march/april 2023

one of the first things i booked when planning our time in seoul, was a food tour. this one specifically - but you can find mike at itseoulgood.com or on instagram @itseoulgood. not sponsored or anything, we just genuinely had such a great time with mike, learning a lot, eating a lot, and eating well. the tour is 5 hours long and started at the famous gwangjang market.

the market was packed and lively, filled with so many people and so many food stalls selling all sorts of delicious looking specialties. we stopped a few places to grab a bite. the highlight was netflix-famous gohyang kalguksu for kalguksu and mandu. another great stop was fresh bindae tteok, or fried mungbean pancakes.

gohyang kalguksu inside gwangjang market.

freshly made bindae-tteok at gwangjang market.

in an alley/offshoot of the market, we stopped in a sitdown resto to try a yukhoe, a seasoned raw beef dish, and sannakji, which is live, raw octopus (not pictured).

our next stop was for beer and korean fried chicken at manseon hof. the place was super busy, but the beer was ice cold and the fried chicken was topped with this amazing sweet and garlicky garnish that i still think about…

as a break from all the food, we stopped in a small bar called 7.8 makgeolli and we learned about the different types and styles of makgeolli, and got to try 4 different ones as a group. i was super excited for this as makgeolli is my favorite of the korean alcoholic beverages.

mike aka @itseoulgood educating us about makgeolli.

our last stop for the night was at a pocha, or tented street stand, where we had a bunch of delicious street food to soak up some more beer and soju.

i’m so glad we opted to do a food tour while in seoul. we wouldn’t have been able to try and learn about even a quarter of these dishes on our own. after that, most of the food we ate was just based on walking around and looking at what was busy, what looked good, and just how hungry we were.

bibimbap and sotteok sotteok at the national musueum of korea.

our very last meal in seoul was actually at jamsil baseball stadium! as i mentioned, it was a very cold and rainy night so it was pretty quiet and we never had to wait in line for any food. while it was better than most stadium food in the US, it wasn’t great either. my favorite thing was actually the eomuk, or fishcake on skewers, because it came in a steaming cup of hot soup which was not only delicious but helped keep me warm for a little while longer.

of course, this post is everything else we ate in seoul. we also went to several coffee shops, did a bit of drinking, and had a great birthday dinner for james at jungsik. this is also my last seoul post overall. busan is up next!