There are very few things I like doing more while traveling than visiting food markets. I have a particular soft spot for fish markets but any large market will do. There’s no better way, I think, than this to get the feel of a place’s energy or to begin to understand its dynamics. What do people eat? Where do they buy it? How much does it cost? What is the culture of buying and selling? What do they not eat? These are important questions if you want to begin to understand a place, and you cannot answer them simply by eating in restaurants. And, of course, if you’re staying in a place for more than a few days and have access to a kitchen, then there’s no better way of feeding yourself. The bonus in Seoul is that pretty much every large market has a plethora of food options and usually at least one kind of food that they’re particularly known for. Such is the case with Cheongnyangni Market. It’s both a sprawling market where you can buy fruits, vegetables, grains, seafood and meat of a dizzying variety and it is home to a well-regarded food “alley”: Tongdak Alley. We visited the market with a group of students a couple of weeks ago, ate lunch there and did a bit of shopping as well. Continue reading
Category Archives: Seoul
Ryujung Dakgaejang (Seoul, February 2024)
After a long, very image-heavy report on Thursday of two lunches in Bombay at a lauded restaurant (The Bombay Canteen), I have for you today a very quick look at a casual lunch in Seoul. Most of our meals out here have been—and will be—fairly casual affairs. It’s not that we haven’t done or won’t do any meals that involve reservations or which are the focal points of outings but for the most part we are eating quick meals in places we happen to be near for other reasons. Or in some cases, as with meals eaten at markets, our destinations have been consciously casual ones. Today’s meal was at a restaurant that was not a destination in any sense. In fact, we were looking for a different place. We’d just visited the Korean Film Archive and Google Maps had told me there was a sullungtang restaurant in the vicinity. The weather being wet and cold, sullungtang sounded like just the thing but when we followed the map’s directions we found no sign of that restaurant at the location. We did find Ryujung Dakgaejang right by where the other was supposed to be and rather than mess around in the biting rain, we went in. And a good thing too. Continue reading
Chon (Seoul, February 2024)
We’ve been in Seoul for 10 days now and it seems like high time that I post a restaurant report from here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not done with my Bombay reports. I still have quite a few to go, including of a couple of higher end meals than I’ve reported on so far. But from here on out I’m going to alternate reports from the two cities till all the Bombay reports are done. At that point I’ll still have a bunch of Seoul reports left as we’re here for another three weeks. To get things started I may as well give you a quick rundown of our first meal here, eaten just a few hours after we checked into our hotel, at Chon in Insadong. Continue reading
My Best Restaurant Meals of 2023
I was all over the map in 2023. Literally so. In January and early February, the whole family was in India, spending time in Delhi, Agra and Goa. In March, I went off to Seoul for a week. In late-April I was in New York and New Jersey for a few days. In the summer we all went off to Europe for an extended stint, spending three weeks on vacation in Italy and another six on work in Ireland. And then, finally, in October, the missus and I took a weekend trip to New York. That’s a lot of traveling and a lot of restaurant meals. And, of course, we ate out at our usual once-a-week clip while in the Twin Cities metro. So my selections for my best restaurant meals of 2023 draw from a wider geography than usual (the really unusual thing is that we did not get to Los Angeles at all this year). I’ve divided the list up first to separate more expensive/formal places from less expensive/more casual places but the top five list draws from both categories. A few more Twin Cities-centered lists follow after that. Continue reading
Eating at Gwangjang Market, Pt. 2 (Seoul, March 2023)
Here, only about four months after my return, is my last dining report from my trip to Seoul in March. It features the third and fourth of four dinners in a row eaten at Gwangjang Market, my absolute favourite place to visit on this trip. As you may recall from my first dining report from the market, at my first visit I ate dumpling soup; and on my second, I ate yukhoe tangtangi (seasoned raw beef with the chopped tentacles of a recently dispatched octopus). By the time of my third visit my overeating had been catching up with me. I’d eaten a deep-fried lunch at Namdaemun Market that day and so was in the mood for something light and fresh. Accordingly, I honed in on the stalls selling hwe or sliced raw fish and sat down at the first one that had empty seats. The following night I happened on the stall of an international celebrity but passed on the dish she is most famous for, in favour, once again, of something light and fresh. Details follow. Continue reading
Balwoo Gongyang (Seoul, March 2023)
Most of my meals in Seoul in March were eaten at either Namdaemun Market (here and here) or Gwangjang Market (here), with only a few eaten at sit-down restaurants. Of these restaurant meals the one that was least like the others was my lunch at Balwoo Gongyang in Insadong. This both because it was a relatively expensive meal (though not more expensive than my dinner at Wonjo Agujjim) in a more formal restaurant, and because it was an entirely vegetarian meal, and one also sans onion and garlic. This because Balwoo Gongyang specializes in Korean Buddhist temple cuisine. The provision of this meal is not in a spartan temple setting, however. As noted, it’s a formal restaurant with high prices; it has also received recognition from Michelin; and the meal takes the form of your choice of tasting menus. Continue reading
Eating at Gwangjang Market, Pt. 1 (Seoul, March 2023)
Back to my favourite place eat when I was in Seoul in March: Gwangjang Market. I have already posted a look at the market’s evening food scene, replete with a truly excessive gallery of images. That report did not, however, take in any of the four dinners I ate at Gwangjang Market on four successive evenings. Here now is the first of those reports, which covers the first and second dinner. The first dinner comprised two courses eaten across two establishments: first, dumpling soup eaten sitting down at an establishment on the main drag; and then, for dessert, as it were, fried chicken picked up from a vendor on one of the side alleys who did not offer seating. The next night I went back specifically for yukhoe, or seasoned beef tartare, and repaired to one of a few establishments that specialize in it: Changshin Yukhoe. (A video from this second dinner got some people very angry with me on Instagram—but more on that later.) Continue reading
At Gwangjang Market (Seoul, March 2023)
I said of Namdaemun Market that it was my second favourite place to visit during my week in Seoul in March. All my visits there were during the day: I went there for lunch three days in a row. My absolute favourite place to visit, I visited only at night: I ate dinner there four nights in a row. I am referring to Gwangjang Market. Another of Seoul’s oldest markets, Gwangjang Market has a bit of a split personality. During the day the action is mostly centered on shopping. As evening approaches, however, the stores shut down and the food vendors who fill the central alleys between the stores begin to take over. My understanding is that some of these vendors sell their wares during the late mornings and afternoons as well; but it is in the evening you must go to get the full food experience. Continue reading
At Namdaemun Market, Pt. 2: Eating (Seoul, March 2023)
Here is my third report from the place that was my second favourite to visit in Seoul on my trip in March: Namdaemun Market. I went there three days in a row and ate lunch there on all three days. My first report was of my lunch there on the second visit, eaten at their famous Kalguksu Alley. My second report was a broader look at the market, focussing on the dry and wet market sections and their other famous food alley: Hairtail Alley (I did not eat there on this trip). This report gives you a look at the other food vendors of the market—the ones who are set up, formally or informally on the market’s main drags. A few are restaurants; some have restaurant’ish spaces attached; some are counters—you eat standing there; some are street vendors—you take your food and eat it somewhere else. Continue reading
At Namdaemun Market, Part 1
Back to Seoul, back to Namdaemun Market. My first report from the market was of an excellent lunch in the market’s famous Kalguksu Alley. I ate there on the day of my second visit to the market. I visited the market on three consecutive days and ate lunch there on three consecutive days. Why didn’t I eat at Kalguksu Alley on the first day? Well, I couldn’t find it. On that first visit I was also unable to find the market’s other famous food “alley”: Hairtail Alley; the specialty here is galchi jorim or braised/stewed hairtail fish. The main reason I was unable to find these alleys is that I didn’t know what I was looking for. I’d not really done any research on the market and had lazily assumed that everything would be very visible. Well, the market itself is quite obviously visible but there’s no signage for the food alleys—you kind of have to know where you’re going and what you’re looking for. In my post on that Kalguksu Alley lunch, I told you how to find it; in this post I offer a broader look at the market and finally a look at Hairtail Alley, which I more or less accidentally found myself in while wandering around after lunch in Kalguksu Alley. Continue reading
Uchon (Seoul)
Back to Seoul, for the first of two reports this week. I arrived on a Tuesday evening and left the following Monday evening. My first and last meals (and a snack in between) were eaten at Bukchon Son Mandu in Insadong, not too far from my hotel (see my report here). My last dinner, on Sunday night, was to once again be at the place where I ate the majority of meals: Gwangjang Market. But I had a bunch of appointments on Sunday afternoon and needed to time lunch accordingly. Looking for places within 20 minutes walk of both my hotel and my first stop, I happened upon references to Uchon. The reviews I saw online referred to them as Uchon Dolsot Seolleongtang, and as it was a damp day, and as sullungtang is one of the world’s great antidotes against damp days, it was an easy call. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Bukchon Son Mandu, Insadong (Seoul, March 2023)
Back to Seoul. I’ve previously posted a look at my dinner on my second night there—it featured excellent haemultang at Wonjo Agujjim—and lunch later in the week at Namdaemun Market’s kalguksu alley. Here now is a report on the place where I ate my first meal a little after arrival at my hotel: Bukchon Son Mandu in Insadong. The temptation to lie down and take a nap was strong but I resisted and went out to wander and try to get my bearings near the hotel. Walking through the narrow alleys off Insadong-gil I happened on Bukchon Son Mandu. I liked the food well enough that I also stopped in there for a small snack after lunch on my second day. And for reasons of convenience it was also the place where I ate my last lunch before heading to the airport. Here is a look at the restaurant and everything I ate. Continue reading
Wonjo Agujjim (Seoul, March 2023)
Seoul, as you may have heard, is a great city to eat in and a very easy city to eat well in (assuming you like to eat Korean food). It is not always, however, a city in which it is easy to eat well alone (though, of course, I managed to do so at my lunch in Namdaemun Market’s Kalgusksu Alley). This because many of the things you may wish to eat—and when I was there last week, I wished to eat them all—are only prepared and served in portions that seem to assume that you will be eating out with at least one other person and probably more. And, indeed, in many of the restaurants and market counters where I ate, that did seem to be the dominant mode in which locals ate. At one dinner at Gwangjang Market, for example, I ate a bowl of dumpling soup that was perfectly sized for one. But throughout the meal I was tormented by the sight of massive links of soondae and many other dumplings and sliced meats—none of which I could have ordered because each order would have been a very large meal for one. And so I ate my dumpling soup, pondering the mechanics of setting up a service through which tourists visiting Seoul alone could form alliances for the purposes of eating out. No need to talk, just order food communally and eat it. A very gluttonous version of Tinder. If it already exists, please forward the details; if not, please forward me 75% of all profits once you set it up. Continue reading
Lunch at the Kalguksu Alley in Namdaemun Market (Seoul, March 2023)
I will be taking a bunch of students to Seoul for five weeks next February/March (we’ll get there after five weeks in Bombay). In preparation for this trip, I recently spent a week in Seoul, visiting sites, checking out possible accommodations and group activities; and, of course, also eating.
Though the missus was born in Seoul and lived there till the age of nine (at which point she moved to Los Angeles with her family), we have not been to Seoul as a family and nor had I ever been there before myself. I was a little intimidated by the thought of navigating the city by myself for a week but quite predictably ended up having a blast in the periods of time before, between and after my appointments. I walked an average of 7 miles a day—a lot of it to markets where I ate. One of these markets was Namdaemun Market—I ate lunch there on three consecutive days. Here is a look at my second lunch, eaten on a Friday in the market’s famous “Kalguksu Alley”. Continue reading