Chueotang and Cheonggyecheon

On March 7, 2025 by admin With 0 Comments - Korea 2025, Travel

Today I reunited with an old restaurant colleague for chueotang (loach soup) and later took a night walk along Cheonggyecheon stream.

History:

While I was a cook at Canoe Restaurant in Toronto, Gloria (a student from Korea) worked as an intern for a few months. I have not seen her for over 20 years but today we had lunch together at a chueotang restaurant near her home.

Canoe Restaurant Toronto crew circa 2002 — Around 23 years ago…That’s me sitting in the middle with a beer in my hand. Gloria right in the front.

2 old coworkers meet in Guri Korea for chueotang — 23 years later…wow

Canoe kitchen crew Toronto circa 2002 — Gloria also sent me this picture today. That’s me in the back with the crumpled chef hat. With the hat on I was almost 7 feet tall so I was always crushing it on the edge of the exhaust system hoods. David Castellan of Soma Chocolatemaker is right next to me. I worked for him shortly after I left Canoe and my daughter works for him now.

Chueotang 추어탕:

a bowl chueotang at a famous Seoul restaurant — Chueotang 추어탕 at 담터고개추어탕 This soup is made of ground up loaches that live in the muddy water around rice paddies. They are small fresh water fish like you might see in an aquarium. The soup is rich and strong flavoured. It is a favourite of mine. We also had some fried whole loaches…also very tasty.

The table and side dishes at a chueotang restaurant

Cheonggyecheon Stream:

Tonight we walked home along Cheonggyecheon. The stream cuts through the middle of the city for around 10km. It is peaceful place for a quiet walk surrounded by nature and city lights at the same time. After the Korean War this natural waterway was filled with concrete and the Cheonggyecheon Expressway was built overtop of it. In 2003, the government decided to remove the freeway and restore the stream as part of its urban renewal project. It was all finished by 2005. TWO YEARS! I can’t believe how fast. It is one of my favourite places in Seoul.