By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The weather is getting colder and it is officially autumn ― time for good pine mushrooms.
Natural pine mushrooms are a gourmet favorite because of their deep flavor and rarity.
Top class hotels here are working on presenting their signature dishes with this luxurious mushroom.
Park Hyatt Seoul presents pine mushroom menus including tagliatelle with pine mushrooms, barley risotto with taleggio cheese and pine mushrooms, Australian Wagyu beef sirloin with pan seared pine mushrooms and many more at its Cornerstone restaurant from Sept. 14 for two weeks. In addition to a la carte menus, a three-course set menu ― from pine mushroom appetizers to pastas to main dishes ― is also provided. The prices start at 22,000 won, excluding tax.
The Westin Chosun Seoul offers natural pine mushroom delicacies in Japanese restaurant Sushi Cho from Sept. 1 to 30 and in Chinese restaurant Hong Yuan from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31.
Sushi Cho's full course meal includes natural pine mushroom salad, natural pine mushroom broiled on a charcoal brazier, roasted abalone and natural pine mushroom, and clay pot rice cooked with natural pine mushroom, priced at 210,000 won, excluding tax.
Hong Yuan's special No. 1 course includes braised sea cucumber with natural pine mushroom, X.O. sauce king prawn with mushroom, fried mushroom and abalone in beef rolls, and noodle soup with natural pine mushroom for 100,000 won (minimum two persons). The No. 2 course consists of cold dishes with natural pine mushroom, steamed shark's fin with mushroom, natural pine mushroom and live abalone with sea cucumber, saut?ed lobster with mushroom, Korean beef with Beijing mushroom, Buddha jumps soup with truffle and noodle soup with natural pine mushroom, which also requires a minimum of two persons. They are priced at 170,000 won, excluding tax.
Grand InterContinental Seoul's Hakone and Marco Polo restaurants present seasonal dishes of pine mushroom from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.
Japanese restaurant Hakone's eight-course dinner starts with pine mushroom yuba salad, vegetable rolls, pine mushroom sushi, fried chestnuts, citron rolled with dried persimmon and salmon rolls. Afterwards the pine mushroom soup with shrimp, sashimi including sea bream, yellowtail, flounder and tuna will be prepared.
Grilled Wagyu beef tenderloin and broiled pine mushroom with parsley mustard sauce, deep fried vegetable rolled with a slice of sea bream and a special broil of greenling, pine mushroom, shrimp, gingko nut, mushroom and others in bonito gravy are all recommended, the hotel's promoter Kim Hyun-sook said.
The pine mushroom dinner set menu is 150,000 won while the six-course lunch set is offered at 70,000 won, both excluding tax.
Marco Polo, located on the 52th floor of the World Trade Center, offers pine mushroom dishes in a Chinese culinary style. Buldojang, a Korean version of traditional Chinese health food, shark's fin, oyster sauce, fresh pine mushroom and abalone and saut?ed fresh pine mushrooms are provided.
Lotte Hotel Seoul will hold a"Yangyang Pine Mushroom Specialties" event with Yangyang County in Gangwon Province at the hotel's Momoyama, Mugunghwa and Toh Lim restaurants from Sept. 14 through Oct. 10.
"Yangyang pine mushrooms boast a uniquely deep fragrance and contain less moisture than others, which allows long-term storage," the hotel promoter Moon In-young said.
The Japanese restaurant Momoyama presents a natural pine mushroom course menu with salt-grilled pine mushrooms, pine mushrooms steamed in a kettle, deep-fried pine mushrooms, steamed rice topped with pine mushrooms, pine mushroom shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. Their prices range between 70,000 and 280,000 won.
The Korean restaurant Mugunghwa offers natural pine mushroom set menus, such as stone pot rice with natural pine mushrooms and grilled natural pine mushrooms, which are priced at 47,000 to 100,000 won.
At the Chinese restaurant Toh Lim, there are two course menus that include braised shark's fin with pine mushrooms, abalone and scallops with pine mushrooms, and pine mushroom Bul Do Jang. The course menus are priced at 100,000 and 170,000 won, excluding tax.