Street and Fast Food, Seoul
Among some of things I wanted to try in Seoul was the Street Food known as Pojangmacha 포장마차. I have always been fascinated with street food everywhere I go – Los Angeles, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. I also confess that I am sucker for fast food as well. I have always liked the simple fast foods restaurants from the US.
Namedaemu Market, known as the South Gate, is a night time market with stalls, stores, and restaurants. Vendors sell clothes, luggage, herbs, and gifts. One of the things I had there was the steamed buns. I had no idea what they had and what was inside, so I bought one of each of the three. Surprising, large steamed buns were filled vegetables, fried rice, and spicy kimchi cabbage filling. I really like the kimchi filling. This was one of my favorite street food dishes.
On another night, we the Pojangmacha we had was the rice cake – ddukbokki 떡볶이 and sandwich toast in Apgujeongdong District 압구정동. The spicy rice cake is served in a thick spicy soup and eaten with tooth picks. The rice cake soaks up the spicy goodness for each bite. The sandwich toast, basically a grilled cheese, egg, and spam sandwich, is served rolled up in a cup – for easy handling. In a cup! Such a cool idea. I like the sandwich toast much more than the ddukbokki.
More Pojanmacha I had was the sausage near Insadong. As I was walking around, I saw grilled sausage and had to have some. The sausage is grilled and you have the option of layering with different sauces – ranging from the spicy to the sweet.
Lastly I had to mention about my foray into McDonalds. I was told that there was a bulgogi burger. I knew I couldn’t leave Seoul without trying it. The patty was uninspired pack of meat. The taste was unique, but nothing to talk about it. I think the meat was beef but marinated in a traditional bulgogi sauce. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Just like McDonalds, I wanted to try the bulgogi pizza from Dominos. Again, it wasn’t anything special. The pizza appeared to look like it had sausage and taste pretty ordinary in my opinion. But strangely enough, the order came with a side of sweet pickles. That’s one thing I learned surprisingly, that Koreans do like their pickles . . .somewhat.
I know I could forgot my buddy’s specialty – Kimchi Fried Rice. Mr. B’s a pretty darn good cook. After a hellacious night of drinking, Mr. B made some kimchi fried rice for us in the morning (or was it afternoon) … It was probably one of the best meals I had in Seoul.
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