A Urologist's adventure and misadventures to food and travel: Soul Food in Seoul (Sightseeing day1)

May coffee din kaya si Pumbaa?

The day started for me with coffee. There was complimentary coffee but there was no cream or sugar. It was a good thing that the coffee tasted great so I did not mind taking it black.

Uy, feeling healthy?

At 7am, the buffet breakfast opened. Just like the hotel, the buffet was small and cute. except for the kimchi and rice porridge, it is a western style breakfast complete with cereal and yoghurt.

Our lost in korea guide: Mr. Kim

At 8:30am we were promptly fetched by our bus and guide. Mr. Kim, our guide, has only been on the job for 3 months. So you can just imagine him getting lost with us with the National Folk museum grounds! Other people in the tour group joked that budget tour kami kaya buget din ang guide...hehehe But seriously, Mr. Kim is a nice guy who has been to the Philippines last year after his retirement (35 yrs service in Korea Electric).

GeunJeongjeon

Blue Palace: Their "Malacanang"

The tour lasted half a day and we were left in Itaewon for some shopping. It was lunchtime and we decided to skip shopping and started to look for a place to eat. There were lots of modern and western type of restos but we decided to go to an alley and we found another place to satisfy our Korean food cravings. They have no english name, no english menu but just a wall filled with things you may order. We decided on the grilled pork belly and we were informed that the minimum order is 2 (a total of 300grams. Well, after some mental computations, we deemed it affordable and said yes.

cutting the pork with scissors

Service was fast. Four kinds of kimchi were given as appetizers. Then charcoal was laid into the middle of the table. Unlike the Korean restos we have at home, the meat is cooked using charcoal. They have a suction vent for the smoke. Reminded me of our suction inside the OR! Only lettuce leaves was served . I grilled the garlic with the pork and in 5 mins, delicious smell of cooking fat and garlic tempted us. The owner himself cut the pork belly slices using a big scissor.
The sauce was non-spicy and complemented the pork. We found it difficult to finish off the 300 grams and after that full meal, we decided to really forgo shopping and rest at the hotel before embarking on the next adventure.

Cooking the meat using charcoal grill

Our meal was the most expensive one so far. 23,000Won (php 920). Not bad, eh?

fruit stands each slice at 1,000 Won (php 40)

At 6 pm we headed to Namdaemun Market. Its like Korean Divisoria. We bought pasalubongs and tried some of the street food. There were noodle stalls, sliced fruit stands, an assortment of fried snacks. One stick was 3000Won which was big and heavy enough for Paul and I to share.

Seafood and noodle stalls

fried street snacks

Afterwards we headed to the more upscale part of the town: Myeong-dong. It was filled with brand name shops. We passed by a watering hole advertizing chicken. Ha! just my luck. The place was full but they set up a table outside in the smoking area.

We ordered curry fried chicken. It was boneless chicken fillets with mild curry flavor. It was good specially with my draft beer. They gave Paul complementary coke in a slim sexy can as he cannot drink beer. Whereas back home bars give you peanuts for pica-pica , here were were given air popped sweet corn and sweet pickled radish. The Chicken was 16,000Won and the beer 500Won. Paul ordered rice and were were given a bowl of brown rice (1000Won) . Unlike most places in Korea, this one added service charge to the bill. The food was good enough for 3-4 and we took half back with us to the hotel.