Seoul "Soul" Food Day 3: Bon Juk, Gam Ja Tang, & Mr Pizza

Because we had such a big late lunch the previous day, our stomachs requested that we skip dinner, so naturally we were STARVING the next morning.  Seoul is still really cold (low around freezing, high of 50s) at this time of year and we wanted to stick with traditional Korean food for our meals.  Hot + traditional Korean food led us to....

Bon Juk!  Some of you drama junkies may already be familiar with Bon Juk because it was the franchise featured in "Boys Over Flowers" as the store that Geum Di worked in.  Last time I went to Seoul I didn't make it there, so this time I really wanted to go at least once.  Here's some photos of the menu (sorry for the crappy quality)

Top: Meat/Veggie Juks
Bottom: Traditional/Kids Juks

Top: Popular/Famous Juks
Bottom: Well Being Seafood Juks

 Juk is basically Korean porridge.  They can be salty or sweet.  On the menu at Bon Juk, all of the items are salty except for the ones in the traditional section.  At first glance I was surprised at the expensive pricing of the dishes (7500 - 20,000 won which is about $7.50-$20 USD).  However, when the food came out I realized that juk is considered as a full meal, hence the full meal pricing.  Note: It is a LOT of food, so if you don't eat a lot/aren't very hungry, ask for a half portion!

The tuna & vegetables juk that I ordered...

 See what I mean by it's a full meal and a lot of food?  I have a pretty big stomach and at 9am, this was pretty hard for me to finish completely.  I think I left a little unfinished.  As with all Korean meals, it came with a few side dishes (panchan) that you can also eat with the juk.  They also served a radish soup to cleanse your palette and sweet cold cinnamon and plum (?) tea.

The next meal was Gam Ja Tang, per one of my friend's requests.  The information center told us there was a good place in Insadong, so back to Insadong we went!  I don't think they serve this in any Korean restaurant around Austin/Houston, so this was a completely new Korean dish that I was trying.  Here's the menu:

Gam Ja Tang on the far left.  It comes in 3 sizes, S (1 person), M (3-4 people), L (a lot of people).

When I heard the name of the dish, I thought it was potato soup because potato in Korean is Gam Ja (감자).  You can imagine my shock when this came out:

The white slices are potato....but definitely what I was expecting lol.  Apparently Gam Ja Tang is traditionally a hot pot style spicy pork bone soup that you eat with a lot of people.  The veggies are called "trash" (sseuregi 쓰레기) so if you like them, you can ask for more trash. Here's what it looks like when it's cooked:   

 And a picture of the humongous bones that are in the soup.

When you order they'll ask how you want the rice to go with the soup.  You can get a plain bowl of white rice (called gongjibap 공기밥 and costs 1000won p/bowl) or request that bowl of rice to be mixed with the remaining soup in the form of fried rice.  We requested the fried rice.

The rice was soaked in the soup's flavor and "trash" veggies cooked to the perfect crunchiness much like in stone pot bibimbap.  Deliiiiicious.

Even though we were already ridiculously stuffed from another large meal, if you're in Insadong, it's really hard to say no to all the food stalls that line the street.  So we caved in and got these sweet snacks:

호도과자, which literally translated is walnut snack. It was pretty cool watching the assembly line while waiting for our freshly made snacks.  It's a walnut shaped cakey/doughy outside filled with red bean paste.  I think it cost 2500won (~$2.50) for a small bag with 6? Sorry, my memory is failing me.

At the end of the day we ended up in Gangnam.  I couldn't remember which exit from the subway would lead us to the popular street lined with shops and restaurants so naturally I chose the wrong one.  We were hoping to eat food stall food, but since there wasn't any nearby, we came to Mr. Pizza (http://www.mrpizza.co.kr/).

Mr Pizza is a Korean pizza chain that sells Korean-ified pizzas.  They offer a salad buffet for 3500 won (~$3.50) if I remember correctly.  The salad buffet was pretty pitiful to what we're used to in the states, so we just got a pizza.  We ordered the regular sized Oh My Rib (오마이립) pizza with a sweet potato stuffed crust which cost 25,900 won (~$25.90).  There's no additional charge for different types of crust.  Here's the photos of the pizza from the website:

And this is what it actually looked like.  Can't accuse them of false advertising eh?  The pizza wasn't as good as I remembered from the first time I had it in Sinchon.  I'm not sure if it's because we didn't order a good pizza (one of my friends didn't like the BBQ sauce on the ribs) or if that particular branch just wasn't as good.  The sweet potato stuffed crust part was awesome though and highly recommended.

Wow, this post turned out a lot longer than I expected.  A very productive food day, I'd say  =)