If you’re visiting Seoul and looking for night markets, one of the most famous (i.e. forewarning that there are a lot of tourists) markets to visit is Myeong-Dong Market. You won’t miss it because if you’re shopping at the main Lotte department store, you can pretty much just follow the crowd.
If you’re like me and loves street food, your eyes will be delighted by a variety of different street food offering – each stall has their own specialty, although some of the more typical fried offerings then to repeat itself across the market. One of the more distinct ones was a burger joint, which looked delicious!
Not being able to resist fried fish cakes – Ms. Buddha and I went for a variety skewer – which was delicious especially when the chilli sauce was hot!
The next stall that got my attention was meat balls – it was grilled meat balls and apparently with high quality meats (they looked hand-made); we got one to share between the 2 of us and added a good dose of special cream sauce – the texture of the meat balls was excellent and flavour was delicious!
Walking a bit further into the market – I was attracted by fried milk cakes – and having fallen in love with Korean Milk (Korean milk ice cream), I decided to give this a try (especially when the stall owners looked young – support the youths!) The cakes were admittedly a little sweet for my taste although the chewy texture was quite nice.
The last stall we visited was a lonely stall owner who had a little stove kart without any covers – the offerings were nuts – in particular Bai Guo or Ginkgo Nuts – which are already shelled and then cooked in the mesh stove as he massages the skin off the nuts – quite a spectacle to watch.
The nuts themselves were excellent – I love ginkgo nuts – and the cooking process made a slightly firm shell on the outside and then a very chewy core; what’s more, in the cold, eating them by hand was so fun!
