🇰🇷 Seoul Food: Guide to eating well in Seoul, Korea
When it comes to food, there's no time to waste. So let's dive straight in! Stay till the end for a few bonus tips.
Street Food
Corndogs
One of the most iconic street foods you'll find in the markets and food alleys, the Korean corn dog is a sausage wrapped in batter, deep-fried and topped off with a condiment of your choice: ketchup or mayo.
What sets it apart from the usual corn dog is the extreme crunchiness of the outer layer! So satisfying.
Hotteok
Hot, soft street pancakes with red bean or custard filling. Wholesome comfort food for a cold or rainy evening.
Bungeoppang
Another type of pastry with sweet red bean filling, except this one looks like a cute little fishy.
Gyeranppang
A very popular hot, fluffy bread snack with egg inside.
Eomuk
Also known as fish cakes, they're not actually cakes. But they are made of pureed fish fillet, and then cooked or steamed in hot water. The texture is kind of chewy and moist.
📍Where to find it
You'll have no trouble finding all this at any street food alley or market. Some of them can found at:
We had them near the Hangang River Park as well. It was "nomu masisseoyo", indeed.
Tteok
Tteok is a soft, chewy rice cake that can be eaten in various forms. You can try tteokbokki, which is rice cake and fish cakes served with a hot, tangy, flavourful gravy.
Try to find freshly made tteok at a local market - they are infinitely better than packaged tteok!
Or you can go for sotteok, which is a fried sausage and tteok skewer brushed with a sticky, sweet, spicy sauce.
📍 Where to find
Japchae
Thin glass noodles stir fried with vegetables and sometimes meat. The noodles are smooth and slippery, with a clean savoury taste. Often eaten as a side dish with Korean meals.
📍 Where to find
Kimchi Jiggae
A spicy, tangy stew of kimchi and pork, topped with fresh tofu, green onions and peppers, bubbling to perfection. Accompany this with a bowl or two of rice ("bap") and bottle of soju. Koreans sure know their pairings.
📍Where to find it
Doenjang Jiggae
Another stew, this one made with fermented soybean paste. The taste is starkly different from Kimchi Jiggae! It's warm, comforting and filling.
📍Where to find it
Kalguksu
Kalguksu is basically thick, chewy knife-cut noodles floating in a clear, refreshing broth topped with seaweed. This is one of the more bland Korean foods you'll find, in case your stomach needs a rest from all the spice. Served with kimchi on the side.
📍Where to find it
For Kalguksu, head on over to Gwangjang Market and eat at the iconic Netflix Aunty's stall.
Samgyetang
The chicken soup of your dreams. Order samgyetang and you are served a whole chicken, cooked to perfection, meat melting off the bone, boiled in ginseng - an authentic root herb found in Korea that is said to have many health benefits. It's often served with bean paste, kimchi and rice.
You can also try some ginseng liquor along with your meal - although it was quite strong, and wasn't to our taste.
📍Where to find it
Renowned for its samgyetang, Tosokchon is the perfect place for you to try this out. They boast a long history of making one of the best samgyetang there is. Be warned though because you may have to wait in line for up to 30 minutes at lunch time - we sure did and it was worth it.
Sikhye
Sikhye is a sweet, fizzy drink made with rice. Drinkable rice in a cup! Tastes a lot better than it sounds. Consider it a traditional version of boba tea, but instead of boba, there's rice. Usually ordered at a Korean sauna or Jjimjilbang, you can find this inside markets too.
📍Where to find it
Cafe & Bakery Food
Cafe culture is a thing here. Seoul is full of coffee shops and trendy cafes serving delicious coffee and fresh, warm pastries - both sweet and savoury,
📍 Where to find it
Here are a few cafes we tried and loved..
Fun fact: Koreans love drinking their iced coffee or iced americanos (ah-ah), even in freezing cold weather.
Sool (or Alcohol)
Drinking is a big part of Korean culture as well, and the two drinks you absolutely must try are Soju and Makgeolli. (If you don't drink, skip this part and maybe contemplate on your life choices 😆 just kidding).
Soju
The signature Korean drink. Everyone from age 18 to 80 across class and across social status drinks this. You must drink it in a shot glass, or you can choose to mix it with beer to make Somaek.
Note: There is a huge cultural aspect to drinking in Korea. So read up on the drinking etiquette before you go.
Makgeolli
This is a milky, off-white, lightly carbonated rice wine drink with a sweet flavour. And it's so delicious that you may find yourself drinking a lot of it, so be careful!
📍Where to find it
Any place that serves alcohol!
Chi-maek
Korean Chimaek is not a meal, it's an out-of-body experience. A portmanteau of the words Fried Chicken + Maekju (Beer), this combination will blow your mind, trust me.
Fried Chicken in Korea is nothing like you've ever tasted anywhere else in the world. You'll never touch KFC again once you try this.
📍Where to find it
The most popular outlets are BHC Chicken, Kyochon Chicken Two Two Fried Chicken, scattered across the city. But we think you can simply walk into any chicken outlet and enjoy.
Korean BBQ
All the ingredients are served separately on the table. The meat comes raw and you can grill it to your taste. Cut it up with scissors, eat it as is, or make yourself a wrap with ssam (perilla leaf), garlic, kimchi and ssamjang (a spicy dipping sauce)!
Just listen to that sizzle! Perfection.
📍Where to find it
Any barbecue or grill place!
And finally, we bring you our unsung hero...
Convenience Store Food
Convenience stores in Korea (and Japan) are on another level. And by no means are they of inferior quality. On the contrary, people love eating from convenience stores because you can find good-quality, fresh, filling meals and snacks at a very reasonable price.
On our first night, we landed very late in Seoul. So naturally, convenience food came to the rescue.
We gorged on spicy ham gimbap, and cheesy ra-bokki.
The drinks are also amazing. Be sure to the try the Shine Muscat aid, which is bought together with a plastic ice up at the store.
📍Where to find it
Walk into any GS25, CU Mart, or 7-Eleven and choose from a wide variety of rice balls, gimbap, sausages, instant ramyeon, sandwiches.. the list goes on and on.
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If you've reached the end, here are some bonus tips on eating in Korea:
✅ According to Korean etiquette, it's encouraged to make noise while eating your food. So don't be shy to appreciate your meal with loud exclamations and slurping noises!
✅ Spoons are for rice and soup, chopsticks are for everything else.
✅ Instead of picking up a spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other, use your chopsticks, place them down on the table, and use your same hand to pick up your spoon - and vice versa. This is a more natural way of eating in Korea.
✅ Try not to eat while you walk. Eating and walking in public places isn't banned, but if you look around you'll hardly see anyone doing it. So its best to sit down somewhere, finish your meal, and then continue your journey.
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