Geumhong in Ichon: Amazing Sichuan Noodle Soup
I finally got out of the house to visit the National Museum of Korea with a friend. To avoid the notoriously expensive museum food, we decided to grab lunch nearby beforehand. Ichon-dong (a neighborhood in Seoul) is famous for its Japanese street and abundance of small, delicious restaurants, so a quick search is all it takes to find a great spot. Unlike the current trend of massively expanding restaurants, this area retains a charming, modest vibe.
My friend, who visits Ichon-dong often, decided we were having Chinese food. They specifically wanted to eat yuringi (deep-fried chicken in a hot and sour soy sauce), and since they were paying, I told them to lead the way. I'm always happy when someone treats me to an expensive, tasty meal.
Our first choice was a Chinese restaurant called Donggang, which my friend mentioned at least three times for its amazing yuringi. However, it was a bus stop away, so we gave up and searched again. The place that caught our eye and was relatively close is the restaurant I'm introducing today: Geumhong. It was featured on the TV show Wednesday Food Talk, so it definitely has strong word-of-mouth. Since the show also highlighted their yuringi, we decided to compare whether Donggang or the TV-recommended Geumhong was better. So, on a sweltering day with a heatwave warning, we walked for 10 minutes along asphalt radiating visible heat waves just to eat piping hot yuringi.
We ordered one yuringi, one Sacheon-tangmyeon (Sichuan-style noodle soup), and one jajangmyeon (black bean noodles). My friend ordered the jajangmyeon because it was too hot to eat jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup). It's a shame they don't have any refreshing cold dishes like Chinese cold noodles, but even on a day when heatwave warning alerts are buzzing on our phones, a line forms right at noon, so they clearly have nothing to worry about. We're just the crazy ones for coming to eat hot Chinese food on a day like this.
For reference, if you have a flexible schedule, I recommend coming to eat around 11:30 AM. Once lunchtime hits, the place gets packed. Since it's a small neighborhood joint with fewer than 10 tables and the food is too heavy to eat quickly, it takes some time to get a seat. The food itself comes out pretty fast, though.
We came for the yuringi, but I fell completely in love with the Sacheon-tangmyeon instead. The noodles themselves weren't particularly impactful, but the cuttlefish and mushrooms were great, and the broth was incredibly refreshing. The cuttlefish was especially memorable. I'm pretty sure it was cuttlefish... Usually, the seafood and mushrooms in Chinese restaurant jjamppong are boiled to death and end up chewy rather than tender, but the ingredients here stand out for their softness. I'm writing this rather emotionlessly, but in reality, I was eating it while going, "Wow!!! Whoa!!! Cuttlefish, cuttlefish!! This is so good!!! Wow, is this a mushroom or fish cake!!!" It would be amazing if they sold this as a separate soup without the noodles, adding more seafood, mushrooms, and vegetables. I'd definitely order a bowl of rice with that! Come to think of it, since I've never had Sacheon-tangmyeon before, I briefly wondered if every Chinese restaurant makes it this good. But then I realized it's too delicious for that to be true. It's not like I'm crazy.
The yuringi is also good. The sauce has that sweet and sour taste Koreans love, and the meat is tender and easy to eat, not tough at all. The vegetables felt fresh, too. Even so, the reason it's just "good" is that the batter separates from the meat and they end up playing in their own lanes. My friend, who came with eyes peeled to judge how good this yuringi was, also thought Donggang's version was better. So, our next meal will be at Donggang. A full-blown yuringi war between the two of us.
The jajangmyeon tastes like those instant fresh jajangmyeon packs you buy at the store. You're better off paying 2,000 KRW more for the Sacheon-tangmyeon or just eating Chapagetti at home. They might have actually just bought and sold instant fresh noodles.
The prices are about 20% higher than your average Chinese restaurant, so it's not a place you can visit casually. However, it's an absolutely perfect spot to sober up with a hearty bowl of Sacheon-tangmyeon when you're hungover. Whether you order yuringi, sweet and sour pork, or nothing else at all is entirely up to you, but before you even start debating, I highly recommend ordering one bowl of Sacheon-tangmyeon per person first.