Okdongsik

Okdongsik is a tiny one-dish restaurant on a quiet residential lane a few minutes from Hapjeong Station. There is no big menu to puzzle over: the kitchen makes dweji gomtang, a pork soup that looks nothing like the milky pork-and-rice bowls you may know from Busan. The broth is clear and lightly seasoned, made from the leg meat of Berkshire K black pork raised around Jirisan, and it is poured over rice that has been warmed in broth, then topped with thin, tender slices of pork. A dab of the house chili relish on the meat adds gentle heat, and plump kimchi dumplings are the classic side. The room seats about ten people along a single bar, so meals are quick and quiet, and solo diners fit right in. Broth, rice and kimchi can be refilled. The Seoul shop is the original of a small international brand that has since opened in New York and other cities, but the Hapjeong counter is where the clear-broth style began, and the Michelin Guide still lists it as a Bib Gourmand.