Well, spring couldn’t last forever.
The perfect weather that usually lasts for what feels like a week in Seoul felt a little bit longer this time though. Maybe like a week and two days.
With the cherry blossoms blossomed and the cool breezes breezed, I can already feel the humid mugginess (I know that’s repetitious, I’m emphasizing it) and my beloved mosquitoes returning.
Things are already feeling a bit slower and groggier.
You can usually tell that summer is here when every single restaurant starts dragging their tables outdoors and opening the fold-out walls so that inside and outside can join together as one.
Pojangmachas (outdoor tent restaurants) start to litter the streets more frequently.
As the temperature rises, so has my work. I think I’ve written close to 15 articles for various companies and clients in the past 7 days and I’m looking to break the record every week.
(If you didn’t know, I have another substack newsletter that I’ve been writing since 2017 that’s more about introspective stories, thought-provoking observations, travel, etc. I wrote an excuse to be lazy this week, check it out.)
All that to say, this week will be a little break from the normal rants and recipes.
Instead, I’d like to give you a little glimpse into what life is like in Seoul, more specifically food culture.
Which is life in Seoul, in my opinion.
Hanguk eumsik isn’t so much a secret anymore. Since the days of getting bullied in the 1990s for bringing a smelly kimchi-filled lunchbox to school in the US, Korean food has become one of the trendiest cuisines in the world.
I use to have semi-complicated feelings about it, having your culture become a trend. But other than having to hear white celebrity chefs try to pronounce gochujang, my feelings are mostly positive now.
The first couple of years that I lived here, I tried persuading every single acquaintance I knew to fly over here, for nothing other than the fact that I would feed them better than they’d ever been fed in their life.
Then covid happened, the brink of world war 3 happened several times, yada yada…
But it seems like people are beginning to strap their bags on and travel once again, so once again — I will make my case. This time, to YOU — my friend and subscriber, as to why you should come eat with me in Seoul.
I’ll shut up and let the pictures do the talking now.
Everyone knows kbbq by now. Course, no one says “kbbq” over here. You’d just say you’re going to a gogi jib (meat…house) and you’d come to a place like this. Also, it’s not like America where you go to a spot and they have every kind of meat. Here, every place has its specialties, and for good reason. This is the famous samgyupsal (pork belly).
You can’t tell here, but this kind of grill kind of sits on a slope where the meat is higher. All that delicious rendered pork fat drips down into the grilled kimchi to give it that extra oomph.
Some places (good places) will offer bokkeumbap after your meat — fried rice. They’ll mix it up with some veggies, gochujang (Korean red pepper paste), sesame oil, gim (dried seaweed), a couple eggs, and of course, that delicious unhealthy pig fat leftover from the grill.
It was my birthday about a month ago. As is tradition, my friends and I usually head out to the hangang (river park) and get drunk in those few beautiful weeks of spring. This is the most river-park-y set-up you can find: several variations of Korean fried chicken, tteokboki (spicy rice cakes), makgeolli (rice wine), and lots of beer.
Another thing: food delivery is the best in Korea. Fast, cheap, and they’ll even find you in the giant parks if you can direct them there.
Crab. Because crab.
Cat. Because cat.
Wish I got a better shot of this. This area is a collection of alleys where literally thousands of people will sit side by side on red and blue plastic chairs and tables and get drunk until the sun comes up. You can order nogari (dried fish) as the perfect anju (drinking food) to pair with an ice-cold bottle of soju.
Here’s a famous shabu-shabu place a few friends and I went to. I don’t even know how many different kinds of mushrooms you can count in that hot pot. And of course, can’t forget the gigantic pile of raw meat.
This is a good representation of what a normal weekday lunch looks like. This is a great soondubu spot (soft tofu stew) near my old work. I hated dubu (tofu) when I was a kid, but I can’t get enough of it nowadays. So soft and melty in your mouth. This place gives you an egg to crack in it and a slice of cheese to put on top, so like…triple soft and melty.
You can also see many banchan (side dishes) here. Pajeon (savory green onion pancake), fried fish, marinated veggies. Also, see those black bowls with the purple rice? They bring those out scalding hot. You scoop the rice out, then you pour boiling water in there with the leftover crispy rice to make a sort of porridge.
Last but not least, my favorite girl, at my favorite gogi jib, with my favorite ice-cold bottle of soju, on a beautiful Sunday. I live for these cool spring afternoons, where good meat hits a hot grill with the breeze on your back.
I’ll miss you, spring.
Like these kinds of food porn-y posts? Let me know in the comments. I got a thousand of these in the chamber.
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omg what a food porn.... I want 삼겹살 so bad