Yes, 500¥ . . . for ddeokpokki!!!
We can’t believe it either.
Tokyo, you truly are the city of dreams. Crazy, expensive, overpriced dreams.

Lots of places will serve up a plate of decent ddokpokki, but very few use fresh peppers to liven up their sauce. While not blisteringly hot, high-quality peppers lift this sauce from the ordinary to magnificent, enough to bring a little burn but not enough to make you sweat. The ddeok themselves are served on the unadorned and on the al dente side, so let them know if you’d like something a little softer and less chewy.

The specialty here are the twigim (튀김: fried foods). Their crispy, crunchy, eggy batter is enlivened with just a bit of rosemary for an wonderful hint of herb. Another sign that this is a cut above the usual standing snacking is the fresh seafood and vegetables that go into their fry. Tender, wonderfully soft squid fried up here will make you forget the boring blandishments of ordinary calamari. The shrimp were another standout, perfectly cooked just to the point of doneness so you can taste the sweetness of them while you appreciate the soft flesh.

Sesame leaves and peppers are stuffed with an mixture of meat, tofu, and kimchi for a crispy, meaty mouthful both savory and herbaceous. There’s no doubt that the people behind the counter at Sak have been working hard to make sure their seasoning and stuffings were just so. But one of the most spectacular items of the evening was the fried seaweed rolls. Most places just soak some tangmyeon (탕면: glass noodles/cellophane noodles/sweet potato noodles – the same kind you see in japchae) in water or broth, roll them up in a bit of kim, and fry them up without a second thought. Not at Sak; this place uses sweet, tender noodles that have been infused with some of the rich meat flavor of the best japchae. They have both sweetness and umami in a rich little roll, exquisitely tender inside, wrapped in the crispy-chewy kim, and finally fried up in the same shatteringly crisp batter as the other twigim. This is what snack food should be! What could possibly make it any more perfect?

Beer! Yes, unlike most bunshik places, Sak serves up a limited menu of sodas (including Dr. Pepper, Welches, and other relatively hard-to-find fizzes) and beers at reasonable prices. Wash down your ‘pokki and fry with a bit of beer or a swig of soda as you sit back and relax at the small counter inside the main doors or in the seating area one door down. Entertain yourself by reading the post-it notes left by countless counter-sitters before you as you sit back and chow down, or grab some to go.

Get to Sak by taking line 6 to Sangsu Station (상수역) and walking straight out of exit one. It’ll be just a few meters down on the right-hand side. Prices are modest, running about 700 won for a piece of twigim, about 2000 for a serving of ddeokpokki, and 1-5000 for drinks. Two can easily stuff themselves here for less than 10,000.

HT to Zen Kimchi and the extraordinary Eun-jeong for pointing this place out.

And what did we encounter there?  Let’s start with the winter weather wonder of fish bread:

Named for the fish-shape of the mold they’re baked in, these sweet pancakes can resemble carp, goldfish, shrimp, or even at one memorable yet disturbing stand in Ssamzie Gil, a pile of poo. A thin sweet batter similar to pancake batter is poured into cast-iron mold over a gas grill. As the batter begins to cook, sweet red bean paste (팥: pat) is added, then the mold is closed and flipped, sealing the filling in the center of a crispy, gooey treat. The pancake base can be any number of flours, but is usually wheat flower. If you’re looking for a different texture or have wheat allergies, look for places that use sweet rice flour (찹쌀: chapssal). Some places have become experimental with fillings as well, and if you hunt around you’ll find sweet potato (고구마: goguma), chou cream (슈크림: shyukeurim), chestnut (밤: bam), and even savory fillings like chili-cheese.

Ready for a Fatman favorite?

Mmmm, 쥐포. While dried and pressed filefish roasted over an open flame may not sound like the sweetest of treats, trust us: this is the epitome of sweet and salty snacking. Forget kettle corn and sunchips – jwipo are where it’s at. Forget the popcorn and pick some up at the carts near Seoul Cinema before you head inside to watch a film. If that’s not caloric enough for you, it can also be deep fried into a crispy treat (shown here alongside deep fried sweet potato sticks)

As long as we’re talking about sea-born street food, let’s take a minute and discuss 오징어:

Delicious squid strips are put on a hot press with yummy butter. Oh, the chewy, gooey joy of it all! But as we trotted along through the town we started longing for something a little more substantial.

These chicken feet in spicy pepper sauce may be chewy and gristly, but they’re also packed with flavor. While chicken feet have very little in terms of actual flesh, they have a distinctive texture and taste from the skin, tendon, and bone that makes them toothsome and gelatinous. The spicy sauce might overwhelm some meats, but it makes a great counterpoint to the chicken feet.
It’s not just chicken feet to greet the street diner though.

Korean cooking has ways to use just about every part of the animals they eat, including sweetbreads, tripe, skin, and brains. Most of these get served up in specialty restaurants, but some of them grill up in the many tents that line the roads. Mixed with some vegetables and sauce, these foods appear later in the evening as more and more boozy businessmen and women pour into the streets looking for the right counterpoint to all that soju they’re metabolizing.

Fried foods and grilled meat and fish are also popular ways to help absorb all that alcohol. Fortifying the stomach helps keep all that business going. Without chicken feet and kimchi pancakes, who knows? The economy of South Korea could grind to a halt.
Some treats are twenty-four hour appropriate though . . .

Walking down Jogno you might wonder, “Who is Kim Dok-soon and why does she own every stand on the street?”
Haha, Fatman made a funny. Gim-ddeok-sun stands serve the holy trinity of street snacks: Gimbap, ddeokpokki, and sundae. The wise will have all three, and perhaps some assorted fried foods mixed together so that everything absorbs the spicy-sweet ddeokpokki sauce.  Those tender, toothy bits of rice cake simmer together with a sugar and pepper powder blend to become something so spicy that the heat in your mouth will have you sweating like it’s the dog days of summer.

The richness of the sundae especially benefits from the ddeokpokki sauce, which helps balance it out and keep it from feeling greasy or fatty. Meanwhile the sundae helps tone down the burn of the chili, as does the rice in the gimbap and the crunch of the twigim gives a textural contrast that can’t be beat. Most places will have squid legs, sweet potato, dumplings, and fritters made of mixed julienne vegetables on the menu.

If all you want is some gimbap, try one of the places that specialize in miniature sized rolls. Refreshing and surprisingly filling, you can try a variety of fillings to discover your ideal taste wrapped in roasted laver and rice.

Virtually every street stall will have at least one food in common:

Behold, the 국물 and 오댕! This fishy broth hits the spot better than anything on a chilly winter day. Each stand will tend to have their own recipe, and so as you eat your way down the road you can sample dozens of different kinds. The richest tasting use crab as the base flavor while others rely on anchovies or other fish, and places work to outdo each other with fancy broths using everything from mussels to pumpkin to jujube in addition to the usual onion, spring onion, and radish that flavor the ordinary broth. If you need to warm up fast, a cup of this is almost always complimentary when you order, no matter what you’re standing and eating. Use it to wash down your ddeokpokki or enhance your odeng. Speaking of which, don’t pass up these tender fish patties – they’re a reliable way to satisfy your craving for something mild but savory. Infused with the complex flavors of a good gukmul, the embracing softness of the patty is a luxurious way to warm up.

But what to do if you need a meal that’s a bit more mobile? No problem! Just grab some meat on a stick (닭꼬치: dalkggochi)!

Chicken skewers come in a wide variety of sauces, both spicy and not, and a range of toppings from mayonnaise to cheese powder to garlic salt. Sticks keep getting longer and longer, up to thirty centimeters! Yowza, that’s a lot of stick! Most are given a quick parboil before being grilled, then sauced, and then given a final run over the coals before the stick of hot, juicy chicken bits is handed over to the customer.
If you’re looking for for some fusion in your food, you could definitely do worse than the hot bar. Made from a mysterious combination of fish paste, vegetables, and flour, this savory mash is formed into hot-dog shapes and then deep fried for a completely portable flavor delivery system.

We have a lot of different wraps, toppings, and fillings to decorate our bar with, including bacon, hot dogs, roasted seaweed, and sesame leaves. Could it get any better? But let’s keep moving. Maybe it’s time for something a bit more basic, a bit more natural, a bit more fundamental. Maybe it’s time for roasted chestnuts.

Floury and hot from the roaster, chestnuts (밤: bam) in Korea are categorized by how they’re cooked and served to you. Some chestnut vendors will roast them over an open fire (just like the Christmas carol) and others tumble them with heated stones. “Nude” chestnuts don’t belong in a brothel – they’re simply peeled for you. Also take a crack at roasted ginko (은행: eunheng) nuts when they’re in season, because those nibbles are a bitter and tender delicacy.
Eventually, everybody’s sweet tooth catches up to them. Fatman and friends are no exception, and soon we were hunting down honeyed foods to sooth the savage beasts. First on our list of must-haves were those deep fried delights, hoddeok (호떡).

These yeasty doughnuts are stuffed with sugar, cinnamon, and often nuts that turn to oozy caramel when they’re fried and pressed on a grill. The crispy-chewy dough surrounds a molten core that’s burn the tongue but delight the tastebuds. Again, each stand will have its own special recipe, using everything from peanuts to black sesame seeds in the caramel, while green tea, corn, pumpkin and vegetables have showed up in the risen dough. If that’s not sweet enough for you though, we have another suggestion.

뽑기 (bbobki)  is one of the most basic and lasting of Korean street foods. All you need to do to make your own is to heat sugar until it begins to burn, stirring all the while. Then dump it out on a cool, smooth surface to shape and decorate as you wish. It’s not as much fun though as getting it made for you on the streets. See if you can eat it and keep the designs intact!

Yeot (엿) is a traditional confection made from boiling steamed rice, corn, or other malted grain. Once the syrup has been boiled long enough, it will solidify when cooled and form a sweet, sticky taffy that ranges from chewy to crunchy in texture. It can be chipped or chiseled into the desired form, and some varieties have extra goodness inside the taffy or the candy itself is rolled in fun bits like peanuts or sesame seeds. The most famous variety is a pumpkin flavored variety from the island of Ulleungdo.
But if you really want to eat to impress, try one of the newer innovations in street sweets: Honey candy.

Ggultarae (꿀타래) stem from royal court cuisine, but have made their way into the lives of the hoi polloi. This might well be the best show in town, as the complicated process of making them is narrated by multilingual chorus as solidified honey is stretched and separated into fine threads by being pulled through cornstarch, then wrapped around nut fillings. Intensely sweet, they have a distinctive texture that slowly turns from dry and almost crackling to gooey and chewy with a finishing bit of crunch from the nuts. Look for these guys mostly along Insadong, although franchises have started cropping up all over the place, so you can try all the different flavors (almond, peanut, and walnut). And a note to the ladies: watch out, the guys making this stuff are all flirts!
Many thanks to Zen Kimchi, Chef Hickey, and the many friends who joined Fatman for this eating excursion. Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more in the future

How do you like them apples?

Mmmmm, ginseng!

and deep fried ginseng!

Salted mackerel – now in a tin!

Quail

And whale

Rice for fake rites: 헛재사밥

Check out more pictures on our flickr page!

oh my! 어머!

“서울 푸드 페스티벌”은 비교적 최근에 시작된 페스티벌이기 때문에(2007년에 시작됐다) 아직 자리를 잡아가고 있는 중이다. Fatman도 역시 시작한지 얼마 되지 않아 왠지 모를 동질감이 들었다. 이곳 지리에 익숙하지 않은 여러분을 위해서 Fatman이 또 한 번 발벗고 나섰다. 페스티벌은 다섯 군데에서 진행이 되며 외국인을 위한 영어 번역도 엉망이라, 언제, 어디에서, 무엇을 해야 할지 정하는 것이 중요하다. 그래서 Fatman은 여러분들의 마지막 주 여행에 도움을 주기 위해 첫째 주에 미리 푸드 페스티벌 현장을 찾았다.

@ Chonggyecheon: Cooking performances and lectures starting at 6 pm on the 30th (Sat)

@ Gyeonghui Palace: see Seoul History Museum events

@ Seoul History Museum: Tea demonstration and lecture starting at 6 pm on the 30th, and the Chitwa parade (similar to a changing of the guard ceremony) that leads from the Seoul History Museum to Gyeonghui Palace.

@ Namsan Hanok Village: See mask dances and traditional performances starting at 6 pm on Saturday, the 30th.

@ Namsan M Tower: exhibitions and food performances starting from 1 pm

@청계천: 30일(토) 오후 6시 요리 강습

@경희궁:”서울 역사 박물관”(아래) 참고.

@서울 역사 박물관:30일 오후 6시 다도, 퍼레이드(서울 역사 박물관부터 경희궁까지)

@남산 한옥 마을:30일(토) 오후 6시 탈춤을 비롯한 전통 무용

@남산타워:오후 1시 음식에 관한 각종 박람회

Do’s and Don’ts:

Do go with an open and generous mind.

Do ask questions of the guides. They’re there to help you and guide you to events you’ll enjoy. They can also explain a lot about the foods, performances, and lectures to help you get the most out of your time.

Do take a look at the schedule in both English/Japanese/Chinese AND at the Korean. The translation is spotty, and sometimes things are clearer in the Korean.

Do try to see what’s happening at different venues. Some of the venues aren’t very large, but the festival overall is pretty big. Remember, there are four to five locations hosting events at any given time!

Do try your hand at some of the activities. Shove a few of those kiddies aside and stamp out a few pieces of ddeok yourself!

Do take advantage of the restaurants giving discounts. A full list is available from guide stations, and there’s dozens of restaurants around Seoul offering 10% off meals.

Do give the festival organizers feedback. They’re trying to make this event more fun for locals and tourists alike, so let them know what you think. Tell them what didn’t jell, but also what dings your bell.

Don’t expect there to be a lot of samples. They’re there, but you have to be in the right place at the right time.

Don’t forget your wallet. Most of the food to be had is being sold by vendors along Cheonggyecheon. There’s some of the expected, some of the unusual, and some of the downright strangest foods ever (grilled ddeok and odeng chocolate fondue???) but unless you’re as adorable as the Fatman, don’t expect to find it for free.

Don’t worry about seeing all the events. Not everything is exciting, and other events are repeated.

Don’t think of this as a full blown festival yet. Think of it as a grand gathering of food tents with some Korean-style entertainment, so you can relax and just enjoy having some cheap bindaeddeok by the cooling rush of the Cheonggyecheon while bartenders try to toss flaming bottles around and mask dancers parade by.

해야 할 것 & 하지 말아야 할 것

문화에 대한 열린 마음을 가져라.

현장에 있는 가이드에게 질문을 하라. 그들은 여러분을 돕기 위해 있는 것이다. 그곳에서 진행되는 모든 내용에 대해서 잘 설명해 줄 것이다.

영어, 일어, 중어 그리고 한국어로 된 모든 스케줄을 살펴라. 번역에 실수가 많아서 때로는 한국어로 된 것이 더 쉬울 때가 있다.

다른 행사장에서 어떤 일이 일어나는지 관심을 가져라. 몇몇 행사장은 그다지 크지 않지만 전체적인 페스티벌의 규모는 매우 큰 편이다. 네 다섯 군데에서 동시에 페스티벌이 진행 중이라는 것을 항상 명심하길 바란다.

페스티벌에 적극 참여하려고 노력하라. 참여할수록 얻는 것도 많아질 것이다.

할인을 하는 식당을 적극 이용하라. 안내소에서 할인을 하고 있는 식당 목록을 받을 수 있다. 10%정도 할인을 해주는 식당이 십 여 곳이 넘게 있다.

주최측에 여러분의 의견을 알려라. 그들은 그곳 사람들은 물론 여행객들 모두 만족시키려 노력하고 있다. 무엇이 만족스러웠고 무엇이 그렇지 않았는지 밝혀라.

시식에 너무 욕심내지 말라. 물론 시식할 수 있는 곳도 있지만 시간과 장소를 잘 맞춰야 맛 볼 수 있다.

돈을 아껴라. 그곳에는 청계천을 따라 많은 잡상인들이 음식을 팔고 있다. 일반적인 음식에서부터 매우 특이한 음식까지 그 종류가 다양한데, 여러분이 Fatman처럼 사랑스럽지 않다면 공짜로 먹는 것은 아마 포기해야 할 것이다.

아직 완성치 않은 페스티벌이라고 생각하지 말라. 한국전통의 문화가 곁들여진 음식 축제라 생각하고 마음껏 즐기길 바란다.

Highlights of last weekend: The recreation of palace events at Gyeonghui Palace may not have all been food related, but they did have some pretty pretty costumes around. (Fatman now knows exactly how the kings of Korea were fed and watered, and wonders why nobody waits on us like that . . .)

지난 주의 하이라이트를 뽑으라면 경희궁에서 있었던 재현식을 뽑을 수 있겠다. 그것은 비록 음식과는 조금 거리가 있는 것이었지만 아름다운 전통 의복도 볼 수 있는 아주 좋은 기회였다.

The opening ceremony of the festival had quite a few snags, but we never get tired of impromptu performances of “어머나!” nor of seeing Korea’s most famous chefs wandering around with the great un-toqued. The biggest problem is that the venue was too narrow to see much during many of the events, and Fatman may have crushed a small child or two while jockeying for a good photo spot.

개막식에서 약간의 실수가 있긴 했지만 한국 최고의 요리사가 당황하는 모습을 보는 것이 그렇게 나쁘지는 않았다. 하지만 큰 문제는 행사장이 너무 좁아서 다소 불편했다는 점이다. 게다가 여기저기 뛰어다니는 아이들 때문에 사진 촬영에 어려움이 있었다.

The American-style contests were a hoot! Nobody may have gotten into the Guinness Book of World Records, but there’s nothing quite like watching a petite young lady battle it out with a burly middle-aged bruiser to see who can eat more hot peppers or lemons. There’s also a great deal of entertainment in watching mother-daughter teams take on college boys to see who can suck down a liter of cola faster. And is there anything in this world that beats watching a hot-dog eating contest? Fatman thinks not!

미국식 경연대회는 아무것도 아니었다. 단아한 젊은 여자와 건장한 중년의 아줌마가 청양고추나 레몬을 누가 더 많이 먹나 하는 대결은 기네스북에 있지도 않겠지만 그 비슷한 것도 없는 것 같다. 그리고 엄마와 딸이 한 팀이 되어 남자아이들 팀에 맞서 콜라를 더 빨리 마시려고 하는 모습도 볼 수 있었다. 하지만 이 세상에 핫도그 빨리 먹기 대회를 이길 대회가 또 있을까? Fatman은 없다고 생각한다.

Fatman also had a great time enjoying all the tea demonstrations at Seoul History Museum. The ladies and gentlement there were very kind, and very informative. We were swimming in tea all afternoon long.

So explore, have a great time, and relax!

Fatman은 서울 역사 박물관에서 진행된 다도에 참여하여 매우 좋은 시간을 보냈다. 그곳에서 많은 새로운 지식도 쌓을 수 있었다. 우리는 그날 오후 내내 차에 빠져 있었다.

자 이제 여러분이 직접 경험해 보길 바란다.<Korean by MAXZEST>