Energy-boosting foods top summer menus
The Millennium Seoul Hilton's Genji offers wild eel. / Courtesy of Millennium Seoul Hilton
By Kang Seung-woo
As a record-breaking deadly heat wave sweeps the nation, local hotels are sold on offering summer-themed, energy-boosting foods.
Eel, regarded as one of the major “stamina” foods in the hot weather here, is headlining every hotel restaurant's summer menu.
The Millennium Seoul Hilton is offering wild eel at its Japanese restaurant Genji until the end of August.
Available in an eight-course extravaganza, it will be prepared teriyaki-style and served along other fine Japanese dishes. Some of the courses will include: assorted sashimi, Orotson eel teriyaki, assorted vinegared seafood and assorted tempura.
The eel for this special meal is Orotson eel, which is a wild, not farmed, eel found in the mudflats on the western coast of Korea. Highly sought after in both Korea and Japan, as well as other countries, this wild eel is a prized treat and the perfect showcase for this special eel meal.
The JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul's Tavolo24 is running a Summer 8 promotion that features food and beverages restoring people's waning energy. The menu is comprised of seasonal local ingredients from the nation's eight provinces.
The menu includes eel gangjeong and mudfish soup from the Jeolla region, as well as North Korean cold noodles that were served at a luncheon between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their summit in April.
The promotion will run through the end of the month.
The Timber House, Park Hyatt Seoul's vinyl music bar, is also presenting its eel and vodka promotion featuring river eel and premium drinks until Aug. 31.
According to the hotel, sunomono, donburi and soba made from pungcheon eels are complemented by a premium Russian Beluga vodka cocktail, Japanese draft beer and sake.
The areas in the middle of rivers and oceans, called pungcheon, have a variety of nutrients and lower salinity and produce high-quality fishery resources due to their hydrographic characteristics.