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As the sun set on Seoul, we realized what a full day we'd had, crisscrossing Jongno, from breakfast on Supyo-ro, then off to Gyeongbokgung Palace  only to find that the palace was closed that. It was then onward to Bukchon Hanok Village, only to find that place crawling with tourists. Then deciding to walk to Changdeokgung Palace and a wonderful tour of the Secret Garden, followed by a walk through Insadong with lunch at Gogung. Whew. When evening hit, man, we were pretty hungry. The Missus had Samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup, on Her "wish list" and who am I to deny Her?

So we headed out….the Missus wanted a different route, so we headed down to the Cheonggyecheon Stream area, once an elevated freeway area and crossed over to the very busy Myeongdong area, bustling with post-work and pre-Christmas shoppers. Around this time of the year, lanterns adorn the stream.

Walking past Lotte Department Store, we headed in the direction of City Hall and soon heard some loud singing. It was this guy singing his heart out….unfortunately, it was just to an empty field of grass.

That didn't deter him from giving it his all though……

This palace is Deoksugung, which had evening hours. After getting the Missus Her Samgyetang we returned but decided one should only visit so many palaces a day and decided to pass.

A busy intersection and few blocks away was our destination; Korea Samgyetang, which claims to be the first Samgyetang Restaurant in Seoul, opening in 1960.

The place has four floors. We sat on the first floor which was pretty empty when we arrived, but quickly filled up. A mix of tourists and locals.

As the Missus loves Her Black Chicken, She ordered the Black Bone Chicken with Wild Korean Ginseng Broth and Abalone……which I think came out to something like $30!

Things started off with some panchan and some (free)ginseng wine, which I found a bit too medicinal for my taste.

I think I already mentioned how good the kkandugi was in Korea, this one was probably the best….not too salty, not bitter, slightly sweet, and with a nice crisp, but not hard texture. It must be the type of daikon used as the texture is totally different from what we have here in the states. That raw garlic…was quite potent.

Like I mentioned above; I'm not a big fan of Samgyetang and this didn't really change my opinion. Personally, kind of flat tasting, the abalone was very tough and hard…..same could be said for the black chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, dried dates, and ginseng. The Missus? She loves black chicken and really enjoyed this….

The place sure does get busy. As we were finishing up, a group of Thai arrived. When we were leaving I started cracking up as I saw a Ziploc bag of Thai Chilies being passed around from person to person.

The service was efficient, if not a bit perfunctory. I was happy for the Missus…..

Korea Samgyetang
55-3 Seosomun-dong
Jung-gu, Seoul

And while Samgyetang is traditionally "hot weather" food, the Missus seemed energized by all that rubbery chicken and ginseng floating around in Her belly, so we decided to walk around for a bit.

King Taejo, who founded the Joseon Dynasty, chose Seoul to be the Capitol in 1392. Security of the center of government was important to Taejo, so he ordered that a wall be constructed to protect his city. The wall had 8 gates, which also is the number of mountains which surrounds the city. So you'll come across many gates during a visit. This one is Souimun (Seosomun).

I was again struck by the contrast of the ancient and modern in Seoul……

We made our way back in a roundabout way, finally deciding to walk along Cheonggyecheon Stream to admire the lanterns.

We fully intended to stop when we got to the apartment, but for some reason we just kept on walking down Jongro….pass a shopping street where the Missus said, "you can't go down there….you're too old."

Somehow, we ended up back near Supyo-ro and I was feeling a bit hungry. I remembered a "KFC" (that would be "Korean Fried Chicken") place I saw the previous evening and was suddenly hungry. You can't go to Seoul without getting some KFC, right?

Which how we ended up at Kkanbu Chicken……..

We ordered the Crispy Chicken, which came with a bowl of popcorn (?!?) and water kimchi. Man, this was like a whole chicken!

The chicken was super crisp, the batter very light, the chicken very moist…..but the flavor seemed bland and in need of seasoning to us. The Missus looked at me and said, "you'd kill for a bottle of Crystal hot sauce right now wouldn't you?" The chicken sure did need a bit of flavor and something to cut all of that…friedness. Some of my Roasted Ghost Pepper hot sauce would have been killer…heck, if I'm coming back to Seoul, I might invest in those tiny keychain bottles of tabasco!

On a cute note; there was a young couple who sat on the table next to us. We saw some kind of fruity soda and a mug of beer arrive at the table. To crash those stereotypes; it was the tiny young lady who had the mug of beer and the guy had the soda. I did notice that the girl only ate the kimchi and nothing else though, which I found kind of strange…the guy just whacked the whole chicken.

The service was nice, though I was really looking forward to the KFC place I had on my list scheduled for a few nights later.

Kkanbu Chicken
202 Nagwon-dong
Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea 

By this time I was kind of feeling all those miles and I was looking forward to hitting the sack. But it was not to be…at least not right away. As we got to the highrise where our apartment was located, the Missus kept on walking…..we ended back up on Sejong-ro on Gwanghwamun Square, staring at the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin.

As we got back to the apartment the Missus looked at Her smartphone and said "perfect….we just put in 20 miles of walking today!"

What?!? I needed a shower and a good night of sleep…….

Thanks for reading!

Since we had pretty much struck out at Gyeongbokgung Palace (wrong day of the week….damn you jetlag) and Bukchon Hanok Village (crawling with tourists), we went for "Plan C", Changdeokgung Palace. Walking over, the place looked quite busy, but once inside it was rather sedate.

Completed in 1412, this was considered the "second palace", after Gyeongbokgung. You enter through the Donhwamun Gate into a large courtyard that fronts the Injeongjeon, the throne hall.

The markers you see indicate where the court stood….basically in terms of rank. So of course the Missus stood next to rank 1 for Her photo and took one of me in front of the last rank! Not really knowing much about the history of Korea, the Missus was fascinated to see that Chinese was used as the written language.

From this throne the king received envoys and oversaw ceremonies.

We walked along Daejojeon Hall, the official residence of the queen.

This was all very nice, but there was one area I'd read about and really wanted to visit; "Biwon" (비원 The Secret Garden). This area can only be visited via a guided tour and you need to purchase tickets. Also known as Huwon (후원 Rear Garden), this series of pavilions and ponds were originally created for the royal family.

We had a hint of things while walking around other parts of the palace.

There are times when travelling when everything just seems right, your timing is perfect. In spite of the other 50 or so folks on the tour, this was the highlight of our time in Seoul. Our guide was so very knowledgeable, She explained the use of Chinese writing and the transition to Hangul to the Missus later on during the walk…..she was oh so very patient, keeping a group like this together was like herding cats. And listening to the three Filipino girls was a hoot; "pleeease, no more hills", "what, more steps?", "ok, enough leaves already…."

The colors were stunning as was the backdrop.

The photo above show the area named Juhamnu; this is where the Royal libraries were located. The pond in front of it is called Buyongji Pond.

One of the most stunning sites was the next stop; the "Love of Lotus" pond and pavilion (Aeryeonji).

We don't have an intense changing of the seasons here in San Diego, so just the colors had us mesmerized.

For a kid from Hawaii like me….this was like being on a different planet…..

This is the Jondeokjeong Pavillion, known for the double roof.

This is the Soyoam Rock. Notice the carving in the rock. Along with the name of the area carved by King Injo, there's a poem carved into the rock by King Sukjong.

At the end is a Chinese Juniper Tree that is supposed to be over 750 years old.

It was nothing short of spectacular to us……the timing was just perfect; the next few days were quite windy and somewhat rainy which I'm sure changed things. Sometimes you just get lucky!

We were getting hungry, so we headed down to the bustling streets of Insadong, full of shops, little restaurants….tourists and locals.

In the basement of the very popular Ssamziegil Mall is a restaurant named Gogung, famous for their Bibimbap.

The restaurant specializes in Jeonju Bibimbap, supposedly a specialty of Jeonju which was declared one of the Creative Cities for Gastronomy by UNESCO. Jeonju Bibimbap is supposed to be serious stuff; sometimes with up to 30 ingredients used for a single bowl!

The Missus really enjoyed Her meal here and considers it Her favorite meal in Seoul.

There were two items that arrived with the panchan that caught our attention. The first was Deulkkaetang a perilla seed and mushroom based soup. The flavor was quite interesting, like basil, mildly sweet with an anise finish combined with the earthy flavor of the mushrooms. This was nice, but I found the fragrance kind of odd, mildy fishy-earthy, not sure if my olfactory was working well on this day.

The second being some fermented thick cabbage stems which smelled almost exactly like the suan cai we make at home. Funky fermented flavor. So of course the Missus just loved this.

We noticed that folks on the other tables pretty much stayed away from this….the Missus was tempted to grab them……..but She displayed great restraint.

The Missus went with the Jeonju Dolsot Bibimbap; which might have been one of the best dolsot bibimbap I've ever had. Amazing textures, especially the bean sprouts which tasted oh so good.

As the rice crust formed things got even better; adding a layer of nuttiness and even more contrasting textures to the dish.

The Missus though, really enjoyed what I ordered; the Yukhoe Bibimbap. The amazingly clean tasting raw beef had perhaps a bit too much minced Asian Pear in it, making it a tad to sweet for me; but the Missus really loved the flavor and texture of this.

She polished this off in no time.

The traditional Sujeonggwa was served as dessert/digestif.

We both enjoyed it as this was not as sweet as most versions back in the States, making it quite refreshing. The prices weren't too bad at all; the Dolsot Bibimbap at ₩ 11,000, about $8.75 and the Yukhoe Bibimbap at ₩ 15,000, about $12.

Gogung Insadong
44 Insadong-gil
Jongno-gu, Seoul

After lunch we wandered around Ssamziegil Mall, through all the little shops; but mostly people watching…….

Kids are the same everywhere, aren't they?

Soon enough, our afternoon nap came calling and we headed back to our apartment amongst the highrises of Jongno-gu……..

We'd already put in a good amount of mileage, but little did I know we'd put in another big chunk this evening.

Thanks for reading!

Ah yes, Seoul, I need to get around to my posts before all the memories fade. Why Seoul, I'm not quite sure…..it had something to do with those K-Dramas the Missus was watching. I told my coworker "SJ" about this and she laughed……"it's really nothing like those soap operas….." but she was excited about my travelling to Seoul where much of her family still lives. I mentioned wanting to really try the "standards", "Seoul Food" if you will, and she came up with a huge spreadsheet of choices, recommendations from friends, family, and her…..we managed to visit a couple of these places as well as a few I did some research on. Yet, the Missus had Her heart set on eating at Pojangmachas….which SJ found to be quite amusing.

I was dark and rainy when we arrived from Narita, something we got used to since we had only one really clear night during our trip. It would have been quite difficult finding our way to our AirBnB amongst the highrises around Jongak Station. But our host left us amazing instructions….with photos and landmarks! The apartment was comfortable, cozy, and had all the amenities one could wish for. And the location couldn't be beat. It's probably one of the best and well set-up AirBnB units we've stayed in. They even had pocket wifi to use during your stay. Thanks Mark!

So we headed out into the night and straight for the Pojangmacha near Supyo-ro….and reality hit the Missus, the food looked like it had been sitting all day, rain was dripping on it…and while it would probably hit the spot after a hard night of drinking…we weren't that drunk yet. So, I went to my list and thought some Seolleongtang would just be perfect. And we set out to find Imun Seolleongtang, one of the oldest, if not the oldest restaurant in Seoul. According to Seoulistic the place was established in 1902. How we found the restaurant, in the darkness and drizzle, I'll never know. But tucked away from one of the main streets, we found the place……a gentleman was walking in and we asked him "Imun Seolleongtang?" He smiled and nodded and waved us in…turns out he was one of the owners/managers of the place as he stationed himself behind the cash register.

Most of the customers looked like older folk, a good sign in my book. We were seated and took a second too long to order so the older woman, totally a "Ajumma" just ordered for us…..hilarious. We wanted Seolleongtang anyway.

A couple of notes; we found that the baechu kimchi in Seoul was delicious and not as "pickled" and salty as what we have at most places here in the states.

It wasn't always to my liking, but it was a nice change for me.

Meanwhile; I found the kkakdugi to be really great just about everywhere; so crisp, refreshing, not too salty…….

And boy they love their scallions here…..

Baskets or huge bowls are passed around when you order Seolleongtang or Gomtang. I found that I really enjoyed adding a pile of this to my soup as it added crunch and a nice pungency and flavor to the broth…along with the sea salt and crushed red pepper (gochugaru).

So now is when I mention my SD card failure once again. Unfortunately, my SD card malfunction ate my Seolleongtang  photos…so you'll have to bear with my description. The broth was milky white, highly defatted, but still having that collagenic tongue coating feel to it. The flavor was beefy and not much else; it was up to you to add what you needed. The slices of wha loked like brisket had that nice texture of not too tough and not falling apart.

A perfect tummy coating soup for a rainy and rather chilly Seoul evening……

Imun Seolleontang
30-22 Ujeongguk-ro
Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Arriving at night in a city or country you've never been in before can be a bit disorienting; but we're kind of used to it now, so we just took things in stride and had a good night of sleep.

The next morning we awoke hungry and decided to head on out……..but first we needed some sustenance. Where….well, I wasn't sure. I recall seeing a couple of places neat the pojangmacha the night before so I suggested we walk on over to Supyo-ro. Looking over places, we decided on this one.

Sorry, neither the Missus nor I read Hangul. But the smells coming from the place was inviting….there was a group of "guys" finishing up their meal as we entered…..they were still drunk and were trying to sober up.

The panchan was decent, but nothing special….though I will say again, it wasn't as salty as what is standard here at many Korean restaurants.

I got the Doenjang Jigae – the soybean paste stew. It was decent, nice flavor, hearty, the tofu was especially good. The Missus enjoyed this more than I did.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the Kimchi Jigae….it had the nice fermented flavors of kimchi, wasn't too salty, was nice, thick, and plain delicious…..though the pork was really tough, which was to be expected based on the price.

And while we had a version later on that was plain delici-yoso….this hit the spot.

And yes, the price…..well 6500 won, about $5.20…not bad for breakfast, eh?

Seoul was an interesting city for us. A mix of the old and new, folks pushing carts around while using smartphones, the" juxtaposition of the old and new" is a phrase I used a couple of times while describing the city.

It was our intention to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace on this morning, at least that's what the Missus decided the night before….that's how She rolls. Most of the time She'll decide what She wants to do the night before. It's sometimes a bit of a scramble, especially when She gets hungry. I have to prepare and have options for everywhere, which can be a bit of a challenge at times.

The palace was literally a few blocks (albeit long blocks) away from where we were staying, but we were early. So we decided to have a cup of coffee…..man, the prices of coffee in Seoul was pretty expensive. Like $4+ a cup! After checking out a couple of places, we found a schoolhouse themed coffee shop called Coffee TeaCher; complete with schoolhouse desks, seats, and even lockers!

We both started noticing things right away. There was a group of office workers sitting when we arrived having drinks. When we left 30 minutes later they were still there taking a "coffee break"! We started keeping track when having a cup of coffee and noticed the same thing…..folks take some pretty long coffee breaks here. And then there are the "smoking blocks" outside office buildings……

We headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace a bit after 9am, but quickly noticed something…..

The doors looked closed…….

The time/day differences and jet lag had gotten to us. It was Tuesday and the palace was closed. Which didn't bother us too much since we were literally a quarter mile from the place.

So we walked on over to Bukchon Hanok Village which was just a few kilometers away. This is an area, between Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace  where traditional Korean homes "Hanoks" are located in a community that was once set aside for high ranking officials and the nobility.

It was quite beautiful. The only thing being the groups of loud tourists…some of whom would climb up walls…my goodness, folks are still living here…..

The Missus and I decided to return early on another morning and headed to "plan C", which turned out to be the best decision we made during our trip.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!