Tag Archives for korean food

On Korean Markets in San Diego

On Korean Markets in San Diego. San Diego has a pretty solid part of town where you can find Korean food, saunas (사우나),  stores selling various goods that you would find in Korea, as well as Korean grocery stores. There are two main ones. One of Convoy proper and the other one, the big one, down the road a bit called Zion Market. I’ve been a couple times since I’ve been home, mostly to buy makgeolli (막걸리), as I have been so very happy to have access to the health food stores that I love back home and most of my shopping is done there, however it’s kind of fun how easily the things I got used to buying in Korea can be found at home.

Market

Cabbage and Radishes

무

배추

고구마

Kimchi

Cute

Shin Ramyeon

라면

Sauce

More Sauce

Gochu

Drinks

Canned Drinks

Soju

Makgeolli

Hite

Lotte Coffee

Korean Instant Coffee

Tea

Zion Market is an impressively large grocery store with everything you could possible need/want as far as Korean food and supplies go. There is a catering service that makes kimbap (김밥) as well a small cafe where you can get bibimbap (비빔밥) and Tteokbokki (떡볶이).

Zion Marketplace

The Entrance

Signage

Korean and Japanese Beer

Liquor

자장면/짜장면

참치

Gim

Ketchup and Mayonnaise

Daikon

번대기

Soap and Shampoo

Kimchi Pots

Kettle

My Favorite Korean Snack!

Kancho

Choco Pies

Yogurt Drink

Noodles

Oils and Vinegars

Pancake Mix

Chili Pasta

Health Tonic

Ginseng Drink

Radishes

Fern Bracket

On Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장)

On Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장). It’s the season for winter gear and my boss needed a new winter coat so we went to Namdaemun Market and to see what he could find. This market was really fun, busy and had everything. I found it better than Dongdaemun. 

I decided to revisit on Christmas day to people watch and to have some kalguksu (칼국수). To get there go to Hoehyeon Station, line 4. Take exit 5, walk straight ahead and you’ll be there. There may or may not be a woman trying to persuade you to go to the first shop right outside the row of shops. She will most likely be standing right in front of the door to the “street”.

Busy Market

Carts

Jewelry

Fur Coats

More Fur Coats

"Designer" Underpants

Ladies Undergarments

Legs

Jerseys

Wallets

Mushrooms

Gim

Kalguksu Street

칼국수 and "service" sides for 4.500w

The noodles were delicious and the adjumma kept pouring more warm broth into the soup for me as she watched me eat. She was really friendly!

Donuts

Food Tent

Hotdogs and Fishcakes

Pajeon and Seafood

So Many Choices

Ramyeon, Makgeolli and more Seafood

Stuff

Store

More Stuff

KPop Stuff

Socks

Still Busy

On the Jagalchi Fish Market (자갈치시장)

On the Jagalchi Fish Market (자갈치시장). The Jagalchi Market is an hour away by subway from Haeundae (해운대) Beach. Although, it’s a much shorter cab ride, the difference is about 10,000w vs. 900w. The super busy market is filled with people selling recently caught fish and restaurants that will prepare the food for you.

A Vendor

Baskets With Live Fish

More Baskets With Live Fish

Halmoni and Clams

Clams

Another Vendor

Various Shell Fish

Another Vendor

More Shellfish

A Very Attractive Displace of Shellfish

If You Dare

Running Amuck

Loads of Dried Fish

More Dried Fish

Dried Squid

Cooked Fish

More Cooked Fish

Even More Cooked Fish

In the end I didn’t end up eating here as I had to rush back to catch the sunset at Haeundae and my appetite just wasn’t on my side. However, it was a really great market to explore.

On My Trip to Busan (부산)

On my trip to Busan (부산). After Boseong, we hopped on an express bus for a three hour ride to Busan. I’m still amazed at how easy and fast it is to get around Korea.

I was super excited as I have had intentions of visiting Busan since I stepped foot in Seoul. I love the ocean and I have noticed missing it when I stay in Seoul too long. It’s a thing. We arrived at the Busan Express Bus Terminal at around 11:00pm and then we hopped on the metro to Haeundae (해운대) and immediately crashed. The next morning we awoke very near the beach and we spent the morning wandered around the area looking for breakfast.

Skyscrapers Lining the Beach

Boardwalk

We got a tip from a kind employee at the tourist information center on the boardwalk and went searching for the restaurant he had recommend. We had a map with a circle behind a major hotel and his description of “hamburger restaurant” to go on. We were not interested in hamburgers for breakfast, but the guy had said they served breakfast food there. This could have meant a number of things, but we chanced it. After wandering in a small circles a few times and getting steered in the wrong direction by a “helpful” man with a bit too much enthusiasm and some confused information about a “British Thanksgiving”, we finally found Breeze Burns, a western restaurant with epic western breakfast plates. After justifiably throwing around the word “vacation” a few times epic western breakfast plates were proper.

Western Breakfast (has now replaced "Lumberjack breakfast" in my terminology)

After a slow and satisfying breakfast and a brief chat about the best brunch places that our hometown offers, we walked along the ridge to Dongbaek Park. The sky was amazingly clear and some time was spent climbing on the rocks around the fishermen and couples posing for pictures.

Walkway

Fisherman

Mermaid

After a spider-dwelling-pine-tree-lined walk up lots of steps, true to Korean hill/mountain form, we reached a small area with a statue of Choi Chi Won Haeundae’s namesake.

One of Many

Choi Chi Won Statue

Pagoda

Pagoda Colors

Gwangan Bridge

After this walk we caught a cab to go to the famous Jagalchi Fish Market and wandered through the very crowded market looking at all the seafood while being called to enter the various restaurants lining the market. This was the first time in South Korea where I feel that I’ve been called at to buy something.

After the market we caught the subway back to Haeundae and drank tall boys of Hite Dry and Max, respectively, staring at the Pacific Ocean while the sun was setting over Dongbaek island and the neon lights of the large hotels surrounding the beach came on around us.

Shoes and Sand

Max and Hite Dry

Light Reflecting Off of the Buildings

Dongbaek

Buildings Lighting Up

After the sun had set and the temperature dropped we headed to find food. We stopped at one the many soju tents behind the beach and ended up with makgeolli and tteokbokki.

Tteokbokki and Makgeolli

After the makgeolli did what it does best we headed into the Wolfhound for the night was young. I’ve been to the Wolfhound in Seoul and it’s fine, but the real draw to western bars in Korea is simply that you don’t have to order food with your drink like you do in Korean bars (Hofs, or the Japanese version Izakayas). After a sangria and a whiskey drink (err something…respectively) I was ready to meet my goal of eating seafood in Busan so I did what made sense and impulsively followed a group of Koreans going into a busy restaurant. Having no clue as to what kind of seafood the restaurant was serving and not having socks on, which always feels shameful when you have to take off your shoes in a restaurant, I still sat down ready for an adventure. After asking the Chinese cashier a question in broken Korean and her turning to the Korean server for help, the server came over and I’m sure we looked helpless. She said the name of a dish claiming that it was delicious, in English, and we said “sure”. All the while looking over at the next table where a family sat, the daughter eating McDonalds and the parents with a red mass of something flopping around over a gas grill. Naturally it turned out that we had ordered the same flopping red mass. The irony lays in the fact that of all the seafood we had seen at the market, the eel looked the least appealing, but there we had gone and ordered it.

Jang Uh Gui (장어구이)

This is where the adventure ends really. We picked at it a bit, gave it our best shot, paid up and left, not disappointed, but not really interested.

The next morning we hopped on an early KTX train back to Seoul.

KTX

On Winter Street Food in Korea

On winter street food
in Korea. It is officially cold in Seoul.
Really, really cold. It seemed to happen pretty quickly. One
indicator of the changing of seasons is that certain
street venders have returned to my neighborhood, bundled up in
their jackets to sell their warm and sweet snacks.

Street
Vender

Here are a few of the most common
ones that I have seen around town.

Hodo
Kwaja
(호두과자):
Walnut cakes

1 chon =
about 10

Shaped Like
Walnuts

Bungeoppang
(붕어빵): Fish shaped cakes with red beans
inside

Shaped Like Fish

 Hotteok
(호떡):
Honey/brown sugar filled pancakes

On the
Grill

Ready to Eat

 Gyeran-ppang
(계란빵): Egg bread

Like Corn
Bread...

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On Adult Beverages in Korea

On adult beverages in Korea. I had previously posted about the drinking culture in South Korea. It’s time I posted about what the common drinks are.

Soju (소주): Sweet potato spirits (sweet potato is commonly used today, but traditionally it is made with rice)

Soju is certainly the most popular drink in Korea and every area of has its own kind. It goes well with Korean BBQ and raw fish.

Soju

Soju Glasses

"Fresh"

More Soju

 Mekju (맥주): Beer

Goes well with soju. There is really nothing special about Korean beer, but it is very inexpensive and goes well with anything really.

Empty Beer Bottles Collecting on the Floor

Cass and Hite

"Fresh"

Soju + Beer = SoMak:

"Bomb Shot"

Makgeolli (막걸리): Rice Wine

Goes well with hiking in the mountains, rainy days and fried food. My personal favorite.

Makgeolli Bowl

Pot and bowl

Another way it is served

Makgeolli on the Mountain

Makgeolli After the Mountain

Makgeolli in a Kettle

Cheongju (청주): Clear rice wine

This doesn’t seem very popular, but it does exist. It tastes like sake.

Similar to Sake

On the Golgusa (골굴사) Temple Stay

On Golgusa (골굴사) Temple Stay. Being that last weekend was Chuseok, I had a four-day weekend. Saturday I went to Everland and Sunday I headed to Gyeongju to do a temple stay at the Golgusa (골굴사) temple.

Stone

Temple Stay Building and Walkway

I had been warned that transportation would be a nightmare during the holiday weekend. I didn’t find it to be bad at all. I made the reservations for the temple a week in advance, but on Sunday morning I found myself at Seoul Station while transferring subway lines and I decided to walk up to the KTX counter and bought two tickets to Gyeongju for that afternoon, very easy (maybe slightly more expensive than normal, but still cheap). I met with my friend, we had lunch around the corner from the station and then took off. It was approximately two hours to get to Gyeongju (KTX being the express train). We got there as the sun was setting thinking we had enough time to get to the temple well before lights out. However, once at the train station we had to take a city bus (all of them go to the terminal from the train station).We went to the bus terminal and “terminal” is “terminal” in Korean, but  it was dark and the terminal isn’t much to look at so we missed it at first and had to backtrack. Then we took the 100 which was a 45 minute ride through the city and passes quite a few intersections (sagoris) until we arrived at the Andong sagori. Once at Andong sagori we started walking the kilometer up the hill in the dark. At one point a small SUV drives past and then stops, I was thinking it was a little late to hitch, but after a quick conversation it turns out that the men in the car lived at the temple, so we took the ride.

Once we were checked in and given our pants and vest (optional) we had about an hour before lights out. The room that we stayed in was very large and there were maybe about 18 other women there. I found a blanket and a pillow and made my bed for the night on the heated floor. Right as lights out happened it started to lightly rain and there was a bit of thunder. It was the perfect setting for a night in a temple.

Bed

The next morning at 4am the monk came around and chatted his song to wake us up. We went to a hall not far from our room and morning meditation begun. After morning meditation there was a very slow meditation walk to the arches that define the entrance of the grounds. After this we had a bit of free time.

Foggy Morning

Slug

Trees and Fog

Because of the holiday and the amount of people staying at the temple they had a special program. The 4am to 10pm schedule seemed pretty busy, but nothing was back to back. There was always a break in between (this made a difference). The food at lunch was especially festive and delicious, while still simple and vegan of course. In the late afternoon we headed to temple for the Chuseok ceremony and Jesa. The whole experience was incredibly inclusive.

Chuseok Ceremony

Tea

Main Temple

Inside the Main Temple

Figures

In the evening after evening chanting we played yut nori (윷놀이) and ate songpyeon (송편) with some of the kids living and studying at the temple.

Gamers

Game Board

Songpyeon

Fruit

The next morning the schedule went back to normal. Golgusa is significant as it the place to study sunmudo (선무도). Sunmudo is a special form of martial arts. So the next day was an opportunity to try sunmudo.

Sunmudo

After lunch we had to try to get back like the rest of Korea in order to work the next day. At the bus terminal we had purchased tickets back to Seoul for Wednesday morning, but with traffic it was projected that it would take a lot longer to get back, so we tried to trade in the tickets for something that same day and it was completely sold out. We over heard a gentleman buying tickets for Suwon and we traded in our tickets right then and there. Before we left we bought some gyeongjuppang (경주빵) to take back to our coworker.

The food at the temple was simple, vegan and very tasty.

Rice and Vegetables

Rice, Tofu, Vegetables, Soup

Rice, Vegetables, Kimchi

On Jesa (제사)

On Jesa (제사). Recently I did a temple stay at Golgulsa. While there I attended and participated in a jesa ceremony. As a disclaimer let me state that I am not qualified to comment on jesa past the few pictures I took and the little information I have read and sharing this is my only intention.

The Big Picture

The Table Offerings

Rice and Vegetables

Fruit and Money

Jesa is a ceremony that takes place in memory of ancestors that have passed. Twice a year (New Years and Chuseok) food is set out as an offering and people pay their respects. While at the Golgulsa temple, after chatting by the monks we were called up two by two to kneel before the table of food and given a goblet of water. We were then instructed to make three circles with the goblet near the burning incense. After this we sat back down on the floor and then there was more chanting.

On Cold Noodles (냉면)

On Cold Noodles. One of my favorite Korean dishes is naengmyeon (냉면), which are noodle dishes made with cold noodles and usually ice in the soup. Apparently naengmyeon is originally a North Korean dish, but it’s everywhere in South Korea. It seems that there are three main kinds.

The first being mul naengmyeon. Which uses buckwheat noodles, cucumber slices, beef broth and always half a hard-boiled egg.

Mul Naengmyeon

Most Often Served in Stainless Steel Bowls

The second being bibim naengmyeon (just noodles and vegetables) or bibim guksu (soup). The difference in these from mul naengmyeon is that they have chili paste mixed in. Still with cucumber slices and half a hard-boiled egg.

Bibim Guksu

Boseong Bibim Naengmyeon

Jeju Bibim Guksu

Pre-bibim'd Naengmyeon

Finally, kongguksu which most often uses wheat flour noodles in a bowl of soymilk. Also with cucumber slices and sometimes half a hard-boiled egg.

Kongguksu