My Seoul Story Experience authentic street food at Gwangjang Market

This is the sixth in a series of contributions about Seoul’s charms as seen from foreigners’ points of view. — ED.

By Jordi Sanchez

Jordi Sanchez

Somebody once said that to truly know a culture and its people, the best place to go is to a market. Markets tend to keep to traditional ways of doing things and visiting one always gives one a feeling of nostalgia.

One of the oldest markets in Seoul is Gwangjang Market. It was founded in the summer of 1905 as the Gwangjang Corporation, which was created with the purpose of reclaiming Korean sovereignty during the period of Japanese occupation. Gwangjang Market (by then known as Dongdaemun Market) was the first Korean market to open every day. At that time, markets used to open occasionally every few days. Later, in 1962 the market was divided into Dongdaemun Market and Gwangjang Market. Its most recent change was in 2005, when a glass ceiling was erected to protect the sales stands from the rain and snow.

Entering Gwangjang Market is like going back in time and immersing oneself into old Korea. Forget about skyscrapers and cute coffee shops, leave behind the imposing palaces and the magnificent temples, this market is Korean Tradition as real as it gets.

Located between Jongno 5-ga and Euljiro 4-ga, right next to the modernized Cheonggye stream, the market has many entrances. Some of them will lead you to an infinite number of textiles, silks, handicrafts, and souvenirs.

Much of the fabric is of high quality but still sells at affordable prices. Much of the cloth ends up in clothing sold at stores at Dongdaemun Market and Pyeonghwa Market in the fashion district. Many of the traditional hanbok makers buy their fabric at Gwangjang Market. Getting lost among all these sales stands will allow you to see a vast amount and variety of accessories such as buttons, zippers, sequins and whatnot.

However, this is not the most popular area of the market. The crowd gathers towards the food stands. The grocery area is already big and you’ll find fresh seafood and a great variety of fermented vegetables among other things. But the main reason why people visit the market is the street food for sale at the big crossing.

popular food there is bindaetteok, pancakes made of soybean paste (ground right there), soybean sprouts, spring onions and garlic and deep fried in oil right in front of the hungry visitors’ eyes. The most popular stand there is Bakganae, which has been featured on TV several times.

With its origins beginning around 1670, bindaetteok was a food for the working people who didn’t have enough money to buy meat. Nowadays bindaetteok is a popular food often served with makgeolli, a traditional fermented alcoholic beverage.

But if deep fried food is not your thing, maybe the popular mayak gimbab will satisfy your appetite. Mayak means drug or narcotic in Korean, but it’s not because this food includes illegal substances, it’s simply because it is addictive in its taste. Mayak gimbab are rice rolls with carrot, pickled radish, and some sesame oil wrapped in seaweed. The addictive secret lies in the sauce made of mustard and soy sauce.

The food stalls offer other meals especially popular among office workers in the area who use their lunch or dinner break to enjoy sundae, jokbal, bibimbap and mandu. Sundae is made of pork intestines filled with glass noodles, blood and other ingredients. It’s one of the most popular street foods in Korea. Jokbal are tender pork trotters — pigs’ feet — cooked for some hours with soy sauce and spices. Another favorite is bibimbap, rice mixed with pepper paste and vegetables, some of them served with barley too and many of them allowing the guests to pour extra quantities of ingredients into the mix.

Jordi Sanchez is a freelance English teacher in Seoul.