Flavor Boulevard

While in Seoul, I stayed in Hongdae for 5 days and Myeondong for the next 5 days to experience different areas of Seoul. Since I was in a hostel at Hongdae and raw eggs and bread were provided, I never had to worry about breakfast. However, moving into a hotel in Myeondong meant that I would have to start going out for breakfast.

I was worried because it seemed like nothing in Hongdae opened until 12:00pm (except for Cafe Berlin and a few other cafes that opened “early” at 10:00am). Luckily, just down the road and across the street from Hotel Astoria is a little cafe called Cafe Beati (카페 베아띠) that is opened at least before 8am (I am not sure when it actually opens but when I stopped in it was already open at 8:00am).

The owner of the store was one of those people who absolutely refused to speak to me in Korean despite my not using any English. This is probably good news since this means that it’s a pretty accessible cafe for non-Korean speakers, but it definitely made me self-conscious about my Korean skills!

The great thing about this cafe though is its sandwich special. For 5,000 won, the special comes with a sandwich and an iced coffee. Seeing that coffee (especially iced coffee) is usually more than 5,000 won (a little less than $5 USD) alone, this is a GREAT deal!

Like most cafes I’ve been to in Seoul, Cafe Beati is super cute and the  shelves have all kinds of interesting knick-knacks displayed.

The first sandwich that I got here was a take-out sandwich as I had to get to my conference location at Seoul National University all the way across the Han River. I took it back to my hotel room and it looked so cute in the wrapping paper!

As to what the sandwich actually was, I saw on the list of sandwiches that were offered (egg, ham and egg, and Elvis) the “Elvis.” I totally blame this on my own apparent lack of knowledge of American culture, but I had no idea what an Elvis sandwich was, so of course that was the one I ordered. All I saw was that there were bananas in it and I was in the perfect mood for something sweet for breakfast. Anyways, so for those who don’t know, the Elvis Sandwich is named for Elvis Presley’s favorite snack that consists of toast with bacon, bananas, and peanut butter. I’m not sure why I’ve never heard of this sandwich before, but I’ve honestly never seen this on any menu anywhere in the US! I’ve had banana and peanut butter sandwiches before, but bacon is something that I never would have thought of adding to this sandwich… but as a person who sometimes has weird food cravings, I can definitely see the appeal.

The Elvis sandwich at Cafe Beati, however, doesn’t have bacon. In fact, it’s just a perfectly good banana, peanut butter, and chocolate sandwich!

(Notice the iced coffee in the background.) The bananas are nice and fresh and the peanut butter is super subtle – even though it’s spread across the top I couldn’t really make out the flavor that much. It’s really more of a banana and chocolate sandwich. The chocolate layer on the bottom is ADDICTING; it reminds me a bit of nutella but without the hazelnut taste. The grilled sandwich, the warm bananas, and the delicious chocolate sauce (the sandwich was also sprinkled with some chocolate powder on top) made for perfect bites of sweetness. This definitely satisfied my sweet tooth and while it doesn’t seem to really be all that true to an Elvis sandwich, I found it amusing that the first time I heard of this sandwich was while I was in Seoul!

I went back a few days later to try a savory sandwich – this 5,000 won deal is just too good! This time I had the egg sandwich; I was expecting something like an American breakfast sandwich with a cooked egg patty, but it was actually an egg salad sandwich.

Unfortunately this sandwich wasn’t anywhere near as good as the Elvis sandwich. The egg salad is on the VERY top (a very thin layer) followed by cucumber, a LOT of lettuce, and American cheese. It was very bland – all I could taste was the lettuce and cheese. It wasn’t very tasty at all and I should have gotten the egg and ham instead, which would probably have given more flavor to the sandwich.

If I’m ever in this area again, I would definitely go back for the deal though; it’s just too good to pass up. And that Elvis sandwich was pretty delicious too!

And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll check out that 섹시 크럽 (Sexy Club) across the street.

I never expected to eat Italian food while staying in Seoul, but according to my friend, it is one of the more popular cuisines here. Since she is a vegetarian, my friend also said that she likes eating Italian food while living in Korea because most of it is vegetarian-friendly. While Primo Bacio Baci was friendly towards vegetarians, the server was definitely not friendly towards hungry eaters!

The story is actually pretty funny. My friend and  I were definitely hungry, but as a food  writer/blogger, I also like to order a lot of food  just to have the opportunity to try different  items across the menu. And with a restaurant  like Primo Bacio Baci (the location in the linked  blog  post is Hongdae, but the one my friend and  I ate it is located in Myeondong, a popular  tourist shopping area), where I am not sure  when I will be able to return again, I definitely  wanted to try a lot of their menu!  Well…apparently this type of ordering doesn’t go  over too well in this restaurant. My friend and I each ordered an entree and then we decided to  try an appetizer and a pizza. The waitress, shocked, said “4 items???” And we said, “Yes, 4 items.”  After she took our order, my friend spotted her whispering to another waitress with something  along the lines of “Wow those girls ordered 4 items!!!” with a hand gesture indicating the number “4.” Whatever, I just shrugged it off and we polished off the entire meal. No way will I ever be shamed by having a large appetite and a penchant for trying different menu items!

Somewhat rude service aside, the menu is pretty easy to navigate and really cute as well (actually the entire decor of the restaurant is super cute – I love how the photographs on the walls convey a sense of comfort to the restaurant). There probably are many tourists who eat here because each menu item is photographed and the ingredients are all written out in English.

Garlic bread is complimentary and my friend warned me that Korean Italian restaurants like to add honey to their garlic bread. I love the taste; it was not weird for me at all. The sweetness matched well with the garlic and I love honey so I gobbled down the bread pretty fast!

Another quirk about Korean Italian restaurants that my friend warned me about is that pickles are always served alongside pasta dishes because Koreans find pasta sauce (particularly creamy ones like alfredo) to be too rich to eat on their own. It makes me wonder why not just eat kimchi alongside the pasta. I love pickles though so this didn’t really weird me out too much except that I didn’t really understand how pickles came to be representative of Italian cuisine! These pickles were mild and slightly sweet and went along well with my pasta, but first I’ll talk about the appetizers!

We started out with a caprese salad, which came with its own side salad. My friend said that this is the best mozzarella she’s had in Korea, and while I haven’t eaten mozzarella in Korea up to this point (or for the rest of my trip), I could definitely see that being the case. The cheese and tomato were super refreshing and while I normally don’t like the taste of balsamic vinegar, I found this sauce to be very complimentary and pleasing to the tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. I didn’t really understand the extra cheese on top as it didn’t really add anything to the dish. The side salad was pretty forgettable.

We also ordered a gorgonzola and honey pizza to share. I wouldn’t really call this a pizza, but they do have more traditional red sauce pizzas that probably tasted more like pizza. I loved loved loved this dish – it totally satisfied my craving for sweet savory foods! The crust on the pizza resemble more of a cracker than anything and with the lightly melted cheese and drizzled honey, this was one addicting plateful of food. And before I knew it, we had eaten it all!

My friend ordered an alfredo pasta which I didn’t get to try, but it definitely looked addictingly rich and creamy. It’s also vegetarian friendly!

I don’t remember the name of my pasta but it had tomato sauce, bacon, and spicy pepper inside. The peppers were a little too spicy so I ended up leaving them behind on the plate. Pasta was well-cooked, but the tomato sauce was a little too sweet for my taste and the bacon was soggy. This dish tasted good with the pickles though as the pickles definitely helped to refresh my palate. I wasn’t too impressed with the pasta dish, but if I do go back, I definitely want to try more of their pizzas! They are also famous for pasta bread bowls, which I almost ended up ordering. I decided not to because I was afraid of falling into a food coma that I wouldn’t be able to awake from (bread + pasta + cream sauce is a little too much!), but I ended up in a food coma after all, so next time I’ll be braver!

Our dinner ended up with a complimentary mango sorbet, which really was more of a mango ice because of the texture. Delicious and soothing, I didn’t think I would be able to eat anymore, but I ate all of the sorbet too. I can’t even begin to imagine what our waitress thought of us!!! Not only did we order way more food than she thought we were capable of eating, but we finished it all too!

Lastly, Primo Bacio Baci has puppy toilet paper. That is just ridiculously cute.

Since Hongdae is where I stayed in Seoul, this is where I had most of my meals. In this post I’ll spotlight 4 restaurants that stood out to me mostly because of the dishes that I had there. These include: Korean-style onigiri (rice balls), kimchi mandu (dumplings), vegetable and meat pancake, and gamjatang (potato soup) without the gamja (potato).

#1 Kong’s Riceball

It was my second day in Seoul and I was still very overwhelmed with being in South Korea. I had a pretty big lunch at the museum cafe in the War Memorial of Korea and on my way back to my hostel, I wanted dinner but just a small dinner. I remembered passing by this restaurant the day before when my friend was showing me around the area and figured today will be the perfect day to try it!

The interesting name, the brightly colored bowls, and the nice ahjumma who stuck her head out of the window to call out orders all drew my attention right away! Plus it was right next to Hongik University on the main road in Hongdae AND it offered take-out, so convenience and shyness made this the perfect stop (at this point I was still too scared to order or dine alone in a restaurant, but that was quickly overcome once I couldn’t resist the food).

An onigiri would be the perfect meal since I wasn’t too hungry. After looking, I decided to go with two of what looked the most delicious: spicy marinated chicken thighs (닭갈비, dalk kalbi) and stir-fried kimchi (김치볶음, kimchibokkeum).

Stir-fried kimchi rice ball

Marinated chicken riceball

Little did I know – these are giant-sized riceballs! They took up an entire cup each! They were so delicious though that I ate both of them in the comfort of my hostel room. I expected something hand-held, but I had to use a fork with this one – luckily my hostel had utensils because when I tried taking the rice ball out of the cup with my hands, I ended up making a mess. The flavors were delicious and so comforting: both the chicken and kimchi were really spicy but I loved it since the rice and seaweed balanced out the spice. If I were a college student at Hongik University, there would be no doubt about it, I would be eating these rice balls all day long. With the most expensive one costing 3,000 won (less than $3 US) and the stir-fried kimchi one costing 1,500 won (less than $1.50 US), these are great!

#2: 빚은 만두 뽑은 국수

I wish I knew the translation for this restaurant name, but I don’t…the only character I recognize is 만두 (mandu), which means dumplings. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only word that I need to know! My friend and I met up here specifically for their kimchi dumplings…she’s on a quest to find the best kimchi dumplings in the area, so we came here to test out this restaurant. It’s on the main stretch of road bordering Hongik University (the same street as Kong’s Riceball and Cafe Berlin); if you keep on walking down this road, you will eventually end up in the popular Sinchon area, which also has a ton of universities.

I should probably admit something embarrassing at this point…I have never had fresh kimchi mandu before. I’ve only ever had the frozen packs that I buy at Koreana Plaza in Oakland. When I say that this is the best kimchi mandu I’ve ever had, it’s probably not saying much, but these were the best kimchi mandu I’ve ever had! The filling was extremely fresh (which stood out to me since I’ve only had the artificial tasting dumplings) and deceptively spicy – I found myself drinking more and more water as I ate! The steamer that comes with the dumpling is so cute too. I don’t remember the price right now, but I think it was around 3,000 won (less than $3). I loved how well I can eat in Seoul without spending a lot of money! The dumplings also come with banchan that included pickled yellow radish and a clear soup that tastes like the kind that are served in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. Overall I was super impressed with this place, but I don’t know how it stacks up with other kimchi mandu restaurants.

#3 The Pancake Restaurant

This actually isn’t the name of the restaurant, but I don’t remember what it was called. All I remembered was that it was a rainy day in Seoul and I had just finished touring the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum (commonly referred to as the “Comfort Women Museum”), which addresses the history of the women who were drafted into sexual slavery under the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII (an issue that many Japanese politicians and textbooks deny) as well as their ongoing legacy and attempts to fight for justice and reparations. Needless to say, it was a very difficult museum to walk through and combined with the rain, I was definitely looking for some comfort food. I happen to walk right past this restaurant on the way back to my hostel, and could not resist the smells. This is some perfect rainy day food.

This restaurant is pretty much the definition of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I think they probably serve more take-out than sit-in diners and I was the only one there that day. The prices looked pretty expensive compared to other food that I’ve eaten in Seoul so far, but that didn’t deter me from ordering the meat and kimchi pancake (김치고기전, kimchi gogi jeon) for 10,000 won (a little less than $10 USD).

The owner of the restaurant (the woman with the glasses) was super friendly and I think she felt a little bad for me when she asked if I was eating alone and I said “yes.” I didn’t mind though, particularly as she started to cook my pancake on the little electric stove and the smells came wafting towards me. This is definitely made-to-order food!

Pictured here is the pancake (I didn’t take a picture of it but I got some banchan as well). It was a little greasy, but it definitely hit the spot. The meat was a little flavorless on its own; I couldn’t tell if it was pork of beef – it tasted like burger meat to me. The kimchi though was full of flavor – this was the most pungent and sour kimchi I have ever eaten and I loved it. The overall flavor of this pancake rings “sour” more than anything else, but I love some fried kimchi pancake and even though after my first few slices I was wishing for a little more sweetness or spicyness to balance out the sourness, I definitely had my craving for kimchi pancake satisfied. I was able to end up eating half of it before I was full, but I took the rest of it back to my hostel.

The owner was so incredibly sweet also; she kept on talking to me and made sure that everything was to my liking. She also complimented me on my Korean, which was really affirming for me to hear since I am super unconfident with my Korean language skills. However, I was actually able to have a conversation with her (even if it was a little bit awkward and I didn’t quite use full sentences all the time), but it is definitely a good confidence boost to actually almost understand someone completely in Korean! Not only was the food excellent here, but the service is quite good as well!

#4 The Gamjatang Restaurant

This is another restaurant that I forget the name of; I think it is a chain restaurant since I saw one in Myeondong as well (the one that I ate at is in Hongdae). The logo consists of an animated potato head. Actually, here is a blog post on the restaurant; it is called Onedang Gamjatang. Fun fact: the hostel that I stayed at is right above the Plan B bar pictured in that post.

Actually, one of the first things that I did before leaving for Korea was to Google Maps (can I use this as a verb?) my hostel location. To my delight, I saw that it was right next door to a restaurant that read “gamjatang.” I was super excited because I love  gamjatang and this place is literally two steps away from my residence.

What I failed to realize though is that the entire area surrounding my hostel is full of restaurants and shops, but I still made it to the gamjatang restaurant on this trip despite the numerous options.

One of the first things that I noticed about this gamjatang is that it did not include any gamja – or potatoes – in it. While I had read on Wikipedia that gamjatang actually commonly comes without potatoes, the logo of this restaurant features a potato head so that was a little weird. However, once I tasted the soup, I couldn’t care less about not having potatoes. For only 6,000 won (a little less than $6 USD), I got a massive amount of food – I fished out 3 giant pork bones. The soup was so rich and full of flavor and the pork just melted off the bone. I ended up eating all of the banchan as well – it included kimchi, raw onions, and some pickled carrots and spicy peppers. I also polished off an order of rice and all of the pork AND the soup. I love how for 6,000 won I could eat so well. And it was perfect that my hostel was just a step away – just in time for me to collapse in bed with a massive food coma!

While figuring out where exactly I was staying in Hongdae, I printed out the map on how to get to my hostel from the limousine bus stop. The map was marked with restaurants and cafes to use as landmarks while navigating through the backstreets of Hongdae. To my surprise, on this map a location was marked as “Hello Kitty Cafe.” I’m not the biggest fan of Hello Kitty, but there is something about themed cafes that really excites me, so I knew then that I had to go. (Or okay maybe I am a LOT excited about Hello Kitty…)

It is PINK in here. It was a little blinding, but I felt so happy once I stepped inside! The music consisted of club dance music too so that definitely contributed to the upbeat atmosphere. I couldn’t decide what to order at first since all the cakes and drinks looked super cute and yummy, but I decided to go with the prettiest treats because how often is it that I get to go to a Hello Kitty-themed cafe?

After ordering, I made my way to one of the many seating areas in the cafe (all of the cafes in Hongdae seem to be ridiculously large with multiple floors). How cute is this?? The chairs were ridiculously comfortable and so cute with the pink bow! I settled into my large chair after snapping this photo and began to read some books about the Korean War…maybe it wasn’t the most appropriate reading to do in this setting, but I was in Seoul to present at a conference on my research after all! There is free wireless here – I wish I had known that so I could have brought my computer. Note: pretty much every cafe in this area has free wifi and it is FAST. I will definitely keep that in mind the next time I go back to Seoul because while my hostel internet refused to work consistently, I never had problems with wireless internet at the cafes.

After a pretty long wait (about 30 min) because of the amount of people in the cafe, I finally got my order. I had the sweet potato latte – so cute! Unfortunately I messed up Hello Kitty’s nose while bringing my tray up to my seat, but the rest of the outline stayed pretty much intact. I liked the subtle sweet potato flavor, but otherwise the drink tasted like hot milk and was a little boring. Of course being the Hello Kitty Cafe, the drink was pricier that usual (I think 8,000 won or a little less than $8) and way overpriced for my standards, but I saw it as a one-time splurge.

I also ordered a strawberry cake (this cake comes in vanilla and chocolate as well with matching colors), but I had to order the pink cake because why not go all out while in an all-pink cafe? I really didn’t expect this cake to taste good, but I ended up really enjoying it. The inside of the cake was very fluffy and moist with layers of sponge cake and strawberry mousse (the strawberry layers inside were made with the some material as the outside of the cake). It really felt so light and like I was eating a cloud.

Apologies for this somewhat scary photograph, but the layering of the cake was just so perfect that I had to show it! The icing around the edges was so soft and fluffy – I like how the cake was also not too sweet. The whiskers and eyes are make out of chocolate, which added a nice complimentary taste to the strawberry and spongecake.

While the Hello Kitty Cafe isn’t somewhere to go to get great drinks and food, it’s a great stop to make as a tourist, and while the drink wasn’t good (which seems to be all too common from my experiences at Seoul cafes), the cake is worth a trip to this cafe.

As a graduate student, I find that I need to always be constantly reading and writing. However, I am not someone who can study easily in a library – it’s a little too quiet and after a while, I start to freak out. I need a little bit of noise to keep me motivated, which is why I prefer to study at cafes all the time. Seeing that I was in Seoul to present at a conference, I needed to get on top of my studying too and took a few days to relax a little bit and read.

For the first half of my trip I stayed in Hongdae, which is a super cute neighborhood outside of Hongik University, an art and design university. There were so many cute shops and vendors open during the day and clubbing at night; I can definitely see why this is such a popular place for young people! My favorite part of Hongdae though are the cafes – each cafe is unique and has its own charms. I obviously did not get a chance to hang out at every single cafe, but I did have a favorite while I was staying in Hongdae!

This cafe is called Cafe Berlin! Pictured here is the counter. When I visited, the staff there did not speak English at all, but luckily I know enough Korean to order off the menu and to ask for the Wifi password! I spent an entire day here: about 8 hours just reading and writing my conference paper. I’m always surprised at how empty the cafes are here (especially since I feel like I have to fight for seating at the cafes in Berkeley), but then there’s so many cafes in this area and they’re all super large so that may be a reason why individual cafes seem empty. Cafes are also really expensive – expect to pay 5000+ won for a drink ($5 or more) – so I know that if I lived here, I wouldn’t be able to financially sustain going to a cafe every day!

I arrived right at the opening time at 10:00am and snagged a great seat – I have a view of the entire cafe! As a morning person, I had a hard time in Hongdae – most cafes and shops don’t open until 12:00pm except for the 24 hour ones, so I liked that Cafe Berlin opened bright and early (well…I guess by Seoul standards).

The decor is just so cute! I can’t get over how cute so many of the cafes are – it makes me want to design my own cafe as well!

Even the bathroom is uniquely decorated, although I’m not sure why someone would want to sit on a counter in the bathroom or what the bike is doing in the corner. I guess it just adds to the charm though!

I should start talking about the food though… There aren’t that many food options to choose from and I’m not sure why the “meal” section is the only one untranslated. For those who can’t read Korean, the options are honey toast, yuja (citrus) dressing sandwich, Croque Monsieur, and Berlin waffle. Food prices are a LOT better than drink prices (except for the waffles), which seems to be a common thing among a lot of the cafes. As someone who is used to only paying a few dollars for tea or coffee, a $7 coffee or $6 tea is a little scary!

Pictured here is the honey toast! This reminds me a little of the Taiwanese toast-type meals that I’ve had before. Drizzled generously with honey and chocolate sauce and topped with almonds, this was definitely a filling breakfast! The little bowl on top came with a handtowel. I’m not sure what possessed me to do this, but I thought it was a marshmallow and actually bit it…how embarrassing…I was lucky no one was at the cafe this early!

Later in the afternoon it started to really get hot – the air conditioner was on in the cafe, but it was on a very low setting so the heat still crept through. So I ordered a yogurt smoothie to cool down. It was definitely very interesting…I feel like yogurt products here have a very sour and tart taste that I’m not familiar with. I liked that the shake wasn’t super sweet but it was a lot thicker than I would have liked. It definitely cooled me down but it didn’t quench my thirst. It was also pricey at 7,000 won (a little less than $7), but I’m glad I tried it.

The food and drinks that I tried at Cafe Berlin were okay – nothing to really rave about, but the atmosphere was perfect for some hardcore studying. With my extremely expensive iced earl grey tea (6,000 won) and my books, I had an extremely productive day. This is a cafe that I would want to write my dissertation in, but sadly I would have to move to Hongdae to make that dream a reality! I wish there were more Berkeley cafes that were as cute as the cafes in Hongdae, but I’m definitely not complaining about the prices of coffee here! I would definitely recommend anyone to check out Cafe Berlin if they are in the Hongdae are – it’s gorgeous, spacious, and feels just artsy enough without being pretentious.

This past June, I spent 10 days in Seoul to do some research and to present my paper at a conference. But of course, I didn’t stop with my food exploration while abroad. I’ll be writing several posts over the next few weeks to document the food adventures that I had in Seoul!

For this first Seoul post, I’ll cover the street foods that I ate! I regretted not trying as much street food as I could but I’ll profile the foods that I did try! Any suggestions for next time as well are welcome!

The first street food that I had in Seoul were these delicious chestnuts right outside of the Anguk Station (I think it was Exit #3). I love roasted chestnuts and these were flavorful and meaty – they have a texture similar to that of a baked potato and are deceptively filling.

Here’s a close-up of the chestnut! Yum! They were a little pricey at 5,000 won (a little less than $5 USD) and I heard from my friend that it was because chestnuts are in season during winter and they’re not a very popular summer food. So I’m guessing this was a tourist trap, but a very delicious one!

This is technically not street food, but I did buy it from a vendor inside the Coex Mall. That counts, right? Anyways, I was dying of thirst and I saw this drink: “아이스 초콜릿” or “Iced Chocolate.” It sounded interesting so I wanted to try it! I was quite horrified when I saw the cashier take instant hot chocolate powder and slowly stirred it into cold water…I was having horrible visions of drinking water flavored with grainy bits of chocolate powder!!! But she did an amazing job and somehow all of that powder blended into the drink and I didn’t have to worry about residual chocolate powder in my teeth. The final result tasted exactly like Nesquik and brought me back to my childhood; plus, it was quite refreshing!

While I was sightseeing in the Gwanghawmun area (where all the palaces are), I came across a street vendor that was selling these little red bean pastries. I had eaten breakfast earlier that day, but when I came across this vendor I had already been through a palace tour (Changdoekgung) and a museum tour (The National Folk Museum), so I was super hungry!

After taking a bite, I realized that these tasted very similar to a Chinese-style red bean paste bun that I love! They also taste very similar to taiyaki – the Japanese red bean paste pastry in the shape of a fish – because of the dough that was used. For 2,000 won (a little less than $2 USD), I got about 10 pieces and before I knew it, they were all gone! For a ravenous tourist walking around in 90 degrees hot and humid weather, these are the perfect snack to tide you over until the next meal (unless you’re like me and eat all of them in one sitting in which case you’ll be too full to eat anything else).

While walking around in Ssamziegil and the surrounding area (a shopping area close to Anguk Station), I came across this vendor selling these deep-fried rice cakes. The smell was so delicious that I couldn’t resist! She had a variety of different flavors ranging from somewhat savory to sweet. From left to right: autumn squash, curry cheese, bulgogi, sweet potato, and pizza. I wanted ALL of them, but my stomach doesn’t take too kindly to fried foods, so I ended up only trying one.

While in Seoul, I’ve been indulging my cravings and love for sweet potatoes, so I chose the sweet potato flavor. The outside was super greasy so it wasn’t the most pleasant of meals but the inside was perfectly tasty! The sweetness of the potatoes goes along perfectly with the stickiness of the outside. I should have been a little bit more adventurous though and tried that pizza flavor…

Admittedly I didn’t do too much research on food before leaving for Seoul, but I have heard about this famous street food: the tornado potato! Essentially it’s deep-fried potato spiraled around a long stick and by long, I mean that this stick was about the full length of my torso. It’s very difficult to eat this and walk at the same time without looking stupid, but the potato was so tasty I didn’t really care! Before handing the stick over to me, the vendor dipped it in what looked like powdered cheese seasoning like the kind that you would put on popcorn. The powder had a slight artificial cheesy flavor like Cheetoes and was just about as addicting as eating Cheetoes! The potatoes tasted like kettle potato chips – instead of being in a bag, they were on a stick! Maybe this is a tourist novelty, but at 2,000 won these were definitely worth it! There are about 10 different carts in Myeondong offering this treat at pretty much the same prices!

Along with the trend of long street foods, this is the loooong ice cream that I’ve also read about! Think typical frozen soft serve ice cream and this is it – I had this after a long day of sight-seeing and it was perfectly refreshing for a hot and humid Seoul night. Unfortunately though, I should have just gone with a regular-sized ice cream because this ice cream while crunchy and cold at first, melts FAST. My hands ended up getting completely covered in melted ice cream and I felt like I was fighting a losing battle while trying to lick the melting ice cream as fast as possible. Delicious but a little impractical unless you’re a fast eater! I ate this while also in Myeondong, but I’ve seen prices vary from 2,000 won to 5,000 among the vendors – I got mine for 2,000 won after scouring around the area for a bit.

And now for two street foods that I took pictures of, but did not get to try. These are both in the Insadong area right around the Ssamziegil shopping complex. These poopy pastries were super popular and the mascots are adorable! They are called 똥빵…poop bread! I ended up not getting any because the line was ridiculously long so I just snapped a picture. At the top of the Ssamziegil complex is a sit-down cafe/restaurant featuring this poop bread as well!

I saw this also while walking around Insadong. The tubes are actually fried dough and they’re injected with soft-serve ice cream so you eat your ice cream while chewing on these giant tubes! I decided not to get them, but I’m think these are probably a better alternative to the long ice cream in terms of making less of a mess. So many tourists were having fun eating these though that I’m a little bummed out about not buying one now!

I realized I missed out on a ton of street foods, but there’s always next time! What are you favorite street foods in Korea or elsewhere?