Hi!!! I just returned back home (yes, we do refer to the livingtel as our home now~) but I felt that our trip to Gwangjang Market or 광장시장 was rather eye-opening and thus deserved a quick post before I get swamped with schoolwork or forget details from this outing. Some of us had class till about 4.30pm today so we set off for the market together after that.
The temperature in Seoul now is still pretty low and it was about 0 degrees celsius when we explored the area. The overall structure of the place does not provide much warmth although when we reached the food section- easily identified by the bare bulb lights illuminating the rows of stalls- the entire place seemed a lot more lively and was bustling with activities and people. We entered via exit 10 of the underground shopping area of the metro station and first found ourselves in the textile section of the market. There were quite a number of stalls selling gifts, ginseng, etc as well.
We quickly got drawn towards the food area and were welcomed by this very obliging ahjumma who happily gave us samples of several types of banchan. She even gave us mini bottles of yakult with straws for free! It is quite rare to find a friendly ahjumma because most whom we encounter, even at the food stalls, look quite fierce. Needless to say, all our banchan purchases of the day were from her stall. We bought 3 types - those with bamboo shoots, octopus and anchovies. (*28 May 2014: I later returned to her stall another 2 to 3 times within the span of 2.5 months to buy more banchan!)
After that, we moved on to the cooked food stalls. We first settled down at a stall and shared odeng 오뎅 (fish cake), ddeokbokki 쫄볶이 (rice cake) and japchae 잡채 (stir-fried glass noodles). We then shared kimbab as well as bindaetteok. It's nice traveling in a large group because we can order small portions and try a lot of different food without getting too full. Plus it's cheaper this way!
This is the bindaetteok 빈대떡 (mung bean pancake) stall we patronized. Most stalls have grinders similar to those that are used to grind rice and other beans, and mung beans are ground to a paste-like consistency before being fried up with other ingredients. It was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, and served with a vinegar/soy sauce/garlic mix. The crispy bits were the best parts in my opinion.
The final thing we ate in the market was kimchi mandoo and kuksu (handmade noodles). The stall we ordered from had extra seating slightly further down their main stall area so we had a table all to ourselves. It was a luxury since there were limited seats in the market stalls and most were right in front of the stall holders. Something interesting we found was that seats looked like any ordinary bench with some form of foil wrapping but they were actually heated!! It was sooo comfortable at first but when we were about done with our food it kind of felt like our bottoms were on fire....... ~___~
Last food item of the day! I finally tried hoddeok 호떡!! It's a sweet pancake filled with sugar, nuts and cinnamon, then pan fried. The end product is a slightly crisp dough with molten cinnamon sugar/honey on the inside. So yummeh and perfect for snacking in the cold weather! Mine leaked from the middle so you can see what the filling is like. At SGD1.20 there's really no reason not to have it every time there's such a food stall in sight.
And here's a short clip I took at the market so you can see the market in action. The starting bit of the video was filmed for fun so I could capture the breath vapor, since it probably won't get much colder in Seoul for the rest of the time I'm here.