perfectly cut, chopped, twisted, turned... As one leaves the restaurant a few beautiful smiley faces are at your service in case you want to buy some of the of the traditional tasty morsels - like less than 1 kg beef jerky (is that really Korean?!) for about 299,000 won per box ; candied ginseng for about 200,000; exorbitantly expensive rice cakes, and so on. If you want to experience something unusual and special, if you have a friend visiting from the West and you want to show him/her how much pride Koreans take in their food and their royal past, then take them to this place. Visit www.jihwajafood.co.kr - Masheesoyo and moshisoyo! (Tasty and beautiful).