KOREAN SPRING

I'm serious, I've never had samgyeopsal this delicious before. I'll just jump right into it; the place is called 하남돼지집 (translates into Hanam Pork House) and it's a chain restaurant with quite a lot of branches in Seoul. I went to the Gyodae (Korean Natl. University of Education) branch because it was closest to my office. My colleagues and I arrived at 7 but we had to wait a good thirty minutes to get seats because the place was already packed by the time we got there.   The seats are actually boxes in which you can store your bags. Super convenient! The most important side dish here is myeongyi, which is an ultra-special vegetable that's exclusively grown in Ulleungdo, so it's super rare and expensive. The first dish is free, but if you want extras you need to pay 2,000 won. Which is seriously worth it, because if you wrap this around your meat, it's just... beyond perfect. Anyway, the pork is already grilled for a bit before it

One of the great things about Seoul is that for such a metropolitan area, you still see remnants of traditional culture pretty much in every neighborhood, such as palaces, gates, or fortress walls. Markets also serve as a great example; aside from the heavily touristic markets such as Gwangjang Market or Namdaemun Market, we've still got tiny little ghetto-ish traditional markets that local residents frequent for groceries and street snacks. To be honest, most of the foods (fruits and vegetables) sold in such markets aren't regulated, so you have no way of knowing where they come from. But let's be real: they're much cheaper, you get to help boost the local economy, and life's too short to worry about every little detail in our foods anyway. Tongin Market is another well-known market that seems to be more famous locally than to international visitors and expats, although I did see quite a few foreigners. This market has a unique system called the 도시락카페, or Dosirak