That would scare the bejeezuz out of me in multiple ways! 
I would not be sad if I never heard that song ever again. 
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Entertaining reports as usual @Mr_Happy. Especially in this sad time for Korea—I’ve been sharing them with my mom, bringing a smile to her face.
That is heresy! 
It’s another favorite dish of mine. On the other hand, my non-Korean husband has never been tempted to try it (and he’ll eat just about anything; “wha…you don’t want to try a big bowl of inky-black noodles?! That’s just crazy talk!”)
And the clumpy naengmyeon noodles is unacceptable—I don’t recall that ever happening to me. Those restaurants got some ‘splaining to do (I know you have many in your neck of the woods). Or maybe you’re not slurping fast enough?
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Oh there are videos of clumping all over the internet, in Seoul too. It’s usually the wet version “mul naengmyeon” with an icy broth.
That Problem is created by not handling the Noodles correctly, specifically not rinsing them properly.
The other Culprit could be allowing them to sit, after being cooked and rinsed, too long before dressing and serving.
The Scissors should be there to help with the Length of these very springy, elastic Noodles. Cutting them makes for an easier eating Experience not really to break up badly handled Noodles.
My Spouse says his Teeth aren’t sharp enough to eat them! 
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Apparently there’s no actual checking out of books - you have to read it in a reading area in the library. I don’t know how they get the books off the upper shelves though 
I’m pretty much the opposite - I love zhajiangmian and jajangmyeon. I do prefer the Chinese versions a bit over the Korean one though as the Korean one, which I believe is closest to the original Shandong version, can sometimes be on the sweet side for me. I think it’s partly due to differences in the black bean sauces used. I make zhajiangmian pretty often at home, its fairly easy to make.
There were people doing the horsey dance in front of the sculpture for pictures - I think having the song in the background helps with timing!
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Cham in Season
To cap off Thursday night, I had a few cocktails at Cham in Season, a sister bar to the much lauded Bar Cham. Cham in Season was recommended to me by my bartender at Charles H a few nights prior. She recommended Bar Cham as well, but its apparently quite difficult to get into that bar as it is popular.
Cham in Season is located on the fourth floor of a rather nondescript building, and is small and cozy. It was mostly full on Thursday night but I got a seat by the window and was later moved to the bar after some patrons left.
Here’s the mission statement and menu. Like Bar Cham, Cham in Season focuses on Korean spirits and ingredients, and they have a menu that changes with the seasons. This was the winter menu.
Manhattan in Season (₩23,000)
Michter’s Bourbon, Damsoul, Dried Persimmon, Red Bean, Cheongdo Persimmon Wine, Vermouth, Bitters
My first cocktail was a Manhattan variation, made with bourbon and Damsoul, which is a Korean pine liquor. It was very nice - strong and balanced. They gave me a shot of Damsoul to try gratis. It wasn’t as piney as I thought it would be, it had a subtle piney-ness.
The Damsoul
Espresso Martini in Season (₩22,000)
Irish Whiskey, Sweet Potato Soju, Solomon’s Seal, Acorn, Soy Sauce, Amaro, Roasted Barley, Banana, Egg White
Next, I had an Espresso Martini that didn’t actually have any espresso in it. Instead, the coffee flavor was created with roasted barley - like that used in making stout, soy sauce(!), and cacao if I heard correctly. There was an egg white for a foamy top that was sprinkled with some of the roasted barley. It was a very nice cocktail that really did taste like there was coffee in it.
Americano in Season
And finally an Americano variation, which was comped. This was from the previous season’s menu. A traditional Americano has Campari, vermouth, and sparkling water. This one is made with a Campari where the color was removed with yogurt. There was an edible garnish of a reddish jelly disk made with Campari on the side of the glass. It was good and refreshing.
I had some great cocktails at Cham in Season and really liked how they showcased Korean spirits with seasonal cocktails. The service was also very friendly.
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Namdaemun Market 남대문시장
For lunch on Friday I headed to Namdaemun Market, the largest traditional market in Seoul. Namdaemun has less eateries than Gwangjang market which I had visited a couple times before, and has several areas that have specialized food vendors, including one with street food, an alley with restaurants specializing in galchi jorim / hairtail fish, and a covered alley with stalls specializing in kalguksu.
Some pictures of the market:
The entrance to Namdaemun Market’s Kalguksu Alley - it is protected from the elements by plastic tenting:
I started lunch at Kalguksu Alley. Once I entered the alley, I was quickly ushered to an empty seat in the first stall on the left.
I ordered a bowl of kalguksu (natch). First arrived some kimchi (cabbage and I think mustard green) and also a bowl of cold and spicy sweet bibim-naengmyeon that also had half of a boiled egg, a nice side dish!
A hot bowl of kalguksu was placed in front of me shortly. The noodles had a nice texture and chew, and the broth was simple, maybe chicken? There was a good amount of seaweed also for flavor. It was a very nice simple bowl of noodles, and reminded me of the bowl I had at Gwangjang Market from the Gohyang Kalguksu stall.
After I left Kalguksu Alley, I was drawn to a long line of people waiting for steamed buns. Lemming-like, I joined the line.
With help from Google I found out that the restaurant’s name is Gamekol Son Wangmandu 가메골 왕만두. They have a sit down restaurant inside with a larger menu, but the line was for takeout of two of their items - a steamed pork mandu and a steamed pork mandu with kimchi. The line, which was kept in formation by a restaurant staff member, was long but moved pretty quickly. The only waits were in between batches of mandu. It was interesting to see them open a large pressurized steaming cabinet by unscrewing some pressure locks and then see a huge billow of steam come out before they unloaded a batch of mandu. Then another batch went in to steam. The finished mandu were placed on trays with slats to let cool down a bit before being sold to people in the line. I saw people getting boxes of them to go. They were pretty inexpensive at ₩1,000 each.
Eventually I got to the front of the line and got a single mandu (I was trying to pace myself). I got a kimchi one, and it was handed to me in a plastic bag. The mandu are wangmandu or giant steamed dumplings. The dough of these wangmandu is slightly leavened, so a bit fluffy and thick. It was a good dumpling, fresh and hot out of the steamer, with a filling of kimchi, glass noodles, and pork. Worth the wait? Maybe if I were getting more than one!
I got another snack at a stall selling eomuk-guk - fish cakes with broth. There was a regular broth and a red spicy broth. There were also two types of fish cake skewers at this stall - one that was thin and threaded onto the skewer like a spring for ₩1,000 each, and a thicker rectangular one for ₩2,000 each.
I got one of the thicker ones out of the spicy broth section and scooped up some of the broth into a paper cup with a self service ladle. The piping hot fish cake hit the spot in the cold weather along with the spicy soup. I was halfway done eating my skewer when I saw another customer using a spray bottle from the table to spray his skewers with a dark liquid. It seems there is a sauce in the bottles to apply to the fish cakes. So that’s what those bottles are for! I’ll have to remember that next time.
As I was walking around the market I saw a hotteok stand with a large line going down an alley. Again, much like a lemming, I joined the line to get a hotteok for dessert. It was fun to watch the chef place a ball of dough on the griddle, press it down with a press that resembled a large espresso tamper, and flip the hotteok as they cooked. The chef was quite friendly. You pay by putting cash in a box in the front of the stand and get change out of it if you need any change.
I got a hotteok with honey and seeds. I’m not exactly sure what type of seeds they were but they resembled pumpkin seeds a bit. It was a delicious hot hotteok, with a very nice crispy texture on the outside, studded with the seeds, and a sweet molten honey interior.
Speaking of hotteok, this sign at one of the doors of Hoehyeon Station near the market made me chuckle a bit (well, maybe breath through my nose a little more forcibly) and also left me wondering what the issue is with hotteok.
When walking out of the market I saw a group of historically dressed guards walking down the sidewalk. It turns out that I happened onto the Sungnyemun Gate Guard Ceremony. The Sungnyemun Gate - which also called the Namdaemun Gate - is right next to the market, and this is a closing ceremony for the gate that happens every day except Mondays, at 3:30 in the afternoon. There is also an opening ceremony at 10 in the morning.
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The present gate is a replacement for the 550-year-old original which was destroyed by a senseless arson attack back in 2008. In terms of the destruction of a precious local historical site, it was like Seoul’s version of the Paris Notre-Dame fire.
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Thanks for posting about that, I had no idea the top of the gate was so recently built. It looks very old, I guess they did a good job with the reconstruction.
I also took some pictures underneath the gate and of the other side:
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Beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Eunjujeong 은주정
Dinner on Friday was at Eunjujeong, which is known for their kimchi jjigae / kimchi stew. It was a little hard to find, in a narrow alley near the Euljiro 4(sa)-ga Station.
Interesting pictures of various vegetables on the wall.
Many of the other tables were having kimchi jjigae and also grilling some samgyeopsal / pork belly. I just ordered the kimchi jjigae (₩12,000).
Some banchan arrived - mung bean sprouts, tofu, and another green that is unknown to me.
Also a large plate of various leafy greens, rice, and ssamjang.
A large pot of kimchi jjigae was placed on a portable butane stove to keep warm. It was very good, and pungent. The kimchi was very flavorful and the soup was a little thick and a little spicy and sour. There were also thick slices of pork belly in the soup.
I went through the whole tray of greens making wraps with pork belly, rice, and a dab of ssamjang.
It was a very satisfying meal. A large table of ahjummas and ahjussis nearby was getting pretty lit, as you do on a Friday night.
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That is hilarious . Our Friday night tonight consists of watching the Ohio State v Texas football game at home with friends.
BTW Your meal looks delicious.
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Wow, you’ve eaten a lot of kalguksu on this trip. And not a single one with clams! In the summer, I saw that a lot, so maybe it’s seasonal. I wish you had ordered the sujebi (hand torn noodle soup) when you had the chance. Usually made from a different starch ( I had an acorn flour sujebi).
I love that last photo with the glistening pork belly, the texture on the leaf, and the stickiness of the rice flecked with the seeds. An artistic triumph meant to be consumed in an instant.
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Also exciting!
I managed to avoid sujebi this trip, maybe next time!
bb.q Chicken
I had a second dinner late night on Friday at the bb.q Chicken in Myeongdong. It was my first chimaek (chicken + beer) of this trip. bb.q Chicken is a huge Korean fried chicken chain with more than 3,500 locations, including, as I found out later, several in the US. One actually recently opened in the SF Bay Area in Oakland. I should have probably picked another KFC restaurant to go to 
Oh well, maybe now I can compare bb.q Chicken in Korea vs in the US. There’s no barbecue at bb.q Chicken, the bb.q stands for “best of the best quality.”
I got there around 11 pm about an hour before they closed. It’s on an upper floor. There were K-pop videos playing on a large projector screen and pumping out of the speakers, which contributed to a high energy, party-like vibe.
You order with a tablet on your table. I got a plate with wings and legs only, half golden olive and half sweet and spicy Yangnyeom (₩32,000).
I also had a Genesis pale ale on draft, and a “cream draft beer” which I think was a lager.
There are self-service pickled daikon cubes available. After a little while my chicken arrived. On the left is the sweet and spicy, and on the right the “golden olive” which refers to olive oil rather than olives. I’m not sure how the olive oil works with high temperature frying. Anyway they were both great. The sweet and spicy sauce was more sweet than spicy, and the skin was still crispy and the chicken moist and tender. The golden olive chicken was even crispier due to the lack of sauce, and didn’t taste overly greasy. Great chicken that went great with the beer.
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Baek Nyun Ok 백년옥
On Saturday I took a half day trip to Suwon to see the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To get to Suwon, which is south of Seoul, I headed to Seoul Station to catch a train. I was a little short on time so I had lunch at the station’s food court on the third floor.
I went to the Seoul Station outpost of Baek Nyun Ok, a restaurant specializing in sundubu jjigae / soft tofu stew.
Menu on monitor.
The dishes with tofu residue looked interesting but I just ordered a sundubu jjigae lunch set (₩13,000). There was a very circular fried egg, kimchi, mung bean sprouts, seaweed, toasted gim, a dipping sauce (presumably for the egg), rice, a small container of mineral water, and the sundubu jjigae bubbling in a hot stone bowl. The sundubu jjigae was very good. Baek Nyun Ok makes their own soft tofu and it had a nice custardy texture. The soup, which had a few clams within, was also very flavorful.
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I’m not sure, but I think that unknown green vegetable might be what is often referred to in English as “butterbur” (specifically the stalk of it).
This is what it looks like raw:
and this is what it looks like braised. It’s a traditional (but not all that popular) vegetable in Japan and appears to be grown/used in S. Korea as well.
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Thanks, looks like a match to me!
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You’re welcome…glad to be of help!
Daebong Tongdak 대봉통닭
After lunch I took a KTX high speed train from Seoul Station south to Suwon to see the Hwaseong Fortress. It was a pleasant ~30 minute ride and had assigned seating. The fortress is large and spread out, and is a short bus ride from Suwon Station. Here’s some pics of the fortress and its walls.
Hwaseong Haenggung Palace (just the entrance, I got there after it had closed)
Hwahongmun Gate, a flood gate in the north of the fortress.
Suwon has a “Chicken Street,” a street with many restaurants serving fried chicken. I headed to Chicken Street for dinner at one of the chicken restaurants there - Daebong Tongdak.
Daebong Tongdak also has an easy to use tablet ordering system.
I ordered a whole chicken with half crispy chicken and half sweet and sour sauce chicken (₩20,000), and a beer.
Some condiments and banchan arrived. There was a honey mustard sauce, a sweet and spicy sauce, pickled daikon cubes, and some fried tube-like “macaroni snacks” that were light and crispy and addictive.
A huge plate of chicken arrived. It really is a whole chicken. There was a little bit of shredded cabbage with dressing on the plate. The un-sauced half had some fried giblets I think and/or cartilage which were a little crunchy and fun to munch on. The chicken skin was more loose and airy and a little less crispy than that of the chicken I had at bb.q Chicken the previous night. The white meat pieces were a little less moist than the dark meat, which was to be expected, but were still quite tender. It was a very good chicken and beer, and I actually finished it all! Comparing with bb.Q Chicken though I think I prefer bb.Q chicken’s more crispy skin and also appreciated the option of dark meat only.
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