Seoul

The day has alternated between overcast and cold and sunny and warm - the air is really quite clear but the town does have a bit of a smell about it. Probably it is the the air as it is everywhere. Walked around the Hongdae area and it is clearly a shopping and nighttime area - very closed in the morning. So - I caught the train(s) to Namdaemun Market. It is big and well known so worth a look. Required a train trip to Seoul Station then a lot of walking to the next line to Hoehyeon which exited straight into the market area. The streets around the indoor market area was more interesting than the market which was clothing and variety store stuff - huge but same same. No food inside and certainly not a produce market. Outside was the street food and everything I was expecting from street food blogs was there. Lots of fried food but also huge pig knuckle in pig knuckle stalls and also a couple other interesting themes. One was a batter cake affair that I hoped was the kimchi pancake and the other a classic stand up street diner with very traditional street food including blood sausage. I tried the pancake- they fold it into a cup - I ordered using classic mime and then as she passed it me she said ‘look out - it’s super hot’! Haha. It was ok - spring onion batter with a sweet mung bean paste inside. Nice but too sweet so a couple of bites then binned. Took a while to find somewhere as bins are non existent- wander what they do with their rubbish- take it home? I then tried the blood sausage - very soft and not strong flavoured at all - dipped in the soup and then the salt it was very nice. All eaten standing shoulder to shoulder at the counter. On the way back to the train I spotted a line at a door way. It was a very narrow covered in laneway that can only be called kimchi hall. There would have been about 15 separate lots each with a kimchi lady with her own little twist on the theme - fascinating and obviously very popular. Glad I saw it and walked through. Later in the arvo the clouds closed in trapping a growing smog and dropping the temperature considerably. I reckon we dropped a good 10 - 12o. I ventured out again to buy a running beanie as what I wore this morning in 8o isn’t going to cut it tomorrow in a predicted -3o! I also wanted to check out some potential dinner options. I wanted some real Korean fried chicken but didn’t find any today. Later I went out and found a place that looked ok. The staff were friendly and I chose a classic street food classic - tteokbokki . Small cylindrical rice cakes coated in a spicy sauce. Of course this was much larger than the street dish - enormous and clearly meant for more than one person. The street classic has seaweed covered rolls and so did this - there were several gyoza-type fried dumplings thrown in and several noodles - dried minute and big flat kway teow style. The flavour was great and with a super background heat - I did my best but sent a fair bit back. Enough beer so on the way home I bought a Chile Merlot from the 7/11 for a glass or two in my warm room. Early start tomorrow as I have a half day DMZ tour!Read more