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This is my local kimbap restaurant. We are at my local kimbap restaurant. This is a place
where I eat several times a week. Sometimes several times a day. It is a very small space,
a very quaint room and they have excellent food.
Here is the menu here at the kimbap restaurant. As you can see a lot of things are between
2000 and 4000 Won.
This here is our banchan. We've got kimchi, some egg rolls (kyeran) and I'm entirely sure
what this is.
I can see my rice being prepared here from a distance. This is awesome. Here comes my
kimchi fried rice and soup.
Alright. Here we are. We've got the chamchae jjigae, the spicy Korean soup with tuna. Over
here is the kimchi fried rice which is typically topped with an fried egg on top. They brought
us - they got it mixed up here. I'm having the rice and Audrey is having the soup. Is
this what you order most of the time? Oh, yeah.
This is my favorite meal - it is called Chamchae jjigae. It is kind of like a tuna stew and
it is very spicy. It has onions and a little bit of tofu and some veggies. It also comes
with a side of rice. It is quite healthy. It is a very filling meal and it is only a
little bit over $4 USD, so I'm happy with the price.
The nice thing about restaurants in Korea is that when you finish your side dishes you
can always ask for more and it is all free. We've got two here to replenish.
One of the reasons we like to come to the kimbap restaurant especially for me is that
we do live a sort of a backpacking lifestyle. We like to save up for travel and by coming
here we get to have delicious Korean food at a real cheap price.
What are you having today? I'm having kimchi bokumbap, which is kimchi fried rice. It is
also a spicy dish and it is my favorite way to eat kimchi. I really like it when it is
fried. I already know it is going to be good.
It is a very cold winter day today so for lunch we've decided to have some Gamjatang,
which is a hearty Korean stew.
In Korea you cut everything with scissors - forget knives - this is the way it is done.
Eat like the locals. The same with the kimchi. Let's chop that up. It looks nice and fresh.
Here is the delicious stew and these are all of the different ingredients that we have
for it. We've got some vegetables and lots of potatoes here on the side. It is going
to be lovely. I'd like to know what the white stuff is.
This is the kind of restaurant where you come to fight off a hangover by eating Haejeongguk.
In our case, if you're freezing you come for a hearty stew like this one.
Bubbling goodness. What are you eating over there? I'm just taking the meat off of the
pork spine. How is the meat? Is it tasty? Oh, yes.
Okay, it is time to dish it up. It is all cooked. You can see that the broth is a real
thick and hearty looking with the different sesame seeds and all kinds of different paste.
Gamjatang soup basically means that it has potatoes but there is also lots of other things
in there. We have pork spine, there are some rice cakes, sesame leaves, sesame seeds, mushrooms
and there was a white paste which we haven't really figured out what it was. We think it
might be a sesame based paste.
How would you describe the broth? It is a lot spicier than I was expecting but it is
very flavorful. It is really good. Let's get a close-up shot. With the gamjatang you really
have to make sure to stir it around so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. We kind of
made that mistake earlier.
I'll just add to the flavor.
This is the meat after it has been de-***. I like to dip it in the mustard sauce - it
is really spicy and it almost reminds me of wasabi a little but with a mustard-y flavor.
It definitely does have a bite and a little bit of a tang to it. Show us how it is done.
Let's grab a little bit. That looks fatty. Here is a normal piece - that one. Here you
go. You can just dip it and swirl it around. Delicious!
We're almost finished the meal and what is left is basically just a thick collection
of stew, meat and a few random potatoes and veggies.
As you can see here our feast is complete. The cost of this meal was 25,000 Won - roughly
25 USD - a little bit less. Overall, our feeling was that although it was tasty and definitely
delicious relatively compared to what we can get at other Korean restaurants it was a little
bit expensive. We probably won't try this one again.
Today's Valentines Day in Korea and instead of stuffing ourselves with copious amounts
of chocolate we've decided to come and have a Korean traditional set lunch.
So Korea has a lot of lovey dovey holidays for couples and we've actually managed to
miss most of them, so there was kiss day in June I believe and hug day in December and
we were unaware of these, so we've got to make up and celebrate Valentines Day this
year.
So by Korean set meal, what it is called locally is Hanjeongsik, and what that means is basically
it's a set meal built around rice dishes (such as the dolsot stone pot rice set). What we
expect to have is a lot of different side dishes and soups, so it's going to be a really
big meal. Mmmm....I'm starving so I'm looking forward to this. Yes, me too.
First off, they brought us juk, which is kind of like a soup, so take a look in here. And
this black. I wonder what it is made of? Good question. I'll take a sip and let you know.
Any guesses? I have no idea. Hahahaha! Is it good though? No, it's good - it's really
nice.
Oh, and there is jeon too. Little jeon.
Gamhasamnida.
Neh
Background music
So our feast has arrived. It's a pleasant surprise. We really didn't know what we were
going to get, so we'll give you a bit of a tour here. Over here we've got something called
Bulgogi, which is marinated beef strips. Down here it looks like we've got a normal salad.
Jeon, which is a Korean style pancake, which we both love. This looks like a sort of mini
kind of Tonkatsu, mini cutlet and another kind of salad and chapchae.
We've just been brought one more dish here, which is called Bosam, a kind of steamed meat.
So the Bulgogi is finished cooking now we're going to dish it up. Let's get some veggies
in there too. And the Bulgogi is known for having a sweet sauce. What it is being marinated
in is actually quite a sweet sauce. How does that look? That looks awesome. It's steamed
up.
Time to try it. MMm...it's awesome. The meat is really tender. Really nice....soft....MMMMMM.
What do you got there? This is the most delicious Pa Jeon I've had since I've been in Korea.
Korean pancake? It's a little Korean pancake with lots of green onions and this one also
has seafood. It looks like octopus maybe. And it's so good.
Very crispy isn't it? MMMMMMhmmmm. Flavorful?
There are so many side dishes to choose from that it's a little difficult to decide what
you're going to eat next.
Music playing in the background.
So I really thought the meal was over after the first set of dishes came out but behold
there is even more to eat.
All kinds of goodness ranging from fish to soup and here is the dolsot, the stone pot,
rice.
What we're going to be doing right now is we're actually going to be scooping out the
rice from the stone pot and then adding water to burnt sides of it. And what that does is
it creates a rice soup. So Audrey is scooping it out.
So at this point we scraped out all of the rice from the main part. As you can see we've
put it in the bowl and now we've just got the rice on the side. We're going to add some
hot water and turn it into a soup.
Sizzling water boiling sound.
Cover it up. And we wait.
Water boiling sound.
Steaming
Looks like we've put a little bit too much water in here. It's actually bubbling over.
That's my rice just bubbling next to me on the table.
So here is my whole fish. I'm just trying to get some meat off the bone, so I have to
take out the spine. It's kind of difficult. A morcel.
It is time for the official unveiling of the stone pot. Da da dun da dun. So now we have
a little rice soup. It's kind of a murky looking soup.
Audrey will try it. Hopefully not burn myself. It does look very hot. Mmmmm, it's very sweet.
Is it sweet? It's like a sweet tea with rice in it.
It was a great meal. I'm personally stuffed. And there are still so many dishes I never
got around to trying. It was just very very filling. So much food. Would you come back
again? I would definitely come back here.
Definitely feel the same way as Audrey. one of the better value meals I've had in a long
time. It's just awesome.
Eating noises Tonight for dinner we're going to show you
one of our favorite Korean meals. It's actually Korean Chinese food. In every country Chinese
food is a little bit different and Korea is no exception.
This here is a typical Korean-Chinese restaurant. It's just a small little place. Hahaha! We
have someone who is very hungry. So the last time we had Chinese food it was
in Busan on our first trip together. And Sam ate so much that one night that he couldn't
even walk afterwards and we ended up not even seeing the markets, not seeing the city. It
was straight to bed for him. What you talking about! Actually, sadly it's
true. Gamsahamnida!
Yum Yum check this out. It's for one person. That's like a feast in a bowl. What is it?
That's Jjajamyeong. Which is? It's noodles with a black bean paste and some
onions. And this is an actual set we ordered. We got this whole massive feast. Like these
are huge bowls. And we got sweet and sour pork. Now this is a value meal. For the two
of us $13. Yeah! I'm already digging in. You are. Slurping
noises. Stirring noises
Eating noises Well, that's a long noodle!
It sure is. Oh, it's so good. One of our favorite foods to have.
So here we have this sweet and sour pork. It's breaded and deep fried and it's in a
nice sweet sauce. And we also have a few veggies like onions, carrots and maybe coleslaw. Mmm....nice
little surprise there. that's really good. It's quite sweet isn't it? MMMMM>...yeah
In a Chinese Korean restaurant often the best value meals are the sets. We ordered what
was Set A which included the two bowls of Jjajamyeong here and the Tongsuyuk the sweet
and sour pork. This meal will leave us stuffed. We can't even finish it all. Oh yeah, that's
going to fill us up for sure. Eating noises
Stirring noises What are you doing? Just mixing in the black
bean paste. Then I'm going to stuff my face. Eating noises.
Hahahaha...You got enough? As usual in a Korean - Chinese restaurant
you don't really get that many side dishes. We just have these lovely little radishes.
That's the banchan. That's the Korean side dish. We've got so much to eat leftover.
Well, I couldn't quite finish mine. It was just too much food. Sam did a little bit better.
There is nothing left of mine. A true pig. But anyways, for someone visiting Korea and
looking for a cheap budget meal that is delicious we recommend Korean-Chinese food. It's awesome!
For lunch today we're having one of my favorite foods in all of Korea - Hamuel Pa Jeon. Jeon
is a kind of Korean pancake. It's actually the very first meal I ever had when I came
to Seoul many years ago, so this is an old familiar favorite.
So this is the kind of meal that you eat as an appetizer before a really big feast or
you can have it as an anju, which means you eat it as a side dish when you're having drinks.
Background noise in the restaurant. So it appears we've got some kind of a rice
tea or drink before our meals comes. We're just dishing it up. Let's see what it tastes
like. Are you going to take a sip? Yeah, it's a
kind of refreshing hot rice drink. Hot rice tea.
Background noise in the restaurant. Music playing in the background.
So it looks like we have a little soup here with some soy beans and healthy greens.
Let's get some broth in here. So in my hands here is something called Makeoli.
It's a Korean rice wine and it is something that can be made with both rice and wheat.
Fermented rice and wheat. It is traditionally a popular drink with Korean farmers but now
everyone loves it. So it comes in these cute little bowls. I'm going to show you what it
pours like. It kind of has a white murky milky substance and it is the perfect drink pairing
for what we've order - the Korean pizza - Pa jeon.
They go together. So Makgeoli isn't too strong. It's typically 6 to 8 percent alcohol, so
it's a nice social drink where you can have several cups.
They've rolled the kimchi up nice and neat and cute. In fact, I think it's almost too
cute to eat. Can you imagine? Kimchi too cute to eat? Okay, so here is. Cheers. Gumbai as
they say in Korea. That's nice. Is it nice? Yeah, it is.
Okay, time for a Korean cheers. Gumbai. Oh wow, that's massive.
Gamsahamnida. Speaking in Korean
Here is our Pa Jeon and it is a generous looking size. It's massive. We've got the tongs and
the sissors to cut it up. You have expert hands.
Background music playing. So it's just been lovingly cut up into nice
little bite sized bits. And we are going to try it.
Yes, I am. Once I'm able to pick it up. I'm going to dip it into the sauce, which
is soy sauce. I know I'm not supposed to be using my hands
but I want to make this happen. There we go. Mmmmmm
That sauce is good. So Pa Jeon is the perfect meal to enjoy with
a friend. It's often typically eaten during bad weather days. For example when it is raining
or when I'm hiking together. It's a very social meal. If you look down here you can see the
Pa is actually the green onion, the scallions. This here is what is called the Pa and because
we have seafood and other objects like this. This is actually Hamul Pa Jeon. This is shrimp.
There is a whole bunch of different vegetables and seafood. It's made with a salty pancake
like dough. Are you feeling a little buzzed from the Makgeoli?
No, I've hardly had any. Okay, what is your verdict for this meal?
I really like it. I thought it was a great jeon. It was very tasty, the seafood was pretty
fresh. Do you want to know when something has turned out to be a good meal? What? When
you look down and there is not even a morsel left. I'll take the last one. There you go.
Hahahaha. Some happy customers.
Well, I love this meal. We took care of the Pa jeon here completely. And I probably knocked
off 85 percent of the Magkeoli. I've got a nice little buzz going on right now. Oh yeah!
I'm in a happy place.
Today we are visiting the Shin Old Tea House where we will be enjoying a cup of traditional
tea.
Right now we find ourselves in a very cozy little tea house. It is very cute. They have
low dim lighting and tapestries and pillows on the ground, so we've ordered ourselves
some nice fruity teas.
This tea house is located just off of Insadong, which is known as sort of the cultural hub
street of Seoul. We've found this quaint little place. As we've placed our orders we have
some delicious looking snacks. This looks like rice cake and maybe another rice cake
covered in honey with little cereal chunks on top maybe.
Let's try this. Crunchy huh? Okay. It is like puffed rice - like rice popcorn maybe. It
has like honey on the outside and it is very sweet and airy.
Here is the ginger tea and the masilcha is the plum tea. How is the plum tea? It is delicious.
Mine is so sweet it is almost like liquid honey but it is not too overwhelming. It is
really nice. There is plenty of flavor aside from it being sweet.
What kind of tea did you get over there? I got ginger tea. The same thing - it is a nice
sweet tea with a really strong ginger flavor. It is just a perfect way to warm-up on a winter
day. Oh, yeah.
I'm going to try one of these now. It is a rice cake with a green swirl in it. I'm not
sure what the green swirl is because I can't taste any difference. Is it kind of plain
tasting? It is just a regular rice cake.
We're receiving heat from two different sources - an electric fan up above us and then we
also have the ondul system on the floor. The heated floors by the heated pipes underneath.
We're as toasty as you can get. I feel like I could take a nap in here. I probably could
too.
Getting off of Insadong's main strip is a really good idea because it is usually in
the back alleys where you can find traditional restaurants, traditional tea houses and just
quieter places. It is much better value and also has traditional homes as well which is
the same as here.
We are finished sadly our tea is gone. It is time to wrap things up and head back into
Insadong for a little shopping and maybe some cake.
Tonight we're going to be trying a new dish here at our favorite restaurant. It is going
to be our last time to eat here because I'm finishing my teaching contract and going back
to Canada soon. Anyways, we're going to be trying the signature dish of this restaurant
and it is called Dtalktoritang which is spicy chicken vegetable stew. I've had this before
and it is delicious. We've always come here and had our Dolsot bibimbap and sundubu jjigae
because we've loved it but this actually the signature dish at this restaurant and we're
going to be eating it tonight. Yummy!
How hungry are you? I'm hungry yeah! Hungry! Yeah!
Let's see your hungry face? I'm hungry! My hungry lion face? Rawr. Come on - I'm hungry!
Gamsahamnida (thank you in Korean).
There comes the stew.
Here is our hearty chicken stew and it is the perfect winter dish and it has got lots
of pieces of chicken, potatoes, onions, vegetables and it looks really tasty and really filling.
It is bubbly bubbly bubbly. Let's dig in!
We have a nice piece of chicken breast over here. I'm loading up myself. Lots of potatoes
and lots of chicken.
This is the perfect dish now that the temperatures have dropped below zero. It is just so filling
and it gets you feeling all warm. The potatoes are nice and soft and the chicken has been
boiling for a while so it is very tender. It falls right off the bone. Yes, it is one
of my favorite Korean dishes so far. I wish I had discovered it sooner. Too bad.
Tell us your thoughts? How much are you loving this dish? I'm loving but I think you're loving
it even more. One of the interesting things about this dish is that there are several
different parts to the chicken here. There are drumsticks and various parts without bones.
There is some work involved while eating. This is the bone section.
Dtalkdoritang is what this dish is called and I'll break down the words we used. Dalktorri
- tang means stew. You can imagine this as chicken stew. I have a feeling it might be
chicken mixed stew or chicken spicy stew. It also has potatoes and onions and different
things in it. It is steaming as you speak.
This dish comes in a several different sizes. The one we got here is actually a small. If
you take a look at it it is not small. That's a lot meat boiling there. It's a lot of meat
and potatoes for two people. It also comes in medium and large size, so this dish we're
ordering here is 19,000 Korean Won which is 17-18 USD these days. All of this for that
price is really reasonable. The medium is 24,000 Won and the large is 29,000 Won. I'm
guessing the large could feed an entire family and maybe even an entire extended family.
It is just a lot of food and we're enjoying it.
We polished off the stew. This is what is left of it and this actually the best part.
The broth got really thick and it is flavorful and saucy. You like your saucy foods don't
you?
What a feast. What a great way to end my time in Korea. And I think you have a little sauce
on your lips in the corner of your mouth a bit. No?
Korean barbecue time!
Surprise, surprise we're back at our favorite barbecue.
Tonight we're having So-Galbi. The difference being we're having beef instead of pork. This
cut of beef is so much better. It is not nearly as fatty. It is going to be delicious.
Unlike the Samgyeopsal, this galbi is coated in a sweet sauce. Check it out. This being
the sauce.
One of our favorite aspects of this meal is that it is a do it yourself barbecue. We
are preparing it for ourselves.
I am loving this meat. It is very soft and juicy and I've gotten used to eating very
fatty meats here in Korea. This is like gold. What are you putting in it now? I'm putting
it in the ssamjang sauce. Let's see your yummy face? I'm having a yummy good time.
If you want to eat the meat like a Korean I'm going to show you how. You've got the
lettuce in one hand and you've got the meat and chopsticks. Follow me. First you're going
to dip it into the soy sauce and then a little bit into the ssamjang - red pepper paste and
a little soy bean paste. Plop that into the lettuce. I'm going to get some leafy springs
and put those in. We would normally have garlic but we weren't given any today, so this is
going to be good enough.
We just forgot to cook it. I have all of the garlic. Oh you do - over there. Roll it into
a ball pop it in your mouth.
We finished cooking all of the meat so now we're just grilling the onions and the garlic
a little bit. We take the meat off of the grill because otherwise it just totally burns.
This is about perfect.
This is about as close as you can get to a caveman diet. The so called cave-man diet.
It is just basically meat, veggies and a bit of soup. There are really no carbs here at
all.
This is the kyeran jjim - it is like an egg souffle.
Beef and not smoke. Bloopers!
The difference being...haha
La la la
Happy Saturday! Yeah! We're going to our favorite Korean restaurant in my area. And it's just
a little hole in the wall place. We're going to show you what it is all about. Yes, and
this is a place we visit very often almost every single weekend. The food is amazing.
Amazing and cheap. Yep. That's why we like it.
Ok, show us the way. Come in. Come in.
So this is the basement. We have to go downstairs. Steps.
We're going right by a butcher shop here. And here it is.
Our favorite place. I'm not sure if it has a name. Can An Sik Dang.
So this is a Korean sit-down restaurant, so we get some pillows and here is our complimentary
tea. Oooh!
And you can see it is a traditional table.
I like this restaurant because first we get so many side dishes. The service is pretty
fast and it doesn't take too long for her to cook the food. It's better than fast food
So now it is your turn. Tell us why do you like this restaurant so much? Well, I love
it because it's a typical hole in the wall Korean style place. These always tend to be
the best restaurants in this country. The places in the basement are places that aren't
chain restaurants. It's got a bit of character to it.
Oppa Gangnam style!
Hey sexy Audrey!
Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo
Silly dancing style
Korean tv playing
Ooooh! You're really into your Korean soap operas.
What's going to happen next?
Gamsahamnida
So this is just the side dishes. It's not even the main course.
Gamsahamnida
Here is our Korean feast. We're having our two favorites. We're having Dolsot Bibimbap,
which is the mixed Korean rice. You can look at that. All the veggies, all of the yumminess.
Soon Dubu Jjiggae. Soft tofu spicy soup. It's spicy too!
Sam is stirring the dolsot bibimbap. Cooking noises
and this is what it looks like when it is done.
It's hot. Is it hot? And action. How is it? Bubaaaabuhhhh bibimbap.
It's good.
And our Korean feast which we nearly devoured only cost us just over $10 USD. Not so bad.
Good value.
Full belly means a happy boy. My happy dance...Wooooo!
That's not going to work.
And that was lunch at our favourite place. Yeah!
Blah, blah, blah, blah
Gamsamnida (Thank you in Korean).
Basically what shabu-shabu is a kind of hot pot Korean style hot pot. What we do is we
here already in the pot and we've got noodles at one point and over here this is what we're
going to be putting in to make the rice at the very end. It's a lot of different courses
to this meal. Basically, eventually we're going to get all of these different ingredients
and meat into here and it is a spicy type of hot pot. It's perfect for the winter season.
We're going to put some of the vegetables in the soup right now. Snip snip. All the
leafy goodness. That looks tasty. One of our favorite aspects of these communal Korean
meals is the do it yourself part. We're cooking a bit of the meal here.
Next up is the meat. Plop it right into the pot and it cooks very fast. That is why you
don't want to put it in at first. It's good to cook to the vegetables first because of
that reason.
Apparently, the name Shabu-shabu is derived from an onomatopoeia meaning that the Shabu
Shabu sound is supposed to indicate the swishing sound of the beef cooking in the hot pot sauce.
Shabu shabu! Shabu-shabu!
Bubbly bubbly bubbly bubbly!
Now it is noodle time. Oh my gosh okay! There we go. Disaster averted. Yeah. That makes
it a lot more thick with the noodles.
I'm really enjoying the meal so far and my favorite part is the thin strips of beef and
potent. It has made my eyes water a couple of times. Let's see you do the demo. Let's
see a demo here.
I'm not sure there is any beef left. I've devoured most of it. Dip it into the wasabi.
Let's soak it and the camera is all fogged up now.
Here I am with the thin strip of beef and I'm going to be dunking it into the soy sauce
wasabi combo. Absolutely delicious. Mashiketa (delicious in Korean).
A Korean lady is over there making our bokumbap - our fried rice - and she is using some of
the leftover ingredients from the Shabu-shabu as well as mixing it into the pot.
Here comes our fried-rice bokumbap. Look at that! The best part is that if you leave it
for a while it gets crispy on the bottom, so you get a nice crispy golden rice. Hold
on - it is really hot! Tasty? Oh yeah.
This meal cost Man Gu Cheon Won which is 19,000 Won which is less than 19 USD. It's a pretty
good price. It is the meal that keeps on giving. You get the soup, the vegetables, the beef,
the noodles and the rice at the end. You also get complementary coffee. What is not to like?
It's a lot of food for free.