I took my buddy Charles out to dinner for his birthday yesterday (his birthday had actually been the week before), leaving the choice of restaurant up to him. Charles, who lives in the SNU area and teaches at SNU (where he also got his doctorate in folkloristics*), chose a neighborhood resto called Legna Napoli (meaning Neapolitan wood), which had a cozy atmosphere. Up front, I'll have to say that I once again forgot to get any photos of the food. Sorry about that. We got and shared a multi-cheese pizza, a pasta amatriciana, and an insalata with assorted, pan-fried veggies (especially funghi) and seafood.
The resto's claim to fame is a large, brick oven labeled Forni Grimaldi (Grimaldi Oven), from which came a modestly sized multi-cheese pizza with a nice, leopard-spotted crust whose taste took me by surprise. As pizza rater Dave Portnoy might complain, the pizza slice's droop when held up meant that it had little "undercarriage," but the dough had been fired perfectly in my opinion, and the whole thing (served with a dainty little bowl of honey) was delicious. The pasta was also cooked perfectly al dente, and the salad was a plausibly European salad, not your typically mutant Korean creation.
I got the impression that the restaurant's culture had been defined by people who had gone to Italy to learn at the feet of Italian masters; there was a definite sense of respect for the cuisine. At the same time, the relaxed, order-by-touch-screen atmosphere kept the place from feeling pretentious. I will have to go back at some point. Photos from Legna Napoli can be found online. In Korean, Legna is spelled phonetically as "leh-geu-nah nah-pohl-li," but legna, which means "wood" (as in forno a legna, a wood-fired oven) is actually pronounced "LEY-nyah." As Charles pointed out, the "gn" in Italian is a "nyuh"/"ñ" sound, as in lasagna/lasagne. Something similar happens in French (Charlemagne, champagne, dignité, ligne, signe).
Pulled from online:
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| multi-cheese pizza from Legna Napoli |
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| pasta amatriciana from elsewhere |
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| our well put-together salad from Legna Napoli |
I'll try to remember to take my own pics next time.
Charles is four years younger than I am, and a lot healthier.
__________
*Technically, I think Charles's specific field is Korean oral literature, but his general field is folkloristics. Charles has a special interest in trickster-figures.
The specific name of my field of study is in part a matter of semantics--"oral literature" is a now somewhat out-of-date (at least in the West) term for "folklore." It's also a matter of departmental identity, though, as I belong to the literature department, specifically classical literature.
ReplyDeleteThat's a discussion for next time, though. In the meantime, I'll add my public thanks to my private thanks for the dinner. Glad we were able to catch up!
Ah. I would have thought that "Korean oral literature" was country/culture specific while "folkloristics" was globally generic.
DeleteThere was a similar vagueness when I did my minor in undergrad, and when I did my MA later on: in undergrad, what I was really doing was taking courses in religious studies, but Georgetown listed my minor under the traditional category of "Theology." In grad school, my MA field was listed as "Religion and Culture," but again, my courses (except for core requirements) were almost all in religious studies. I haven't checked back in a long time to see what terms are now currently in vogue.