Food
Welcome to my tour of all the foods I have been eating in South Korea! Here, I will briefly talk about various foods and recommend restaurants where you can try them :D Scroll all the way down to start at the beginning!
Ramen
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Daegu's Braised Beef Short Ribs (대구 찜갈비)
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Silk Worms
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Fried Chicken
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Kalguksu (칼국수)
Kalguksu is
Naengmyeon(냉면)
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Samgyetang (삼계탕)
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Shaved Ice (빙수)
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Tanghulu
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Jajangmyeon (자장면)
Jajangmyeon is a Korean Chinese dish. Usually served with
Korean Barbeque (Unlimited)
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Maratang/Malatang (마라탕)
Maratang is a popular spicy soup originated in Sichuan, China. The name maratang literally means 'numb spicy hot'. It gets its name from the use of mala sauce, which is a mix of Sichuan pepper and dried chili pepper. Common ingredients that you can add in it are various types of noodles, tofu, beef, sausages, fish balls, rice cakes, mushrooms, eggs, lettuce, bokchob, bean sprouts, seafood, etc. When walking into a maratang restuarant, the first thing you do is go to the self-service station where you pick up a big bowl and tongs to help yourself to any of the ingrediants on the shelves. After choosing what you want, you bring your filled bowl to the front where you choose a level of spiciness and pay for it based on the weight of the ingredients. The restaurant will then take your bowl and create your personal maratang! Also, when eating it, I highly recommend using the aprons they provide so you won't ruin your clothes just in case.
Hotteok (호떡)
Hotteok has to be one of my favorite street food desserts! It is basically a pan-fried pancake stuffed with a brown sugar, honey, peanuts, and cinnamon syrup. Of course there are different variations of it such as savory ones, with seeds, etc. They usually cost about 1,000-1,500 won depending on the vendor. It's definitely worth a try!
School Cafeteria
SNU offers lunch and dinner for everyone, not just students, throughout the campus! This is a picture of my first lunch at the cafeteria in the student center building (building 63). In this cafeteria, they offer up to 3 different meals, set A, B, and sometimes set C. Set A is usually the more expensive option (5,000-5,500 won). However, if you are a student at SNU, you can get a 1,000 won off discount! You can do this by scanning your S-card (the student ID card) on the order machine. Most of the meals have a main dish, a lot of the times with meat, rice, soup, and banchan (side dishes) such as kimchi, salad, fish cakes, etc. So far, probably my favorite cafeteria on campus is the dorm's cafeteria called "Our Home" because they usually offer diverse Korean style meals.
Fun Fact! If you ever want to save some money, at the student center cafeteria (building 63), you can get a meal that costs only 1,000 won! You can get it for either lunch or dinner. The 1,000 won meal is only applicable for SNU students. To get it, you must show your mobile S-card from the SNU app and pay via cash or card to a person at the desk (near the order machines). The person will then give you a neon colored 1,000 won ticket. Also, the 1,000 won meal will always be set B, the cheaper meal option. Therefore, if you ever choose set B, make sure to get the 1,000 won ticket instead of paying the original price!
Korean Style Pizza (피자)
My first Korean style pizza! Today I was able to meet a good friend of mine, Shannon, who is also studying abroad in Korea! I haven't seen her for a whole year so it was really nice to catch up. For today's dinner, we decided to eat pizza. You may be wondering, how is Korean style pizza different from regular pizza? The main difference is toppings! Rather than just cheese or pepporoni pizza, you can get toppings like bulgogi, shrimp, corn, sweet potato, garlic, kimchi, and more! We decided to try half bulgogi and half potato pizza. A lot of the pizzas also have extra sauce swirled on top too, making it a bit sweeter.
Juk (죽)- Korean Rice Porridge
This is a picture of my very first meal in Korea! After the business school orientation, I came with some people that I had just met to go eat around SNU station. It was cold at the time (snow still on the ground), so this was the perfect thing to eat to warm up. Rice porridge is a great comfort food and it comes in various flavors. My personal favorite is the beef and vegetable rice porridge, which is shown in this picture. They will give you a smaller bowl which you can eat from. You can find small restaurants selling it everywhere or even buy miniature ones at any convenience store or grocery store!
Fun Fact! You will notice that Korean meals will always come along with multiple side dishes. These are known as banchan (반찬). Every place has their own version of banchan but the most popular ones are kimchi, radishes, rice, or gochujang (고추장)- red chili paste!