Rosé is very versatile with Korean food. It has the structure and crisp acidity to handle spicy red pepper sauce, kimchi and all those vegetable side dishes that accompany Korean meals.
I’m lucky enough to be friends with Jennifer Flinn, a 10-year resident of Korea. She took me to an old North Korean restaurant in Seoul, called Cheogajip.
We went with a bottle of Chateau Roubine rosé. This wine keeps appearing in my blog for two reasons. First, there are very few rosé wines on the market in Korea that aren’t sweet fruit bombs. Second, it’s a well-balanced, structured wine.
We started with mandu – dumplings made with minced pork, vegetables and glass noodles. North Korean mandu is lighter, less peppery and more balanced. There’s still plenty of meat, but it’s more delicate in the mouth. The texture of the wrapping is also lighter with no chewiness; it melts in your mouth. This was a perfect match with the rosé, lifting the fruit of the wine to another level without overwhelming the textures of the mandu. I felt this was a slightly better match than South Korean mandu.
Then, since it was 34 degrees outside, we got stuck into cold noodles. Makguksu 막국수 (buckwheat noodles) are less chewy than their South Korean counterparts since they are made without sweet potato. No need to cut noodles with your teeth! And less texture and bulk on your palate.
We had the cooling naengmyeon 냉면 and the more spicy bibim 비빔 version of makguksu 막국수. The naengmyeon 냉면 was clean, light and refreshing. Simpler than most naengmyeon served in restaurants, it was without egg, beef or pear. Just cucumber and a light seasoning – cooling in the summer heat. (No air con in this no-frills backstreet restaurant.) When paired with the rosé it brought out more of the pepper in the wine, giving it a peppery finish. The fruit of the rosé was a little subdued as well. Not a great pairing.
The bibim 비빔 version of makguksu 막국수 had more spice, but not as much as you get in the South Korean version. I don’t normally eat bibim makguksu due to the overwhelming amounts of chili paste that kill all sense of taste for the following two hours. This was different. In the North Korean version, the noodles are soft, vegetables crunchy and the spice integrated with each element coming together harmoniously. I was tempted to order another, then Jennifer reminded me we had yet to try bibimbap with the rosé.
Were these noodles too much for the wine? The opposite. When paired together, the rosé and bibim makguksu were both lifted to another level. It was extraordinary. The texture of the food and the chili paste did something magical to the rosé. The rosé opened up, becoming bolder and more expressive. I was in heaven.
We saved some of the rosé and went in search of bibimbap. Bibimbap is everywhere in Korea. It’s a standard lunch dish and we quickly found a hole in the wall ‘restaurant’. We ordered bori bibimbap, made with grains and rice. This didn’t fare well with the rosé. The texture of the grains overwhelmed the wine.
The regular bibimbap worked with the rosé. The bibimbap’s vegetables, sesame seeds, egg, and chili paste are very textural but don’t overwhelm crisp, dry rosé, the fruit and acidity of the rosé working seamlessly with the bibimbap. Bibimbap is a lot of fun. You start with your rice and vegetables in separate bowls, then mix into the right consistency. You get to play with your food in Korea!
Directions to Cheogajip
(Courtesy of Jennifer at fatmanseoul.com)
Go out exit 9 of 양수/Yaksu Station on line 6. At the first corner, make a right turn, and at the next through street make a left (leaving you now walking parallel to the main street). When you reach the Y intersection, just past the sauna, veer right. The restaurant is in an unmarked house on the right-hand side of a residential street. Ph 02 2235 4589
Words by Joshua Hall.
Photography by Jennifer Flinn.
