Pleased to see DepSecState Steve Biegun cooking #dakhanmari (+ hobakjeon + mandu + a wee dram of soju!) for his wife in celebration of Mother's Day. Quite the deft touch on the hobakjeon flip, Mr. Sec'y! Thanks to his favorite restaurant in Seoul for providing the secret recipe. pic.twitter.com/dfCqEkSXxG
— Harry Harris (@USAmbROK) May 12, 2020
In his last visit to South Korea as a Donald Trump administration official, US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun once again visited Bon-ga One Chicken 본가 닭한마리, a chicken soup restaurant in downtown Seoul. This time, Korean officials rented out the entire restaurant in order to maintain proper social distancing.
Much of diplomacy involves putting on a polite face and accepting every dish offered without complaining - which makes it all the more remarkable how genuinely Biegun loves this particular chicken restaurant. By TBR’s count, Biegun never failed to eat this chicken dish whenever he visited Seoul. When he could not visit the restaurant during his visit in July because of social distancing measures, Biegun had the dish catered at the US Ambassador’s residence. Biegun also obtained the recipe for the chicken soup from the restaurant - which involves chicken, potatoes, scallions and rice cake - and made the dish for his wife on this year’s Mother’s Day. (Harry Harris, US Ambassador for Korea, tweeted the video clip of Biegun in the kitchen.) Korean media speculates that Biegun, who is of Polish heritage, particularly loves the chicken soup as he finds it similar to a Polish style chicken soup.
