The Food Experience in Seoul

I'm not a picky eater and I like to try new foods.

So.

It's really a matter of opinion when I say, "Korean food is delicious and healthy!"

One of my best friends put her boss on the phone to speak to me about Korea before I left the States. He said the food was awful! It was like diarrhea waiting to happen. Stay away from basically all of the food sold on the streets. He really scared me for a moment. Then I realized, he may be a character......and by character. I mean. One of those people who are overly dramatic....a little extra acting over things.

Ah, and well too bad his words did not phase me. Because naturally what I like the most....is the street food here!

Oh, and about the food sold at stands!

Eating at a food stand is an experience alone. The vendor literally sets up like a tent on the corner of a busy street. Cooks all the food behind him and then puts it in small sections on displays, like a buffet. Then people walk up to his tent, pay, and eat right at the stand because of the ledge provided for them.

I have never seen anything like it!

But I dig it, because I eat standing up all the time.

During lunch I like to eat these triangular shaped seaweed wrapped sticky rice cakes filled with either spicy pork, spicy tuna, or chicken. They remind of sushi hand rolls, only they don't stuff everything in the middle, it's sort of in the bottom middle part of the rice cake. They are really delicious and good for if you're on the go. Especially for only 1,000 won or $0.88 each, I eat two for lunch and I'm good until dinner time!

My favorite beverages of choice are aloe juice and water. Aloe juice here doesn't taste like the nasty aloe water we drink in the States either. The aloe juice Korea sells tastes like grape drink and the aloe pieces that float around in your drink. Taste like the inside part of a grape.

*on a side note: I asked my mother how come her skin always glows and looks so good. She tells me, water! So, it's all I drink now...and she's right about water! It really is the key to healthy skin, despite what doctors say about it only helping a bit. If you drink at least three 500mL bottled waters. I guarantee you! You'll notice the difference in your skin within two days.

For dinner I've been chowing down on lots of kimchi (I like it warm, not cold). White sticky rice and various soups dishes that usually include beef, spicy pork dumplings, egg, noodles, and seaweed in a chicken broth. I can eat a full hearty Korean meal in Seoul for 5,000 won or $4.39 and still have food left over for lunch or dinner the next day.

Not sure what's up with the sticky rice here either. But it's seriously the truth.net!

No joke.

It doesn't need butter, salt...nothing. And it usually compliments every Korean dish you eat too because everything is so spicy.

My nose runs constantly after every meal, no lie.

Korean sweets are to die for!

They aren't too sweet but instead have the right amount of sweet in them. I am obsessed with these almond cookies with almond bits in them.They also have these flaky sweet (but not too sweet) cookie like crackers filled with a light cream on the inside.

They are heaven!

On the street you can buy 6 of these donut balls for like 2,000 won. To best describe how they taste: they're like funnel cakes with confection sugar. Only they look like balls and they're not thick like funnel cake, they're actually really thin.

When I first saw them at the stand. I was really scared to try them, because I had no idea what they were or what was on the inside of them. All I knew is that they smelled like dough, sugar, and cinnamon! So, I dared my friend/work husband Ted to try them. When he bit into one of them, said they were good, and was still breathing...then I decided to try one. And well, the rest is history!

Another item that's really popular here is this 'go to brand' for instant coffee! They sell these little coffee packets everywhere! I can buy them in the store, or drink them at work since my office puts them out on a tray for everyone to drink in the morning. They're not watered down and they have just the right amount of coffee, cream, and sugar in them!

I'll create more posts about the food here because the options are endless!

Maybe, by then I'll know how to pronounce some of these foods in Korean too, smh.