Dining with a Difference: Raw Pheasant
NOTE TO THE READER: This isn’t so much a review as it is a food essay on a weird food experience.
I’ve been at my visiting school for eight months, sitting in an office all alone feeling like the smelly kid at school that no one wants to socialize with, when all of a sudden I’m asked to join my teachers on a little field trip to Yeongwang. I would have been excited if I didn’t have so much work to do. I refused the invitation and a few hours later I magically found myself on the bus. I was pretty cranky up until I heard we would have dinner. Oh how I enjoy free food!
After a tour of Bulgapsan temple we drove to Hampyeong to visit Zamworl Museum of Art, an art gallery that has been exhibiting not only famous Korean artists’ work but also children’s art.
From the gallery we crossed the street and walked through rice fields and homes that were covered in beautiful paintings from artists in the surrounding area. We even came across one artist who was in the middle of painting a mural. The sun was setting, the landscape was tinted yellow, I loved it – my bit of heaven in South Korea.
We walked up the path that led to the main road called Singea-ro, made a left and then made our first right up a drive way to a house on a small hill. The house turned out to be the restaurant and with no sign and the front blocked by trees, I knew it would be slammin’.
At the top of the driveway, to the left, was a large coop with pheasants. It didn’t smell bad, the coop looked clean and I was excited to eat the little guys. I walked into the restaurant where we were welcomed by a woman and her son, who were the only two people I saw there. I walked into the dining area, which was pretty and a decent size and I sat on the floor. The feast began.
The first course wasn’t very impressive. It contained a series of vegetarian finger foods such as red beans wrapped in rice cake (yawn), acorn jelly, mushroom and red pepper wrapped with a sesame leaf, covered in panko and deep fried, and some other fried stuff that no one could make out. There was also some curly parsley and pieces of carrot wrapped with radish.
The second course was the main event. It was pheasant sashimi breast. It looked like chicken which freaked me out for a second, but then I thought, “If we were going to get sick and die, then we wouldn’t be eating here.” I grabbed my chopsticks, dipped the raw poultry into soy sauce and placed the raw poultry into my mouth. Did I mention that this was raw poultry? Surprisingly it tasted great! It looked like pink raw chicken breast but the texture felt like tuna to me. I told my co-workers this and they agreed but only because they didn’t want me to feel stupid. It turns out that no one agreed!
I tried the pheasant on its own a few times because I figured I might never get the chance to eat raw poultry again. The closest I ever got was rare (still quacking) duck which was quite beefy. I continued eating the pheasant with all sorts of greens and a few sauces until the third and final course arrived It was pheasant soup with rice cake and vegetables. It was tasty but nothing special.
I’d suggest checking out this place to eat raw pheasant and enjoy beautiful scenery – the other dishes can be skipped. They were all tasty but the price was so high I see it as pointless to get anything else. I’d order the raw pheasant and maybe the soup. The full spread costs about 75,000 for 4 people (this is an estimate so ask before you eat). The area was beautiful and the museum is also worth the trip for anyone brave enough to try something a little different.
Information:
Zamworl Museum of Art
Address: 376 Haebo-myeon, Hampyeong-gun, Jeollanam-do.
Website: www.zamworl.com
Pheasant Restaurant
Address: San 18 Gwangam-ri, Haebo-myeon, Hampyeong-gun, Jeollanam-do.
