Seoul Foodie
June 01, 2017
Let's get your mouth watering with this post dedicated to nearly everything Penguin, and I devoured while in Seoul. I say nearly everything because we didn't take photos of everything we ate, so this is as much as I can gather.
Day 1.
Let's talk about our first dinner in the city; we just checked into our Airbnb somewhere in Mapo-gu, and after a full day of traveling, all we had in mind was to have a big meal. And that's exactly what we got when we stumbled upon this market-like full of stalls and restaurants that sold nothing but one type of dish: Jokbal. For those who don't know, it's pig's trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices, usually steamed or boiled.
Eager to satisfy the inner foodie in both of us, we sat in one of the restaurants and ordered a "small" set. Everything was in Korean, and the lady who assisted spoke very little English. We only understood that the dish came in a set, and you could choose "big" or "small.” So we chose.
Apparently, the small set isn't so small after all. We were served a huge portion that came with many other things, including this really delicious vegetable soup in a pot and another well-known Korean dish called Sundae, a type of sausage made out of pork blood and glass noodles. I feel like a savage just typing that. But that wasn't the end of our bloody encounter.
It was our third day, and we found ourselves surrounded by the best, or so I hear, Korean dishes you can find in Seoul at the Gwangjang Market. More Sundaes awaited us.
This is also where we had our very first and only traditional Gimbap throughout our stay. Unlike Sushi, Gimbap takes you in for a surprise because you can't guess what's inside. Sure, you know there's rice, some vegetables, and whatever meat or seafood that's stuffed in there. But one thing you can't be sure of is if it'll be spicy, minty, or plain salty, especially if you order a variety of it from one of the stalls - they won't tell you what's in it, and you only find out when you take a bite.
Post Gimbap, we had dumplings served in a soup, like noodles. You can choose to have them with noodles, but since we planned on trying out as many different foods as possible that day, Penguin and I opted to have the dumplings without noodles because that would have made us really full, and our tummies swelled.
But the dumplings - they were bomb. Well, for me, at least, because I love shrimp. And I love how big they were, the kind that you won't be able to fit in your mouth in one bite. After devouring that whole bowl, I felt my stomach was full. But nope, I still had a lot to try.
And so we proceeded. Next up on our list were two things I'm sure not many people would be up for. But they're well-known in Korea, and that's as local and authentic as we can get them, so why not? Can you guess what they were?
Live Octopus and Raw Beef. Yep, you read that right. Live. Raw.
Quite honestly, I wasn't into the idea of eating a live octopus at first. I couldn't imagine swallowing a moving tentacle. But there we were, looking at the little octopuses in one of the stalls that had them in a small rectangular aquarium, and the old lady from behind the stall grabbed one of the octopuses nonchalantly and started waiving it in front of us, enticing us. As if that looked enticing. I laughed nervously, unsure whether I should sit at the makeshift table next to the stall where she called us to sit, pretend that I didn't understand a word she was saying (which I really didn't), and walk away. But for some reason, Penguin and I went and sat at the table. Before we know it, the old lady was chopping the live octopus into little, chew-able pieces, in front of our very eyes, all the while it was moving and I can only imagine begging for its dear life.
Once she was done, please note that the chopped bits were still moving; she seasoned them with something spicy, topped with some chopped cabbage, added more spice, and served us with a raw dish ready to eat. She gave us some seaweed to wrap them in and a bowl of soup to drown them in. And because the lady had no other customers but us, she made it a point to feed us. And I mean that literally because she kept feeding Penguin, shoving food into his mouth with her own hands. I had to tease him that he probably reminded her of her grandson. It was hilarious.
Frankly and quite surprisingly, I liked the live octopus. I think that if you're a sashimi kind of person, this is something that you'd fancy too. If not for the fact that the thing was live and was still moving even while we were already eating it, the whole experience wouldn't have been or seemed so frightening.
And then we're onto another raw dish.
That wasn't the first time I've tried raw beef. When I went to Jeju for work last year, I had my first and, I would say, the best raw everything meal in my entire life, and I wanted to have that again in Seoul. Sadly, we couldn't find a restaurant like the one I went to in Jeju, so we settled for one that only had raw beef, also known as Yukhoe. We were full, after all, so I guess just having Penguin taste isn't a bad idea.
Yukhoe is similar to the French steak tartare, but I find it much tastier. I prefer eating it with raw bibimbap or some other rice dish, but since we already had way too much to eat, we had it as is, with just a bowl of soup to drown it in.
Our visit to Gwangjang Market lasted only one day. For the rest of the trip, there were a few other places worth mentioning. Let's begin with "Meat-ing."
When I think about Korean food, two things usually come to mind: Korean BBQ and Korean Fried Chicken. The former is more prevalent where I'm from and typically overpriced, too, so much so that we reserve dining out at Korean BBQ restaurants for special occasions. So when Penguin found an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant in Seoul for only KRW 13,000, we knew we had to go—twice. And we did.
The most exciting part about this buffet is picking out raw meat. I mean raw, straight from the freezer, or the various trays of beef with different marinades. They have them in spicy marinade, soy sauce, etc. I try to avoid meat as much as possible, but not during our trip. There's just too much meat to eat in Seoul!
"Meat-ting" is located in Hongdae, if you're wondering. We wanted to try another option, but unfortunately, we couldn't locate it. The restaurant is called "Hi Meat." If you guys find it somehow, let me know, and if I ever go back to Seoul, I'll try that, too.
Of course, the one place I can't, shouldn't, and wouldn't miss on this list is the street food at Myeongdong. Every person I know who has been to Seoul would know and tell me about this dilemma: When you go to Myeongdong at night, you don't know whether to shop or check out the food stalls first. Seriously, that place is like shopping + street food heaven.
When we saw the first food stall, Penguin put away his camera as we readied ourselves to eat out of the city. Surprise, I don't have many photos to share with you guys because we were so busy checking out the food, the shopping, and everything else that was happening around us that we didn't even bother taking photos. That's how bustling and distracting Myeongdong can get and quickly swallow you.
Of course, food-wise, we had to try some of the well-known ones, including that tall-ass two-flavored ice cream (more of a sherbet, actually), the deep-fried sausage wrapped in cut-out potato, more shrimp for me, and some other deep-fried stuff that I can't even remember anymore without the photos. I remember that everything was delicious.
We went to Itaewon to chill out and grab a few drinks on our last night. This is where we had the platter below. It was not really one of the good ones we had during the whole trip, but I loved that the place was so chill. They had beanbags instead of chairs and low tables, so you pretty much sat on the floor while drinking. It had beach vibes. I just loved it.
And finally, this is a special mention because we got lucky that a beer festival was happening on the day we went to Common Ground. Penguin and I stayed for a bit, curious about what that was all about. So, we bought ourselves some coupons and tried out some of the beers. Just choosing what beer to order had me going in circles. There was so much to choose from, and I have to say that was the most challenging decision I had to make for the entire day. Really.
But prior to that, we also ate at one of the restaurants nestled on the upper level of the trailer park. I don't recall the name, but it served some decent Korean food, and that's where we had the bulgogi rice shown in the very first photo in this post. All I can say is Seoul has some pretty good food, regardless of the area and scale. Food haven, indeed!
I hope this post made you hungry; it could only mean that Penguin and I did well. Please let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions. If you are heading to Seoul and want to know more about these places or the food, I'll try to give as much information as possible. But take note: I'm not a real "foodie"; I love food and eating, so something good for my taste might not be for you. I'm just saying.
Happy eating!