Togani (Beef Knee Gelatin Soup)

Last week Wannie - a good friend of Yelim's, invited us out to dinner. She and her boyfriend found a well known Tagani (gelatenous beef knee soup) restaurant in Jongo, the old city center of Seoul, and she wanted to introduce us to it.


I never had gelatenous beef or beef knee (that I'm aware of), and I was a little nervous. I rationalized that beef knee might be a very tasty and "special" cut of the animal, you know, since cow knees are, um, small. As for the gelatin part I just kept thinking Osso Bucco, after all, the gelatin is the best part, right?  I happily accepted dinner with a "special" Osso Bucco type of meal in mind.

When we arrived Wannie took the lead and ordered for us. The first thing to arrive was a big plate of gelatenous beef that I mistook for slabs of raw beef fat. After being reassured that it was not raw beef fat I fingered my chopsticks and approached the plate. This is what it looked like:

I can't lie. I was afraid to try the knee gelatin straight on. I wondered where the soup was but quickly realized that I was taking too long and that Wannie invited us here because it was good and that she liked it. In fact, she said it was famous and the best Tagani she'd ever had. So I dug in and took bite out of it and was instantly relieved that the texture was firm and chewy and not jello-ish. In fact, the gelatin had the texture of su je bi or hand pulled noodles and tasted like beef. It was certainly not my favorite, but it was not horrible. I knew I had to eat some more than just a taste though. I didn't want to insult Wannie and Yelim. Luckily ban chan (korean side dishes) can help almost any meal. At this restaurant we got radish kimchi and garlic kimchi. The garlic kimchi is one of my favorites and will dilute the taste of just about anything. So I dug in for some more Tagani and followed up with whole garlic bulbs.

When the soup came the broth was extremely bland. Salt and pepper were on the table and we were instructed to help ourselves to it to our liking. Once I put in the salt and white powdered pepper the soup transformed. The broth became rich and savory and the pepper added the perfect punch. Adding rice to the soup made it even better. In the end the meal turned out to be pretty good (of course the soju and the company always helps). I might not be running back but I certainly won't be running away either.

Here's the soup, garlic and restaurant info for Apollo :)