ORGANIC KOREAN FOOD
Thursday, March 27
Traditionally, Koreans enjoy eating seasonal food. Considering the warm breeze, and also the recent worries regarding food and snacks, it may be a good time to surprise your taste buds with some organic dishes.

"Mananim Recipe," located near Anguk station on subway line no. 3, is not just an ordinary organic restaurant that uses healthy ingredients. The owner, who wished to be called Mananim (or madam), said that she makes her dishes with "honesty," and that is the foremost important factor in cooking.

"Recipe" sells a variety of "jangajji," a traditional Korean side dish. Jangajji is made of various vegetables, normally sliced into small pieces, and then seasoned and pickled with different sauces such as soy sauce.

The restaurant is not big or fancy, with plastic containers, jars and other storage utilities taking up one part of the wall of an open kitchen. The upside of the limited space is that you can talk with the owner and listen to her share the methods and stories of making jangajji.

There are four main dishes you can choose from: the "Hongshil Noodles" (7,000 won), "Ddeushil Noodles" (6,000 won), "Deushil Rice" (8,000 won) and the "Ssashil Bossam" (18,000 won).

All dishes are served with three kinds of jangajji - wormwood, green tea leaves and mixed. They looked similar, yet they tasted so different. The mixed jangajji contains garlic, burdock, jalapeno, and turnips.

The "Deushil Rice" dish is glutinous rice served inside a bright red paprika. The rice was chewy and savory and the paprika gave the rice a sweet flavoring.

The Ssashil Bossam dish was comprised of sliced pork and myeongyi (mountain garlic) jangajji. Due to its tangy and quite salty flavor, jangajji goes well with bland dishes, such as steamed pork, beef, noodles or just a bowl of rice. The pork was tender and not overly seasoned in order to compliment the dish. When eating this food, it is important to eat them together: gently unfold the jangajji on your plate, place a piece of pork on it and wrap it up.

Mananim was proud of her dishes, and she said that she wanted to introduce these traditional side dishes to young people.

"Young people don't really know about traditional dishes and they are so used to westernized or street food. And just look at the news. It is terrible to hear that there are problems with food and hygiene," she said to The Korea Times.

She said that worried mothers came to learn the recipes and even at the late hour when we visited, there were mothers asking her for recipes.

Many people today are used to westernized, fusion and other new types of food, but it certainly is refreshing to try the traditional, healthy and tangy jangajji.

Mananim's Recipe is located near exit 1 of Anguk station. Turn right and walk up the street until you find Andong Church. Turn left and the restaurant is on your left. For more information visit www.gmananim.com or call (02) 722-2337 (in Korean)

By Han Sang-hee

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