Yesterday, I visited Jeongdaepo, a restaurant located in Mapo's Galmaegisal Alley in Seoul. I have been around Mapo Station and Gongdeok Station many times, but this was actually my first time visiting the galmaegisal alley. Galmaegisal (Korean pork skirt meat) is a cut of pork taken from around the diaphragm, and it is commonly served grilled at Korean barbecue restaurants.
This is the inside of Mapo Jeongdaepo, a restaurant specializing in pork skirt meat. The restaurant itself looked quite old. It reminded me of the typical Korean barbecue restaurants you would see in the 1990s.
These days, restaurants in Korea seem to be divided into two general styles. Some have a modern, Instagram-friendly interior, while others intentionally go for an old-fashioned retro look. Jeongdaepo, however, seems less like a place designed to look retro and more like a restaurant that has simply kept the appearance it has developed over many years.
The side dishes included kimchi, perilla leaves, lettuce, and doenjang-guk, a Korean soybean paste soup. I was actually surprised by the soup because it was much spicier than I expected. It had quite a sharp kick.
Another unusual side was roasted soybean powder. In Korea, this powder is often served with grilled pork skin, but here it was also provided for dipping the pork skirt meat. I personally did not really eat the meat with it. I only tried it once just to see what it tasted like.
Jeongdaepo is one of the restaurants in Mapo's pork skirt meat alley. The price for one serving of Korean domestic pork skirt meat was 23,000 won, while the French pork skirt meat was 17,000 won.
I have occasionally seen pork imported from Spain or Chile in Korea, but this was my first time seeing French pork on a menu like this. I ordered the Korean domestic pork, and when I thought about the price afterward, I realized that it was actually more expensive than samgyeopsal, or Korean grilled pork belly.
Pork skirt meat used to be a relatively inexpensive cut in Korea. These days, the situation seems to have reversed. It is generally categorized as one of the special cuts of pork, although in the past it was actually one of the cheaper parts.
Recently, I have also seen quite a few restaurants marketing cuts such as pork skirt meat, pork cheek meat, and pork jowl as premium or special cuts and selling them at higher prices.
The quality of the meat was very good. It had a savory flavor and tasted great. Compared with the richness and fattiness of pork belly, pork skirt meat has a noticeably leaner and cleaner taste.
The grill was also quite unusual. Around the outer edge of the grill, beaten egg was poured into a circular channel and cooked together with the meat.
I used to see this type of grill fairly often in Korea years ago, but it is much harder to find these days. Since Jeongdaepo has apparently been around for quite a long time, I wondered whether the restaurant had simply continued using this older style of grill.
Kimchi and shredded green onions are added to the egg and cooked together around the grill. Apparently, the egg used to be unlimited, but now only the first serving is free and additional servings have to be ordered separately.
Maybe too many customers ordered refills in the past, and with food prices having risen quite a bit recently, I can understand why the restaurant changed the policy.
The meat gradually turned a nice golden brown as it cooked. I also noticed some foreign customers at the table next to me.
The restaurant is closer to Gongdeok Station than Mapo Station. Since there are many offices and companies around Gongdeok, I wondered if that might be why there were foreign customers here as well. I personally would not have expected Mapo or Gongdeok to be an obvious sightseeing destination for international visitors.
Personally, when I eat pork or beef, I usually prefer dipping it in a sesame oil and salt sauce. I briefly thought about asking for sesame oil sauce, but in the end I just ate the meat with the soy-based dipping sauce that came with the meal.
The sauce tasted as though it contained vinegar. It gave me that momentary sharp feeling in the throat that you sometimes get when eating something with vinegar.
I think the egg tastes even better if you cook it quite thoroughly, almost to the point where the edges become slightly browned or burnt. Food that is probably not the healthiest often tastes good, haha.
If you are looking for a Korean barbecue restaurant around Mapo Station or Gongdeok Station in Seoul, try searching for Mapo Jeongdaepo Galmaegisal. I enjoyed the meat here, and the old-fashioned atmosphere and unusual egg grill also made the meal a little more memorable.
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