The food
Funnily enough, I am actually not the best person around to give an accurate account of the many food options here in Korea, for as many of you know, I don't eat spicy food or seafood. And what does Korea love? Spicy food and seafood.
Alas, I will do my best to do it justice by revealing to you some of my favourite meals and places to eat in Seoul. Seoul is, of course, massive and I have only been here for just over a month so my experience is amateaur.
The great thing is that there are so many places to eat here. Countless. They are mostly Korean places, with some Japanese and Chinese. Each has its own speciality, ie. seafood, samgyeopsal, noodles, pizza. If you like everything, you'll love Korea.
Korea shares some fast food chains with Sydney, such as McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and Dominos, and there are also Korean-influenced places we have in Sydney such as Tom 'n Toms.
My roommate and I tried to locate an Italian place during our first week here and we had no luck whatsoever, which was a shame because I was craving a massive pasta dish. However, we were silly to think that we could search properly with just the two of us. We have since discovered many, as unfortunately a lot of the good places to eat are hidden away in dark corners or on random levels of buildings. The key is to make a Korean friend who knows the area well. Or, to just open your eyes -we have since discovered that there is an Italian place, Crazy Brown, on campus right outside our dorm. It has since become one of our favourite places to eat mostly because of THEIR BROWNIES. If you come to Seoul, go to Crazy Brown even if only for the brownies.
 |
| My roommate posing on one of the most popular streets in Sinchon. This street has bars, clubs, karaoke, restaurants and random pop-up stalls with giant fluffy plush toys. |
The brilliant thing about Korea is that there is so much food that is very cheap. I have become a massive fan of rice burgers. There is a rice burger place 2 minutes from us and I crave one every day. When someone merely says the words 'rice burger' to me, my cravings become real and I will not rest until I have had one. Each rice burger is around $3, which is great because I know in Australia, they would be at least twice that. For those of you who don't know what a rice burger is, it's a burger made of rice. There are various filling wedged in between two rice... bun-like things.
Meals at the more popular/classy restaurants are a bit more expensive, but never more expensive than what you would find in Sydney. Also, you will be provided with food or snacks or complimentary side dishes at most places you go (hey, more food, who's complaining?). For example, at numerous bars, I have been given complimentary crackers, chips and nuts, and even popcorn at this really classy Jazz bar called Jazz 9 (definitely a recommendation of mine).
My friends recently scored a VIP table at club Octagon in Gangnam (a popular club frequented by K-Pop starts Taeyang and 2PM), and they were given complimentary food, which looked like this:
Yes, that is cheese, fruit, pastries and pasta. And yes, my friend is getting hit on by a Korean guy in this photo. Unfortunately, my roommate and I were unable to sample these delightful treats because we decided to leave and visit Nap City, but we hope the opportunity will present itself again.
Moving on, my favourite thing about the food in Korea is all the cafes. They have so many yummy pastries, but more on that later.
 |
| A bagel and iced cafe latte from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on campus. I am never a bagel person in Australia, but I crave them in Korea. |
 |
| A box of macarons from A Twosome Place, a popular dessert cafe (thank you to Ki Joong for buying them for me!!). |
The desserts in Korea deserve their own category! The variety is amazing. There is a popular Korean dessert called Bingsu, which is made of condensed milk, crushed ice and sherbet. It comes with various toppings. Below are photos of two different flavours of Bingsu!
 |
| Coffee-flavoured Bingsu. |
 |
| Berry Bingsu. |
Another popular type of food is street food. You can find street food almost anywhere: outside train stations, at large outdoor-markets such as Myeondong, outside clubs, on outdoor shopping streets, at festivals... The list goes on! Typical street food may include kebabs, dumplings, large chunks of fruit, hotdogs or anything deep-fried.
 |
| An example of a typical street-food stand: busy, fatty and served by ajimas. |
Unfortunately, I have not won the lottery, nor am I immune to fat and sugar, so I have to be careful with what I eat and even though food is cheap, the cost adds up. So most night, I stick to my dormitory cafeteria. These meals are included within our dorm fee and so we pay nothing every night. Every meal, there is a Korean option and a 'western' option (although the 'western' option is loosely western). The Korean option usually includes kimchi, rice, some sort of soup and some sort of spicy meat. The 'western' option has included food such as spaghetti bolognese, udon noodles, cereal, fried rice, fruit, chicken schnitzel and various rice dishes to only name a few. A lot of students (especially the Korean students who have lived in the dorms for a couple of years) are sick of the food or complain about its quality, but I actually really enjoy the food. I think that most of the time it is delicious!
 |
| A Korean breakfast VS. a 'western' breakfast. |
 |
| I have finally accepted that having rice for breakfast is a standard thing in Korea and I am now okay with it and mostly look forward to it (although it's always a gamble what they will be serving at the cafeteria). |
 |
| One of the more delicious dinners: deep-fried dumplings, noodle soup with vegetables and rice. |
So, that's a summary of the food here as I have experienced it. I look forward to trying new things every day although if I am being honest, I am probably looking at another rice burger tomorrow.
Signed in Seoul,
Kristin
PS. Most of the photo credit here, again, goes to Nam.
Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
No comments:
Post a Comment