South Korean Food

My sister -- Anna -- traveled in South Korea from July to August 2010.

She visited South Korea's capital -– Seoul and the important harbor town of Busan (also known as Pusan). As she made local friends, they introduced her to the south Korean food.

She has now been living in Seoul since June 2011.

My sister has fallen in love with Korea; their healthy and delicious food is one of the reasons.

Here's what she has to say about the food in Seoul and Busan! :-)

Seoul: Food Stalls

Lots of food stalls can be found in Myeong-Dong and Namdaemun market. For example: I tried the food corners in Myeong-Dong. The picture below is of the spicy beef with bean sprout soup. Bean sprout soup in Korean is called "Kongnamul Guk." It was absolutely delicious and it cost like nothing! :-)

Other delicious stuff to try at the food stalls is Bibimbap (5000 won). Bibimbap is a typical Korean dish. A vegetarian meal with rice, egg, squash, onions, bean sprouts and of course chilli paste. It's one of my favorites!

Prices: The standard price for dishes at food stalls and small restaurants is usually 5000 won. Double that if you want to eat at bigger restaurants.

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Seoul: Korean Restaurants

In Dongdaemun shopping town we stopped by a restaurant where they served this:

To the left is a noodle dish with egg and toboki (= toboki is rice cake with Korean chilli sauce), dumplings and kimchi.

Koreans serve kimchi to almost all meals. Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made of vegetables like fermented cabbage and radish. The kimchi I tried was sour.

You'll notice that Korean cuisine is very healthy with very little fat and lots of vegetables. I actually lost weight even though I ate a lot!

One thing you should know about Korean eating etiquette, is the social rule of sharing. Like here: it's common to buy a large plate of food and share it with three others. Here we ate pork with lots of salad and vinegar sauce with all the extra small dishes.

Another exciting thing about Korean food is how they prepare it. Me and my local friends went to a restaurant in Myeong-Dong where they fried the food right in front of us, and we could pick the meat (beef, squid whatever you want)!

The picture below is of fried rice with onion, seaweed and chilli. Seaweed might be awkward to eat, but it contains vitamins and minerals the human body needs, like vitamin A and vitamin B.

The small bowls are kimchi side dishes -- everyone gets it for free! The whole meal cost about 4500 won.

Korean BBQ is the shit! :-) Here you have pork BBQ with mandatory side dishes like kimchi, vinegar and chilli dip.

This is another BBQ dish, this time with duck :-)

Another great dish, called Naengmyeon. It's a cold noodle dish in iced broth containing cucumber, sesame seed and a boiled egg on the top.

This is one version of bi-mim-bap containing seaweed, gochujang (red chilli paste) with sesame seed, salad, carrot etc.

When you're eating korean food in South Korea, you always get these side dishes to your main dish. Here I have kimchi, fish cakes, korean burdock root and spam to my kim-bap (Korean sushi).

This is pajeon (Korean pan cake).

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Modern Korean Cuisine

This is a fusion between Korean and Japanese food. You see the sashimi (one sashimi is with tuna). The one with the black bowl contains rice on the bottom, beef and egg plum. The other bowl contained croutons, leek and radish.

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Cafés in Seoul

Dog Café in Hongdae

Is it weird to spend your quality time at a café - with animals?

Not in Seoul! ;-)

There are several dog cafés, cat cafés, bird cafés in Seoul. I stopped by a dog café in Hongdae with a friend of mine.

I love dogs, so it's not a problem for me to hang out with them! :-) While you're waiting for the staff to prep your coffee or fresh juice, you can just sit down and pat the dogs coming your way. At this café, they had different dog races; like golden retrievers and others which I don't know the name of :-)

This café reminds me of the Dog Café BAU House in Hongdae :-)

Caffe Bene

My favorite cafe was coffee chain Caffe Bene!

What's so exciting was the warm interior; wooden furniture and you're surrounded by books and stuff. The whole place makes you want to relax.

On our lazy days, me and my friends would just hang out here. I tried the waffles (3600 won) and bagles. Caffe Bene is infamous for their Belgian looka-like waffles.

Paris Baguette Café

This café is a no. 1 franchise bakery. Me and my friends ate a delicious cake at 19,000 won. Guess what it was? - White chocolate cake :-)

This is a nice place to have a breakfast because they have large variety of French-inspired pastries, cakes and so much more.

Some of their best-selling pastries are Mexican buns, croissants in various shapes, ham and cheese bread and I could go on! Their sandwiches are also very delicious!

Where: Paris Baguette is a bakery chain - I ate at the bakery in Eungam. Otherwise, you'll find their bakeries scattered all over Seoul.

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Korean Snacks

For snacks, try walnut cakes ("hodo kwaja" in Korean). Before we went onto the bus from Seoul to Busan, my Korean friend introduced me to Korean walnut cakes.

These walnut cakes are made of red bean puree and walnuts, and had a sweet taste to it.

Another snack I loved was the fried chicken with chilli sauce (1500 won). It almost taste like popcorn, and was just delicious!

If you prefer simpler snacks, grab fruit bits for 1000 won. Most snacks cost between 1000-3000 won.

If you're a drinker, Korean rice wine is a must! :-)

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Busan: Jagalchi Fish Market

Busan is famous for its fish market and it's right next to Busan Harbor. Jagalchi is divided into a fresh section and a dried seafood section. In the fresh section you can watch all sorts of live display of newly captured fish. Just point what you want and merchants will sell it to you.

How to get to Jagalchi: Take subway line 1 to the Jagalchi stop.

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