East Asia 2018 Food Diary, Day 8

On the way to Changdeokgung, after wondering around Bukchon Hanok Village, I stopped off at a coffee shop and got an extremely memorable treat–a Jeju green tea croissant.  It was scrumptious!  (And the green powder got everywhere!)

I got thirsty as I was exploring Changdeokgung, so I stopped in the snack bar there and got a persimmon punch.  Something a little different.

As I was nearing the busy western end of Cheonggyecheon, I noticed a lot of food stalls in the city above the stream.  It was good timing because I was ready for some lunch, not to mention my 1st real meal of the day.  I thoroughly enjoyed my black pepper shrimp with fried rice.

When I went to Gwangjang Market for dinner, I was planning getting 1 of their famous specialties.  1 option was nokdu bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes).  But before I saw that anywhere, I saw a stall serving boribap, and only boribap.  Boribap is steamed rice, barley, vegetables, and a fermented soybean stew.  I watched the woman at the stall put all the ingredients together for me.  Then she instructed me to pour in the stew and mix everything up together.

Well after I did a bit of stirring, I got a very displeased look from the woman.  I did not stir everything together vigorously enough.  With barely visible disdain, she took back the bowl and stirred the contents up to within an inch of their former lives.  Now the boribap it was ready to be consumed!

It was an interesting dish in that it was neither cold or hot, but room temperature.  It was definitely hearty.  Not something I’d order all the time.  But certainly a very good traditional Korean meal I’d be happy to enjoy from time to time.

I learned a few other things about Korean dining at that meal in addition to the importance of robustly mixing the ingredients.  I learned that Korean chopsticks are metal, not wood.  I learned the the metal chopsticks, along with spoons, are usually stored in a drawer under your table (or counter, as the case was here).  And I learned that often beverage service consisted of a pitcher of water on the table that was poured into the glass that you grabbed from a stack.  Very self-service and very efficient!