Seoul Food

For my second post about our time in Seoul, I want to focus [mostly] on some of the delicious meals and tasty treats we had. Be sure to check out Phil’s blog about the other fun stuff we did!

Our second full day in Seoul, we had a 1:30 tour scheduled; we slept in a little, especially compared with our early rise the day before. Did I mentioned it was cold in Seoul? It was. It even snowed a little bit overnight. We carefully made our way to a nearby lunch spot, avoiding ice and slush as much as we could, that we’d saved on our maps app to have a bite before the tour.

The place was booming, with a line leading in from the outside. They sure know how to shuffle people through, so we were quickly asked how many in our party and told to go upstairs. Once up, we were handed a menu to make our selections and pay before being directed to a small, two person table. The tables come ready with water pitchers and a pot of kimchee. The restaurants in Seoul (like every one we visited) have a handy drawer or drawers built under the table which houses chopsticks, spoons, napkins, and a bottle opener. Genius. It is also common to have a small waste basket next to the table to throw used napkins, as this one did. This was very useful as the tables are quite small and can quickly fill with trash. They are also serving soup and spicy foods which are not only potentially messy but also make the ol’ nose run.

We ordered a soup and some dumplings to share. The food was delivered by a robot waiter. I made a little song up in my head about a robot bringing me soup. It goes a little something like this ” 🎶 There’s a little robot and he’s bringing me soup, he’s bringing me soup, he’s bringing me soup. A silly little robot man is bringing me soup. Sloppy slurpy soup for me  🎶 ” I never said I was a lyrical genius.

The sloppy part of the song really rang true. I thought I was decent with chopsticks, never having too much trouble in eating sushi or ramen or anything else that requires chopsticks. I think that’s because 99% of the chopsticks I’ve used are wooden and round. The majority of the chopsticks we encountered in Seoul were not only metal, but also flat or squarish. This really tested my skills. At least with the soup, we also had a spoon so what food I wasn’t able to grasp with the sticks, I could kind of shovel into my mouth.

We enjoyed our afternoon tour during which our guide, Shin, gave us some recommendations of places to eat and things to try at the famous Gyeongdong Market, where the tour was to conclude. The market consists of many different food stalls and stands offering sweet and savory treats, some offering the option of seating while others are strictly grab and go.

We made a beeline for the place Shin said had the best fried mung bean cakes. I remember seeing the cakes in several videos we watched while planning our trip. Luckily this place had seating, cool and functional seating at that. We found that often seating in restaurants in Seoul was crowded for western standards with tables pushed very close together or shared, with small seats or stools. Add to this the fact that we were trying to shimmy out of winter coats and stash gloves and hats, plus dealing with a backpack. At this particular spot, I saw a gentleman come in and when he sat down, he opened his stool,which had a little bucket/reservoir area under the seat and stash his coat. Genius! What a great use of space! We quickly followed suit and stashed our items so we could enjoy our dinner unencumbered.

We ordered a trio of fried mung bean cakes, called bindaetteok or nokdujeon. I am not entirely sure what the difference in the three was other than one had scallions in it and one had bean sprouts. Each was a slightly different shade of brown/golden and while all were quite crispy, one was especially so. They were all good and the only thing I can compare it to is a latke, though they were thicker and larger. They did not have a strong taste but were salty, starchy, and crispy, which is always good. The dumplings were dumplings (therefore good), with some kind of green veg inside and sesame seeds outside. We paired the meal with a Cass, Korea’s number one selling beer and kimchee, of course.

I later discovered that mung beans are a real super-food, being low calorie and high in both fiber and protein, rich in antioxidants and heart healthy. The frying part of this particular dish adds to the calories and detracts from the heart health a bit, I suppose, but hey, it was better for me than other fried foods I could have consumed, so that’s a plus.

After we’d had our fill, we headed out to find the other treat (ok, maybe we hadn’t had our “fill”) at the market I wanted to try, the twisted donut. The donuts, or kkwabaegi, is another treat we’d seen when researching Seoul. It’s a twisted bread made with glutenous rice flour, then fried and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The consistency is crispy and chewy, kind of like a deep friend mochi. Yum. Sadly, not a super-food.

The next day, we didn’t have anything planned, so ended up exploring and wandering, eventually ending at the War Memorial of Korea. It is really something. I am not a huge history buff but they have all sorts of interesting information from all of the wars of the Korean people dating back hundreds of years. The most items are from the Korean War that we think about that the U.S. was involved in during the early 1950’s. Some of my favorite pics are below.

After our visit to the memorial, we headed to the nearby train station. Our feet were tired from a day of walking, so we decided to wait for the elevator down to the subway as opposed to taking the stairs. While we were waiting, we happened to look over, into a small restaurant, K Pub Hanryang, where two gentlemen were drinking beer. We agreed that we too should head in to have a beer before carrying on. Boy am I glad we did.

The guys we’d seen drinking also ordered some food that was brought sizzling to their table that smelled very good. We perused the menu and ordered up a couple of dishes in addition to our couple of Cass beers. While we waited, we munched on these little, odd shaped corn puffs (think crunchy Cheeto texture). I realized after a few of the tasty crunchies that they tasted like chicken, and in fact, were not odd shaped, but shaped like chicken legs. They were really good.

Soon our main course of pork shoulder and house-made spam and assorted veggies was brought out on a sizzling cast iron platter followed shortly by the spiced pork with soybean paste noodles. It was all so good! The cast iron meats were brought out with a BBQ-like sauce and a small bowl of bread crumbs. Our waiter instructed us to dip the pork shoulder in the sauce then the crumbs. It was super good with or without the sauce/crumbs and particularly good with the onions sizzled down in the pork fat. The noodles were a little spicy and also sweet. Always a great combo in my opinion.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. We had an early morning (9am is early for us) tour scheduled for the next morning.

The next day we had a fabulous tour. Phil writes more about it here (along with info on the war memorial and other stops we made). We thought it would be a bus tour with maybe 30 other people. Turns out that because it is slow season (did I mention it was cold?), us and one other person has signed up for the tour. Our guide, Johnathan, told me that some of the other tour companies cancel when so few sign up, but his did not and that was just fine with him. So, Phil and I hopped into the back of Johnathan’s sedan and said hello to Chandler, our fellow tourist and young woman from the Bay area of Northern California, and headed off for our day tour.

Our first stop was the Korean Folk Village (a recreated historical village-a bit like Korean Williamsburg) and the next was the world heritage site Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. Phil writes extensively about these, and we had a fine, but unremarkable lunch at the village, so I am just going to post a few of my favorite pics below.

The last stop on our trip was Suwon Nanmun Market. It was a real twofer since Johnathan’s wife had instructed him to pick up dinner from the market and it gave us a chance to peruse while he did. It was bustling and had all kinds of meat, seafood, fruit, veg, and prepared goodies for sale.

We started with a pancake that housed syrup and a few crunchy sunflower seeds inside followed by what Johnathan called a fish cake (known as eomuk or odeng). I was glad Johnathan suggested we try it. I’d seen them before on the street and in markets, but it looked like wet tripe which did not appeal to me. The fish itself was firm even thought it rests in a broth until sold. He urged us to try an additional cup of the broth as well, which we did. It was fishy and salty and brothy and nice on the cold day.

We also had a deeeeelicious donut-like fried pastry with crunchy bits on top, stuffed with red bean paste. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, I was too excited and ate it before I could take a photo. I had been very neutral on red bean paste, kind of a take it or leave it attitude, but this donut may have changed my mind. It was pretty fantastic. Phil had a corn dog that was so tasty. It looked like a corn dog but weren’t entirely sure what was going to be inside. It was, in fact, a corn dog and really good with a slightly sweet, funnel cake like, crunchy batter. I love the photo of him grinning ear to ear with it.

Johnathan dropped us off near the Myeongdong train station and as we walked back, we encountered more street food. I bought another corn dog with potato flakes on the outside and enjoyed a custard and cheese filled coin cake. The batter tasted like taiyaki, the Japanese fish-shaped treat often filled with custard.

The next day, we headed to the Gangnam area of Seoul, made famous by K-pop singer, Psy, in 2012. Gang means river and nam means south. You guessed it, Gangnam is south of the Han river. The area was farm land until the 1970’s when the government started to develop the area and it became a posh neighborhood of the city in which to live, considered to be the Beverly Hills of South Korea.

When we arrived off the train we went searching for a restaurant I’d saved known for it’s gamjatang, or pork neck stew. I’d seen several vloggers eat it and it looked delicious. Phil navigated us through the busy, lunch hour streets to a small, indoor shopping building (not really a mall, but kind of) and we walked past many lunch spots filled with workers on their lunch breaks. Unfortunately, the gamjatang restaurant did not have one soul it in. Bad sign. My guess is that maybe the stew is a little too hearty for a work lunch and that is why folks opted for other options? Either way, we decided to check out another spot instead.

After making another lap, we queued up for a ramen spot that had a longish line, but was moving through folks with a quickness. We were quickly waved in by the old woman working the front of the house. She showed us the machine to order on, took our ticket, and motioned toward the self-service condiment bar that offered kimchee, the best pickled ginger I have ever had, hot peppers, and scallions. The restaurant also offered little aprons, which I took advantage of because ramen be splashin. The soup was delicious and served with love. We also had some tasty little fried chicken chunks because why not?

No longer hangry, we walked on, through a cute, city park. I wanted coffee. Koreans love coffee, like a lot, which I am here for because, me too, Koreans, me too. There are coffee spots everywhere. So, we stopped into Coffeenine and I had one of the best coffee drinks I have ever had. I’d ordered an Americano and Phil ordered their special called a creampresso. There was some confusion as the barista rang my Americano up as iced and I wanted hot. In explaining that I also wanted a hot coffee, he apparently thought I said I wanted the same order as Phil. What a happy little accident. The creampresso took about 10 minutes for them to make, but boy oh boy. It was rich with espresso flavor and had a thick, coconut flavored whipped cream on top that we stirred into the coffee. Holy moly. What a treat.

We walked through Gangnam and it’s many posh shops, in search of salt bread. Not just any salt bread, THE best saltbread in Seoul. What the heck is saltbread, Jess? Well, we weren’t really sure, but we knew it was tasty. Several vloggers mention it and the fact that it is all over the city. One particular gal we liked is a Seoul local, recommended Jayeondo Sogeumppang. Some described the bread as a cross between a croissant and a bagel. They were wrong. It tastes like a butter angel’s bread kisses.

Jayeondo Sogeumppang is unmarked, but we knew we were in the right spot by the long line. It moved fast and soon we had our small, paper bag containing four of the delicious delights. We ate one right then and there, then one on the way to find coffee, and then two as we had coffee. They taste like if someone pan toasted, in butter, the most buttery roll you’ve ever had (mom and anyone who ever ate at my grandma Tankersley’s, they taste like a lightly toasted Mee-Mee roll with way more butter). not surprisingly, I did not get a photo, but took one from the internet where there are plenty. It is, legit, one of the best things I have ever eaten.

The next day, we headed to the Coex mall, also located in Gangnam. It was around 20 degrees and we were not in the mood for outdoor activities, but heard the mall was something to see. We did fit in a little outdoor time as the Bongeunsa Buddhist Temple is right a crossed from the mall and something to behold.

The highlight of our mall time was the impressive library and the coffee I had at Berce coffee, located right next to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, of course. Phil enjoyed a blueberry gelato and I, a pistachio cream cold brew.

We had a great time in Seoul and ate very well. Even with the cold, we both agreed it was a wonderful city to visit and definitely want to return to South Korea one day to explore more.

Next stop, Hong Kong!