Day 16: Food Tour

You would think after last nights food and drink tour, there would be nothing left to try....this time we were going to a market with Janet, our guide for the day!

We didn’t bother with breakfast as it says on the email confirmation to come hungry! We walked to the meeting point, a coffee shop called Twosome Place at exit 13 of Jonson 5-ga stop. It was 10am when we met so we were looking forward to some food.

We crossed the road to Gwangjang market, a traditional streeet market in Seoul with more than 5000 shops, 20000 employees and almost 65000 visitors each day. It is a market where you can buy to take home or sit and eat at various stalls. Janet walked us around some of the market first, explaining different foods as we went. She also explained that Koreans do not grow up eating sugar or drinking milk; many are lactose intolerant and cannot eat chocolate like we do. They eat many things that we wouldn’t dare to eat though.....

Our first stop was a little restaurant where we had bindaetteok; it was like a pancake and made of mung beans and either pork or kimchi. The mung beans are ground and the pork or kimchi added, but the trick to this is frying it twice! Janet told us we had went to the best place to try it; she was obviously right as Gordon Ramsay had eaten there as well as Tim Burton!

We had half pork and half kimchi; it was really filling and not as easy to eat with chopsticks, especially the aluminium ones that they use here! We just about managed, although a few bits of onion and kimchi, went everywhere! If you don’t get given chopsticks, look under the table as there is usually a drawer where you find them!

After the pancake, we walked further round the market; when we first went round, most of the fish stalls were closed but now they were starting to open! Janet pointed out various things....its probably easier for me to post pictures and an explanation of what it is!

Octopus - this is a big octopus so will be cooked before it is eaten 

Fried Fish


Small crabs which should be eaten whole

Us eating the small crabs; they were really tasty! Not sure Iain agreed! We also had octopus tartare.

Gigantic Scallops and sea cucumber next to it

Fish stall - the silver fish (left middle) are belt fish and sell for around $70-90USD

Dried fish eaten instead of crisps - most are from octopus

Different Kimchi

Salted fish - they keep for a long time

Silk worms on the left - you boil them! On the right, acorn gelatin.

Different spices

A typical stall - crabs, octopus, vegetables, kimchi

After walking about, we sat at a bench alongside one of the stalls in order to have our next course, bibimbap; rice topped with seasoned vegetables and served with gochujang (red pepper paste). Everything is stirred together in a large bowl and served with a spoon. A seaweed soup is also served as a side in order to provide some liquid as the dish is quite dry. We also had steamed dumplings in noodle soup; some were kimchi dumplings and the other pork. All the dishes were tasty but we were about to burst and we weren’t finished yet!

We had a few other things to try after this course; we moved to another stall where Gordon Ramsay had eaten, signed pic below. This time we had a few bits and pieces; fried dumpling (same as before but fried), blood sausage (same as our black pudding but has noodles in it), pork skin (crackling but not crispy!), rice cake in a spicy sauce and last but not least, chicken feet!

Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of this but as we were so full and couldn’t face much more. I did try everything, including the chicken feet. They had the bone removed but they were so gelatinous that it wasn’t pleasant to eat....I hope Janet wasn’t too offended! As we were leaving the stall, some locals ordered San-nakji or live octopus. They take a variety of small octopus and cut it into small pieces to serve; the nerve activity in the octopus tentacles still makes the pieces move posthumously on the plate whilst served. There is no way I could even consider trying it.....

Pics do not show wriggling...

We thought we were done after our last course, but we were stil to have dessert! The first port of call was to a stall which served Songpyeon; a chewy stuffed cake with red bean inside. It wasn’t particularly sweet so they added honey. I wasn’t too fond of it, give me an ice-cream any day! Janet then went to another stall, apparently it is very famous and has been on TV many times. We had a doughnut type thing and it was delicious! We were both fit to burst and needed a nap!

Janet walked us around the neighbourhood, showing us the Cheonggyecheon Stream, a 10km long stream which runs through the middle of the city. There are carp in the stream and people feed them but they are not allowed to fish here! After walking around some of the craft and textile area, we said goodbye to Janet and headed back to the hotel to rest our stomachs!

We stayed in the hotel for a few hours; we had a beer in the rooftop garden then had a 20 minute nap before heading out to the expat area, Itaewon. There is an American base close by so we passed a few uniformed troops while we were there. The plan was to relax and have a few drinks. Our first stop was a place called the New York Bagel Bar, only because they were doing a set meal deal; buy 2 beers and a NY cheesecake, get 1 beer free! The cheesecake was served with blueberries and was amazing. President Obama had been there, and said it was the best cheesecake he has had. The beer was ok too! 

Our next stop was a bar called JR, it was only £4.20 for 2 pints of Max. On the way there, we decided to get some cash out. What we didn’t notice was that it was for domestic cards only; the machine swallowed Iain’s card! Thankfully we were able to transfer the cash to me and freeze his card but it wasn’t ideal; the best part was phoning the help desk as we were trying to translate using an app....epic fail, we just hung up! Oh well, at least it wasn’t too much of an issue!

We decided to try one more place; it was called “into the cave.” I tried an espresso martini due to the coffee fanaticism in Korea. It was much stronger than the cocktails at home and was delicious!

It was now 8pm so we thought we would get the metro back to the hotel and have an early night. Tomorrow we are heading to the DMZ while Donald Trump is meeting Kim Jong UN in SIngapore....what a coincidence!