Korea & Japan Vacation, Day One - A Close Call

A little late blogging about this, but it's fun to relive our vacation eight months later. The Gangnam Style craze has been really fun.

In April, Hubs and I were lucky enough to take a vacation to Korea and Japan. We flew into Seoul and stayed with my best friend who had, at the time, been teaching English in Seoul for a year and a half. So, basically, we had the best tour guide/eating companion in the world.

The trip started out a little rocky. We don't have weather in L.A. On the day we left, it was drizzling, and LAX was in a tizzy. Over a drizzle. Fortunately, our layover in San Francisco held the plane for an extra half hour because our flight had so many international connections and United knew they would be forced to put us on another airline because all their flights to Korea and Japan were full for the next two days. So we made it to Seoul as scheduled. No personal entertainment of any kind, thank you, United. But we made it.

We stayed with my friend in Bundang, a suburb, a 30 minute bus ride from Seoul. The airport was a little further away, but public transportation in Seoul is fantastic, so we were able to take a nonstop bus to a few blocks from her apartment.

Bundang

Exhausted, we ate dinner and went to bed. Downstairs in my friend's apartment building, was a simple restaurant serving dak galbi.

Raw chicken, cabbage, spicy sauce, and lots of other goodness sizzle on a hot plate built into the table.

This is what it looks like when it's done cooking and half eaten (noodles added). Best when eaten wrapped in a sesame leaf and drizzled with sweet sauce. This definitely set the tone for the amazing food we'd eat over the next five days.

More dak galbi than the three of us could eat + 3 beers = 36,000 W.

I have to preface the trip by saying that every meal we ate in Seoul was spectacular. Every single one. Whether we bought noodles out of a machine, ate at a stand on the street, or sat down in a packed or empty restaurant, it was all great. Every meal we ate, I would gladly have again. Along with Paris, Seoul is the best food city I've been to. It may have even been better than Paris, but that is a bold statement, and I think I need another visit to Paris before I make my decision. A girl can dream.

At the time of our trip $1 = just under 1100 Korean Won.