➹ a 포장마차^pojangmacha menu

The first time I was in Seoul, I didn't have much time to do anything else outside of my fangirl itinerary. So I wasn't able to try eating at a 포장마차^pojangmacha then (heck, I didn't even get to visit Namsan Tower that time!). So when I came back for Spring-Summer of 2009, I thought I lucked out because there were lots and lots of 포장마차^pojangmacha tents around Jongno 3-ga where we were staying. However, we were intimidated by the occasional drunk boisterous office worker and by our sheer lack of hangul skills. We did deliberate at a distance while looking at the orange tents on our way back to our hostel ... but we always ended up taking our mildly hungry stomachs to the 24 hr convenience stores instead.

So last Summer of 2010, I was really determined to have my 포장마차^pojangmacha experience. We landed at Incheon at almost 11 pm and managed to check into our hotel at around midnight. We were starving from the flight and of course, there weren't a lot of dining options left open in our vicinity. PLUS, it was raining so hard that it was not encouraging to go walk around and look for a restaurant that night. Not that we wanted to go far because there was a brightly lit 포장마차^pojangmacha about 2 blocks away! So without an ounce of hesitation we brisk walked under the pouring skies, went inside the tent and got ourselves on the plastic seats. Game on!

Now, here were my glaringly incorrect assumptions on 포장마차^pojangmacha:

1. All pojangmachas serve 떡볶이^tteokbokki, 순대^sundae, 오댕^odaeng and/or 튀김^twigim
2. 포장마차^Pojangmacha food are all cheap

After we were seated, the good ahjumma came over and I just immediately asked for tteokbokki. But there was none. She gave us this menu instead and although I can sparingly read Hangul, I had no clue in the world what these dishes were supposed to be:



So in the end, we just ordered 라면 (ramyeon) which was the only familiar thing to me on the menu. It was perfect for the chilly weather anyway.


ㅋㅋ, the yellow pickled radish was much closer to me and it didn't make my camera lens fog!

So anyway, we thought it was going to come off cheap because it was just a simple 라면. But it turned out to be something like KRW10,000 (if I remember correctly). This is with cola already~



I was just surprised because I didn't think it would add up to KRW5,000 (of course, another ignorant assumption). We rationalized then that maybe its because we were in Yeouido so maybe things were a bit more pricey? But we didn't really know that.

So I tried to research more about this online and found out that these 안주 (anju: korean side dishes consumed with alcohol) are indeed supposed to be pricey on these 포장마차^pojangmachas. The 포장마차^pojangmacha we went in sold only 안주 and not the usual cheap snacks that I was expecting. We're really supposed to drink soju with the food and not just eat them on their own ㅋㅋㅋ.

So if it's 안주, the prices would be:

산낙지^sannakji (live octopus chopped up to be dipped in sesame oil or hot sauce) KRW15,000
닭똥집^dakdongjib (chicken gizzards stir-fried with onions and bell peppers) KRW10,000
골뱅이^golbengi (conch in hot sauce with vegetables) KRW10,000
새우구이^sewoogui (salted and grilled shrimp) KRW15,000
낙지볶음^najkibokkum (spicy stir-fried octopus) KRW15,000
오징어^ojingeobokkum (spicy stir-fried cuttlefish/squid) KRW15,000

And typically, the accompanying liquor would cost:

소주^soju (Korean vodka) KRW 3,000
막걸리^makgeolli (white rice wine) KRW 5,000

If I knew what these were at that time, I would have ordered 오댕탕 instead ^^. So now I know better for next time.

Now for some closing thoughts from our cute paper cup from the 포장마차^pojangmacha