Steve and I took a trip to Seoul, South Korea in September to celebrate our 40 birthdays! We had a blast, just the two of us. It was a new spot for us so the anticipation of exploring a huge city and a different culture and different foods really excited us! Also, when you travel really far away, you feel really far away, and that is what we love about travel! I am going to need to break down my posts on Seoul into a few different ones because we were there for a week and we did all the things! First up, I wanted to share what we ate. And it’s fun to call it “Seoul” Food! We get this question a lot when we travel, so here goes!
I will preface this with the fact that we will try almost anything! We ate scorpion on a stick in China and have eaten some weird things on food tours before! Part of the fun of going to new places is immersing yourself in the culture and the food. We ate all kinds of things, including McDonald’s!
BREAKFAST: For breakfast, we ate at our hotel every single morning. Asian hotels have the best breakfasts! It’s a full spread of Asian, American, French, basically anything you can ask for. We knew we could fuel up on familiar breakfast foods, but also try some new things. Always muesli and cappuccinos and fruit! This particular breakfast, I also ate bagquette, grilled veggies, fish, and dumplings!
DRINKS: The Koreans love their beer! Ha! The perfect spot for us! We drank beer, I drank iced coffee (huge in Korea), tea, and coffee! And lots of bottled water! We also drank Soju which is a potent alcohol drink the Koreans love, and we also tried Makgeolli, a raw rice wine. Steve an I loved this one! You drink it out of small tin bowls!
Don’t forget the late night snacks from the 7-11! There is one on every corner!
CHICKEN & BEER: We went to a Korean baseball game and it might have been the highlight of our trip! We are sports-lovers! And they serve chicken and beer at the games! Also sushi and friend octopus! We stuck with the chicken and beer! Yep, served with the chicken on the top and you drink the beer out of a straw!
Koreans love Chimea, which is essentially chicken and beer. It’s a thing. We had it several times because it’s very Korean, but also felt easy for us to eat!
We booked a food tour before our visit. We used ZenKimChi Tours and ended up having a private tour with our guide. He is an American living in Korea and hosts walking food tours. We ate traditional Korean BBQ, which was so delicious! He taught us how to drink the rice wine and the Soju. We also ate some traditional fried foods. You go through a small market and choose what you want to be fried and brought to your table. We had a blast learning more about the Korean culture and sampling traditional foods.
MARKET FOOD: We explored Gwangjang Marketon one of the very last days we were there. We were in search of some Mung Bean Pancakes (kind of alike a hashbrown) and some noodles! We happened to get a seat at the stall where Netflix showcased on their show “Street Food”.
EXTRAS: We ate at a restaurant that my sister introduced us to on our travels called Din Tai Fung. It’s a chain and is found in a few major cities throughout Asia. There is also one in London and one or two in the US. We ate there twice because we love their dumplings and spicy wontons!
We also ate KimChi Fried Rice! It was so delicious and flavorful and spicy so we went back to a little spot near our hotel twice!
We popped into a few places as we walked the streets to get noodles! And Cokes!
Close to the end of the trip, we also decided we needed a cheeseburger! We searched and found a place with good reviews and bonus, they also had cheese fries! Ha! You can find anything in big cities, so don’t let the food scare you!
Traveling to big cities means you have so many choices! We did research about the food before we left! We knew what we wanted to try. Booking a food tour helps you learn more about traditional foods! We also got a recommendation form someone we knew who had been to Seoul before. It’s also fun to come home and try to find food/drink you had while on your travels! It expands your mind and your palette! I can’t wait to go back someday! xo