We had a lazy morning and slept in for a while on our 5th day in Korea. I woke up with sore calves after all the intense hiking at Hallasan. Nonetheless, we prepared and headed to Anguk station for a well known korean tofu restaurant to get some brunch!
The restaurant is named Jaedong Soondubu and it can be reached by exiting at Anguk station exit 2! The signage of the restaurant is the yellow square on top, don't enter the wrong restaurant! The restaurant was rather empty when we entered. We reached the restaurant around 11am, so you might want to come around this timing too because the crowd builds up quite fast when it reaches lunch timing! There are also traditional floor seatings available in the restaurant if you want to eat like a local!
The banchan/side dishes were served almost instantly. It consists of seaweed, egg rolls, 2 types of kimchi and tiny candied anchovies. Knowing that we are not locals, the lady boss signaled to us that we can help ourselves to the free flow of banchans! The egg rolls were the best!!!
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| Haemul Soondubu! |
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| Chodang Soondubu! |
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| Nokdujeon aka Mung bean pancake! |
We ordered quite a feast at the restaurant because we felt that tofu would not be too filling for our tummies. Boy we were so wrong. Moving on, we ordered Haemul Soondubu (Seafood Tofu Stew), Chodang Soondubu (Plain tofu) and Nokdujeon (Mung bean pancake)! We ordered the Haemul Soondubu and Nokdujeon first. We realised that their signature is Chodang Soondubu and we ordered that afterwards, not knowing what it is.
We were quite excited when the Haemul Soondubu was served because it was served in a stonepot, which kept the dish piping hot until we finished the whole meal! We were quite stunned when the Chodang Soondubu was served because it was not what we expected it to be. I think the Chodang Soondubu is just plain tofu without any other ingredients, but it was served with a spicy sauce. So in order to enjoy it, you have to take some of the tofu with the spicy sauce and eat it with some of your rice. Tofu lovers would definitely love this dish!
We headed to Gwanghwamun Station Exit 2 after our tofu brunch to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace! The palace was a 5-10 mins walk from the station.
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| King Sejong! He was the one who created Hangul! |
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| Gwanghwamun Gate! |
- Changing of the Royal Guard Ceremony: 10:00, 14:00
- Gwanghwamun Gate Guard on Duty Ceremony: 11:00, 13:00
- Royal Guard Costume Experience: Before and after the Changing of the Royal Guard Ceremony
- Gatekeeper Military Training: 9:30, 13:30 (running time 15 min.)
The palace was filled with historical buildings, giving visitors an intense feel of the Korean culture. There is also a cafe situated inside here selling snacks and souvenirs. We chilled at the cafe for quite some time before exploring the other parts of the palace!
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| National Folk Museum! |
There were too many visitors around here and hence it was quite hard to get a decent picture of the National Folk Museum. We made our way to Hongdae after that for some street food!
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| Fried chicken with spicy sauce and cheese! |
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| Skewered chicken! Not really nice tho~ |
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| Cheese tarts!! |
We went back to our Airbnb after that for a rest and went to Myeongdong for dinner later that day!
Myeongdong, like other locations, has lots of street food and one that has caught my attention is this lobster tail. Cooked right on the grill and served with melted cheese and corn. Being a big seafood lover, I decided to try it. I asked the owner how much was it and he said 15,000won (~S$18). I wished he was joking at that time. Sigh. I tried it nonetheless, and the taste was just sub par. I will not recommend it if you want to try it as I felt it was a waste of money. We made our way to James Cheese Back Ribs for dinner!
To me and my friends, we felt that this dish was rather underwhelming. The ribs were nice, but the cheese had no flavour to it. They could have added other types of cheese in it to improve the flavour! We went to Yoogane after that to have more Soju and Dakgalbi to end our day! Wished we had more time to find better Dakgalbi in Seoul though!
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