Ask a local EP 02 | Mike | Chef & Food Tour Guide
Q . Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Hi, I'm Mike. I'm a Korean American and I've been living in Korea for a little over 16 years. I run a food tour company. So I focus on a lot of traditional Korean foods and traditional Korean alcohols. And if anybody that knows me knows that I'm a huge foodie. What I do on my days off is I go check out a ton of new places all the time. As a foodie, I have a million places all over Seoul.
Q . Do you have a favorite restaurant in Korea?
There's one place I can recommend. It's a place I don't really want to give up. It's kind of like a little bit of a secret place and I don't want it to get too busy. But the place over here is over by Hapjeong Station known for their Gamjatang(Pork backbone stew). And in Korea, we call it a hangover soup and there's many different variations of it in different provinces all over Korea. The one here it's made with a pork backbone, so it's like a type of stew and a few other vegetables inside of it.
📍Ongdalsaem Gamjatang / 9 Dongmak-ro 2-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
And so the reason why I like this place a little bit better than some of the other places is that it's not as spicy as well. So it's good for people that can’t handle like super spicy foods. And also the quality of ingredients are way better. So I feel it's a lot cleaner and a lot easier on the stomach. So for people that want a cleaner soup and a nice hangover cure, this is a definite place to go check out.
Q . Do you have any cafe recommendations in Korea?
There’s a ton of cafes all over Seoul and I'm not a huge cafe person but the one over here it's really nice mainly for their dessert. So I go there for their tiramissu, the quality is so good and so refreshing and it's definitely worth the money.
📍Hapjeong Tiramisu / 55 Yanghwa-ro 3-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Q . Where is your favorite place in Korea?
So the eating and drinking culture in Korea is insane. And so there's a ton of places to go check out but my personal favorite are the Korean traditional food tents. As you see in all the Korean dramas they are a little bit kind of cute. But honestly, it's a really good time. So the food is really good as well. But I go there mainly for the atmospheres.
📍Korean Food Tents / 132-9 Nagwon-dong, Jongno District, Seoul
The atmosphere is crazy there because all the people's energy is just crazy. It's just so fun and passionate. Everybody's happy and enjoying their food and having drinks with their friends and everything. And then the aunts are very passionate as well. So this place, it can be a little bit intimidating for you guys. But honestly it's worth it. So make sure you get there early because it does get quite busy.
I hope you guys really enjoy listening to my story. And as I mentioned before, I run food tours and a lot of you know that I have an evening food tour but I have this brand new morning food tour that I would like you guys to check out. It gives you a good layout of the historical part of Seoul through food. So if you'd like to book, book below or message me directly on Instagram. It's all good. So I hope to meet you guys in the future. Thank you :)
@itseoulgood
