South Korea : The Street "Buffet"

August – December 2012.
South Korea.

One of the joys of visiting Korea (besides shopping for some) is to eat. No, I am not referring to going to expensive restaurants or the local sikdang but the street “buffet” that lined the streets or Myeongdong or the entrance of ulu Ansan.

Street food is a must-try in Korea, just in Myeongdong alone you can find a myriad of street food ranging from the classic dubboki 떡볶이which are Korean rice cakes in sweet and spicy gravy to something like Chocolate Banana, fresh bananas coated in chocolate sauce and coated with crunchy cereals.

Another very popular and affordable street food is fish cakes served with soup. This is especially popular during the cold winter months as nothing beats a warm cup of soup to fight of the winter chill.

My favourite is the Corn Dog, a decadent western snack. The best Corn Dog, I have is just outside Handaep Station where the lady owner would deep fried the corn dog to the perfect crispiness then coat it with sugar before topping it with mustard and tomato ketchup. Unlike some other street food vendors, she makes her own corn dogs rather than reheat those frozen ones and it cost only 1000 KRW as opposed to the usual 1500 – 2500 KRW.

Other street food you could find also include Potato Twisters (you could find these in Singapore as well), hoddeok 호떡which are sweet pancakes with a caramelized inside like a larger beh-teh-soh (sometimes the Koreans call them “naans”), bbogi 뽑기which are patterned biscuits made from caramelized sugar, chicken and duck skewers, roasted chicken and many more.

It is a pity that Singapore does not share the kind of vibrant street food scene like Penang, Taiwan or Korea due to “hygiene concerns”. So, if you do visit Korea don’t miss out on grabbing a bite at the street food stalls, it’s probably something you wouldn’t be able to do in Singapore without being in a tourist trap like Chinatown.