Last week, Sylvia and I were jonesing for some yummy Italian food around Hongdae, and decided to give Spannew a chance. Spannew is apparently a chain Italian restaurant with several locations around Seoul. There are two in the Hongdae area, and we went to the one that is closer to Sangsu station (Click '서교점' under the 'store' tab on their website). The outside of the building is kinda tacky and absurd, what with the over-the-top medieval/renaissance-style writing and imagery on the outside, but at least it makes the restaurant easy to spot from a distance.
(photo taken from www.spannew.com)
First, they came out with a bread basket and the ubiquitous bowl of Korean-style pickles:
I ordered their Pomodoro (10,500 won), which normally comes with cheese in it, but I just asked them not to include any cheese. This was so good, I'm still thinking about it days later. The pasta was cooked to el dente perfection, while the chunks of roasted garlic added some great flavor.
If you're a big guy with a big appetite, the portion will probably be a bit small, but the amount was perfect for me, and I walked out more than satisfied!
After eating, we checked out the art gallery 'Space, Hole & Corner' that is in the basement of the restaurant building. I believe the work is shared by three different artists: Guk Jin Park, Ji Young Yoon, and Sung Tae Hong (박국진, 윤지영 & 홍승태). This group show, entitled 'Hue-Man, ' is definitely intriguing and thought-provoking. The majority of the works are sculptures of bizarre non-human or human characters and body parts. Some of them are just straight-up creepy.
But the main reason why I am talking about this art show is that there were two pieces that I thought could relate to veganism and animal-rights. The artist Sung Tae Hong (홍승태) made a messenger bag and a vest jacket out of what is meant to resemble human skin:
This artist is probably not vegan or anything, but I appreciated the fact that he was bringing to light the issue of using animals' skin for leather clothes and bags, and how this is no different than if we were to use human skin instead. The vest jacket even has nipples on it! It would be cool to meet this artist and get a better understanding of his vision and point of view.
Some other pieces in the show:
