Snacks @ Korea

A good way to taste a country's cuisine is through its street food, not so much restaurant food, afterall, most of these restaurant food can be found locally as well, just tweaked a weebit to suit the local palette. Those featured above are steamed rice cakes with bean filling, not to the local palette according to the tourguide. They come in really pretty colours too! Plenty of fried food too...! Tempura of all sorts...and octopus stuffed with rice line the streets. Decadence...

My tour guide's a really kind man, he ensured we had a taste of what Koreans normally eat and not just commercial touristy food..throughout the trip he introduced the drinks, snacks that koreans indulge in.

I managed to try a couple of street food while in Korea...and I gained greater insight into the eating habits of Koreans, although they eat really healthily for their main meals..imagine no oil for a large part of their meals! That's quite a feat.

Bungeoppang (붕어빵; "goldfish-bread") is a fish-shaped pastry filled with sweet red bean paste.I had to eat it when I saw it by the roadside...4 for 1000 won (works out to be 4 for $1.30). Did not turn out very nice though, the pastry was undercooked and the red bean was a measly blob.

Hodo Kwaja (walnut cake) is a walnut shaped pastry filled with red bean paste and baked with chopped walnuts. Very chewy and crunchy. Loved it!!! It goes by weight, 2000 won for 240 grams which works out to be 8 pieces? Tried it at this stopover on the way to other attractions, somewhat like those stopovers in JB for tea or pee breaks. Awesome stuff, the red bean paste is so generous and the best part of it, it's not too sweet! I can eat this forever. Pity I couldn't find it anywhere else thereafter.

Flat grilled fish, I first ate it in Jeju for 2000won per piece. It was grilled lightly and cut into pieces. Found it at Myeongdong along the streets, it's a flat piece of grilled fish that tastes just like squid! Delicious.

Crushed pear drink...awesome drink! I found it in the korean mart here!! :) Yayness. It's as its name suggest, crushed pear blended into a cooling drink. Retailing at vending machines for 800 won, super marts for 1000 won. I had quite a number of cans of this.

The first picture on the right's banana flavoured milk! We saw quite a number of people sipping from it, comes in three flavours, strawberry, banana and normal...felt it was a lil too sweet and the milk was thin~


From the same company, grapes drink..it has whole peeled green grapes in it! Very refreshing indeed.


Strawberry pudding. Pleasantly surprised how good it actually tastes! Wobbly jelly with chunks of sweet strawberries. Perfect dessert. Comes in 4 different flavours, strawberry, orange, coconut and peach. 3000 won per pudding.

Rock Melon Ice-cream...look at the luscious green colour! Creamy delight and tastes exactly like rock melon. It's also in korean marts! :)

Biscuit from their version of 7-11. Normal grain biscuit, nothing fancy.

Honey Citron Drink...A spoon of honey citrus jam and mix with hot water...zesty I like! They sold it at the kiosk at Mount Sorak.


Cakes!~ Had this from the lobby of Yong Pyong Resort, Dragon Valley Hotel. Sponge cake it tastes more like...soft and light! The icing's very light too. Doesn't come cheap unfortunately, works out to be abt SGD 6 per slice.

Fruits are a huge luxury in Korea, the only common fruits I saw were at the meal table, specifically breakfast. They hardly eat fruits...largely because they do not really grow that many types of fruits in Korea. I've only seen peaches like those at the seafood market, apples and bananas at the marts. Fruits are an expensive affair there...bananas are SGD 1 a banana! *gasps* I can get a comb for slightly more than a dollar. The peaches were sold for 10 dollars for two. BUT, very solid peaches, the peachy taste is so strong, you can taste it with every bite. Highly enjoyable. ;)

A pity I did not manage to try the Gimbap, fried rice cakes...but sure enough the couple of types I tried, I actually liked them!