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!
