12/12/16 10:10am
soondoogook

Pork and blood sausage make for a hearty soup.

In the past six months I’ve  come to appreciate Korean seollongtang, a milky mellow ox bone soup. It’s nourishing and comforting and easy on my digestive system, which has been a bit fragile lately. One can only slurp so much of the same soup before boredom sets in though. So I’ve tried other versions of the long-simmered bone broth soup with various add-ins including chunks of oxtail and medicinal herbs, but none has proved as satisfying as the minimalist seollontang.

The other day I was dining at Tang with Chef Dave of NY Epicurean Events, and he was trying to get me to order soon dae gook ($14), a seollontang spin featuring pork and the Korean pork blood sausage, soon dae. “That looks good,” he said as I proceeded to tell him most variations of the dish I’d tried fell flat. But the promise of offal convinced me to try it. (more…)

09/26/16 11:23pm
seoltang1

Seollontang at Flushing’s Gahwa.

For the longest time Korean and many other cuisines were all about fire for me. Creamy curds of tofu in bubbling angry bowl of red soondubu was my go-to lunch order at K-Town’s Seoul Garden.

Lately I’ve been embracing the mellower side of Korean cuisine; and there’s nothing more comforting than a steaming bowl of seollongtang, a long-simmered ox bone soup. I’ve been told that’s it’s good to eat when feeling sick. Recently I’ve had the good fortune to be sick enough begun to appreciate just how good.

A month ago I found myself in Tang out on Northern Boulevard. Dehydrated and spent after having a chemotherapy port in my chest checked out I slumped into a seat and gasped, “Seollontang.” (more…)