Travel Eats Episode 6: Seoul, Korea

quiet revelations

A waterlogged keyboard, chaotic house admin, and a week of escape later, the delay is done. That escape still lingers, though. Korea evokes, for me at least, this vibrant fusion of sweet and spicy flavour, both food and culture alike, an energy so foreign yet unforgettable.

just one of Seoul’s many hidden gem cafes, tucked away behind mysterious entrances

Some discoveries sort of surprised me (like how I knew it would have a cool café scene but was not ready for wilder, eclectic twists) while others reinforced my perception of Korea as a place where beauty and melancholy intertwine. Nowhere was this contrast more striking than at the DMZ, where we stood gazing at part of the sprawling green-brown landscape of North Korea. I highly recommend the account in Escape from Camp 14, which was NK’s most notorious labour camp; the tour brought to memory some powerful imagery. On a lighter note, on to what I was most excited for…

S(e)oul food.

1. Marinated crab at Odarijip

There’s crab and there’s marinated crab– an umami-packed staple. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as squelching the briny richness of soy-marinated crab onto a heaving bowl of rice topped with roe and seaweed. You don’t just get crab, you get the whole experience, complete with 10 types of banchan (side dishes like kimchi, pickled radish and the like), soufflé egg, and kimchi soup. Each bite is like chewy, salty jelly, complete and full in flavour from fresh, young crab roe. I want it now. So badly.

2. Jayeondo salt bread and Cheongsudam Coffee at Ikseon-dong

puffy sponges atop salty glass = salt bread

I started alexcrumb as a café hopper, and at heart, I’ll always be one. There’s nothing like finding nooks like these– here it was gold, white, and green all around– where you can just sit and soak it in.

Apparently, there’s another famous salt bread spot nearby, but we ended up at Jayeondo twice because it was that good. Light, almost croissant-like, with laminated layers and a distinctly glassy bottom, thanks to a final bake trick of coating the underside with salt. Just a short walk away is Cheongsudam, where the interior is pure magic: mossy, modern, water flowing in and out and all around the space. Their injeolmi (glutinous rice flour-flavoured) fromage ‘toast’ leans more toward pound cake, but the flavors were spot on, elevated by the earthy surroundings.

3. Stuffed chicken wings, pulled pork tacos, tteok and makgeolli at Mr. Ahn’s Craft Makegolli

love how they served upscale chicken wings in this animated box

Knee-deep in a fever dream maybe five bites into this starry meal, I realised: this is the point of life. This is peak– soulful food, belly-busting laughter, the heady warmth of rice thoroughly fermented. I must’ve been so annoying with all that makgeolli washed down me, save for the chicken which would sober you right up. The lightest, juiciest chicken wings stuffed with minced chicken and mushroom, shattering like thin glass, too easily, upon impact.