Gwangjang Market Food Street
Saturday, May 09, 2015
I'm a sucker for street markets. I'm an even bigger sucker for street food at street markets. No matter where you are in the world, they're are always bursting with life, and there's just something so compelling about giant mounds of unrecognizable food. So when my friend Sunyup asked me if I wanted to check out the food street at Gwangjang Market 광장시장, one of Korea's oldest markets, I immediately jumped at it. I'm down to go anywhere with questionable sanitary regulations (I'm kidding, it's impeccably clean here for a street market) and doesn't require silverware.
It was both our first time here. There had to be about 100 stalls and restaurants in the whole space, each with a middle-aged lady standing around coaxing passerbyers to pick their spot over the others. It left our heads spinning and we really didn't know which one to settle on. So after scoping out the area, we did as everybody should do: go where the ajusshis are.
Don't know what an ajusshi is? No worries, I managed to capture them in their natural element...
Middle-aged men huddled in groups! Remember what I said about oldies and eating out? In my mind, they've been coming here for years!
This alone had us sold. We quickly sat down and asked for one order of 빈대떡 or mung bean pancake. I think they're a specialty here, because I counted at least half the stalls were selling 'em. There was that and 육회 raw beef tartare. We didn't manage to get to the raw meat, but it looked really promising. Maybe enough to warrant a trip back? Oh, and we also got a bottle of 막걸리 makgeolli, also known as rice wine. Can't forget that!
We wanted to try lots of different food so we tried to take it slow, but don't hold yourself back! Not when you have so many choices!
The 순대 soondae here was the biggest I've ever seen in my life. And these little kimbaps, known as mayak kimbap 마약김밥 (which, btw, directly translates to drug kimbap) were really yummy. They come with a little bit of wasabi soy dipping sauce that makes all the difference.
Many of these stalls open as early as 11 am and go on till 2 am.
In the day time, the stalls at Gwangjang Market are chock full of fabrics, traditional wares, dried herbs, and my personal favorite, random foreign goods. I have a feeling this is where my grandpa used to stock up on his aftershave (I remember him using that same green one in the picture!) and American chewing gum (he was diabetic and hoarded boxes of them).
A part of me questions where all this stuff came from and how long it's been sitting here, but I mostly love it and I'm happy to know Tootsie Pops are just a bus ride away now.
After stuffing ourselves silly, we crossed the street and wandered the surrounding markets selling other random oddities like cookie cutters and vintage children's books all the while chatting away about old boyfriends and our tendency to skip class (whoops). I don't know if the makgeolli got to our heads or the conversation was just that compelling, but we somehow managed to stroll our way over to this little installation without even realizing. And that's a 35 minute walk! But more on this coming soon... :)
Thanks again for taking me Sunyup <3 Can't wait to do this again!
Gwangjang Market
Seoul, Jongno-gu, Changgyeonggung-ro, 88
서울시 종노구 창경궁로 88
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