[edit] Suanbo Restaurants:

Restaurants in Suanbo-myeon in Chungju.

This small mountain resort town is just jam-packed with restaurants. Overall their quality is as good as one can find in Korea. It's possible to find mediocre food here but you really have to look for it. Only thing, your choice is Korean, Korean, and more Korean. Very few foreigners come here; if your tastes run to Western food, this may not be the place for you. There is one pizza place in the middle of town, but that's about it.... Culinary specialties here are Sanchae jeongshik (Banquet of mountain vegetables - usually some meat and fish dishes are included.) Also pheasant meat - this can cost as much as 50,000 won per dish - with just the occasional exception (pheasant mandu) it's not for the faint of pocketbook. Some places serve rabbit as well. Other than the game animals, here's a lot of soups and stews in the 5,000-won-range and the jeongshiks go for around 10,000 won, a bit more if it's something special.

• An Sung Morning Shop - Is that the name of it. It's on a sign over the door. The twenjang was a bit heavy on the chile. The ulkaengi haejang-guk was quite tasty. Banchan was okay if not outstanding.

• Byung Chun Soonday - Soondae here is loosely packed and contains onions and other vegetables. Definitely one of the better sundaes I've had. 6,000 won for a great big plate of it, with ssamjang, leaves, white salted shrimp. They also have sundaeguk and sundaebokkum.

• Chayon Shiktang 846-3366. Connected to a hotel and tour buses stop there. With a captive audience they don't have to be good. They are not terrible by any other town's standards - but their food is just not exciting.

• Chungju Haejangguk the "hiding rabbit" restaurant. Many of the eateries here show pictures of animals to advertise what they serve. At this one the rabbits are crouching behind an air conditioning unit.

• Dog Soup restaurant - the sign says this in English as well as there being a Korean sign. It is on the bypass road the intercity buses take in going to the bus station.

• Halmeom Sumdubu, (845-9995)This place served plain sundubu with a tasty broth and kochukaru on the side. Banchan was some very sweet boiled beef, a fish and radish slice cooked in soy sauce, fish guts in kochujang, several of the usual tasty sanchae items, and kimchi which was pretty fresh, fairly straightforward and inoffensive. There was also a small plate of fried squash slices. This meal cost 5,000 won. This would be an outstanding meal in most of Korea; in Suanbo it's just par for the course.

• Hyeondae Shiktang, (043) 846-3353 (landline); (011) 461-3374 (handphone). May well be the best restaurant in Suanbo - which is arguably the best eating town (for Korean food) in Korea. Hidden at the end of a cut between buildings, just up the street from the Traditional Medicine Market. Everything is yummy there. Eat and be happy. Hanjeongshik, 10,000 won. Also Haejangguk, Sundubu, etc. 191-1 Oncheon-ri, Sangmo-myeon, Chungju-shi, Chungcheong buk-do.

• Medicine Market street restaurants There's several of them along the lane of the traditional medicine market. At one of the first is a reasonable ojingeo pindaedduk.

• Minsokcheon Restaurant - Deodeok sanchae jeongshik here for 10,000 won was highly excellent. Kongnamul haejang-guk was also good.

• Sangnok Shiktang (043) 846-9625. Tubu jeonggol for just 6,000 won. Pretty tasty food. They also serve Ori bulgogi, Sanchae bibimbap, Chunggukjang, Beoseot Bulgogi, etc.

• Taebong Shiktang - (043) 846-3366. This is a little one-story hole-in-the-wall. Seating Western-style only (tables and chairs.) Very inexpensive. Turns out it's a real gem - better than most fancier restaurants in Suanbo. Kalguksu and the Chunggukjang are superb. The kamja-jeon was very good. The menu is quite extensive.

• Yeonghwa Shiktang - (043) 846-4500; (043) 846-2530. Wow! The Sanchae jeongshik had 40 items! This is a real variety of mountain vegetables, not the watered-down version you get some places. Most of them had the name of the item right there on the bowl (in Hangeul). Portions were mostly small but with that many items more would be redundant. The food was all of good quality. They started out by serving a plate of tofu, some kimchi and some edible leaves. In a bit the rest came. There were two kinds of mushrooms I hadn't eaten before: meokbeoseot, a dark chewy thing, and ssaribeoseot, branchy with a mild bleach overtone. Other out-of-the-ordinary foods were "bak-koji" a brown translucent substance which might be animal or vegetable; sseumbagwi, a plant with an unusual flavor. Also there was Eoneuri, aju-kkari-ip, ch'wi-namul, sswae-ddong, Doorup, meoudae (a stem), ch'am-namul, keomeunori, daraesun, and hot-ip. There was a good sized plate of fresh deodeok, shredded, not grilled, even though it was labelled "gui." Above-average twenjang-cchigae. A couple other small meat dishes. Preserved sesame leaves. The ample bowl of rice came cooked with chestnuts and other items. And later they gave us bowls of nurunji soup. The price for this was 12,000 won per person. Eating here leaves the customer feeling good as well as full.

• Yetkoeul K'ong Nara - (043) 855-7225; (016) 445-2247. Pheasant dishes, three kinds of haejangguk, sundubu, cheonggukjang. And lots of nice banchan with the food.