Food-trippin’ in Seoul, South Korea

The downside of having foul and gloomy weather for more than a couple of weeks now is that, instead of going outside enjoying the great outdoors, we stay cooped up inside, with food. Eating, pigging out, then wanting more, and then wishing you could eat something. Alas, you can’t, because it  means going out into all that rain. So, you end up just thinking about it. Like I did, when I remembered some of the food that we enjoyed during our trip to Seoul.

Watching various Korean variety shows constantly remind me that I barely scratched the surface of Korean food. Samgyeopsal is now found in key corners of Baguio City, but I know that there are far more mouth-watering Korean dishes that I have yet to sample. (I blame you, 1 Night, 2 Days).

Certainly the “food” highlight for me during the trip was the naengmyeon, or Cold Noodles, that I got to try at the Korean Folk Village. I loved it so much that I dedicated an entire post on it.

As for the rest, I will try to provide as much detail as I can remember. Here are some of the gastronomic delights we encountered.

Samgyeopsal (in Onsu)

Our first evening in Seoul, and we met up with Lorei’s cousin Sir Steve (who was also our guide during our hike up Bukhansan several days later). From Myeongdong, we took the subway all the way to Onsu, which was on the suburbs. It’s where he teaches at university, and also close to where he lives.

After meeting up at the Tous Le Jours store outside the Station, he led us through side streets until we arrived at this nondescript building, where we headed straight up to the second floor…. and got to this cozy and homey restaurant specializing in all things pork. (As if the store sign does not give that away, huh.)

The staff was composed of middle-aged ladies who acted like aunts, and very friendly, too. Sir Steve is a regular, so they know each other. Other customers were obviously students, some of them at the university where Sir Steve teaches at.

I liked the setup of the place. It’s clean, and the problem with the smoke from the grill is absorbed straight up funnels that go through the ceiling to… somewhere…. The seats were actually improvised cans (the ones usually used for trash) with the covers inlaid with foam and upholstered for sitting down on. Open them to put your stuff inside, then sit down. That way, you don’t have to worry about losing any of your valuables. Nifty, eh?

Then our order arrived. By the way, this was all on Sir Steve, so I did not bother finding out how much it is. I think we had two orders of the meat, though. Haha! This was our first proper meal since leaving Baguio 36 hours before, so I think we deserve some slack.

What I have always loved about eating samgyeopsal in Korea is their generosity when it comes to the side dishes. Seriously! Again, as always when I eat this dish, the rice is ignored in favor of the meat and the side dishes.

I’ve always just tried lettuce in making ssam but this time there were also perilla leaves. Which I also liked when I tried wrapping meat with it. I can understand how some may find it a bit bitter, though, but for me, add it with some kimchi, chili paste, meat, wrap it up real nice with the perilla leaf, and yasssss, yummy ssam!

I also got to try another side dish, the gyeran jjim, or Korean steamed egg. When I first heard it referred to as a “side dish”, I was skeptical. Uhm, it’s egg. And it’s heavy. But it’s a side dish?

But, it was surprisingly light. Might taste a bit bland for those who love salt in their eggs, though, but as a side dish, it was more than good enough for  me.

Two-Two Fried Chicken (Myeongdong)

Haha! Well, the original concept is fried chicken and beer, because that is a popular combination in Korea. The thing is, we were coming home to the Guesthouse pretty late already, and we have early starts the next day, so we decided not to risk oversleeping because of the beer.

So, we settled for just the fried chicken… and some cider (soda, kinda like Sprite).

Good thing, because on the way back to the Guesthouse were a couple of fried chicken places. It was 10pm when we got back down from our failed attempt to go to the N Seoul Tower, so we dropped by Two Two Chicken to buy some takeout to eat later on.

Two Two Chicken is one of the biggest fried chicken franchises in Korea, with more than 500 branches nationwide. We just had to look at the long queue to know that it is wildly popular. So we queued along with them, and I think we waited in line for about 20 minutes before we got our order.

We ordered the Half fried chicken + half fried chicken smothered with sweet and spicy sauce. It was the one recommended by the guy taking orders at the counter when I asked which one we should try. The order costs 17,000 KRW (~USD 15.00 or PHP 700.00). Pretty pricey, compared to the friend chicken sold back home.

But then again, those do not taste like this.

So we grabbed coffee from the Guesthouse kitchen and went up to our room with the fried chicken.

Which tasted soooo good. 🙂 Like, I don’t think I even needed any dip, sauce or gravy. I can understand how the Koreans can eat so much chicken in one sitting. I think between the two of us, we decimated more than half, putting the remaining in the fridge to be eaten the next day. 🙂

Oh, and the order had a side dish of plain pickled radish. I don’t think I have expressed how much I loved pickled radish, and that it is my favorite side dish when eating samgyeopsal. I sometimes buy it from the Korean store in town to munch on.

Gamjatang (somewhere close to Gasan Digital Complex)

After our Bukhansan hike, Sir Steve brought us to Gasan Digital Complex, where he said there were lots of good outdoor gear for sale. There, Lorei and I managed to buy some jackets, parkas, and a pair of Blackyak outdoor sandals for my Dad. Since it was time for dinner, Sir Steve led us back to the Station, where we rode to somewhere, and he again brought us to another homey restaurant.

I apologize for not remembering where it was. I think it must have been in Guro, but I can’t be sure. At that point, I was too hungry to think about anything else.

You leave your shoes at the doorway where shelves are provided to stow them in, wear the slippers they provided to move around the resto, but leave it on the floor before going up the raised platform, where the low tables are.

So you sit down on the floor when eating.

Sir Steve wanted us to taste gamjatang, or Pork Bone Soup. It is a spicy stew made with pork bones, particularly the pork spine.

As if this Korean hot pot dish is not already spicy enough (yes, it has a zing. A LOVELY ZING) there were also side dishes that are spicy.

And yes, I got to try doing what I saw some Koreans do with those green peppers. Which is to bite them straight and chew them. At first, it does not hit you. And then you feel the spice.

Surprisingly, though, the level of spiciness was tolerable for me, Made me hot all over and sweat a bit, but not as painful as the native ones here at home. Must be a different variety.

So, let me talk about the gamjatang. Yes, it is spicy. And yes, it is hearty. It was just one regular-sized bowl, but maaaan, it was sooooo filling! Must be because the stew was so flavorful… and the meats on the pork bones were so tender they literally break off easily when you poke them with the fork/chop stick.

Personally, I prefer this over seollangtang.

On the Streets

The extent of street food we tried was very limited [insert sadface here]. One late night, while walking through a near deserted subway station, because most shops are already closed, we chanced upon one remaining store that is also already starting to close up. We were starting to feel hungry, so we bought some manju,

Manju is a popular Korean subway snack. It is basically a baked sweet pastry that is a sweet variation of the mandu (dumpling). Instead of the usual dumpling filling, however, you get different types of sweet fillings. The one we got was custard-filled. I think the other options were matcha and red bean. They were filling enough to tide us over until we got a heavier meal.

And then there was this time when we went to Dongdaemun one evening, and on one of the stalls was this long curved wafer stick, which will be filled with soft ice cream. I think it cost 2,000 KRW (USD 2.00 or PHP 80).

In the streets of the Myeongdong shopping area, at night, hawkers set up their stalls, selling street food. Two of those nights, Lorei and I bought some treats, sat down in front of the stairs, and ate, while watching the night shoppers walk all around us. Haha! Why did we sit down? To eat. And because our feet are already killing us from all that walking!

We have some of these already in the Philippines. Twist potatoes. The hot dog with the twisted potato around it intrigued me, tho. But I think we were already full from the gamjatang dinner earlier, so we didn’t try this.

This one, however, we tried. And, man, it was so heavy and filling, it is probably enough for dinner! And it was sweet, too, so yes, in my opinion, it is a complete meal.

It is basically fish-shaped cone (made from flour, the same type used for pancakes), with vanilla ice cream stuffed inside, sprinkled with green tea powder, and topped with…. honeycomb. Yes, honeycomb. Oozing with soooo much honey!

We bought one each, and when one of the honeycombs slipped and fell to the ground, the guy replaced it with another heaping one!

The area around the Guesthouse was filled with convenient stores and bakeries. Paris Baguette and Tous Le Jours being two of them. So when we needed some snacks, we just had to swing by them and buy some.

By the way, it was also in Tous Le Jours that we tried patbingsu. It was a last-minute thing, too. The last thing we ate before we rushed back to the Guesthouse to take our stuff and head to the airport. I would’ve wanted to try the patbingsu in street stalls, but hey, maybe next time.

This is a Korean shaved ice dessert with red bean toppings. There are variations, using other fruits as toppings, but the classic recipe uses red bean. Sorry for the low quality of the photo below, lighting was poor in our corner of the bakery. 🙂 And my phone was running out of battery that time.

Speaking of Tous Le Jours, here are some of the cakes they had that we planned on buying, but never got around to doing so. They look so yummy, don’t they~

Oh, and here’s some Makgeolli~!! I wanted Lorei to taste the Korean rice wine before we left. We had this during our last night, and we weren’t able to consume the whole bottle (which we bought from a convenience store). We were able to half it, though. It had quite a kick, and we had a good sleep that night. 🙂

Yep, we were watching an episode of Three Meals A Day, so that’s Taecyeon and Lee Seo Jin, feeing Minki’s puppies Eddy (Emerald) and Sapphire. (Yes, I watch that show, too.) That last pic above was the beer that we got to taste. I’m not a beer connoisseur (is there such a thing?) and I am not a beer drinker, so I have no point of comparison. I don’t think I even worked through half of it, tho. Not really to my taste.

There are still a lot of things I want to try. Those dishes with octopus added into it. Mandu. Authentic jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles). Errm, maybe not those pupa/larvae things that they fry up and eat like chips, though.

I even originally wanted to do a “street food” or “market food” tour, but we didn’t have enough time. Maybe next time when I go back, I’d devote an entire day for that. Good luck, stomach.