It’s been a while since I posted anything related to food on my blog. Even my monthly foodventures posts stopped, and I’m not quite sure when I’d be able to get back to it. I do miss posting about food, but I tend to go to back to the same place repeatedly if I liked it, so it doesn’t make sense to keep blogging about the same food place, don’t you think? This time, though, I just have to talk about the few foodventures we had during our trip to Jeju, South Korea more than several months back.
Fastfood, feat. LOTTERIA
I kept seeing LOTTERIA outlets in many parts of Korea, and even spotted some when I was in Tokyo and Kyoto, but I never once tried going in any of them. One, because for some reason the name made me think it was a lottery outlet where people place their bets (haha!). And when I realized it was actually a fastfood (think South Korea’s McDonalds or Jollibee) the thought of eating a burger (which I thought was largely a Western thing) was not what you’d do when you’re in freakin’ South Korea or Japan, baby~!
But we arrived quite late in Jeju International Airport, and only had store-bought kimbap at Gimpo Airport an hour earlier. You see, I was on a 6-hour bus trip from Baguio, followed by a 4-hour plane ride from Manila to Incheon, then waited for a couple of hours for my friend to arrive from Canada, took the train from Incheon to Gimpo, then flew off to Jeju.
That store-bought kimbap and some bread did zilch for us. To cut the long story short, before taking the bus from Jeju Airport to Seogwipo where we’re going to stay, we decided to have a late supper at the airport. And Lotteria was it.
It was then that I realized they are not your typical burger place, because it has that distinct Korean touch. Bulgogi Burger sounded tempting, but I saw the Shrimp one, and just had to try it.
My verdict: conventional burger patties have no place here. They don’t deserve any.
If it’s Jeju, it’s Abalone
If we were lucky, we could have witnessed the lady divers of Jeju stage a performance in the water when we went to Seongsan Ilchulbong, but our timing was off. Whenever I see food topics on Jeju, abalones are always mentioned.
During our flight back to Seoul several days after we came to Jeju, we thought to grab lunch before boarding, and went to one of the restos that served traditional dishes. I figured this is the closest we’d get to taste anything abalone.
Unfortunately, it’s the abalone porridge.
Fortunately, it’s goooood~
It kinda reminded me of arroz caldo, but with a distinct seafood flavor and, instead of chicken meat topping it, they have abalone pieces.
Kyore Jeju’s Naengmyeon
Remember when we went to the Korea Folk Village in Gyeonggi-do some years back, and had lunch of a huuuuuge bowl of naengmyeon? You can read about that visit here and here.
Back then, I professed how I fell head over heels in love with this cold buckwheat noodles. Basically, buckwheat noodles in broth swimming with crushed ice.
On our taxi tour, it was such a hoooooooot day that when lunch time came around and Mister Bruce asked us what we wanted to eat, I just automatically said “naengmyeon”.
And so he brought us to a roadside restaurant, “Kyore Jeju” and we immediately placed one order each. It did not even matter that I knew one bowl was humongoussssss.
This time, however, it’s not the same or usual naengmyeon that I tried before. This is the bibim-naengmyeon, which is the spicy version.
So you got chew noodles in icy cold broth…. with a kick of spice. Purrrrrfect!
Streetfood at Seogwipo Market
Specifically at the Seogwipo Maeil Olle Market, which is roughly 10 minutes’ away from our guesthouse on foot.
There are several options of eateries and restaurants inside and outside the market, but we were drawn to the food stalls with long queues. The one with the box-office queue, as most call it, is the one that sells crab and crab meat. The stall specializes on selling crab croquettes, which is basically crab gratin on their original king crab shells, with ingredients like cheese and eggs and…. yeah, high cholesterol but yummy!
Each piece costs 3,000 KRW (PHP 144.00 or USD 2.70). We paired it with ice-cold hallabong juice extract that cost 500 KRW each, and dinner is done!
Bbol-sal House – Meat, Meat, Meat
After our rainy hike up and down Halla-san, (read about it here and here), we thought we deserved to have a heavy meal. So we looked for any of the meat places around the neighborhood. After a couple of misses – despite using Google Maps – we stumbled upon a back street and saw a place that obviously sells meat.
And it also looked like many people were eating there, which made us more comfortable entering.
So we went in, were directed to a table, and gave our orders.
The menu was not extensive, and we asked for their recommendation.
We got their Assorted Special for 2 persons, worth 28,000 KRW (PHP 1,350 or USD 25.00). Pricey, I know, but I’d like to think we deserved it, especially after having meager dinner for the past couple of nights.
The Assorted Special is basically assorted meat of 6 different parts of the Jeju native black pig. I was not able to get photos of it, but I do remember getting it on video, so I might get around to editing that one of these days.
First they laid out the side dishes, which turned our table looking like a feast. Which it technically was. Since there were 2 of us, there were a total of 400 grams of meat (yeah, 200g per person), and they were looking real lean and packed and fresh~ They were served in skewers, and we just took them out of the skewers and onto the hot grill, for cooking.
As you can see in the photos below, we were able to clean it up real good. Side dishes are refillable, so you can get more lettuce, pickled radish and any other side dish you might want. I kinda abused the pickled radish refills.
No effin’ regrets.
Interestingly enough, the menu at Bbol-Sal House had instructions on “How To Eat The Meat At Bbol-Sal House”.
Apparently, you eat the cooked meat by layering them in this order: laver (seaweed or kim) –> slice of pickled radish –> bean sprouts, raw onion –> and then the meat.
Udo Lunch – Marinated Bulgogi and Hallasan Fried Rice
When it rained when we arrived in Udo, there really wasn’t much choice but for us to look for a place to eat. After all, the ferries were out of commission when the rain was pouring.
We went to a restaurant that looked like it’d keep us real dry inside, so yes it was random. 🙂
Again, we asked the server for their recommendation, and this was it, their “marinated bulgogi”. We also saw on the menu that they also have Hallasan Fried Rice, which I heard was a must-try if you are in Udo. So we ordered that as well.
So they set up the marinated bulgogi (or “fire meat” using pork or beef) on the hot grill on our table, complete with the requisite side dishes. We ate it up with the noodles, and when there were like, 5-6 spoonfuls of the meat left on the grill, one server came and stirred in rice, eggs, lots and and lots of cheese into the leftover bulgogi.
What followed was a presentation of the Hallasan Fried Rice, which they basically make in front of you, using it to narrate the history of the creation of Jeju. The mound of rice-and-meat became Hallasan. The beaten egg with cheese that flooded it represented the lava that flowed out of Hallasan when it erupted, and forming into the island of Jeju itself, with a smaller islet formed, which was Udo.
It was quite cute how it played out.
Most importantly, one of the best fried rice I’ve ever tasted. It must be the cheese. Or the meat in it. Needless to say, we cleaned it up in no time.
Dessert? Peanut Ice Cream
Another much hyped snack to try when you’re in Udo, particularly at Udobong Peak, is Jimmy’s Peanut Ice Cream.
Jimmy’s has become quite famous, and some TV programs also filmed here and featured it. Which is another reason why it was hyped even more.
They have other ice cream offerings, such as Mandarin Ice Cream and Apple Mango Ice Cream, but their Peanut Ice Cream is undeniably the most famous one.
So how did they make it?
It’s essentially your basic vanilla soft serve ice cream, topped with crushed peanuts and whole peanuts.
Yeah. That’s it.
I thought there was something more special about it, considering the hype surrounding it. I guess I expected too much.
Don’t get me wrong. I liked it. I thought it was something new. I just thought the 5,000 KRW price was just a bit much.
I mean, look at this. This tiny thing costs roughly Php240 or USD 4.50. Too pricey.
Still, I’ll charge it to experience, haha!
Our breakfasts at the Guesthouse consisted mostly of toast, eggs, coffee/tea. It’s during dinners that we indulged. And if we needed quick bites in between, there were so many bakeries around where we can buy breads and pastries (Paris Baguette was a lifesaver when we were in Jeju). And of course, there were also the convenience stores.
There is no shortage of food options in Jeju, even in the seeming isolation of Udo. The best part is that you will be forced to get out of your comfort zone and try something you haven’t before. Just like when I made Rog drink the peanut makgeolli (rice wine) of Udo during our lunch, and she went into a fit of coughing because “it went down wrong”. XDDD
I’m always up for trying something new when it comes to food, and I look forward to getting a taste of more in the future~!
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