WeFeast

Tobacco Dock, London

The Long Table was the first night market I visited in London. I would never have thought people in London would queue up in the cold, on a rainy day, to go to an uncovered venue for food. Not everyone loved the idea but there was certainly enough demand to start the ‘night food market trend’. And a few other bigger food markets such as TheStockMKT and WeFeast have proven to be highly successful since then.

A few weeks ago I went to WeFeast at Tobacco Dock – a converted warehouse in Wapping. The venue was 80% covered, and set up with several communal tables. More than 20 street food vendors had participated in this event. They were evenly spread out on the ground and first floors, leaving plenty of room for the guests to explore, and more importantly to form queues. At first I found the entry fee a bit pricey (starting at £8 + booking fee), but in return we got a line-up of some of London’s best street vendors and restaurants. Together with the entertainment and the very helpful on-site staff, the price seemed reasonable.

So, as the name of the event stated, it was a feast so we ate a lot. Besides my favourites - Elliot’s Café, Bone Daddies, The Bowler and Pizza Pilgrims - I also had my first tastes of Patty and Bun, Meringue Girls, The Last Days of Pisco and Hix Fish Dog. Among those, the sea bass ceviche by The Last Days of Pisco and the ginger and rhubarb Eton mess by the Meringue Girls were the real highpoints of the night. I even convinced Pizza Pilgrims to make me a custom oyster pizza. I know it sounds disgusting but with the addition of nduja it tasted SO GOOD.

Full set of photos here. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Feast!

WeFeast

Ginseng Chicken Soup, Seoul

I had been to Seoul once when I was little. Back in those days my parents were not very adventurous travellers (not with two kids anyway!), so we just joined a tour group - one of those tours ran specifically for Hong Kong tourists, which only took us to Chinese restaurants for most of the meals during the trip. But on one very cold day, when we had just got off the coach after a long drive from the mountains, feeling tired and hungry, we were treated to a local speciality. My parents told me I could have one whole chicken to myself, and wow, I was over the moon. It was served in a black casserole filled with a cloudy chicken stock. I remember scooping out the glutinous rice from inside the chicken cavity, and my glasses steamed up with the fragrance of ginseng. This is one of my earliest food memories.

Tosokchon is a very popular Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) restaurant in Seoul. It is often swamped by Chinese and Japanese tour groups, therefore most of the staff are fluent in both languages. The classic ginseng chicken soup came with a shot of ginseng liquor, some people drink it before the meal but I like to pour it into the stock. The young chicken was stuffed with glutinous rice, chestnuts, ginseng and dates, and then poached in a herbal stock. The sweetness from the flesh was a perfect match for the gentle bitterness from the ginseng.

From a Chinese medicinal point of view, eating ginseng is said to enhance the inner strength of the human body, so we do not become ill easily. I did feel my body temperature boost for a good while afterwards. It is quite hard to bring myself to believe that this is actually a summer dish!

Tosokchon 토속촌삼계탕

After the meal we stumbled into a nearby local market. We saw a herbal shop, countless bowls of pickled vegetables and some spicy fish.

Just a normal day for these ladies, sorting through a huge basket of chillies.

Tongin Market 통인시장

A short 15 minute walk away from Tosokchon, you can find one of the must-visit palaces in Seoul - The Gyeongbokgung palace. Apart from its history and architectural background, the guard changing ceremony was also a highlight of the visit. Check out the stick-on beards!

The beautiful floating Gyeonghoeru pavilion is located at the west side of the palace, where the king used to hold feasts for important guests and officials.

The Gyeongbokgung Palace 경복궁

Gwangjang Market, Seoul

Gwangjan Market was one of our ‘fuel’ stops on the way to Dongdaemun Market. The market itself is huge with an extensive selection of shops selling textile products. But we were there for the food market. There are two main alleyways in the market crammed with many little restaurants and food stalls. Raw fish, blood sausages, pig’s trotters and some seaweed rice rolls are just some of the items this market offers. If you want THE Seoul street food experience, this is the place to go.

The stalls are mainly run by Korean middle-aged women, who tempt potential customers by waving fried food in their faces. We settled ourselves down with a friendly lady who offered us freshly fried courgette. Later she showed us that she had been in one of the local food magazines, oh bless her.

There was a mountain of jeon in front of us. I recognised most of the vegetable ones and crabsticks. We ordered some essentials (kimchi and beer) to start. The kimchi was very different from the ones I had tried in other Seoul restaurants, it was sweeter and less fermented. It went down really well with the oil saturated jeon. To be honest the food was not very tasty, but this place is great for people watching. I feel the same way about Borough Market, I hate it being so crowded and touristy but I cannot help but love it for its noisy and chaotic vibe.

Gwangjang Market

Myeong-dong and mini tips for Seoul

Some observations about Seoul:

• Korean couples wear matching outfits, from top to toe literally.
• Teenage girls use their camera phones as mirrors.
• No matter what you buy, you get facial masks as a free gift.
• Soju (Korean vodka) is cheaper than bottled water.

I wanted to add number 5 - there is no escape from kimchi, but it is not quite true. There was no kimchi in the Korean fried chicken restaurants. Mmm... more about KFC later...

In October I went to Seoul for a 5 day trip, we stayed at the PJ Hotel which is conveniently located in the middle of four metro lines, and a short walk to a touristy shopping area called Myeong-dong. The hotel is modern and clean, and mainly serves Japanese tourists so the service was great (lots of bowing). I cannot tell you how pleased I was when I found a Toto toilet in my hotel room, an instant +10 comfort points (imagine what is like eating kimchi with nearly every meal). Our room looked over a school baseball ground, not exactly the million-dollar city view you would find in one of the big city hotels but somehow heartening.

PJ Hotel

There are some local restaurants near the hotel. We did not get to try any, although it would have been fun for the sake of an authentic experience.

Myeong-dong is everything you would hope for – well, if you like shopping. Apart from a couple of shopping malls, there are also countless of cosmetics shops. They all sell virtually the same stuff, and reappear in every single alley way. DO NOT USE ANY OF THEM AS A LANDMARK. To blend in with the local culture, I bought myself some cutting-edge cosmetics products – snail essence facial masks. Yup you heard me. I also got a poisonous snake mask as a free gift. My skin will be as beautiful as this guy, lucky me!

Besides shopping, there are also many food stalls distributed throughout the main streets in Myeong-dong. The first one we encountered sold these sugar-coated spiral potato crisps on a stick, sausage optional.

GyeRanBang - hot fluffy cake with a whole egg in the middle

Toasted dried squid and sweet potato fries

Poached giant clams

Various fried snacks, including glutinous rice cakes in Gochujang

Myeong-dong Kyoja is a popular dumpling restaurant in the area. It was one of the quickest meals I had in a long time, wow they moved faster than the Chinese! The service was a bit indifferent (towards rude), reminding me of Wong Kei in London’s China Town. The filling of the dumpling is denser, probably less fatty, than those in China. Some claim it was the best meal they had in Seoul, it was decent but certainly was not the best. Wait until I show you the hanu beef...

Myeong-dong Kyoja

Here are my mini tips for Seoul:

• Rent an EGG. It is too easy to get lost in Seoul, so the internet can save your life. You can hire a 4G WiFi hotspot called an EGG from Korean network company Olleh, at the airport or other branches in the city. For 8000KRW a day, you can tweet/instagram/facbook anytime you want. You know you want it. And you get a facial mask as a free gift too, obviously.
• Take the airport bus. Airport bus is the most convenient way to travel/from the airport. There are more than 30 routes covering most of the hotels in Seoul as well as some of the suburban areas.
• Taxis can be cheaper than taking the Metro. Take the grey or white ones, the black ones are for tourists and charge at a higher rate.
• Fruit is expensive in Korea, eat kimchi instead.
• If in doubt, point. People are generally nice and helpful if you ask nicely. I cannot speak Korean but managed to get what I wanted by just pointing at signs/map/pictures of food etc most of the time.
• Read these blogs: TomEatsJenCooks, SeoulInTheCity