Simple, Serene Temple Food at Baru

By Han Sang-hee

Staff Reporter

The fast-paced city allows almost no serenity of any kind, but at Baru, you can experience the simple and healthy lifestyle of monks through temple cuisine.

Baru is one restaurant that deals in this cuisine, and is located right across from the Jogye Temple, the home of the Jogye Order, the biggest Buddhism sect in Korea.

The restaurant is run by Ven. Dae An, who is famous among temple food lovers for her easy-to-follow and innovative recipes.

``There are many restaurants that serve temple food, but they are all different and do not follow specific guidelines. It's not about avoiding certain ingredients, but the need for proper guidelines when making temple food,'' she told The Korea Times.

Baru offers ``course" meals with a different number of ``banchan,'' or side dishes: There are 15, 12, 10 and four side dish selections.

We ordered the one with 10 (25,000 won).

After a simple appetizer of fried kelp and ``fruit chips'' (slices of fruit fried and served crunchy), the temple cuisine started with a juk, or porridge, made with mushrooms. Next came the deodeok root salad, which was a pleasant surprise. Some may think the deodeok root is a bit too strong and tangy to be served as a side salad, but it was toned down with a nutty pine nut dressing.

Another surprise was the ``temple sushi,'' which looked like any other sushi dish, but had vegetables on top instead of sashimi.

Light and fresh, the sushi was topped and wrapped with bamboo shoots and cucumber, with another one wrapped in gomchui, a type of groundsel, with a speck of doenjang, or soybean paste, instead of wasabi. They were pretty, creative and most importantly, delicious.

Then came the three different types of jeon, or mini Korean pancakes, made of jepi, the fruit of the Zanthoxylum piperitum, mung beans and chinaberries. As soon as you put them into your mouth, it's like walking into a forest of herbs _ the freshness and distinctive scents made the simple dish a winner.

Another winner was the glazed fried mushroom, which was basically fried mushrooms drizzled with a sweet yet spicy red pepper sauce.

The mushrooms were a little too big and sticky, but they were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They would perhaps even work as a wonderful snack for children.