Balwoo Gongyang

Last night we dined at Michelin star restaurant, Balwoo Gongyang for traditional Korean temple food.

Operated by the Jogye order of Korean Buddhism, Balwoo Gongyang is modern take on traditional Buddhist temple meals. In Buddhism, eating food is part of the path of practice to enlightenment. It's completely vegan and cooked without any type of onions or garlic and of course, with no meat.

I've been following Kiel as he fulfills his quests for finding the best chicken/pork/beef, so when I told him I wanted to go to Balwoo Gongyang, he obliged. It looks like I turned my die-hard carnivorous husband into a vegetarian (at least for one meal)!

We were seated in our own private room and ordered the Won Course, a five course meal meaning "righteous wish." As the food was brought out, the maître d' described each dish in detail like the ingredients used, the texture/flavor, and the order in which to eat each dish.

Starting from the left is potato soup and in the center is salted white radish. On the right is a cucumber jelly with 7 year aged kelp & persimmon vinegar. This first course called Suljuksim is to moisten your mouth and help aid in digestion.

We started with the salted radish, then the potato soup, followed by the cucumber jelly.

The potato soup was simple, yet tasty and very "home-y" and surprisingly I liked the cucumber jelly.

Here is Sangmi, the salad or cold preparation. Sangmi is supposed to excite the appetite through taste and smell. We had (from left to right): Korean melon with sesame seeds, Summer eggplant with ginger sauce, and stir fried dried acorn jelly.

We were instructed to eat the acorn jelly first, followed by the melon, and lastly the eggplant.

The acorn jelly seemed weird at first (kind of looked like a mushroom with the texture of chewy pasta), but it turned out to be one of Kiel's favorite dishes.

This is Dammi, the hot preparation. Dammi is the taste of chewing or taste by food texture. It was combined with noodles called Seongo, which means a dish that even makes the practitioners smile.

On the top plate is grilled bean curd (tofu), a Summer vegetable pancake, mung bean pancake, and a vegetable dumpling.

In the center are glazed walnuts with soy sauce, and salted cucumbers.

The cold noodles on the right were served with a spicy shitake mushroom and pear sauce. It was recommended to stir the noodles fast and eat them first.

And the dish on the bottom is deep fried mushrooms caramelized with a special gochujang sauce.

Here is the Youmi, or main course. Youmi consists of rice, condiments, and soup that are supposed to ease daily physical fatigue and mental stresses.

This was the steamed rice wrapped in a lotus leaf. Above on the right is a Chef's special soy bean paste soup, and included at the top are two types of kimchi, three kinds of summer greens.

From what we understood, we were supposed to take some soup, then quickly put some rice in our mouth, followed by some greens or kimchi, and then continuously repeat this process.

I couldn't pick up each item fast enough to get the concept down, and thought it would just be easier if the rice and greens were already in the soup. Oh well!

The soup was like a hot & sour soup and a little bitter, but I enjoyed each of the kimchi and greens.

And finally was Ipgasim or dessert. It is prepared with ingredients and recipes that clean the remaining taste in the mouth and aid in digestion. Pictured is toasted black bean tea (cold), accompanied by a black bean jelly.

No sugar was added to the jelly, but it still had a subtle, sweet taste.

Overall, I thought everything we tasted was fresh, delicious, and clean. The service was great and we were both glad to have experienced it. However, tonight Kiel was back to eating fried chicken and beer.