It is when I am visiting new places that I wish I had more than one stomach. Because all that fooooodd….. when I can only ingest so much at one time~ Just like when we were at the Korean Folk Village and lunchtime came around. It would’ve been nice to have tried them all, but stomach (and budget) limitations did not allow it.
Watching Korean variety shows such as 1 Night 2 Days, Running Man, Three Meals A Day and The Return of Superman somehow awoke in me an interest in Korean food. In my circle of friends and acquaintances, Korean food is an acquired taste, and most of that judgment came about due to their varied introductions to kimchi.
Well, there is more to Korean food than kimchi, that’s for sure.
Middle of the day, we were at the Korean Folk Village. Visitors to the village need not worry that they will starve, because there are lots of restaurants in the area. In fact, the outer area, right after the ticketing booths, were filled with these restos. But COME ON, you’re in the Korean Folk Village, so you should eat Korean dishes, right? RIGHT! Walking around inside, you’re bound to come across small stores selling traditional snacks. We passed on them, because we were prepping up for a major meal later on.
So when our stomachs started grumbling, we headed to the Traditional Marketplace, where the Korean Food Court is located.
There were already a lot of people eating, but the place was very wide, with many seating areas, so it does not seem crowded.
In the middle of the food court is a large wall menu, where the offerings are pictured, with romanized names and descriptions. This is very useful for non-Korean speakers, for obvious reasons.
Their offerings range from rice dishes, vegetables and soups to beef and other meat dishes and, of course, noodles. There are numbers from 1-7 in the pictures, and they indicate the number of store where these dishes are served. These stores are side by side. They are more like storefronts, really.
So what you do is:
- Check out the menu and take note of what you want to order.
- Head to the ordering booth to place your order. That is also where you will pay.
- They will give you stubs of paper indicating the number of the booth where you will get your meal, and another number indicating the order that you will get it.
- Grab a seat, periodically check the LED counter on top of the store where you will get your food from. When your order number appears, go to the store and get your food. Easy-peasy!
Lorie ordered seollangtang, because it was the one that seemed the least complicated, haha! Seollangtang is essentially Ox Bone Soup, but since ox is expensive, they often use beef instead.
It’s one large bowl of sliced beef soup. With one large cup of rice. Of course, side dishes are a given. Have I mentioned before how much I love pickled radish? Like, seriously, IN LOVE with it.
The bowl was so big! Very generous serving, if I may say so myself.
She found it slightly bland, but maybe that’s because we were used to a different taste at home. This one comes with chili paste and salt, to taste according to your preference.
So from my hours of watching these shows, I developed a curiosity for COLD NOODLES. I was just, what? Cold noodles??? Naengmyeon?
Also, I noticed how Koreans seem to make pancakes out of everything. I swear I saw a show where they were given squid and octopus tentacles and they chopped them and put them in pancakes. Wow
So I tried it. Both of them. And when I was placing my order, I was debating between potato pancake and kimchi pancake, and I asked the ladies accepting the orders which one would match naengmyeon best, and they said I should go with the kimchi one.
The naengmyeon came first and MY JAW JUST. DROPPED.
The bowl was so huuuuuuuge~!! It’s got lots of noodles! And an egg! And some kimchi on it, and some pickled radish! And crushed ice mixed in!
And it was soooo tasty~ Lorie felt even more regretful getting seollangtang after trying out naengmyeon. Haha!
Naengmyeon consists of long and thin handmade noodles made from various ingredients, buckwheat mainly. It is served cold, and I tasted hints of sugar, vinegar in it as well.
I was never really a huge fan of noodles. I have an “okay” attitude towards noodles in general, but I don’t go out of my way to find noodles when I am hungry. But this one changed my mind. I love cold noodles!
Seriously, we were wondering how I will be able to finish the entire bowl, although I was resolved to give it a try.
Then the number for my kimchijeon came up, and when I got it, I was just trying to control my laughter at how huge it was!
Kimchijeon or kimchi pancake is, as the name implies, a starch/flour pancake with kimchi mixed in. I was expecting it to be quite spicy, but there was just a hint of the kimchi taste. I wonder how the ones sold at the markets taste like.
As you can see, they are quite pricey, but they are also very filling, so I think the price is all right. Our breakfast earlier consisted of just some toast and coffee, so this was very welcome.
This was our whole spread.
So were we able to finish it?
Lorie wasn’t able to finish hers, but she managed more than half. I think left around 1/4 of my naengmyeon, I was slurping the soup away, and I think I was too full to eat all the noodles. Also, the two of us made slow work of the kimchijeon, so we consumed around 3/4 of it. I think we still did good, haha!
After the meal, we put our leftovers on the tray, and left it on one of the disposal trolleys on one side of the food court, to be collected by staff later.
I am guessing that the ones sold at traditional markets are tastier. So I want to try those next time.
All in all, it was a very satisfying meal. So much so that we even walked around Hwaseong Fortress later that day and got back to Seoul only around 10pm, where we grabbed our next bite to eat. 🙂
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