South Korea Pt. 1: Seoul Searching
On cafes, dance classes, and getting to know Seoul
Hello readers! When we last signed off, we had boarded our flight from Singapore to Seoul, South Korea. While we were sad to bid farewell to South East Asia’s delicious food scene, East Asia’s cooler temperate sounded extra inviting amidst Singapore’s humid climate.
Background History
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is located on a peninsula just south of Russia and east of China. Most of South Korea’s terrain is mountainous, with the lowlands compiling only 30% of the country. It has four distinct seasons and, as we were arriving in mid-October to escape from the heat of Singapore, we were excited to see the leaves changing during our time here.
Korean history is incredibly rich, and if you’re a Korean history lover like Sol, we recommend doing a deep dive into Wikipedia. Some cool highlights:
As in much of Asian countries, Chinese expansionism affected the Korean people throughout much of ancient history, by way of war, trade, language, and cultural exchange.
A major part of Korean pride came from the Joseon Dynasty in the 15th century; King Sejong the Great created Hangul, the Korean Alphabet, to split from reliance on Chinese characters. Ingeniously, the Hangul’s characters was designed to visually align with the shapes of the mouth used to voice it. Accompanying this was significant unrivaled scientific progression for the times.
There is significant debate on what language family to classify Korean as; a language isolate, unrelated to any other groups, or as part of the Altaic family, which contains Mongolian and Turkish. The language itself features influence from Chinese and Japanese due to proximity, too!
In the early 1900s, Japan annexed Korea through a bloody war. Most Korean cities were razed to the ground, and there were more civilian deaths than in any other war of the Cold War Era, including the Vietnamese war! The scars and trauma from this war are still scabbing over today, and relations between Korea and Japan are not comfortable - Japan’s government does not acknowledge the majority of its past atrocities commited to the Korean people.
After liberation from Japan at the end of WWII, Korea split into two: North Korea, backed by China, and South Korea, backed by the U.S.A.
War broke out between North and South Korea because both governments claimed the entire peninsula was theirs. North Korea almost won the war before the U.S.A. arrived. No peace treaty was ever signed, making this a technically ongoing conflict.
Today, Korea has risen from ashes to become a major economic power, excelling in technology. The turnaround from a country mostly consisting of poor farmers to a high-tech, futuristic country is like nothing seen before. This has resulted in a huge cultural divide between living generations, but also a unique destination where tourists can experience traditional culture blended into hyper-modern. From young professionals immersed in the world of smartphones and latest trends to slow-paced grandparents maintaining tradition in peaceful agricultural villages, South Korea is a land of contrast.
Airplanes: Don’t Make “Budget” a Hard Rule
Leaving from the very comfortable Changi Airport in Singapore, our overnight budget flight whiplashed us right into its cramped, claustrophobic seats. Our elbows touching, we desperately tried to get some sleep to no avail. The airline was frigidly cold as air conditioning blasted against our exposed arms and legs; the typical blankets and eye masks were not provided. No matter which way we contorted our bodies, it was impossible to find a comfortable position. The hours moved by achingly slow until we arrived in the Incheon International Airport at daybreak with our eye bags as heavy as our backpacks.
Why did we book a budget overnight flight, you ask?
Dang-Huy: I am ashamed to admit that I was too gung-ho on money-saving, informed by how I travelled as a younger single college student in Europe… sorry Sol…
From this point on, we never booked an overnight flight again - it simply wasn’t worth the money saved!
After resting in the lobby for a few hours, we made our way to the metro station. A step into Korea’s metro gave us our first true “culture shock”. Thus far in our travels, every country we’d visited not only used the Latin alphabet but also either spoke English (Malaysia & Singapore) or we had a local with us (Indonesia). While most directional signs had romanized Korean (Korean spelled with the Latin alphabet) or English, it still felt overwhelming. Thankfully, we had two secret weapons on our side. Secret Weapon #1: Sol! Sol has dreamt of coming to Korea since ~2014 when she discovered K-Dramas and subsequently K-pop, Korean history, and culture. Since then, she’s studied the language, cooked the food, and generally been preparing for this very moment.
Secret Weapon #2 was an app called “Naver Maps”. If you’re planning on traveling to Korea, we recommend using Naver as it offers excellent route services and much more accurate information for public transit and store opening hours. However, the English translation isn’t very well fleshed out, and much of the app is strictly in Korean. On the other hand, Google Maps is filled with outdated information and doesn’t have any public transport or walking route information. This is because South Korea strictly limits geospatial data going outside of the country due to the ongoing conflict with North Korea.
With Secret Weapon #1 holding Secret Weapon #2 in her hand, we brushed aside our sleep deprivation and new-country shock to navigate to our hostel in the historic centre of Seoul, the Jung district.
Truthfully, we can’t remember what we did or ate for the rest of that day. All we know is we napped, somehow got groceries, and took the photo above. Most likely, we ate some convenience store food (which is amazing compared to American standards, like a miniature grocery store filled with yummy ready-made foods and other daily essentials).
We were definitely in need of some good quality rest.
From Myeongdong to Namsan Park
The next day, we woke up grateful for having actual beds to sleep on. After hastily throwing on fresh clothes and showering, we could barely contain our excitement as we ran out the doors of our hostel. We were off to Myeongdong, one of Seoul’s main shopping districts to explore!
Our first stop was, of course, lunch! Sol found a quiet vegan spot convenient to our itinerary tucked away on a quaint little street.
Korean food is, in our opinion, one of the most underrated Asian cuisines. Within the American collective conscious, it’s tucked away into a small box labelled “spicy food and tableside grilled meats”, but it’s so much more than that! Korea has a rich food culture famous for its seasonality, warmth, and comfort. Some things we note about Korean food as a primer:
Fermentation is widely used in the cuisine, from ground fermented soybean paste for making sauces to kimchi (fermented vegetables, not so different from sauerkraut)
Side dishes called “banchan” of various pickles, snacks, and kimchi are always served and included in the price of dishes.
Koreans eat short-grain rice, known for its starchiness that causes the rice to hold together easier rather than separate.
Soups are a key component of Korean food - often rich bone broths that are mixed with tender meats or kimchi, served boiling hot alongside rice. Rice is often put into the soups, where they can soak up all the delicious flavours!
Koreans eat with flat metal chopsticks and a long metal spoon, perfect for picking up cuts of succulent meat and scooping up rice and soup!
We need to mention that the restaurant was serviced primarily by robots. After being seated, we took our order through a tablet. “Cool, how futuristic!” we murmured to each other, before an adorable and very polite automated robot silently glided around the corner and handed us our food.
We ordered a mild, saucy vegetable curry and soon dubu jjigae - soft, silky tofu doused in a spicy and sweet gochujang sauce. Both were served with brown rice and three banchan - yellow pickled radish, tofu salad a la potato salad, and kimchi. Our final dish to share was ddeokbokki, soft chewy rice cakes cooked in a spicy and sweet gochujang sauce. It’s typically cooked with fish cakes and can be hard to find in a vegetarian form. It was one of Sol’s “must-eats” in Korea, so we had to order it!
Having ordered a feast, we anxiously peered around for a staff member to ask if we could get a box to take the leftovers home. In the U.S., takeaway culture is strong and prominent. In Korea, taking leftovers home is not the norm and in fact some restaurants do not offer containers! Thankfully, we found an employee who spoke English as he was actually Malaysian! He provided us with a box and we enjoyed chatting about his life in Korea and telling him how much we loved Malaysia.
Nature amidst the Metropolitan
Our first impression of Seoul was that of glassy large skyscrapers and narrow alleyways. Walking through the city, we noted how clean the streets were and safe it felt.
There were things you wouldn’t expect to see but made a lot of sense, like this rotating, space-saving car garage:
And while that is definitely what many neighborhoods of Seoul look like, we were happy to also find beautiful parks throughout the city. Korea is a mountainous region, particularly near Seoul with mountain ranges cradling the city. Namsan Mountain is located within Seoul and is famous for Namsan Tower. Standing tall at 236-metre-tall (774 ft), its needle-like spire is South Korea’s first radio tower and can be seen from all parts of Seoul! The mountain itself also boasts a large park with paved walkways curling around the tower for citizens to walk on.
As we clambered up stairs towards the mountain, the hectic go-go-go energy of Seoul dissolved and the trees enshrouded us. Magpies swooped down and landed in the foliage. The stairs led us to a beautifully paved path where many older locals were walking in their fitness outfits.
We lost track of time and ended up at a stunning overlook of Seoul. Golden sunset light illuminated a picturesque view of the skyscrapers, framed by lush forestry.
After having spent many days in bustling Asian towns, we were grateful for this calm slice of nature we experienced.
Sol: This was definitely the moment where we fell in love with Korea. I remember looking out over the park and skyline beyond, and feeling such a happy heartache of contentment yet sadness that this country lies across the world from our current home.
Seoul Forest and Clementine Cafe
The next day we took the metro over to Seoul Forest Park. We had yet to see this neighborhood of Seoul and were excited to explore! Walking barefoot in nature is a popular trend in Korea, so as we arrived to Seoul Forest’s dusty clay paths, we saw more and more people walking while holding their shoes in their hands. We opted to keep our shoes on as we enjoyed seeing the beautiful sculptures and greenery surrounding us.
After walking through Seoul Forest Park, we were craving a nice drink and stumbled upon Clementine Cafe! A two story building selling coffee on the first floor and clothes on the second, we’ve seen plenty social media influencers frequent it to pose for selfies and artsy pictures. We chortled with glee that we’d happened to stumble upon it accidentally without any research.
South Korea has a huge cafe culture and you can find themed cafes all over Seoul. From mysterious, moody cave-inspired cafes to cute Studio Ghibli cafes, South Korea is a land made for coffee lovers. On the flipside, due to their popularity, there is often a waitlist to get into cafes. Thus, we were delighted that Clementine Cafe had an available table for us right away!
1MILLION Dance Studio
This was a special day for us, because today we got to check off something on the top of our Must-Do list for Korea: take a dance class at 1MILLION Dance Studio! 1MILLION Dance Studio is a famous dance school in Seoul that has a booming YouTube channel and has some of the top dances in the country. Their website was a little tricky to manage payment-wise, but thanks to Sol’s mom, we were able to secure places in their beginner class.
Entering into the studio was anxiety-inducing for us. Foreign language aside, this studio had so many top dancers that we felt a like imposters as we placed our items in a locker. Thankfully our teacher spoke a little English, though the class was taught nearly entirely in Korean - only the counts 1, 2, 3, 4…. were in English. Sol was happy to find she understood all the instructions and tried to whisper the finer details of the teacher’s notes to Dang-Huy.
We both got to record ourselves dancing the choreographed we’d learned at the end of the class, which was super fun!
Sol: This was my first class not just since my surgery but in over a year! I hadn’t been able to dance due to my health condition and while I’d
made peace with that, my heart still ached with longing to dance. I love this video and memory so much. It represents my love for dancing and loving myself no matter what my body can or can’t do <3
Dang-Huy Climbs Pork Everest and Sol is Wife Material
We left the dance studio full of endorphins and headed to a restaurant called “Somunnan Seongsu Pork Back-bone stew” that Dang-Huy had found on Naver. He felt hesitant about going as there was nothing remotely vegetarian available, but Sol reassured him that it was fine and she’d eat the groceries we’d bought earlier once we got back to the hostel. As we approached the restaurant, we saw a long line outside. We waited outside, chilled from the autumn air. When the host came and asked if there was a party of two, a kind ahjumma (middle-aged woman) ahead of us told the host to take us. We murmured our gratitude in Korean to her and entered the bustling establishment. The whole restaurant was packed and steamy from all the boiling pots of soup at each table. A worker ushered us to our table, where we were asked nothing but “what size?” in Korean. Flustered, Dang-Huy looked to Sol for translation, then chose the smallest size of stew.
First, we were served water, some kimchi, and a side plate of some dipping sauce, a fermented bean paste, peppers, and chunky cucumber rectangles.
What arrived next was nothing short of a 4-person meal.
A giant pot of soup with a mountain of bones and meat rising from a spicy, red-hot bubbling broth was plopped down in front of us. Big chunks of potatoes floated like starchy rafts, and fresh shiso leaves and raw enoki mushrooms perched precariously atop the mountain of meat.
Dang-Huy and Sol stared in shock for a few minutes, before Dang-Huy snapped to it and asked “how am I supposed to eat all of this by myself?”
Dang-Huy: I also felt super awkward being essentially a solo diner amidst big groups of friends all sharing the meal. In Korea, eating is a very importantly communal ceremony. Restaurants size their orders for groups of people to share family-style rather than individually.
Sol figuratively rolled up her sleeve and said, “I’ll help.” The very vegetarian Sol, who is internally repulsed even looking at meat, took some pieces of bone and started picking off pieces of meat with chopsticks to give Dang-Huy. It was an effort to help him feel more comfortable in an uncomfortable environment, and it succeeded. After around 45 minutes, Dang-Huy had ascended Pork Back-Bone Mountain victorious, having eaten almost all of the meat. That was when he looked up at Sol with eyes filled with appreciation, and resolved to marry her soon. We left the restaurants giggling, with another newfound travel story in tow.
Sol: I haven’t touched meat by proxy of utensils for nearly a decade. This was a major act of love on my end and it definitely brought us closer, so I am grateful for this experience! Also, the scientific part of my brain, the part that adored my cadaver labs in grad school, was happy to investigate and “dissect” the meat for Dang-Huy. Don’t worry on his behalf though, I kept these dissecting thoughts to myself throughout his meal.
We joined the nightgoers in strolling leisurely through the streets, soaking in all of the storefronts and people-watching. Having fully enjoyed the day, we decided to stop in at a photo booth shop to commemorate our day before heading home.
Our legs were heavy with fatigue from dancing, walking, and the Seoul metros many many stairs. As we laid down in our beds, we felt there were few better things than a night of dance and good food. Before sleep wrestled our consciousness away, Sol subtly noted a slight ache in her throat and quietly thought, “surely that will resolve on its own before tomorrow…” We had a big day planned ahead.
Happy to be in Korea,
Dang-Huy and Sol