It has been raining quite a fair bit and that's making me rather annoyed. I bought a brolly from Korea because I had no choice but to; the rain was getting too strong and too frequent. Also, because of the rain, I'd rather be back in the hostel than to be outside shopping or sightseeing.
We had lunch at this restaurant near our school called Biya. It was reccommended by the Korean in our project group. Biya sells the dish called Budae jjigae (부대찌개) a.ka. "army base stew" in english. It originated in Korea during the Korean American war. During and after the war, meat was scarce and people had little to eat. People made this dish by using the leftover hot dogs and Spam from U.S. army bases and anything else that was available to them at that point of time and boiled them in a traditional Korean spicy stew. Nowadays, Budae jjigae has become a more luxurious dish and incorporates ingredients such as instant ramen noodles, sliced American cheese, ground pork, sausages, rice cake, tofu etc. It's like a steamboat and you can basically throw anything you want in it.
The side dish was hashbrowns which were deep-fried so well that we kept refilling it. It was crispy and fragrant and yes, I love potatoes!
The Budae jjigae was so delicious and the soup tasty. I think whatever paste that they put inside to make the soup base made the whole dish so flavourful. We could continuously add much ramen as we wanted till we got full! The ramen would soak up the taste of the soup so well that it tasted so good with every mouth that we took. I also loved the onions that was over-cooked after we left them to boil in the soup for a long time. The soup base is spicy and it would be a great dish to have during winter when it's cold. It was so spicy that my nose was watering after eating dish for a prolonged period of time. But I guess that's what I like about this dish as well - the spicy soup base.
Budae jjigae before cooking
Budae jjigae after cooking
Delicious food!
YAYY! BIYA!
Biya (in Seoul)
Anam (Line 6), Get off at exit 2 and facing the intersection, turn right and keep walking for 5 minutes – it’s on your right.
Baby and I intended to go to the Korean War Memorial initially but because it rained non stop, we ended up going to Dongdaemun Market to shop. Dongdaemun Market is a shopping heaven with endless stuff to buy. It's where the locals go to to shop for their fashion. Dongdaemun Market can get a little confusing because it is massive but I suppose with the map, you can make sense of the direction easily. Section 1 (the left side of the below map) is where most of the malls (Doota, Migliore, and Hello apM) and retail stores are located. Section 2 (the right side of the below map) is where most of the wholesale shops are located. The stores here also sell things at retail, but they mostly deal with bulk sales.
I ended up buying so much in Dongdaemun Market and I only actually managed to make it as far as the shopping malls such as Miglore, Doota etc, because it was raining and the shops lining the streets weren't open.
Don't forget to bargain and try to visit that place with friends so that you can buy in 'bulk' and get a greater discount. It's basically 'the more you buy, the more discount you get'. Some shop owners can be really nasty and just chase you out of the shop when you bargain, but just do it. If the shop owners chase you away, you can always go to another shop and get something else even though the shops don't sell the same stuff.
What I liked about Dongdaemun was the fact that there was variety - shops don't exactly sell the same stuff. There is the outdoor and indoor sections, which means that you can still shop around that area when it rains!
Dongdaemun Market
Subway line 2, Dongdaemun stadium station exit #2 or 14
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