All-You-Can-Eat

I recently went to Namdaemun market, a street market in Seoul. It is similar to Dongdaemun, a place which I have previously written about. Similarly, it had a lot of crap, but also had lots of goodies like jewelry and shoes.




It wouldn't be a true Korean experience without sporting some fake glasses. Although these particular ones were sitting out for so long they were filthy. I could barely see out of them and they left a dust stain on my nose...lovely.



We came across a toothpaste holder whose sample toothpaste had piled up for what looked like years.



As we walked, we heard someone yelling something over a loudspeaker. We soon found out it was just a recording, as the loudspeaker was actually strapped on to the giant poster contraption that this man wore. I didn't get a good picture because despite the extra weight on his back, he was moving quite fast. And also some idiots kept walking in front of him (probably to protect his message). If you cannot read what the back says, It's "Lord Jesus Heaven; No Jesus Hell." There is NO grey areas for this dude.




We were about to head out to eat when we saw a long line. Curious, we investigated and soon found out the line was for dumplings. We looked at the menu; 10 for 4,000 won. Yeah, thats a no-brainer. So I get in some make-shift line and wait what seemed like would be quite a while. However, one of the workers took my order in a backhanded way before I even got to the front of the line. Why? No idea. She was probably thinking, "alright I gotta get these foreigners out of our hair as soon as possible." I asked for ten, and accidentally got 20. I peaked into the factory-like shop where they were made. The uniforms, along with the speed with which they cranked these dumplings out reminded me of the "I Love Lucy" which Lucy and Ethel get a job working at the chocolate factory.



It had just started to rain, so, in true homeless fashion, we crouched under a bridge to eat the 20 doughy, delicious dumplings we had just gotten. Wow. There were two kinds: kimchi, and just regular pork. The box weighed about 5 pounds, so these little snacks probably filled my caloric intake for the day. There was only four of us, and we ate all but 2 out of the 20 that we had bought. I am upset that this picture does no where near the justice these dumplings deserve.



Later, we moved on to an all-you-can-eat beef barbeque. Yes, all-you-can-eat: some of the deadliest words to have ever been put together. They continuously bring out plates of different cuts of beef. I don't think they anticipated foreigners when the place was created. We can really put a serious dent in their food supply. Anyway I obviously ate my life away and had garlic and onion breath for the next 3 days....there is not much more to say about that.