Friday 13 November 2015

A dummy's guide to Memil Guksu @ Gwanghwamun Mijin 광화문 미진


So after a long day at the must-see gyeongbokgong, we decided to grab a bite as it was soon dinner time. We finally stumbled upon this place which had a massive queue outside which seemed to be serving soba.

After the queue subsided later in the evening...
We peered in for a bit, intrigued and hungry as our quest for food without meat for me continued (After a disappointing aperitivo at a beer and chicken place which, surprise surprise, only had beer and chiken). However, all the Korean writing scared us off so we continued our journey into the little mall behind it for food... Until we spotted the English menu...


That's when we jumped straight into the queue and started deciding what we wanted to eat! This restaurant boasts about being open since 1954, and judging by the long queues of locals, we had a feeling it was a good spot, not to mention famous.



I really wanted to try the octopus bimbimbap as I hadn't seen that before, however from what I gathered from the waitress (even though I don't speak Korean), they were out of octopus. My mum wanted to try the kimchi buckwheat pancake, and after seeing that practically every single table in the restaurant had soba.. we decided to get one too. To our surprise, one portion was actually two boxes! Though we were still very confused as to what we were supposed to dip them in.. what were the extra bowls for?


What was in this kettle that they gave us when we sat down?! And what are the scallions, grated radish and seaweed for?! That's when we started awkwardly staring at the Korean family sitting at the table next to us, as we watched them pour the stuff in the kettle into their bowls, top it up with the scallions, radish and seaweed and squirt a dash of wasabi into it, before dipping the cold soba noodles into it and slurping them back up. The result was DELICIOUS. It was different to the Japanese soba I'm used to which is just soba sauce and  scallions, maybe seaweed, 



We also ordered a buckwheat kimchi seafood pancake. I'm guessing the buckwheat is in the flour they used for the pancake? I'm not sure. I guess it isn't the best choice out of all the other unique buckwheat dishes they had on offer here, but my mum wanted it so hey. It was good, but it seemed to be a little more crumbly and less..batter-y i suppose, compared to what i'm normally used to. Delicious nonetheless!


So if you happen to find yourself in this area, be sure to check it out! Otherwise from Gwanghwamun station, it's only a short 5 minute walk on Jong-ro.

xx Vagabond Girl