Anniversary Brunch

Living in a country which relishes molesting foreign cuisine tends to make Westerners crave the simple, fatty and familiar tastes of old.

If you find yourself in a grocery store in Korea (Sami and I shop at Lotte Mart, which is so crowded it makes Winco seem like an abandoned eastern Oregon strip mall) you may come across a bag of harmless English muffins, a tubed string cheese and a straightforward brown jug of iced tea. After purchasing the items you might decide to call in an order for that most convenient of meals known worldwide- pizza. Do not be surprised when, upon unpacking the items, you discover the muffins stuffed with sweetened red bean paste, the tubed "cheese" created from ground and formed fish product, and bits of reconstituted chestnuts, berries and pine nuts floating in the tea. Meanwhile the pie arriving at your door is loaded with sweet potato puree, corn and a generous side of sweet pickles.

For our first anniversary, I made reservations for Sunday brunch at a small French bistro in the Itaewan section of Seoul. Needless to say, we eagerly anticipated the opportunity to dine somewhere quiet without asking ourselves, "Why couldn't it have tasted the I way I thought it was going to?"

I chose the Le Ex Saint Restaurant after researching the champagne brunches of a few of the ritzier hotels in Seoul. Yes the steaks and crepes and lobster omelets sounded divine, but impossible to justify at $80 a plate. Back before I was married, I could surprise Sami something like this, but now that she controls my every cent, there are no surprises. Every financial decision must be passed into law with her signature.

Itaewan, located directly in the center of Seoul on the north side of the Han River, is known as the city's international neighborhood. Only a decade ago, the area had a reputation as the part of town reputable Korean girls were not to be seen in after dark. The combination of young and drunk American G.I.s and the presence of one of the city's oldest red light districts created a hedonistic playground most Koreans avoided like pizza sans pickles.

Today, Itaewan is know more for international cuisine and street shopping. Most native speaking English teachers like myself venture there to find bigger shoes and longer pants, but you can also find your stereotypical Korean trinkets like cartoon socks.

Cartoon socks

The Le Saint Ex Bistro is located down an alley outside of the number one exit of the Itaewan subway stop. This tiny alleyway houses a large percentage of Seoul's authentic international restaurants. Le Saint opened only six years ago, and a handful of sports pubs, hamburger joints and kebab stands followed.

International Food Alley

We arrived a few minutes before our reservation and read the sparse menu written in colored chalk on a large blackboard outside. I had read that the menu changed from day to day and remained small. I liked this because I felt like it meant the chef could focus and do a few things extremely well. We were led to our seat by a nice young Frenchman who read us the same items we had seen outside. Sami ordered the English breakfast and I had the brunch special which was a choice of soup or salad, an entree and a dessert. The entree was a beef stew in white wine sauce and because of this, I chose to start with the salad. Soup and stew seemed too close to the same for me. 

After taking our order, a Korean waitress dropped off strong coffee and baguette slices with a generous pad of butter. A laminated card on a stand informed us that we were being served a traditional, organic, French baguette made by traditional French methods from flour shipped from Paris. It had been so long since we had tasted decent bread that we would have appreciated a croissant prepared by the Pillsbury Doughboy shipped from the Grocery Outlet in a cardboard pop n' fresh tube, but the baguette was heaven.

The salad was small, at least compared to the monsters I was accustomed to loading at Sizzler and the like, and was accompanied by a tan and wobbly egg jelly. There were at least three kinds of lettuces, shredded endive, carrots, thinly sliced radishes and tiny cubes of red bell pepper all hit with balsamic. The egg jelly was perfect with the salad. Koreans are fond of an acorn jelly cut brick-like and served with soy sauce. It is good but flavorless. The egg jelly had a creamy fat consistency and smeared equally well on the greens and crusty baguette. I have been searching like mad trying to learn how to make it.

Sami's meal was simple and rustic. A thick slice of toast with jam, eggs scrambled soft and just right with butter and cream thrown in at the end, French fried homefries, and two wet red slices of watermelon. There was also a small salad and a deliciously fried apple slice dusted with sugar. The only component which seemed to disappoint was the limp weak bacon that lay white and lifeless atop the eggs. I picked up the bacon, dabbed it in balsamic and ate it on top of a baguette slice, one eye fixed on the watermelon that was sure to be mine.

The beef stew came out after Sami had finished her meal. A patty of Australian beef seasoned and stuffed with shallots sat on a spread of fettuccine. The white wine sauce made from the fat drippings of the burger was beefy, salty and completely un-Korean. I wiped up all of the sauce with a piece of baguette, reached for Sami's watermelon and took a tiny bite of the point before being called away from the table by our waiter to the dessert menu near the door.

There were five choices of dessert, one of which was their famous floating ball of merenge coated with a hard sugar shell. I opted for the chocolate mousse.

Upon my return, I quickly discovered that a nightmarishly evil act of apathy had taken place whilst I ogled away. Sami had let a waitress carry away the uneaten watermelon! Damn you! In a full year of marriage I never would have dreamed you to carry out an act so treacherous! I sat too shocked for words and stared out into space. I imagined the lonely and succulent fruit surrounded by a pile of sauce splattered dishes, calling my name longingly from the kitchen. For the first time I began to question the merits of marriage. How could my best friend, someone I have known and trusted for years deceive me so? And on this of all days.

Luckily the mousse came and made me quickly forget about the watermelon. Sami even let me order an espresso to eat with the dessert which was rich and decadent, more like cake batter than the pudding mousse I was used to.

After brunch we walked around Itaewan a bit. There is a great English language bookstore that we wanted to check out. On the way, we passed by Taco Bell, the first in Korea which was having its Grand Opening on this day. There was a line forming around the block. 

Many of the people in line were Koreans, no longer ashamed to be seen in the international part of the city, and many more Westerners yearning for a taste of home.