Seoul Food

I only had about 2 1/2 days in Seoul - not enough time to really experience the food culture there. But I wanted to get in as much as possible. Finding street food in Seoul was the easy part: I was staying in one of the university areas, with ample nightlife and the street stalls that go with it. The hard part was deciding what to eat first! I knew I needed to break myself in as quickly as possible. So I went for something really different (in other words, something that sounded potentially disgusting!), but that turned out to actually be really good.

The name of this dish is sundae. It's a kind of sausage made from pig's intestine stuffed with rice and pig's blood. It sounds gross but actually it was really good. I'd advise not eating the little scraps on the side, though. I don't know what they were but they kind of made me want to throw up.

Not quite satisfied, I surveyed the other offerings at the same stall. Each dish only cost about  $1.50 - quite a bargain!

I decided to try the Korean version of tempura, called twigim. I chose from a variety of veggies and seafood, and the cook fried them up before my eyes, and then smothered them with a sweet, spicy red sauce. Delicious!

After 11 hours on a plane, this was just what the doctor ordered. Delirious with jet lag, but now with a belly full of excellent Korean street food, I set about exploring the neighborhood. Koreans love to go out, be it eating, shopping, drinking or dancing. The streets were full of young university students, and I quickly noticed that many of them were stopping to enjoy a peculiar desert: shaved ice topped with a variety of beans, nuts, candies, and other, unknown toppings. Having flown 5,600 miles, I decided that one more dish was in order to celebrate being in my new surroundings. 

This one was really a treat! The red beans sounded weird mixed with ice cream, but they were delicious, and the shaved ice made the whole desert taste light and cool in the 90+ degree heat.

The following day I set out searching for the quintessence of Korean cuisine: bibimbap. It would have been easy enough to find a Korean restaurant serving bibimbap (although finding one with an English menu would have been a bit trickier). But sitting in an air conditioned restaurant and ordering off the menu wasn't what I had in mind. Instead, I headed out to Namdaemun Market, perhaps the biggest and most famous street market in Seoul. The market is spread out like a maze over several blocks, and I spent a good hour prowling through aisles of knock-off jeans and off-brand electronics before I came upon this little alleyway, and I knew I had found the spot!

I could tell right away that I had found something special. As I looked down the length of the alleyway I could see that all the seats were taken. The aroma of ginger, garlic and red pepper wafted through the air, and the room was full of the sounds of frying oil, clinking utensils, and people ordering excitedly in Korean. When a couple of women stood up to leave I grabbed their seats and was met by a gregarious cook with no English but who greeted me warmly and showed me a menu, all in Korean.

"Bibimbap!" I said. With this she began putting together the best bibimbap I have ever tasted. Honestly, I would marry into her family just so that I could eat that food on a regular basis. It was prepared differently from the bibimbap I have had in the States. Instead of being served in a single dish, she placed a series of dishes in front of me. She then took a pair of household scissors and cut the noodles and greens up, and motioned for me to stir them into the rice.

Every time I emptied the little bowl of kimchi, she would ladle out another bowl from an enormous bucket she kept behind the counter. The process of mixing the different dishes together created an incredible smell and kept me hungry and excited until I had finally finished the entire spread. I would have paid quite a bit for that dinner, but when she wrote the bill on a piece of paper I was even more delighted to see that it cost $5,000 Korean Won - about $4!

This is just a taste of the street food to come. I've since moved on from Korea to Taiwan, an island that truly is street food heaven! Look out for more updates - I'll definitely enjoy putting them together in the weeks and months ahead. : )