피맛골 (pi-mat-gol)

Right outside of exit 3 of Jongkak station is one of my favorite streets of Seoul: 피맛골. Pi means to avoid, mat is the wooden chair used to carry elite, and gol is an alleyway. During the Joseon dynasty, people would use the smaller alleys to get around and avoid noblemen (who wants to bow when you are on the way to work?). There is still a maze of side streets in the Jongno area that are wonderful to wander around with great restaurants for dinner. If you take a left right out of exit 3 and walk straight, you'll come to a covered building with tons of jeon and makkeoli places. Delicious. 

The entrance from Jongkak station

The entrance to western 피맛골  is near the backstreets of Gwanghwamun's Kyobo bookstore exit. From there, you can look out for some spicy stir-fried octopus or cut noodles. 

My favorite part, however, is near Insadong/Jongo 2 Ga. If you walk toward Insadong from Jongno 2 Ga you will find an entrance on your left. This narrow streets winds through some interesting street art and one of the best mackerel/makkeoli places that I've ever been to.

Graffiti on the way to the restaurant 

I can't tell you exactly where the restaurant is. There are a tons of different places back there and no exact addresses. Most of them will have great food. I can't even find my pictures from the restaurant's interior... Guess that means I'll have to go back. And just to tempt you ...

Evening View: Gwanghwamun

Lanterns are up for Buddha's Birthday ^^

Gwanjang Market

I don't know why I have only walked through this market and not eaten in it, but the other day it was FREEZING and Catie and I decided to go get some street food. Gwanjang Market (관장시장) is located pretty close to Dongdaemun, and would be most accessible from Jongo 5 Ga (I think exit 8). From there, you will see a sign for the market. Like most big markets in Seoul, you can find plenty of things to buy here, but my biggest draw to an area is always food, and one area of the market has stall after stall of bindedeok. Bindedeok is a type of jeon, which Koreans like to call Korean pizza but is more similar to a healthy pancake. Unlike other types of jeon bindedeok is made with mung beans. This dish was first made in the 1670s and literally translates to poor persons pancake. Thanks wikipedia!
We enjoyed our bindedeok with makgeoli and some hobak juk (pumpkin porridge). The stall we sat at was particularly full so we had to take the outdoor seating. Warming our hands above our pumpkin stew and enjoying our bindedeok with soy sauce and makgeoli was actually quite romantic and I'd recommend this market as an impressive date spot to bring a foreigner who doesn't have much experience with Seoul. Just try to stay away from the pork intestine smell. Because of the wind, every once in a while we'd get a huge whiff of this Korean specialty, which, no matter how much I smell it, I have never got used to.

It was about -10 C so there was a lot of steam