[Michelin 1star] EVETT. Korean Contemporary Dining, by Chef Joseph Lidgerwood in seoul(chapter 1)

EVETT

Owner chef: Joseph Lidgerwood

address: 33, Dogok-ro 23-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

(this is a google link for restaurant location: https://g.page/restaurantevett?share )

phone number: +82-70-4231-1022

category: Korean Contemporary dining

business hours: Lunch, only Saturday 12:00~15:00

Dinner, Tuesday~Saturday 18:00~23:00

The Michelin 1 star restaurant serves a course 
which is based on the Korean ingredients and traditional food 
taking a fresh perspective with ideas and techniques 
gathered all around the world.

reservation: https://www.restaurantevett.com/reservation

the reservation is proceed through sites called catch table,

almost 85$ will be charged for deposit(it'll be refund later)

at first when I arrived in this restaurant, I think the location is unique.

located in Yeok-sam alley, this restaurant is only place that light is on.

nowadays, many fine dining restaurant are held in alley like this

because of murderous building rent fee and taxes.

guess that, for them it is the only way to maintain the restaurant

without any downgrading quality of ingredients.

 

this restaurant have a 2 options , 14 course and 10 course.

14 course is almost 160$, 10 course is almost 110$.

there is 2 reason they didn't write down the contents of course

first is, they want to use the best quality ingredients in that day.

second is, to maximize a feeling of expectation about next dishes.

their intention are work well to me.

 

we ordered dinner 10 course with Korean alcohol pairing.

(Korean Alcohol Pairing is almost 55$)

 

The course starts with welcome drink.

 

Welcome Drink

 

Based on sparkling wine, with vinegar and syrup made of Korean mint leaf.

and they put on Bee pollen in ice. the green thing in the glasses are pine needle.

drink's taste is lightly refresh.

 

after enjoying welcome drink,

chef Joseph Lidgerwood came to greeting for us,

and first dish was served.

amuse bouche

You can notice that they express the grass and under the sea in the plate.

This is the characteristic of EVETT's plating style,

trying to emphasis on where food ingredients come from.

It would be interesting find a consistent plating style during reading this review.

I'll introduce you the dish according to order of eating.

First is, short-necked clam with Ice mints,

and abalone cooked with soy sauce made of abalone's offal.

short-necked clam was refreshing because of ice mints,

and also felt a well-cooked shellfish taste.

in case of abalone, the texture and soy sauce's taste was good.

but soy sauce was a little bit salty.

TIPS

when you come here, EVETT, and you have a try this food,

you feel a salty, I strongly suggest to you to request to make a dish less salty,

Because they consistently maintain this salinity.

 

Second, pig shell dish and fried fermented green onion.

I presume that you guys and gals are not familiar to pig shell.

but this pig shell dish's texture and taste was different compared to normal one.

it was more similar to delicious soft jelly to us.

friend green onions tasted like vegetable fry. just normal.

 

after amuse bouche, they started to serve the pairing liquor.

First Pairing liquor

First pairing liquor, Hongcheon River raw rice wine, called 'takju‘.

normally, raw rice wine's color is more thick.

in this picture, you can see that upper one is more clear than under one.

under one is called rice wine lees.

they served only upper one because they think upper one's taste would make a

better Marriage than mixed one's creamy taste.

(you also can taste the mixed one if you want.)

the taste of liquor itself was clear like white wine.

 

Appetizer

Vegetable dish. burned the surface of carrot and kohlrabi, and dig out by scoop.

Garnish is beef jerky made of horse beef in Jeju island, pickle made of rose,

and sailfin sandfish's egg glazed by refined rice wine, 'called cheongju'.

stock is made of mussel.

 

Vegetable's crunchy texture was excellent,

but mussel stock was so strong for me, and carrot was not good.

this dish was not a good memory for me.

Appetizer

This dish is the most well-known one in this restaurant.

you can find that fact if you search EVETT in the google.

Cover freshwater snail by perilla leaf, and cooked them smooth,

and put one perilla leaf to emphasize perilla leaf.

garnished Black sesame puree to express the smell of the soil in the riverside,

green sauce is made of perilla leaf and perilla leaf oil.

An overall plating was so interesting for me. this is the best one to me.

I can express this dish by one sentence.

'the maximum rich flavor could made by freshwater snail'

not only Black sesame puree and sauce were great,

also these three thing's taste balance was incredible.

taste great, suit for restaurant's motto.

there were two dishes give me the best experience, and this is the one.

please look forward to the other one.

 

Let's go to the next pairing.

 

Second pairing liquor

Second Pairing liquor, King Sejong's liquor.

made in Cheongju(city name, not liquor), made of bedrock water,

called Chojeongsu, one of the best water in world.

they Pairing this liquor for fish dish

because this liquor doesn't added any additives.

liquor taste was very similar to white wine.

it would be easy to understand think of western cuisine's pairing,

pairing white wine to fish dish.

Main dish

Yellow tail dish. cover yellow tail by leaf mustard, and steam it.

the sauce below the fish has 3 layers.

bottom is egg yolk sauce, middle is white sauce, top is almond milk sauce.

the stock is shiitake mushroom tea.

 

the way of eating this dish is cut the middle of the fish, and eat with sauce.

fish was cooked well, and sauce was suit for fish.

one little weakness is it was hard to cut the fish because of leaf mustard.

it was a good dish, but not interesting.

Third pairing liquor

Third Pairing Liquor, called 'Baeksuhwandongju'

liquor name's meaning was interesting.

'A hundred-year-old man who drank this drink could return to his childhood'

this liquor is kind of raw rice wine.

the acidity of this liquor is quite strong. a little hard to drink without eatables.

after pairing next dish to this liquor, you'll know the real value of liquor.

chef showed some performance before serving dishes 

quite cute for me lol

Fifth dish(i don't know this is appetizer or main lol).

lay a persimmon puree under the bread(in the video one)

and put on the grilled mussel and cucumber pickle.

the sauce is made of brown butter sauce added yeast.

the way of eating is unique.

it would be easy to understand if you see this picture.

similar to taco, isn't it?

now you can see the persimmon puree clearly.

I think this dish shows the best marriage today's course.

this dish has a sweet and oily flavor,

pairing liquor cleanse it very well.

I couldn't felt any acidity when I drank after ate this dish.

showed wonderful marriage I think.

 

the review was too long, so I'll continue in 2nd version.

thanks for reading, and I hope you read a 2nd version, too!

Link: https://seongjucho.blogspot.com/2020/01/EVETTENG2.html