Dak Galbi and Crowded Myeongdong Night – Part 10

After the fruitful visit to the Korean Folk Village, we asked the tour guide to drop us back to Myeongdong instead of the hotel, for us to get dinner! We wanted to have one of Korean’s specialty called Dak Galbi, which is actually dish generally made by stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a gochujang (chili pepper paste) based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions and tteok (rice cake) together on a hot plate. After asking around the locals, we found out that there were a few restaurants selling just that at Myeongdong! How nice! We followed their directions and ended up at one of those which had quite a crowd.

Dak Galbi before cooked

As usual, some communication problem occurred and luckily for their English menu, we managed to order what we wanted. We had a portion of the Dak Galbi each, since they only sold a minimum of 2 sets to each table. Soon, we were served with this huge pan with lots of raw chicken fillets, cabbage, potato and scallions waiting to be cooked. But before that, you’re advised to put on the apron first lest the smoke or oil got to your clothes.

Putting on the apron

The waitress would then come over once in a while to help us toss the vegetables and chicken meat around, then leave them to cook. Notice that they also placed a shield around the pan to prevent the smoke and oil from getting to us. Pretty practical, don’t you think?

Shield to prevent smoke and oil from the customers

Soon, the smell of cooked chicken started to get to us. We also ordered a side of rice in addition to the meat, so that it would be cooked together as fried rice! When the dish was ready, the shield was removed and we started eating!

Getting ready to eat!

The chicken and rice were oh-so-nice! The secret must have been the chili pepper sauce that was mixed together with the chicken. It was spicy, savoury and aromatic! Both of us were on the verge of licking the pan clean, I kid you not.

Delicious Dak Galbi and fried rice

Dak Galbi restaurant at Myeongdong, Seoul

After the satisfying meal, we took a walk outside at the colourful and busy Myeongdong street. If you remember, I have actually visited Myeongdong alone during the day time previously, and the streets looked pretty quiet. But at night! It was a whole different story altogether!

witch at Myeongdong Street, Seoul

Just look at the crowd! There were people everywhere, at every corner, at every direction. It was a good thing that the temperature was cold at night, otherwise, it would have been very stuffy and sweaty to walk within the huge crowd.

Crowd at Myeongdong during the night

I loved the sights and sounds at Myeongdong, the fact that people were still awake even at 11pm on a weekday. This was the other side of Seoul, happening, busy and loud.

Look at the crowd

Saucer blending in with the people

I saw many stalls filled with people, as compared to the atmosphere during the day time.

Busy Myeongdong street

As usual, when you go out with Saucer, food is aplenty. *LOL* We saw some hawker stalls at Myeongdong and Saucer was attracted to one of those sausage stalls. This was sold at 3000 won (RM9) but it was one of the best skewer that I had! Beef and pork sausages, and bacon wrapped with rice cakes. Too bad he only let me have one! *sulk*

Sausage skewer

We also bought this tall ice-cream! This was cheap at 1,000won (RM3) and tasted pretty good too. You’d be amazed to find out that even though it was so high, the ice-cream was very solid and didn’t once attempt to fall. I guess the cold weather helped too! For once, I didn’t have to rush to finish an ice-cream.