Total Art Festival (TAF): A New Experience in Sinchon
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by the folks of Total Art Festival to check out their place and their wares. One of the people who invited me was Sarah Lee of Seoul in the City–a blog you should put in your cue. TAF is not a festival as much as it is a hangout. It’s a venue for artists of all types, including musicians. Located a bit east of the Sinchon Rotary (I suggest you check the map below), you first come across a wooden shack against a concrete building that looks like something you don’t typically see in Korea.
The interior is cozy but not cramped. The music streams smoothly, and each table is its own alcove for conversation, working or relaxing. TAF’s menu is intentionally small. In fact, I tried everything on there. The food had a lot of thought put into it. As much as humanly possible, it is organic and local. The basil is grown by the restaurant. Even though the dishes come out with some presentation flair, the emphasis from the start is flavor.
The Spinach Dip comes out warm and creamy with chunks o’ nuts. It’s something you’d want to eat all day. It comes with some corn tortilla chips, but this is the type of dip that’s screaming for big hunks of crusty bread.
This one was intriguing. It’s a salad topped with curried chicken, flanked by pumpkin squash. A nice little touch that you won’t notice until someone points it out to you–the raisins are soaked in Earl Grey tea. I greatly enjoyed this, especially the raisins.
These little Bruscetta are open-faced caprese sandwiches. Balsamic reduction, fresh mozzarella, homegrown basil and grape tomatoes. The advantage of the small tomatoes is that, unlike most all tomatoes you’ll find in Korea, they are vine ripened and thus are juicy, not mealy.
I mentioned in passing that TAF is one of the places doing burgers right. The patty is thick and juicy. Well seasoned. It’s topped with onion chutney and more garden veggies. Even though I was getting full, I massively munched on this one.
And even though I was getting all “baebeolah’d,” these were no problem to down. Vegetarian sandwiches of oyster mushrooms, sprouts and mint-basil pesto on spongy focaccia.
I was stuffed after all that. But I would love to go for it again. TAF is now my top place to go to in Sinchon.
Friend them on Facebook. As promised, here is the map.
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