Where to go for shopping when you are in Seoul?

Where to shop when you go to Seoul?

Difficult question.

Too many places!

Since several friends are asking me this question again, I will list down a few options and I hope this helps~

11. If you want something trendy / cool place to shop without breaking your wallet

a.     Garosu-gil

This was THE hip and trendy place for last 4-5 years and it’s losing the shine because it’s getting too trendy, but it’s still the place to go to check out the latest trend and do people watching.

This is actually pretty short street and if you are just walking straight down, it will take only 5-10 minutes. But, it never happens. Every time I go there (I go back to Seoul every 3-4 months), there are so many new shops, cafes and restaurants. So, you can never keep walking without stopping. So, you will end up spending a couple of hours to walk through this street.

After you are done with the main street, you can explore small lanes (where the rent is not crazy high yet) at both side of the street where you can find more small & quirky places.

Shops in this area sell quite reasonably priced clothes, shoes, accessories. In many shops, they offer discount when you pay in cash, so, ask them if you are buying with cash.

b.     Samchung-dong

If Garosu-gil is too polished/commercial, you can try out Samchung-dong.

Buk-chon (where you see clusters of Korean traditional houses and great view of Seoul) is one of most popular tourist spot these days in Seoul. After you visit Buk-chon, you can walk down to Samchung-dong and have a meal or tea break and of course, shopping.

Samchung-dong has very different ‘air’ from Garosu-gil.

Personally, I feel that Samchung-dong has very interesting mixture of

Old and New Korean culture. In this area, you will find more stand-alone, independent stores and restaurants rather than big chain stores. Of course, following the popularity, big coffee chains like Coffee Bean opened a huge outlet over there, but the overall experience in Samchung-dong is still quite unique. There are many small cafes which is also design studio or small workshop making leather items.

When I say that this place has different ‘air’, I think it can be quite literate as well. When you walk around Samchung-dong, you can see the mountain and hills. In spring, you will get to see the gorgeous view of cherry blossom of GaeNaRi (this is yellow flower which will bloom in spring and when you see this flower, you know spring has come). In autumn, you will walk along the trees with full yellow leaves.

22.     If you want the most trendy clothes but at super low price

When I was a student, I went to Dongdaemoon market. Now, there are several buildings with multi-story shopping at Dongdaemoon area. You can get all kinds of fashion items at very low price and if you go at night and buy big q’ty, you can get wholesale price. However, don’t expect friendly service here. This is mainly for retailers who come for wholesale purchase.

The other option is ‘Express Bus Terminal (subway ; line 3 / orange line/ Express Bus terminal station). I still go there because you can buy super trendy stuff at super low price. For trendy stuff, you wear for one or maximum two season and junk it. So, for that, the low price is good. This place is huge underground mall which can be a great option for rainy day.

The mall is mainly for fashion but one end of the mall is for interior accessories and flowers. In most of stores here offers small discount cash payment as well. So, if you want, you can ask them when you pay in cash.

When you get tired of shopping, you can walk to SinSeGae department store which is connected to this underground mall.

In SinSeGae department store, you can expect huge range of cooked food. So, you can have a simple meal or snack.

If you feel rich, go up to 2 and 3 floor for international brand boutiques~

33.     If you want something trendy / cool and have no budget to care about

Go to Galleria department store in Apgujung. Some people say this is ‘has been’ place, but this department store still have one of the best collection of local and international fashion stores. There are two buildings (rather blocks), so, check out both.

This is not crowded mall, so, you will be able to enjoy very relaxing shopping experience.

If you are hungry, check out the basement food court (this is very nice food court, one of the nicest so far, you can have Korean, Japanese, American and many more) or ‘Tasting Kitchen’ on level 5 which offers great salad, flat bread and so on.

From Galleria, you can walk to ‘Bat Go Dong’ for spicy mini octopus as well. So, many options for your dinner after shopping.

If what you are looking for is more Korean traditional items, head to Insa-dong. It’s pretty touristy place but even local Koreans go there to look for ethnic/traditional items, so, you will not fail to find some good stuff.

Happy shopping!

The best Ginseng Chicken Soup

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of ginseng chicken soup. It’s not that I don’t like it, but I guess it didn’t have much novelty for me because my mom made it pretty often at home. It’s something that I grew up with.

So, when I started hearing people talking about ginseng chicken soup as ‘must eat’ when you visit Korea, I was a little bit surprised. However, it didn’t make me go and search for the best ginseng chicken soup either. So, when I visited this famed restaurant among locals and foreigners, I was surprised and satisfied.

‘To Sok chon’ is located near ‘Insa-dong’ where people visit to see traditional Korean art galleries, stores, tea houses and restaurants. So, you can visit ‘To Sok Chon’ either before or after your visit to Insa-dong.

If you want to beat the crowd (there are long queues of customers waiting to go in on weekends), go early like 11:30am. The restaurant is huge especially after the recent renovation.

The menu is very simple, only a few items on it and you can order your ginseng chicken soup straight away (there is picture, English and Chinese translation). Even a lady can finish a bowl. So, order according to a number of people you have on the table.

You will see lots and lots of tourist but this place is very popular among locals as well. The great tasting ginseng chicken soup is the reason why people don’t mind waiting even there is a long queue. The soup is really rich without being oily or heavy. The chicken is tender and juicy. I’m not really a big eater, but I finished the entire chicken and most of my soup. My husband could finish his bowl (not a single drop of soup was left in his bowl) and he ate half of the other bowl we ordered for kids.

If you eat this in cold weather, it will warm your whole body. If you eat this in hot weather, it will energize your tired body from the heat. That’s why Koreans eat ginseng chicken soup on the hottest day of summer to get energy.

So, get your ginseng chicken soup fix at To Sok Chon when you next visit Seoul~

How to get there;

Gyeongbokgung Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 2.
Go straight about 170m and turn left onto Jahamun-ro 5-gil Road.
Tosokchon (토속촌) is located 10m ahead on the left.

Bukchon 'Tea Garden' 북촌 차마시는 뜰

If you are visiting Seoul these days, one of the 'must visit' area is Samchung-dong (삼청동) / Bukchon (북촌) area.
I will not introduce the whole area since it's too big to cover and you can easily find lots of information, but will recommend one place for nice afternoon tea break after a long walk (if you visit Bukchon, you will walk A LOT)
For overall information on Bukchon, you can visit the website below;
http://bukchon.seoul.go.kr/eng/index.jsp

The name of the cafe/tea house is '차마시는 뜰'. The direct translation is more like 'garden where you have tea', but I just put it as 'Tea Garden' in my subject to keep it simple.

The exact location is as below;
http://www.menupan.com/map/restmap/map_search.asp?acode=D102445 (for those who can read Korean or have Korean friend who can read and find the place for you)
The address in English is as below;
35-169 Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Below is link to Trip Advisor review for this place but most in Japanese,, 
http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Restaurant_Review-g294197-d2228905-Reviews-Tea_Garden-Seoul.html

Now, after long intro for location, I will show you what you can see & enjoy when you get there~

This is the entrance for the tea garden and since there is no English signage, it will be good to look out for this.

 inside the garden. When I was there, it was spring and all the flowers were in full bloom, so, it was so beautiful~~
But, when you visit in different season, there will be different view. My sister was there in the middle of winter and it was snowing. She said that it was so beautiful & magical.

View from inside. As you can see, you are on the higher ground. So, you get very good view

They have English menu, so, it's pretty easy to order drinks & food. After a long walk, we were quite thirsty, so, all of us ordered cold drinks.

 Ice Flower tea

Slightly sweet tea with ice cubes with flowers~

 Sweet Pumpkin 'Sikhae'. actually, it was more like Sweet pumpkin shaved ice.

Never tasted something like this before and it was very yummy

Lemon Ginger Ice 

If you are feeling hot and don't fancy sweet stuff, this drink will please you. Love the ginger taste (it's not overpowering gingerness. just nice)

And, now, this is their signature Sweet pumpkin rice cake. When you are order, they make on the spot!!!
Once it's steamed, they will bring the whole thing to your table,

and, remove the cover

And, ta-da~~

It only took about 2 minutes to wipe out this magical soft, hot,sweet-but-not-so-sweet goodness. This is 'must try' when you visit this place~

If you visit in cold weather, try hot tea and the rice cake. It will warm your body~
enjoy!

떡볶이! Spicy rice cake

떡볶이 (spicy rice cake) was always regarded as 'bad food' when I was growing up and students were not suppose to go to those stores (mostly make-shift places without proper water source). But now, 떡볶이 became more 'modern' and 'franchised' thanks to a few big players who started clean/modern 떡볶이 stores.
One of the first player is 죠스 떡볶이 (Jaws Food)

When you walk around busy shopping area, you will see one of this easily.
If you can eat spicy food (Jaws 떡볶이 is spicier than other traditional 떡볶이 stores, in my opinion), make sure you try once before you leave Seoul.

The menu is pretty simple, so, you can order 1 portion each or order a set.
The menu below is 떡복이 (spicy rice cake) 2,500 won per portion, 순대 (blood sausage with glass noodle inside) 3,000 per portion, assorted tempura (fried vegetable/seafood) 2,500won per portion (one type) or 4,000 won for assorted items, fish cake (comes with soup) 2,000won per portion (one type) or 3,000 won for assorted items

Set menu is combination of 떡볶이+순대(blood sausage)+tempura+fish cake
Set A comes with 5 pcs of tempura and Set B comes with 8 pcs of tempura.
Both set menu come with free drink. Set menu and free drink will change according to different season. So, you can choose based on available set when you visit.

I ordered below for 3 person when I last visited and we were very full by the time we finished them~!
So, it can be full meal or afternoon snack (if you order less).

Biggest ice cream craze in Korea now : Softree Honey Chip ice cream

When I went back to Seoul a few months ago, my sister brought me to an ice cream place where you have to wait for 2 hours to eat one cup of ice cream and I gave up.

This time, there was good news! they opened a new branch just in front of my house!

So, I tried and it was truly impressed!

They have very few items on the menu now (when they first opened, it was mostly customised flavour according to each customer's request. maybe that's why it took so long to serve all the customers). And, each day, many items get sold out and they block the menu out.

The most famous/popular item is 'honey chip ice cream'. 

It's very interesting to eat the honey chip with ice cream, but what I really loved was the ice cream itself. It has very deep creamy milky taste!

They started with one store, but they are opening a few more stores all around Seoul. So, you can simply google 'Softree Seoul' for the location near your hotel/shopping place~

Enjoy~!!!

If I have one evening for dinner in Seoul, I go to this place to eat

When I'm back in Korea, what I do mainly is eat and shop and shop and eat non-stop.
There are so much great food I want to eat and I ALWAYS don't have enough time or stomach space.
So, I have to plan very well. However, there is something I will eat without fail whenever I'm in Seoul ; 뱃고동 낙지볶음 (stir-fry long-legged octopus by 'Bat Go Dong (name of the restaurant)

If you like spicy food and fresh seafood, you will love this. For most Singaporeans who eats chilli, this will be 'ok spicy' food.

'Nak Ji' is small or long legged octopus which is much much smaller than the octopus you see in Japanese restaurant or other seafood place. This is also famous to many tourist for eating 'live'. I personally don't like the live version and much more prefer this 'cooked' version with gorgeous chilli sauce. The rice you eat at the end is heavenly as well.

If you go with a group of 3 or 4, you can order 3 or 4 portions of stir-fried 'Nak Ji' and add one place of fried squid. The squid they serve is much bigger than the local 'so tong'. So, it will be good enough to share among 4 person on top of the main dish.
I will show you how to place an order later on and start with how to find the place first.

This is located in the heart of 'Rodeo street' in 'Apgujung' area. This area used to be the hottest place for young & hip people, but it's pretty dead now.. So, I just go there to eat. If you are there too early to eat, you can walk around to shop for a while as well but don't expect a huge crowd. For shopping or people watching, you should go to 'Garosugil' which is near this place instead. I will talk about it in another post.

The full address is 663 Shinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (phone : 02-514-8008 if you are calling within Korea)
I found the map with exact location but it's in Korean. If I find English version, I will update;
http://map.daum.net/?titag=http://www.kimsujung.com/sync/local/1042

If you take train to 'Apgujung station (orange line / line 3), you use exit number 2 and walk towards Galleria department store. If it's very cold winter, you can consider taking bus (if you have a bit of understanding of Korean) or take taxi because you will need to walk about 2-3 bus stops.
After walking a few blocks from the station, you will see 2 story 'Paris Croissant (bakery)' building on your right hand side and you turn into that street.
After that, you have to turn left to this small street

I'm not sure whether this is detail enough to find the location,,, if you have internet connection, I think it will be easier for you.

The restaurant is on the basement, so, you have to walk down one floor

Now, you can finally order.
Below is the menu you will see on your table;

There are many items, but I will recommend ordering number 6 ( Stir-fried Nak Ji, according to number of people) and number 7 (deep fried squid, 1 plate to share).
When you are almost done with 'Nak ji', ask for rice. You can eat it as normal white rice, but it's much nice to eat as fried rice. If you are group of 4, you can ask for 2-3 rice. Of course, you can order 4 rice as well if you are hungry. Ask them to fry rice (밥 볶아 주세요)

Before your main meal comes, you will have some salad and kimchi

 After that, they serve Nak Ji and deep fried squid;

If you are wearing white or worry about dirty your cloth, ask for small apron (please give me an apron : 앞치마 주세요) it's very common in Korean restaurant to have aprons.

Normally, service staff will help you prepare the dish (actually, very simple. just stir when it start sizzling) but if they are too busy, you can start stirring as well). It doesn't take very long to cook because you can basically eat the live one and it's very fresh.

When you order fried rice, they bring white rice, a bit of chopped kimchi and seaweed flake. They will remove most of sauce from the pan and put them in a separate bowl and fry rice as below.

Wait for a while (I like to have a little of burned bottom to enjoy the crispy texture) and EAT!

Seoul & Singapore

I've been living in Singapore for last 13 years (it will be 14 year by August this year), but I'm still Korean who grew up in Seoul. With the recent Korean wave, many Singaporeans visit Korea, especially Seoul, and started asking me where to go, where to eat and shop.
So, I decided to start this blog to keep record I can share with whoever is going to Seoul.
I will skip the typical tourist attractions such as palaces and amusement parks since you can get a lot of information from official tour sites or anywhere on internet easily.
So, I will focus more on where to shop (especially catered for Singaporeans) and eat.
Since I'm still living in Singapore and visit Seoul only once in 4-5 months, the information is not super updated, so, I guess it will not be suitable for foreigners living in Seoul.
Well, this is my first blog, so, I'm not sure how it will go and how often I will write. You will see~