Familiar with the Street Food Netflix show? I wasn't when we went to Seoul but after we visited Dongdeamun Design Plaza and the Dongdaemun City Wall Park, we decided to check out a night market. There was one nearby, just a few walks away from the park so we took advantage of that and went towards Gwangjang Market.
All of the things that we planned on our Discover Seoul Pass itinerary were not realized except for DDP, one of the things that I wanted to go was the N Seoul Tower and with the Discovery Seoul Pass, it comes with a free silver hanbok rental! We even got an Eland cruise plan on that same day but thinking about these things made me realized that it was better this way as we have full control of our time. We can chill and just really enjoy the places without the need to hurry up for the next itinerary.
So, as we walked towards the market, we found ourselves buying some hand gloves, there are many street stalls too in Seoul. We reached the market in no time and since we were hungry, we scanned through the food offered by each food stall until we noticed one with so many people around it. Since we were curious cats, we went and joined the crowd. Almost instantly, I saw a poster and it has Netflix on it with the vendor's face!
Obviously, this woman has been featured on Netflix and this explains the crowd! Of course, we didn't want to miss this opportunity so we also waited for our turn. The stalls in Gwangjang Market is similar to our stalls in Guindulman before where a specific eatery is surrounded by long wooden benches where customers can just sit, watch the vendor prepare the meal, and eat.
Yoonsun Cho is the vendor's name. The Netflix episode was mostly centered on her stall, the Gohyang Kalguksu Stall, how she started, how she learned her recipe, and how her work day would start and end. From the time that she was featured on the said show, there was an influx of customers, most are foreign ones. After visiting Seoul, I actually watched the said show and it was indeed like that of our visit, she smiles, and handles her customers with a cheerful demeanor.
My husband and I got our seats after perhaps 15-20 minutes of waiting. We were fine with the wait because we were taking photos and videos of her. She's quite famous for her knife cut noodles which is called kalguksu. Because I was feeling cold at that time, I was aiming for the noodle soup! Each bowl was priced at 5,000 KRW ($4.21). I was also aiming to try her kimchi and pork mandu!
We seated right in front of where she was cutting her noodles! It was awesome to see her cut without even looking! Her muscle memory showed that she had been doing this for a long time now. I was also amazed at how huge their cooking materials were with the soup filled to its brim! There were at least three other women helping her out and they are quite attractive with their pink apron. Yoonsun Cho on the other hand can easily be recognized because of her pink apron, purple arm covers, and a head cover.
She rolls the dough, cuts them with a huge knife, pours the noodles into the boiling water, scoops the noodles with a stainless strainer, puts it in a bowl, adds the soup, then garnishes it with the rest of the ingredients. She looks into the customer's plates and asks if they need anything else while doing all these things. Not to mention she also makes mandu right in front of her clients. It's just fun seeing the action right in front of our noses.
During our Seoul trip, I had no appetite, I was really surprised why I was not liking the things that I loved before like seaweed. I was not amused by the food at their markets and I only eat just for the sake of eating because I know our trip involved a lot of walking, we need a lot of energy. My husband thought I was pregnant. It didn't cross my mind though but it was verified when we reached Cebu and I took a pregnancy test. So that explained why I had no appetite at that time but that night, I was glad that we went to Gwangjang Market and had a really nice meal at Yoonsun Cho's stall.
Surprisingly, I ate the whole bowl of hand made noodle soup and I also had a lot of her kimchi and meat mandu! I super love the texture and taste of the noodles. It came with unlimited side dishes too and they'd always ask if we need more kimchi. Although she was not talking in English, she was pointing it to us and would hand us another saucer with the side dishes. Her sauce was also delightful!
While we were eating, more and more customers came. I can sense that she's happy with what she's doing, she was busy yet she still looked fresh! I believe most Koreans are like that.
And it was time to pay for our meal, we just handed the money to her, stood up, and left the market. My husband and I agreed that it was a good meal, we were full and satisfied. Most especially, the hot soup helped a lot with the cold weather!
J U N E B R I D E
Boholana | Cebu | Philippines | Travel | Photography Enthusiast | Calligraphy | Art
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