The Weird and The Wonderful: Korean Food

During our time here in Korea, we have seen and eaten a huge variety of things. We have witnessed some very unusual ways of doing things and had our minds boggled on more than one occasion. This post shows a montage of some of the weird and wonderful culinary creations we have come across. I originally wrote this with the photos divided under the headings "weird" and "wonderful" but then realised it was too hard to decide where to put things. So you can make your own mind up as to which you think each is...

Korean salads took us a long time to get used to. Dressings are
often fruit flavoured and yoghurty, and as you can see here,
cherry tomatoes are treated like the fruit they are.

A typical Korean Thanksgiving gift for a loved one.
12 tins of tuna and 4 tins of "Luncheon meat" (Spam)
And check out the bargain! Buy 10 boxes, get 1 free!

Your Mum doesn't like tuna? No problem! Skip the
fish and go for the simple 9-pack of "Richam" spam.
Another great deal - buy 5, get 1 free.
Spam for the whole family!

It's not too clear but you see the yellow thing the girl is carrying?
A 2-foot bag of crisps! She was just walking along, munching away.
I will definitely miss the huge bags of snacks they sell here.

I know this had already been written about but
I thought it deserved mentioning again -
this was the infamous (and tasty!) dog soup.

Tiny bananas! You can see mandarins above
and a grape to the left for comparison - so cute!

BEANS!

Steamed squid stuffed with rice.
Apparently they are as appetising as they look!

A huge banquet for 5 people!
This is 95% side dishes, 5% stuff we ordered.

 Walking along the street one night we saw the following, 

in the space of 200 metres...

Not 1...

...not 2...

...but 3 crab vans!
Who needs access to that many steamed crabs?!

Dave's favourite pork-snack-drink-combo.
The future of hand-free dining.

Whole, deep-fried birds of some kind.

What I imagine to be the same birds, raw, opened,
and stuffed with some weird berries or something.

Too cute! Although Super Hans wouldn't be happy.
"Pint of Guinness please. No logo on the foam".

Scallops that we bought in Jagalchi Market...

Prepared and cook within minutes, along with some huge shrimp.

And a couple of yummy fish.

Dave, eating a fish eye.

Raw beef with onions and a raw egg. Not half bad!

The taste of summer. I grew to love these ice noodles
but Dave still hates them. Either way, eating them is
a weird experience that I highly recommend.

Get yo' Grub on! Our favourite places to eat in Busan

Eating out in Korea is amazing. It's soooooo cheap and no matter how fussy you are, you will always find something to satisfy your hunger. There are countless barbecue places, bibimbap restaurants and kimbap cafes everywhere you go but here is the low-down on our favourite places to eat.
Before I dive in though, here is a very useful gem I printed off in my first week here. It's a translated menu for a kimbap restaurant. They almost always have the same things on offer so use this as your bible, or check-list of things to try, when eating in these fantastically cheap diner style eateries.http://maryeats.com/2006/11/16/kimbap-nara-menu/

Right, let's get stuck in.

Pork Barbecue
By far our favourite place to eat is a barbecue restaurant next to David's apartment. It was our first real experience of Korea food and we are now regulars. Having tested various things on the menu, we highly recommend the 우삼겹 (oo-sam-gyeop). This is strips of thin bacon-esque pork that you dip into a bowl of marinade before putting on the grill. You can get it without the marinade but we think it makes a huge difference in taste, with little difference in price. You get unlimited sides (green onions, sliced onions, salad, lettuce leaves) and have to order a minimum of 3 portions of meat but at the low, low price of 3,000 a portion, it's a bargain!

9,000won = 5 whole English pounds!
For all of this - can you believe it?!

You put the meat in the marinade and eat it all up!

Here is a short video showing Dave's preferred way of eating it!

Meat, 2 kinds of onions, garlic and David's favourite
red chilli paste, wrapped in a sesame leaf.
This is called "sam-gyeop-sal" and is delicious.

I loved this photo so much I had to use it again
and I don't think I ever mentioned where it's from...
That's right - our fave restaurant has free ice cream!

Directions: Line 3, Namsanjeong station. Walk up the stairs at exit 5 and keep going for about a minute in the same direction. On your left you will see a restaurant with the name "OK" and then something in Korean. This is the place. Enjoy!

Beef Barbecue
Proper Korean barbecue is cooked over burning coals, and our favourite place to eat this style of food is a chain restaurant called  서래 (so-ray). It's a beef restaurant, so more expensive than the above restaurant. Two people can be fed for 15,000 and this includes unlimited sides of onions, salad and bean sprouts. In a large group, with beers and soju, it usually averages out at 10,000 per person. The great thing about barbecuing beef is that you can cook it exactly how you like it, and these bite-sized chunks of steak are delicious!

The salad has a really tasty, spicy dressing -
last time I went I ate 3 bowls to myself!

You can put the onions and bean sprouts on the
grill to change things up a bit.

Memorise this sign and keep your eyes peeled!

Directions: I'm not going to give any directions because off the top of my head I can think of at least 4 different locations. But if you write the name down on a piece of paper (in Korean) and ask around next time you're in Seomyeon, Kyungsung, PNU, Dongnae etc - you will definitely find one. Just be prepared to wait 10 minutes or so for a table if you go at peak time (7-9pm Fri/Sat).

"Fried" Chicken
Koreans love fried chicken. Who doesn't?! The only thing I don't like about it (aside from having to deal with bones) is the "fried" element. But Korea has that covered. There are a couple of chains we've seen that do oven-baked chicken. It's so good and the fact that there is no f-word means it's guilt free eating! We like the chain called 오꾸닭 (O-koo-dak) and HIGHLY recommend you spend a few extra won to get a dish with sauce on, rather than plain with dipping sauce. We love the teriyaki one and tend to go for the whole chicken, rather than just thighs or wings. The free side dishes are limited to pickles and radishes, and there is a disappointing lack of chips on the menu, but it's still a great place. The portions are huge, with a very pleasing meat:bone ration, so sometimes even Dave doesn't manage to finish it all - but fear not! They will seal your leftovers in a nice plastic box and it's great in a sandwich the next day.

Here's what it looks like from the outside,
so you know what to keep an eye out for.

Saucy chicken selection!

They give you forks!!!

Mmmmm...chicken...!

Burgers
Our research in this area isn't extensive, and so I don't claim our recommendation to be "Busan's Best Burger" - it's simply the best one we have had. It's a place called Farmer Burger, and their menu consists simply of 8 different burgers: Texas, Illinois, New York, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Cancun, Tokyo and Farmer's.
The menu has a description of each, which all sound delicious and all come with a drink and some wedges, for around 12,000won (depending on which burger you get). I had the Honolulu burger, which was so juicy and sweet! It had a slice of pineapple and a fab balsamic dressing. Dave had the Illinois burger and that was amazing too - sweet and juicy with a dead good mustard kick. Anyway, definitely try it next time you get a burger craving!

Erm...yeh...I didn't manage to eat it like that!

I'm not entirely sure of the exact location but there are 2 in Nampo-dong. I have stolen the following directions from www.busanhaps.com so hopefully they are accurate."Directions to location 1: from PIFF square, walk north 1 block; turn right on Gwangbok-ro (the big shopping street) and you’ll find it on the left. 
Directions to location 2: walk up the street from the ABC Mart; walk about 100 meters and turn right. You’ll be able to see Busan Tower directly above you."

Cheap and cheerful
We love Han's Deli. They are located all over Korea and are great for grabbing lunch or a relaxed dinner. Just look for the green signage and white English writing saying "Han's Deli" - it's a dead give-away! The place is nothing fancy, and food isn't mind-blowing but there is a good selection and nothing to complain about. Plus the prices are very reasonable and the free refills on your drinks make it even better value for money! 

Tabasco and Parmesan!
Plus unlimited pickles, kimchi and radish.

Dave's favourite - barbecue chicken. Be warned though,
the 5 fries they give you often arrive cold.

My chilli chicken and a side order of chicken balls.
We were feeling greedy!

Chinese
Chinese food in Korea is nothing like it is back home...or in China for that matter. You will hear people insist that "black noodles" (noodles with boring black bean sauce) are the be-all and end-all of Chinese food, however there are a couple of alternatives here and they can be found at our favourite Chinese chain restaurant 홍콩 반점 (Hong Kong Banjum). They are dotted all over the city so just look out for the sign (see below). There are 3 dishes to choose from - seafood noodles in a really spicy sauce, sweet and sour pork, and fried dumplings. They all come in 2 sizes, and for a party of 2 the smaller size is definitely enough. Last time we got the small portion of pork and the large portion of dumplings (10, as opposed to 5). The noodles are a meal in their own right so we couldn't get everything at once. Anyway, it came to 14,000won and we ended up taking enough home with us for David to have for lunch the next day. Well worth the money.

Menu, prices and the logo.

Pork - YUM!

We do love our dumplings.

Oh and of course, the side dish -
raw onions with a strong, salty, black bean dip,
and slices of pickled radish.

So there you have it. A few quick tips and our opinions of some of the best places to eat in Busan. Let us know if and when you try them!

I scream, you scream, Korea screams...

...for ice cream!

In the depths of winter, I have been casting my mind back to the hot, sticky days of summer. It was horrible - far too humid to be considered humane. The only thing that kept us going was ice cream.

Ice cream in Korea is brilliant. Most of the time. And cheap. Oh so cheap.
We wanted to photograph and write about every one we tried this summer but we reached an average consumption rate of approximately 2 ice creams a day...each, and it was simply not possible to keep up!

Here are a select few:


(Please note: ₩500 is approximately 30p)

Creamy

Possibly one of the best ice creams -
a cookies & cream ice cream bar.
A steal at only  ₩500  !

It's always a risk going for something that looks
like chocolate because there's a chance it could
be red bean...but this wasn't. A simple wafer
outside and chocolate ice cream inside.
Nothing special, and a bit pricey at  ₩1,200. 

This one is brilliant. An ice cream sandwich with
cake, rather than biscuit, for the outside layer.
This one was vanilla but I have since discovered
the far superior cookies & cream one.
A bit of a treat though, because it's  ₩1000.

This one is, as my students would say, so-so.
Vanilla outside, layer of chocolate and then
vanilla again. Not amazing, but only  ₩500  
and most importantly, cold!

In true Korean style, this one is meant for sharing.
It's a lovely rich chocolate fudge ice creamy thing
with two sticks. We had to wait a bit before it
was soft enough to split in half and then
neither of us got as much as we wanted -
only  ₩500 but you can get more for 
your money buying 2 separate ice creams.

Coney

Cones are cones are cones.
You know what you're getting with a
cornetto style ice cream so I just have
one to tell you about.
This cone had a lovely treat in the middle
- a kit-kat finger! Brilliant.
Cones are more expensive though,
usually at least  ₩1000, maybe  ₩2000.

Fruity

We once saw a documentary while on a coach,
that was about Korean ice cream and apparently,
this one is actually harder than your teeth!
Watch out! I'm not a fan of melon flavoured things
but this was ok. And only  ₩500 - can't complain!

Genius. Watermelon ice lolly that looks like a slice
of watermelon! The "seeds" were actually bits of
nut and the flavour of the ice was spot on.
And the price? Yup, ₩500!

Jeju is famous here for it's delicious oranges and
I am a big fan so this ice lolly gets lots of points
from me. Cold, refreshing and a real orange 
flavour. Note the size difference between
wrapper and lolly though - typical Korea!
All for a mere  ₩500!

And Finally...

Dave loves ice cream.