One sign of a successful overseas trip is that you were so obsessed with a meal you were so fond of that you had gone miles trying to replicate it when you got home.
That’s my case with the Korean salt bread from my recent trip there.
One day after we walked out of the frenziedly packed (only) Fwee beauty store in Seoul, we walked for less than a hundred yards and made a turn. We were immediately surrounded by a cloud of heavenly buttery bread aroma in the air. There was this less-than 20-foot-wide store crowded with bystanders. There was not even a display of what they had but we could tell was some sort of bakery. Also, people on our left and right were standing there devouring it from the white bakery bags they were holding.
We decided to buy a bag to check it out.
That’s how I was immediately hooked.
This was a bread that took all the good characteristics of the bread I loved and combined them into one single half-palm-sized bun. From the crisp crust skin as well as the layered shape similar to a good croissant, the pillowy soft insides reminiscent of brioches or milk bread, and the light hint of the chewiness of a French baguette or a sourdough, it is a perfect one-fits-all type.
From the internet, I learned that this was a bread that likely went viral during the 2020 pandemic year, started in Japan but got a boost in South Korea the following years.
Since that, my Korean trip added a new to-do. From then on, every day I was semi-hunting for salt bread. I was lucky to get a full immersion of them while we were in the ancient small city of Gyeongju.
In the heart of Gyeongju, there was this cafe called Soha Salt Pond Cafe 소하염전 小夏鹽田 that produced the most INS-qualified salt bread with equally out-of-box toppings like green onions, and red beans.
Later we also devoured two types of salt breads in a tiny street cafe at the heart of Gangnam downtown. The cafe even has one with salted Pollock roe 明太子 as a topping and I ordered one. Only halfway down I realized I even forgot to let my phone “devour” it first.
From there my experience with the salt bread went down the hill after we came back from Gyeongju and moved to a hotel near the university campuses. Strangely we could no longer find any bakery selling such bread and we were also too busy fulfilling other to-do tasks to venture into the local streets to find them. I had the gut feeling that this was a bread already becoming a normal day bread in their local bakery.
Finally, half an hour before boarding, I checked in the tiny Paris Baguette located within the terminal rest areas of Incheon International Airport. Thank god it had “salt bread” but was very tiny and individually wrapped. I ordered four but they were disappointedly mediocre ones.
The second day after I came back, I happened to get a chance to pass by a Chinese bakery chain called 85C Bakery Cafe. I made an effort to step in one and search for salt bread. To my delight, there was a tray dedicated to “salt bread”. This time I only bought one, skeptical even by its lumpy outlook. It was an even more disappointing experience than the Incheon Airport one,
So yesterday almost ten days after we came back from the trip, after watching numerous YouTube on how to make a perfect salt bread from Korean chefs, I started my batch of six. It took almost a whole day with these three steps of proofing, two stages of fermentation, and every step involved 30 to 90-minute intervals. Finally, I made it with success.
I even went to a local authentic French bakery — Croisante — trying to buy their “salt butter roll” for comparison but the rolls were sold out! So I took one of their normal croissants home for comparison.
The test reminded me why I love salt bread over croissant. The former still holds the main character of a good bread but the latter is too flaky and deep-fried’ish to my liking. I don’t recall smelling any croissant with a decent bread aroma anymore. (Time to fly over to France to check it out!)
The making of my first batch of salt bread also kills a tiny portion of my crazy obsession with it by knowing the ingredients in detail. One 70g dough needs to wrap a 10g butter stick. Too bad I am reaching the age that my healthy eating habits usually are killing the joy of devouring good eats.
I immediately sent the rest four pieces in two air-tight bags to the deep freezer but I microwaved two of them this morning. They taste even better after waking up from deep freeze in the microwave.
I am glad I mastered the baking techniques and will make them occasionally in the future, with two things added: using my sourdough instead of the instant yeast, and trying the salted Pollock roe 明太子 as one topping.
