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www.groovekorea.com / October 2014 34 Edited by Elaine Ramirez (elaine@groovekorea.com) COvER STORy p icture a house party, circa 2006: Brian Aylward, Seoul’s fu- ture most successful expat comedian, stands at the kitchen counter, musing over a block of pepper jack cheese. When ex- pats see cheese, they all stand around look- ing at it in wonder. “Wow, cheese!” How the times have changed. That’s the fundamental difference between Seoul’s food scene back then and its food scene now. Then it was, “I heard there’s a Thai restau- rant in Itaewon.” Now it’s, “I heard there’s a good Thai restaurant in Itaewon.” Expats have moved on from searching for foods from back home to searching for the best example of foods from back home. “The last 10 years have brought dramatic changes to the food scene in Seoul,” said Micha Richter, owner of The Bakers Table in Gyeongnidan. “When there were only a hand- ful places that you could consider halfway decent 10 years ago, these days it is a food paradise.” cupcaKEpalooza (dEcEmbEr 2009) When Brian Dye of kissmykimchi.com and Chalica Packk suggest cupcakes as a way to drum up some smiles in the dead of winter, they frst have to tell you not to laugh — “Seriously, there are cupcakes in Seoul?! And they’re not even of the Ho Ho, Ding Dong variety?” It was, and still is, completely true. Most of the places these two cake connoisseurs discovered were on the newfangled Garosu-gil drag, but they were all completely awesome. “Cupcakes with zest, cupcakes with sprinkles, spongy cupcakes, dense cupcakes, cupcakes made of airy clouds — there’s a cupcake out there just waiting for you.” Who knew? tuEsday tastE-off There were so many choices for a Tuesday night Western-style dinner that Tyron Butler, Paloma Julian and Chris Jones set out to rate them, from 1 to 10, in a two-part series. Yeah, sure, all the restaurants were in Itaewon, and some of their experiences were rather curious — wood-paneled walls and the B-52’s over the loudspeaker, stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling amid a cloud of cherry-scented smoke, a gristly steak served without a knife — it nevertheless signifed a fundamental shift in our Seoul foodscape. It was a glimmer of hope to those who were looking to skip on the rice, just this one damn time. casablanca Writer Josh Foreman was schmitzing all over the place: “Their tiny kitchen … it’s an alchemist’s workshop. They create culinary gold from scratch.” This little unassuming shop is now a Haebangchon mainstay, and it’s crammed to the gills nearly every time you walk by. Wahid and Karim Naciri serve up mountains of fresh-made sandwiches every day to their drooling patrons, along with rockin’ lentil soup and — no joke — fried mashed potatoes. Haven’t you been there yet? compEtition brEEds glorious dining options ‘a lot morE young, opEn- mindEd talEnt is EntEring tHE scEnE. i just HopE tHat tHEy HavE EnougH strEngtH to stand up to tHE big cHains tHat control EvErytHing.’ micHa ricHtEr, ownEr of tHE baKEr’s tablE 12.2009 01.2011 11.2011