I’ve been threatening to start posting reports of our meals in Seoul for more than a week now. Here, finally, is the first one. I will remind you that after our week in Tokyo (meal reports from which were posted chronologically), we went to Kyoto for a few days and from there to Seoul (and from there to Delhi). I’m jumping past the Kyoto meal reports just to mix things up a bit. I’m going to post a few Seoul reports mixed in with a Delhi report or two and then I’ll go back and do the Kyoto reports. And these Seoul reports are not going to be in chronological order either. This first report, for instance, is of lunch eaten on our third day in Seoul. We had an appointment in the afternoon in Sindang-dong and got off the subway a few stops earlier to eat at one of my favourite places in Seoul: Gwangjang Market. I’ve reported at great length on meals at the market before (see here, here, here and here) and will almost certainly do so again. Yes, it’s a bit of a Seoul cliche at this point but I do love the energy of the place, and across my visits had not had a single bad meal there. I am happy to report that that streak was not broken on this visit either. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Gwangjang Market
Back at Gwangjang Market (Seoul, Feb/March 2024)
Here, finally, almost exactly five months to the day since we left after our five stay in February and March, is my last report from Seoul. It features a return to what had been my favourite place to visit when I was in Seoul on my own in March 2023: Gwangjang Market. On that occasion I was in the city for a week and Gwangjang Market was a brisk, appetite-stimulating walk from my hotel. I ended up eating dinner there four nights in a row (see here for a general look at the market, and here and here for my meal reports). This time I was back for more than a month but only visited Gwangjang Market three times. This is not because something went wrong with the market in the intervening period but because on this trip, with the family and 22 students in tow, I ventured much further afield, including to several other traditional markets (Cheongnyangni, Namdaemun, Mangwon, Noryangjin Seafood Market). But Gwangjang Market was still the first and last of these that we visited. Here is a look at those visits. 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
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