Seoul Food

If I were to have to choose just one of the many great aspects of Seoul, I would have to say that it's the food. The food here has simply been terrific and there's definitely something for everyone's taste. I thought I'd share with you a few of the dishes I've had while here in Seoul, both local and foreign.

One of the few dishes that made me throw in the towel.

This first dish is dakgalbi a chicken dish, but we took the extra spicy version. Now everyone who knows me well, know that I have a tongue of steel and can handle spicy food like it's child's play. Well folks, this dish got me! The dish is made of marinated chicken, jalapenos, bok choi (or some asian lettuce). The dish is cooked in a big pan that's on your table. Like most Korean food this was very inexpensive as we were able to get this for 8000 won per person ($8/person).

Now why would you cut a burger in half?

Next stop was Kraze Burger in the Dongdaemun district of Seoul, where I picked myself up a spicy mexican burger for lunch. Western food in Seoul is EXPENSIVE. This tends to give you more incentive to get out there and try some of the local stuff. The burger itself was nothing special. The only thing notable about it was that it was cut in half! Oh and that it cost me about 13-14k won! ($13-14).

Korean fast food @ Lotteria

Now if you really want your fast-food, going local is the way to go. Here are two options that I was able to sample. First one is Lotteria, owned by the Lotte group which is one of the biggest companies in Korea. This is basically the Korean version of McDonalds (which is surprisingly absent from the landscape as I only saw 2 and one of those was just a McCafe at the airport!), and funny enough their menus look quite similar. The food itself is your standard fast food fare, but much cheaper than the western outlets such as BK or KFC.

Tteokbokki, a fish skewer and some fishy water

Pork and kimchi dumplings

  

Secondly there's the street meat which is surprisingly very good. Along busy streets in Seoul you're going to find plenty of stalls selling various different foods. I had the chance to sample the food at one of the stalls. Here I was served a cup with some sort of fishy water which was being used to cook some other stuff. I was also served some Tteokbokki which is a sort of pasta-ish (the stuff that looks like penne) kinda texture food and is very very good, next up got some dumplings, 4 pork and 4 kimchi dumplings. All of this food was incredibly cheap costing only 5500 won (or $5.50) and that served two of us!

Galbi, oh so delicious!

Lastly, one night a guest at the hostel invited me to join him for some galbi. This is a Korean delicacy which is marinated pork ribs which you cook on a grill at your table. You then place the meat on a leaf of lettuce and stuff it pretty much like a fajita. There's plenty of sauces and veggies you can stick in there with the pork. We had a table full of food and a bottle of soju and our bill was 14000 won per person ($14). This was probably one of my best meals in the country!

As you can see, there's definitely something for everyone when it comes to food. Just keep in mind that I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to the amazing food culture over here. The main lesson learned here is go local, it tastes great and goes very easy on the wallet.