A Korean Oasis for Weekday Downtowners

Written By Namhee Cho

Koreans often say “Have you eaten?” as a greeting. This expression originates from the generations who experienced “the Barley Hump,” the spring famine where their food stock was the lowest and barley had yet to ripen.

As a result, elderly Koreans emphasize how important it is to have rice for three meals a day, and some even say the origin of Korea’s phenomenal growth is the energy from rice. That is why a pure Korean term such as “Bap-sim,” meaning “energy from having a meal-rice as a staple,” exists.

Those who work on Geumnamno-ro in downtown Gwangju, where many branches of investment companies and banks still remain, want to secure their lunch-time for their daily performances. The restaurant “Han Gyeore” is like an oasis in the desert for the elderly, white collar workers on the main street. During lunch-time, it is fully packed with older Koreans. The restaurant’s signature dish, bangye-tang, a chicken soup with ginseng but half the size of its original, samgye-tang, sells like hot cakes.

Since the restaurant’s opening in December 2009, it has accumulated hundreds of regular customers, mainly among the workers and the frequent visitors to the organizations and institutions in the downtown area.

“We serve not only quality foods but also elegance through frames of pictures, music and the plates and the silverware,” said Mrs. Jeongrye Chung, the owner of Han Gyeore. She is an experienced businesswoman in the food industry who has a philosophy aiming to constantly run her restaurant as “mine and ours not others’.”

Once she ran a Korean snack bar targeting Gwangju youth. However, the decline of independent small snack bars urged her to open a Korean restaurant in the heart of the city. “Seventy percent of our customers are over 50 years old. They are the ones who are not used to Westernized food and prefer rice for their meals,” she insisted.

Typical Korean dishes like bibimbap in a stone bowl, hot pot bulgogi, samgyeopsal, duck soup and the most popular, bangye-tang, are offered. “It is really clean and affordable,” said Youngho Yoon, a coordinator of the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and a regular customer. “Not only is the restaurant close to my workplace but also they serve the foods that I do not get tired of. I can make different choices there and not a single choice is disappointing. Moreover, the place is warm and comfortable, just right for this chilly weather.”

Whether the Korean restaurant is good or bad can often hinge on what banchan – side dishes – they serve. Mainly the taste of kimchi decides the quality of the restaurant, and Han Gyeore’s kimchi is friendly enough for everyone, even for the people who are afraid of the strong fishy taste of the dish.

Stir-fried fish cakes, jeotgal (salted seafood), jellied food, spring greens, beans and anchovies are the main side dishes cooked by the two chefs of the restaurant, and more than six side dishes are served on every table. Some are rotated daily and seasonally.

“On the three ‘Dog Days,’ Chobok, Jungbok and Malbok, we do not take any reservations and have people in line to have bangye-tang,” said Chung. ‘Boknal,’ the Three Dog Days is an event of the third seasonal subdivision, which falls between June and July of the lunar calendar, remain as traditional days for Koreans to have samgye-tang to relieve warmth during such hot summer days.

“On that day, not only the elderly but also the young workers in their twenties and thirties visit our restaurant and order bangye-tang for the summer-beating benefit,” Chung explained. It implies that some young Koreans are still following the conventions of the earlier generation.

Except Sundays and all other “red” days on the calendar, Han Gyeore is open for anyone who seeks a decent Korean dish at a reasonable price. Chung will continue to provide the best bangye-tang and other mouthwatering dishes for as long as her differentiated service strategy lasts.

Why not have a hot bowl of chicken soup to warm yourself up?