After waking up with a stomach full of steak and Korean food the next day, I went to church then met up with Jihoon and Julia to go to Namdaemun (South Gate) market. The gate, which is on the northern side of Seoul past the Han River, was so-named because it sat at the south of historic Seoul, before newer developments like Gangnam arose.
One of the more unsettling trends among young Koreans is matching couple outfits. I'm not talking about couples just wearing similar colored shirts, but about couples who actually wear the exact same shirts (and even pants sometimes). Jihoon says most Koreans choose to eschew individuality in favor of promoting their "coupleness."
On this particular Sunday, however, I noticed a particularly disturbing new trend- friends coordinating their outfits to match not just each other, but also to match the subway. I snapped a quick shot of one such pair on the Green Line.
Disturbing
Namdaemun market is the closest thing to a Chinese market in Seoul, with vendors prominently hawking their wares and streets overflowing with people. Some of the more common items for sale were handbags, suitcases, toys, and (authentic?) fox furs.
We also tried some fresh baos/mandu right out of the steamer, including some kimchi baos- the epitome of Chinese-Korean fusion
But baos alone weren't good enough for a full meal, so we headed over to a restaurant/food stall that Jihoon had seen on TV (although all of the restaurants in that row were advertising how they had been on TV). The dish was sujebi, homemade flour noodles. The owner whipped up a batch of fresh noodles with breathtaking speed, and apparently when she had been on TV she had thrown the noodles into the pot from a couple feet away. We asked her to demonstrate, but she just started bragging about how good she was instead of proving those claims.
But baos alone weren't good enough for a full meal, so we headed over to a restaurant/food stall that Jihoon had seen on TV (although all of the restaurants in that row were advertising how they had been on TV). The dish was sujebi, homemade flour noodles. The owner whipped up a batch of fresh noodles with breathtaking speed, and apparently when she had been on TV she had thrown the noodles into the pot from a couple feet away. We asked her to demonstrate, but she just started bragging about how good she was instead of proving those claims.
We followed up the meal by perusing the American-snack booth and Korea's largest stationery store. And since we were in the area, we decided to wander around Myeong-dong, a modern, high-end shopping area similar to Gangnam.
There were decidedly more street evangelists in this area than in other parts of Seoul
Jihoon and Julia!!!
ReplyDeletethat couple thing is too funny
i wonder if that will be in style in america soon...
it would be...interesting at least. we wouldn't have to go retro for yet another decade. we could go korea!