➹ dosirak cravings

I'm now back at work from my November Seoul vacation. Aside from struggling to settle back into work-mode, I'm also nurturing a serious craving for savory Korean dishes during lunch hours! Ahh, how sinfully amazing it would be to have some dosirak for lunch ...

The dosirak version we had on this last trip was composed of flavorful and tangy kimchi and fried spam on warm white rice topped with fried egg and dried seaweed (gim). It looks pretty appetizing when neatly arranged like this:



You're supposed to shake the metallic box to mix everything up before eating. We watched how some locals on the next table shook their boxes rigorously before digging in. But we were a bit cautious that the kimchi sauce might spill so we didn't really shake our boxes so much. So ofcourse, the contents weren't mixed as it was supposed to but we were fine with that.

As for the taste, I thoroughly enjoyed how the spicy kimchi matched so well with the salty egg, spam and gim. It was absolutely YUMMY for a school meal I must say! Ahh, I would be so spoiled if I can pack a set like this for myself every day.

I thought the serving was a bit large since I couldn't imagine carrying this size of lunch box out of the house ... but in end, me and my friend were able to finish almost the entire thing! My friend is not too fond of spicy food so she had a good portion of her kimchi left. Me, I wasn't too fond of rice so everything else was cleaned out except for that. We ordered some coffee with our meals (ahh, yes not exactly traditional and it took a while for the staff to complete our orders because of that), and they gave some complimentary soup which was also amazing.

We had our dosirak fix on the famous 별다방 미스리 Miss Lee Café. The place is just too adorable! The colorful tables and chairs fit perfectly into the whimsical décor of the place. My own school memories were most certainly not as charmingly cute as the setting here.




There were messages left everywhere which is most definitely very Korean.




There were also pictures of WGM couple Yonghwa and Seohyun on the walls which added to the cuteness of the ambience. In addition there is Miss Lee herself (i think) sitting alone invitingly on the store front and ready for a photo op!

I'd say this is a must try in Seoul just for the novelty of it. And for me, I would want to have it again because the taste just grew on me! Would be utterly awesome if I can prepare one on my own though ... so yeah, that will be on my 2012 to-do list!

Where to Try: 별다방 미스리 Miss Lee Cafe along Olive Young Myeongdong near Euljiro 1-ga Exit 5-6.