Gourmet Pleasures !

This section is to introduce the food we came across during the 6 days in Korea. Both Levin and myself are not too particular about food. There is actually much more choices to the below but we tend to be less adventurous and take non spicy items to accommodate the kids. Nonetheless, we still managed to try a varieties of food during our trip.

~ Street Snacks ~

There are a wide selection of fried and spicy (at least look spicy to me) street snacks available everywhere we go. Snacks in Seoul are not cheap. The cheapest we came across is the ice cream cone at 500 won (60cents). All other stuffs are easily S$2 and above.

This soya bean drink can be bought from GS25 store (like our 7-11), in fact it dont tastes like soya bean or milk. I personally like it very much and have been drinking it nearly every night :)

As for charlie's fav, she loves the 7 up korean version. Bottom up !

Most restaurants have english menu but u have to ask for it and of course the english menu has much lesser description as compared to the menu in korean. but good enough to place order.

All their cutleries are silverwear. It is becos they are all sterilised. In some restaurants, the cups and cutleries are placed in the steriliser and you have to help yourself to them. While in others, the waitress will get bring you the sterilised cups. U may also find the forks and spoons in the drawers underneath the table.

Plain water is served with every meal. They will get u a bottle ( abt 1 ltr) of water or u have to help yourself to the water disperser which provides both hot and cold water.

I did some reading up on the recommended restaurants from library books. Despite the language problem and our first trip to Korea, we managed to visit some of the restaurants as planned. I would say thumb up for most of the meals we eat.

~ dumping / Kalguksu knife noodles ~

This is our first meal in Seoul, the restaurant only served 4 to 5 dishes but u be surprised that it is running nearly full house. We tried the kalguksu knife noodles and dumpling. The dumpling tastes like those served at ding tai feng with juice in them. Nothing too fanciful abt the knife noodle. It is plain but the kids love it.

~ samgyetang (ginseng chicken) ~

On the same day, we tried the samgyetang and fried chicken. The ginseng chicken tastes good. the ginseng flavour in the soup is not too strong nor too plain. The chicken meat is very soft and tender. As for the fried chicken, it is very oily but the skin is very very crispy. With your fingers, you can feel the crispiness of the skin layer.

There is rice inside the chicken and a pcs of ginseng too.

~ Pork Cutlet Rice ~

This is our third meal today (first day) in Seoul, we went to the street near the seoul tower which is popular for pork cutlet rice. When we are in the restaurant, we felt that it was something like the fast food chain. not becos u have to quene up for your food but they only served pork cultet, fish cultet and the combo cultet (fish, pork and beef). once u are seated, a waitress will come to you with plates of cultet rice balancing on her arms. you ordered with her and she will place your order on the table immediately then u start your meal. for us, we observed for a while then we realised this is how it works. we must have look very blur siting there waiting for the menu. haha.

~ Kimchi ~
everyone knows that korean restuarant serves that regardless what u order. But this presentation is not so common :)

~ Bimbibap ~

I finally got to try the local dish bimbibap. infact later the same day, I ate the same dish again at Lotte World cos there is limited choices available in the food court. Most of the bimbibap served in Korea are with vegetables and spicy sauce but surprising the combination tastes right. Presentation wise so so especially it is served in a silverware big bowl (looks like food for dog).

~ soup noodles ~

The kids eat soup noodles as this is one of the few items that is not spicy. Dont u think it looks like udon soup japanese style. infact quite a few dishes seems to take after japanese and chinese cooking style. btw we tried these 2 dishes in a rather small eating house which can barely accomodated 15 to 20 pax only. heehee we dont just eat at nice presentable restaurant.

~ stew chicken ~

We went to this restaurant at along Dongdaemun. It basically served 2 types of dishes. One is what we have ordered and the other is on a hot stone. Infact the latter looks more appetitising but it is spicy so we could not order that. This dish is more of stew chicken with glass noodles. Quite nice but they cook with lot of ginger so it tastes a bit hot and the glass noodles is a bit too chewy for the kids.

~ Jirisan ~

We are at Insadong street and actually had trouble finding a suitable restaurant. as they served mostly set menu and side dishes unlike the restaurant at other areas. In the end, we have no choice but to go for 2 set meals at 15,000 won each and an alacarte dish that is the fried pancake. To our surprise........ (of course we know what the set meal consists of but was still amazed at the varieties they had served)
i) preserved veg, pork and sotong / (ii) stingray

(iii) Glass noodles which charlie loves/(iv) salad with pink sauce (taste sweet)

(v) minced meat with musroom / (vi) beef soup

(vii) raw fishes (only 3 slices) / (viii) minced meat spread (cant tell what type of meat)

(ix) salad

The pancake which we ordered from the alacarte dishes. It has lot of spring onion and I have to separate them so the kids can eat.

This is the funny part which I told everyone already. We asked for the bill when we finished the above dishes. A waiter came over and tried to tell us with limited English that we still have soup, rice and dessert not served. So we requested for them to come. After waiting for more than 5 min, nothing came. So we "realised" that they may be actually asking if we want to order more dishes. So once again we asked for the bill, then another waiter came who can speak better English. He told us what have been served is only the appetiser and the main course is coming. We are shocked. Although the portion is rather small but it was quite a spread moreover it was only about $19 per pax.

Here is the main courses....... another round of side dishes, fried fish, soup and rice. In the end, we did not wait for the dessert as we are already running out of time.


It was only later when we are back that I realised from the website that what we ate is called Jirisan. It is specializes in Korean traditional jeongsik (table d’hôte/regular meals), consisting of some 15 side dishes (kimchi, medley of noodles/vegetables/sliced beef, cucumber kimchi, roasted fish, and various cooked herbs and green vegetables), as well as miso soup and bean soup.

~~ BBQ meals ~~

Actually we intended to visit the restaurant opp to this one, as recommended on the books. However we backed up after taking a look at the pricing. So we opt for the opposite restaurant which is not too bad actually.

Look at levin's satisfied look, I dont have to tell you how much he enjoys his meal.

~ another local style restaurant ~

We visited this restaurant on our last night in Seoul before we headed to Incheon. It was a rather simple and small eating house. more for the local than tourist. but surprising it has quite a wide spread of varieties and tasty too.

We ordered tomato omelette rice, dumping combo and fried rice. The serving is big and the total bill was only $20 plus. very worth it.

~ our meals at Socko ~

The restaurants in hanhwa resort are miserable. However the snacks provided at the eatery in the same building as the cable car ticketing counter tastes good. I like the gimbap (rice roll). It was so good that I bought 3 rolls on that day.

Of all the meals, the kids love this one best...... instant noodles regardless it is

in Korea or Singapore.

Generally the meals we tried are quite nice and tasty. Overall their dishes are not too salty unlike in HK. But most of them are spicy and more spicy. The price for a decent meal costs at least S$8 without drink which is much more exp than in singapore, but portion is reasonable enough for one.