Our second market of the day was the Gwangjang Market. It was a spider web of fabric stores and food stands. Every vendor seemed to specialize in a type of fabric- wool suiting, men’s dress shirts, traditional brocades, loud stretch polyester. We couldn’t figure out how anyone would choose a particular vendor- and then find their way back again. The fabric was stacked in the walkways and packed in shops on both sides of every hall.
Linen shop
We enjoyed looking at the food vendors too but they all seemed to be selling the same mung bean pancakes so we wandered on to find a regular restaurant as we were ready for a break. We found a little street with about 20 bbq places and went into one that was pretty busy. No one was actually eating bbq so we picked two random things from the menu pictures and hoped for the best. We snacked on the free kimchi while we looked to see what our neighbors had ordered. Charlie ended up with a clear noodle soup that had lots of thin beef slices and mushrooms. I ended up with a bibimbap bowl of rice, lettuce, seaweed, sprouts and a pile of raw beef. Mine came with a small seafood soup that was so hot it was boiling. When the waitress turned her back I dipped the beef in the boiling broth and it cooked the edges nicely. I am certain I wasn’t supposed to do that, but it was super tasty and I wasn’t really sure about spontaneous beef tartare.
After lunch, we visited Bukchon Hanok village. This is a historically preserved area of Seoul.
