Suji Kim-eui Paran Daemun-jib (Suji Kim's Blue Door House)

Suji Kim opened this restaurant to share her beautifully presented, tasty lunch boxes. She sees each of her lunch boxes as a gift made with sincerity and from the heart. Once you’ve had a taste of her food, you’ll realize just how much care goes into every step. Suji makes her fermented bean pastes in the traditional way from organic beans, and uses traditional syrup made from seasonal ingredients instead of sugar. She brings out the natural flavor of ingredients by using homemade broth instead of artificial flavor enhancers and also prepares her own pickled vegetables. The most popular lunch boxes are the bulgogi set and the seafood hot stone bowl rice which contains shrimp, abalone, mussels, broccoli, dates, chestnuts, and pickled plum. Her lunches first earned fame as presents sent by fans to celebrities, not only because of their delicious flavors, but also thanks to the beauty of the lunch boxes themselves. Kim’s daughter is a well-known cartoonist, known as Kuming, and the portraits of celebrities that she drew for fun on the lids of the boxes soon became famous. Kim plans to offer cooking classes and a course on making the lunch box lids.