Seoul 2014: Day 2 Part I (Gwangjang Market)

Day 2 of my 9D8N in South Korea, Seoul!

22 MAY: Gwangjang Market

            Ehwa University

First Stop, Gwangjang Market (광장시장)!

How to get there: Jongno 5-ga Station (종로5-가역) Line 1 - exit 8 (start of the market) or Exit 9 (Nearest to the food section)

A glimpse into Gwangjang Market

When we arrived at Gwangjang Market, it was nearly 10am. We headed straight to the food section to get a taste of the bean pancakes and other traditional food!

We bought the bean pancakes or Bindaetteok from this stall in the middle of the intersection in the market. I think they are the only stall here that only sells the bean pancakes so they're hard to miss. The stall ahjummas are not the most friendly people and they kinda just ignore tourists. So you have to go up to her to order your pancakes because i don't think she will approach you otherwise. 

Our half-eaten pancake

Anyway, they sell the pancakes in big and small sizes. We didn't indicate the size that we want so she just gave us the bigger one. It was too much for 3 people to finish especially if you still want to try the other food there. 

They also gave us some sauce with onions in it to eat with the pancakes to. As for the taste, it's not an amazing pancake but worth a try!

After buying the pancake, we didn't know which other stall to eat from cause they all look pretty much the same. This ahjumma motioned us to sit at her stall so we simply obliged.

She gave us these dishes after a series of hand gestures and korean which i only managed to understand parts of.  We also had a small bowl of soup each with pieces of fish cakes inside. The kimbap (sushi like thing) was really delicious. Tteokbokki was well, tteokbokki. The soondae (blood sausage), the intestine looking like food, is a bit like glutinous rice with blood. It wasn't as bad as i thought it was. The cold pork knuckle was like one of those cold dishes you get to eat at restaurants.


I'm really bad at describing the taste of food. To me it's just good or bad or sweet or salty or sour or bitter. 



The total cost was 19000KRW for 3 people. From what i understood, the dishes she gave us are the "small" sized ones which we couldn't even finish so I can't imagine her medium or large size platters. The soup should be 2000KRW each.

I really wanted to try the cold noodle and bibimbap but we were really too full from this filling breakfast. I will definitely go back there the next time i visit Seoul to try these two dishes.

Overall, Gwangjang Market is a nice place to visit and walk around just to get a feel of the traditional market.