Soul Food in Seoul (Arrival) : Korean chicken Soup for the weary soul!

I decided to start this even though I have not finished my Japan entry. This time I had the foresight to bring my MacBook Air.

After so much difficulty in scheduling the trip, Paul and I finally found ourselves at the Cebu Pacific Area at NAIA 3.Apparently this was the maiden flight of their new Airbus 330 Manila-Incheon and they were handing some freebies. Initially we thought it was to make up for the one hour delay of the flight.

with our cebu pac freebie shades. akala namin pang 3-D.

Four hours later we found ourselves at Gate 13 of Incheon Airport looking for car number 2717. The travel agency told us to look for the car. Eh wala......grrrr.... we were tired and hungry by this time and after several texts and calls to their local counterpart we finally made our way to Hotel Manu after an hour.
On the way to the hotel , we passed by the red light district in Seoul on the way to Boolim Hotel where other 8 pinoys were booked by the travel agent. The scantily clad girls were displaying themselves in see through glass walled stalls that looked like an aquarium.




Our hotel is located in Myeong-dong. The rooms are small but clean. It seems to be a fairly new hotel.

What fascinated us was the push button console at the bathroom. Talk about high tech bottom washing! My only gripe is that there is no complimentary toothbrush.

No english translation available

It was past 1pm and we have not eaten dinner! We asked the guys at the lobby where can we eat and they told us that most places are closed. He pointed us to the 7-11 two blocks away but we decided to take our chances at the small alley at the side of the hotel going to Namdaemun street. We struck gold here. We saw traditional korean restaurants with the typical stove in the middle of the table. We decided on the one with the western style chairs. Somehow we were not to keen to  sit on the floor.

cook it yourself chicken noodle oup

Chicken Soup for the Seoul

We found ourselves in a resto frequented mostly by locals. Language was definitely an issue as the lone waitress could not even speak an iota of english. There were no menu with english translation nor menu with pictures! As it was a mildly cold and post rain weather, we craved for some soup and we saw a wall picture of what seemed to be chicken noodle. Ok, she seemed to understand the word noodle! Finally we were making headway. Next determining how much to order. We looked around and there were other three occupied tables and we saw big pots on their table top stoves. This made us realize that one order would be good enough for two.

kimchi appetizers

In less than 5 minutes, a battered aluminum pot with leeks, chilies, chicken, chicken broth was placed on the tabletop stove in front of us. There were potato slices to thicken the broth as well as thick finger like stuff which was like gnocchi. The fresh noodles were placed on a separate plate to be placed in the broth when it boils. The ever present kimchi was there as pica-pica while we wait for our food to cook. In less than ten minutes it was ready. I forget to fish out the chilies and the broth was spicy. But whats interesting is that as we eat the spicy dish it became less spicy to us and it started to taste really great! More so when the potato started to thicken the broth. The broth and noodles filled our happy stomachs and our taste buds were satisfied with our first authentic Korean dish in Seoul. The chicken bits tasted like our local free range chicken and I guess that was the secret of the great tasting broth. The big pot of chicken noodle costed 6,000 Won (php 240). Great price for a great meal!

Korean ice cream

Walking back we passed by a small convenience store. We browsed and saw some ice cream. Paul chose the melon popsicle while I chose a chocolate covered green tea treat. Both cold treats for 2,400 Won (php94)

We went back to the hotel tired but happy. Looking forward to what hopefully is a great day of sight seeing and eating!