Hosujip 호수집

A bright red chicken stew bubbles on a gas burner at each table, crowded with perilla leaves, mushrooms and chewy rice cakes. The broth starts mild and deepens as it reduces, picking up a faint soybean-paste note. Hosujip has run as a cramped, old-style drinking spot on Cheongpa-ro behind Seoul Station since 1982, and even weekday lunch brings a queue. The menu is essentially two things: dakbokkeum-tang and chicken skewers grilled over coal briquettes. Skewers are capped at two per person and run out by late evening. The pot ends as fried rice made with seaweed and sesame oil.