Large Food Update

I had a good friend (L) visit last week, and since L is also a foodie (no surprises there), we naturally spent a lot of time doing food-related tourist things.

I saw these out in front of a shop. Not sure if they were for eating or just for show/for pets.

These were mostly sesame candies. I've had similar Chinese candies before as well.

Some guy making fresh tteok (glutinous rice). Lots of pounding with a giant wooden mallet.

Lunch. Hand cut noodles (top left), samgyetang (ginseng and rice stuffed whole chicken, bottom left), and assorted banchan.

There are a lot of little teashops in and around Insadong. This was at one of them (L is really into tea as well). However, these "teas" were almost more like "punch." Very sweet, and no apparently use of the leaves of the tea plant. I don't remember what flavors these were.

Gwangjang market.

Food stalls in Gwangjang market. One of my guidebooks claims that this market is the largest market eatery in Seoul.

Hmm... perhaps the fish ain't always so fresh.

Soup?

Crabs.

Lunch on another day. Random restaurant in NamDaeMun market's restaurant alley. We chose one that did not have an old lady out front saying "English menu" to us. We both got some sort of stew (L's was more meaty, mine was probably doenjang based) and some dumplings (mandu).

Second lunch. Boribap (barley bibimbap) down "noodle alley" also in NamDaeMun.

Back in Insadong, there's this lady that sells these donut-like fried items that are *really* good. They're filled with some mixture that I think is predominantly cinnamon, but I think has some peanuts and perhaps something else in there as well. You can't go wrong with freshly fried.

Another attempt at tea. L got the "five flavor tea," also very sweet. She said it reminded her of cough syrup, but I didn't think it was that strong. I got persimmon leaf tea, but it honestly had very little flavor at all. I called it "$5 water-flavored water." Maybe it's supposed to have some herbal/medicinal properties rather than olfactory.