*SouthKorea2K16* 161204: Gwangjang Market & Insadong!

One of the oldest traditional markets in South Korea! 

We decided to visit the famous Gwangjang market for our breakfast for our second day in Seoul. We alighted at Euljiro 4-ga Station (Seoul Subway Line 2 & 5), Exit 4 and we walked a little to reach our destination. Most of the food stalls here sell similar food items like Bindaetteok and jokbal.

Bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes)

Jokbal (Pig trotters cooked in soy sauce and spices)

Since there were a lot of stalls selling the same stuff, we decided to sit at a random stall and start ordering away! We ordered odeng, bindaetteok, spicy rice cakes, bibimbap and SANNAKJIIIIIIIIIIII. The odeng and rice cakes we ordered was a small portion and hence I did not take any pictures of it. 

Friendly ahjumma preparing the items we ordered! 

Bibimbap. Not nice.

SANNAKJI

RIP.. Thanks for the sacrifice. 

It took me a lot of hesitation and courage to try the sannakji because as you may have known, the tentacles were still moving when its on the plate. Nonetheless, I still tried it in the end and it was not much of a big deal afterwards. Oh yes. The ahjumma preparing the sannakji was so brutal, i was shocked HAHA

The crowd in the market began to concentrate as time passes by and it is getting harder to maneuver between the different stalls. Other dishes like kimbap, blood sausages, pumpkin soup and red bean soup were sold here too. We did not try the blood sausages because we were going to try it that night!

We made our way to Insadong after that for more food, hoping that we could find a certain stall famous for selling hotteok, a Korean sweet pancake with molten brown sugar in it. We took the subway and exited at Anguk Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 6. 

Hints of Autumn left as Winter slowly takes over.

We walked around Insadong and we chanced upon a shop selling dumplings (mandu) and we decided to have some. We wanted to order 3 pieces of mandu but ordered 3 sets instead fml. It was located in one of the alleys, but there was a promoter standing at the intersection between the alley and the main street, guiding people into the direction of the stall. The mandus were steamed at the shopfront instead of the kitchen at the back. There was a fan beside the chef which blew all the steam into the alley to attract customers to their shop. 

So we ordered normal mandus and kimchi mandus or which the size was unbelievable. It was good, but not amazing. 

The hotteok stall which we were finding was not around on that day and so we visited another stall for hotteok. It was an excellent street snack for the cold weather because of the hot melted sugar in it. 

However, this was not my favourite hotteok stall because we found another stall selling better hotteoks in Hyehwa. It had more sugar and more nuts in it. We dropped by Sulbing to have some Injeolmi Sulbing and also to rest for a while. 

Injeolmi Sulbing for the cold weather! 

Bare trees decorating the streets of Insadong. Something that we will not see in Singapore. 

We walked past Osulloc Tea house and we knew that we needed to give it a try even though we just had Sulbing. We entered the shop and ordered up two matcha soft serves. 

The soft serve was full of matcha flavour and you can taste the slight bitter aftertaste coming from the matcha itself, which I really liked. 

The first floor of the shop was their retail area where they sold products like matcha milk spread and tea sets. There was also a dining area on the second floor where customers can sit down comfortably and enjoy their food in the warmth. We chose to have our soft serve on the go because it melted faster in the shop itself. 

We went back to our Airbnb in Hapjeong for a rest and we made our journey to Hyehwa for dinner afterwards. We decided to have Soondaeguk (순대국), which is blood sausage soup. 

The soondae is red in colour because of the ingredients used in it, which includes pig organs and blood, stuffed in pork intestine. Although I had the impression that it would have a weird taste because of the pig's blood, there wasn't any and it's worth a try! 

We ended Day 2 by dropping by Pal-saek Samgyupsal (팔색삼겹살) to have pork belly. The restaurant is famous for their pork belly which comes in 8 flavours, which are mainly Ginseng, Wine, Pine Leaves, Garlic, Herb, Curry, Miso Paste and Hot. 

Ordered the small portion because there was soup provided too.

Personally, I preferred the Hot flavour because of its strong taste. This restaurant is a must-visit if you love your pork bellies! We went back to our Airbnb after that to have an early rest because we needed to wake up early for our flight to Jeju Island the following day!