Jinsunja Rolled Omelette Gimbap is one of my favorite comfort foods. It is like an sesame omarice in a chopstick-friendly form. There are many imitators but the pickles and thin slices of fillings in Jinsunja's kimbap make it stand out from the rest. There are franchises around the country. Ask for extra pickles.  #진순자계란말이김밥  Bongcheon Main Branch 19 Cheongnyong 1-gil Gwanak-gu Seoul http://naver.me/F7wEOfpk

Today I had a family of 7 people do the street food tour and we tried 8 different snacks at different stalls around Insadong. It was a good day and I was surprised to find that the little kids aged 2 and 5 ate and enjoyed almost all the different types of food. They especially liked the fresh steamed dumplings and the kimbap. Korea's street food scene is quite exceptional and you can get a varied and filling meal at almost any place you visit. I highly recommend you try it out. 

Itaewon Egyptian Sandwiches Written and Photographed by Troy Zitzelberger Nestled in the heart of Itaewon, right outside of Spy Club, this is possibly the only food cart in all of Seoul with Egyptian food on the menu. After one of my late nights, having already consumed a burger earlier in the day, I decided to try something new. And as luck would have it, I stumbled upon a late night eatery that I had never seen before. I approached the counter interested in what exactly an “Egyptian Sandwich” consisted of. It turns out that it’s pretty much a doner on a roll. There was chicken, beef, vegetable and lamb to please my heart’s desire. Sitting behind the grill was a very humble and friendly Egyptian man, Ali. The smile on his face may have been attributed to the fact that he was busy; all the seats were taken. I ordered the Egyptian lamb and sandwich and I was happy to see it came fully loaded. The meat was piled high and mixed with onions and ...

Hi folks, I would like to introduce Troy Zitzelsberger to you. He is an unofficial food critic in Seoul (aren't we all) and he is going to contribute from time to time. He is here introducing J-Chili Food Cart in Itaewon. Cheers, Dan  JChili Late night, after hours…Itaewon. As I emerge from the depths of Spy Bar I spot a gleaming beacon of Joy known to all as J Chili. For at the bewitching hour, there is nothing better than a greasy all beef patty fully loaded with whatever strikes your fancy.  I approach the counter like millions before and all that remains is a decision, bacon deluxe or BBQ. I choose both with hot sauce to boot. J Chili  With all the powers of my burger combined: lettuce, onion, tomato, bacon, cheese, BBQ and hot sauce. I am now ready to indulge and indulge I did. It was love at first bite. The reasonably sized all beef patty was juicy, the condiments were flavorful, and the bun held up against my kung fu grip. And now to answer the ...

I know that there has been a lot of controversy about the removal of the street carts in Insadong. Last Wednesday was the official date that the carts were supposed to be off the street so the government sent in their police force to enforce their mandates. Here you can see the pictures of the police lined up getting ready to meet the lines of carts that are trying to enter the street. Here you can see the street carts trying to enter the street, but they were met with the police force and escorted off. There was a lot of yelling and cold looks from the police, but luckily no violence. Insadong Street was free of the carts for about 1 day. As of this weekend many of the carts are back- although fewer than there was previously. A few have moved up the street from their previous location to closer to the center of the street. Photographs by Marcus Slaga

Who needs a truck when you have a cart? The street carts in Jongno have been putting up some original stuff these days and you could spend a whole afternoon munching and walking along the way. Here are some of the more interesting carts I have encountered. Dan Dragon Bread stuffed with Bulgogi (a tad sweet)  or Sweet Potato and Walnut Bubble Tea Donuts and Corn Koma Kimbap Sausage and Hotdogs

Poop Bread! Filled with creamy, mashed red bean Happy Monday everyone! Sorry, but this picture was just screaming for a disgusting byline. I have suggested they fill the bread with chocolate, but they just gave me a look that said, but "we always fill them with red bean. Melted chocolate wouldn't taste good." I guess they didn't get my joke.

Winter means hotteok for me. I like to wait until my face feels like it will shatter into infinite pieces and my fingertips feel like guitar knobs. Then I will get a fried hot disk of leavened dough filled with sugar, cinnamon and bits of ground peanut. The first time I did this, the hot caramel oozed out on my first bite and burnt the roof of my mouth and then burned my fingers as it dripped down. It's the most delicious napalm you can ever have. My favorite place to get it is on street food street outside Jongno 3-ga exit 6. There are different types of hotteok. One that is white and crispy, another that is yellow and pillowy (the dough has cornstarch to make it crispy), and a third that is chewy and white (made from sweet, sticky rice). It's an amazing treat and something that I think is quintessentially Korean. Hotteok A Hotteok vendor in Jongno 3-ga

Vegetable Steamed Bread from JSP in Jongno 3-ga Jongno is great for streetfood and in winter there is nothing better. My favorite snacks are the veggie steamed bread from JSP. They come out of the steamer hot and they put it in a plastic bag. What I like to do is to keep the bread in the bag and hold the bread in my bare hands- the hot bun works better than those hand heater things(and they are environmentally friendly). The other things that JSP have are steamed bread with red bean and pork or kimchi dumplings. Directions: Jongno 5-ga exit five (subways 3 or 5) Vegetable Steamed Bread from JSP in Jongno 3-ga

I just got a new camera: A Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2. I know, I'm a traitor to those who like Canon or Nikon. I used to shoot on Canon with my 32mm F2 lens, but I decided to make the switch to Panasonic because I have always been a fan of the color that you can get with their cameras. The G2 was attractive to me because it: 1) is smaller than a Canon 2) has an articulating LCD screen 3) has autofocus for video 4) you can mount many different lenses to it including my canon lenses (via a lense mount adapter) Over the weekend, I went down to my hometown, Daegu and here are some shots that I got at night. I highly recommend you head down there- they have an excellent nightlife. Let me know what you think of the image quality of the pictures- I'm still learning how to use it^^. Carrie and Kerry in Downtown Daegu at Night Outside Club Pasha in Downtown Daegu at Night

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well on this dreary day (It's raining for the umpteenth day in Seoul...) I wanted to share with you a story that I wrote for Koreataste.org. The website is an in-depth website into Korean food. It has great columns and pictures. The story I wrote for the site was on Korean Street-Cart Food. Here it is. Enjoy, Dan Korean Street food epitomizes Korea. It is mobile. It is fast. It is fun. And the people who make it embody the “Spirit of the Hungry”: the never say die attitude to survive in a competitive society. You’ll see these carts everywhere and they are all working hard to feed a nation of taste-obsessed citizens. One tiny cart that is only the size of a golf cart holds a plethora of tasty tidbits. You have lightly battered fried sweet potato, fried cuttlefish, fried dumplings, fried shrimp, battered and fried hotdogs, and vegetable fritters. The fried hotdogs look similar to ones that you might find on Coney Island. A wiener is impaled w...

Tteokkochi This is just rice cake on a stick, fried and covered in a sweet gochujang sauce.  It seems to be hard to find nowadays (I may be wrong), but if you run into it, it's delicious and cheap.  I got this from a cart on top of the hill that leads to Bogwangdong from Itaewon, by Chunghwa Apartments, for 500 won.  Good stuff. Joel Park originally hails from Seattle. He is a world traveler, but the taste of Korea keeps bringing him back. You can contact Joel here:  Joel Park .

fried hot dog buns fried ramen on a corn dog the fried corn dog family fried donuts w/ mash potatoes, veggies, red bean etc. fried galbi

I was too chicken **** to try this, but Dan... "How are you holding up?" Mr. Kuh's hotdog stand right outside of exit #7 Seolleung station (선릉)... saw the menu w/ the most incredible lineup of sauces on a hotdog ever written and had to do a double take and walk inside.... to be honest, it just looks like a nacho cheese hotdog from this exterior shot :( *boo~ Initially Dan said it wasn't as bad as you might think.... then he told me he was sick for a whole day and a half. Hope he doesn't grow another nipple or something :P I kid. and here's the full lineup, so if you ever want your fixin' call them, they deliver! to be fair, Dan also did say the hotdog itself wasn't bad, so I'm sure the other hotdog's might be very tasty, but just not as incredible as the Chocolate, Kiwi, Nacho cheese, Onion and Relish Hot Dog (*bling*)

Today we went to Namdaemun in Seoul today and we saw this ridiculous line of people waiting for something. At the head of the line were Veggie Hotteok and Honey Hotteok. Hotteok are like ricecake donuts that are usually stuffed with honey or sugar and cinnamon. Here they veggie hotteok that are stuffed with yummy japchae! They only cost 600won for a honey hotteok and 800 for a veggie hotteok. See the long line of people? I think there were 20 people in line and it kept growing all day. Here is the queen hotteok maker. You can see the big flat honey Hotteok in the back and the yummy veggie ones up front. Oh, and yes, that's a big pool of oil. So you first make the rice dough pocket and then stuff it with honey or with japchae and then you slowly fry it in the pool of oil. You have to flatten it down after it gets golden brown. Yummy. See. It's quite a production.^^ Time to make the Hotteok Personally, this was the best part! There are whole oranges a...