Jo Young-kwon travels around the country and visits over 3,000 restaurants
Participating in food books and documentaries… Appearing as a ‘gourmet’ on You Quiz
“In the beginning, I walked around alone and ate roughly.
I promise to eat this precious meal as if it were a gift to myself.
“The pacer and the chef are similar in terms of ‘communicating with each other.’”
Piano tuner Cho Young-kwon, who has traveled the country on business trips and written about simple restaurants, is looking around Tongin Market in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 27th. Reporter Seong Dong-hoon
Today’s destination is Gimje. The place to visit is ‘Miwon Bunsik’, which sells red bean kalguksu. The feeling of red bean kalguksu (red bean kalguksu) made with thick noodles mixed in moderately sweet red bean water and sticking to the mouth is unbearable on cold winter days like these. I leave home early in the morning. The direct bus from Incheon Terminal to Gimje has been discontinued, so it has no choice but to pass through Iksan. It’s vague and cumbersome, but whatever. After checking the train interval, I use the interlude to stop by Iksan ‘Youngmi Snacks’. I order one serving of dumplings at a dumpling restaurant with 42 years of history… .
I’m kind of jealous of this kind of life. The main character is Cho Young-kwon, a piano tuner with 32 years of experience. His workplace is places with pianos all over the country. He has all the information about all the restaurants he visited in the area he visited while coordinating in his head. A hidden expert known among ‘foodies’ who know a bit about taste. Since 2010, he has been posting about his business trip destinations and the food he ate that day, like a diary, and his blog, ‘Pyanojojoulsa,’ contains information on about 3,000 good restaurants. It is not a fine dining restaurant or an ‘Instagrammable’ restaurant. These are simple restaurants good for eating alone, with menus priced at a few thousand won, located in markets and alleys, such as snack bars, noodle restaurants, Chinese restaurants, white rice restaurants, and driver restaurants. Following
“For the first few years, I ate as if I was just making up for it. Because I had to travel, work, and eat alone while traveling from place to place. Then, one day, I suddenly realized: Let’s gift ourselves this precious meal that provides rest and comfort every day. Let’s enjoy what we already eat. That’s how I became interested and searched for it. ‘What should I eat today?’ “I do.”
I asked the person I met at Tongin Market in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 27th. I’m curious about how to find good restaurants without relying on blogs or social media.
“It’s normal. I get advice from acquaintances, and I go to local taxi drivers or real estate agents and ask questions. I usually look for old restaurants (old restaurants) rather than new ones. Because they’re proven restaurants that have stood the test of time. When you go to rural areas, sometimes you’ll find places with two-digit phone numbers written on their signs. That’s a sign of how old they are. The same goes for places that have signs of damaged signs that have been repaired.”
-If you go alone, you have to be especially careful when choosing the menu.
“I look around to see what people eat a lot. I also look at the menu. If you order what’s listed first, there’s usually no failure. I once went to a Chinese restaurant, and Jjajangmyeon was listed first, but that restaurant had bibim jjamppong. It’s the menu the owner is most confident about.”
– Looking at the book, I was surprised to see that the noodles had a stronger regional flavor than I expected.
“It’s a common and easy food for everyone to eat. So it’s natural to make it with something that’s abundant in that region. Red bean kalguksu is only found in Jeolla-do. That’s where a lot of red beans are grown. On the other hand, in Gyeongsang-do, where soybeans are abundant, wheat flour and soybean powder are mixed when making noodles. Hoe-guksu and Jaecheop-guksu are also menu items that can be eaten in certain regions.”
-I’m curious about a noodle restaurant that I like but wasn’t introduced in the book.
“I selected places that were relatively not featured on blogs or social media and had less word of mouth. I excluded places that a sufficiently large number of people would know about. For example, ‘Shinsuk’ in Seocho-dong.”
He, who was not suited to sitting quietly in an office, chose to become a tuner as a career because he could not forget the scene of a tuner tuning the piano he had seen at church during his high school days. Since I learned piano in my youth, it wasn’t unfamiliar to me, and it was nice to be able to freely travel around the country with professional skills. What I always realize and remember while coordinating is that I need to understand the other person’s needs and think from their perspective.
“There is a standard sound, but that is not the right answer. Each piano player has a taste and preferred style, and it is important to understand that well. I once received a request from a famous pianist, and he requested a sound that was different from my common sense. No matter how much I listened to it, it was dissonant. I tried to understand his intention by listening to his CD dozens of times, and only later did I understand his intention of wanting to play with a rough and old texture.”
-This is the part where the trainer and the chef feel very similar.
“It’s similar. It’s about understanding the other person’s tastes and preferences and catering to them. It’s the same when you watch programs like
-Upright pianos are often replaced by digital pianos these days. How is it working?
“There are about 600 pianos a year, which has decreased compared to the past. As the number of digital pianos increases, the number of tuners is also decreasing. However, there are still people who love the honest sound of pianos made with great effort, so I work harder. I don’t have absolute taste, but I have a rather bright ear. (Laughs)”
The taste of noodles
