I believe you all agree to this one statement: Korean food are undoubtedly irresistible!
Samgyeopsal, bibimbap, jjinmandu, samgyetang, gimbap... even the simple yet unique chili pickled cabbage or Korean kimchi is something that you will fall in love into once you arrived in Korea.
There is a wide variety of restaurants in Korea that we can try, but sometimes to dine in in a restaurant requires lots lots of time: time to travel to the restaurant, time to queue for seats, time to wait for the food to be served, and so on. While actually, we also have very tight schedule as there are many places to explore with super limited time. Therefore sometimes, it is a wise decision to skip the dine-in breakfast, lunch or dinner, and opt for to-go-meal.
In this chance, allow me to share my typical on-the-go meal while I was in Korea!
B R E A K F A S T
The one and only saviour for your growling tummy when you can not find any restaurant open at 7 in the morning is definitely the convenience store. Salute to Korean convenience store as it lives up to the title: super convenient! No mater whether it is 7-11, GS25, or CU, they have everything from white rice to bento set, grilled chicken wing to boiled egg, AND everything is ready to eat. Just pop everything into the magic microwave available in the store and voila! your morning fuel is ready to fill you up.
My picks from the convenience store to start up my day are the nation's favorited (and super famous) flavored milk, Bingrae Banana Milk, and onigiri🍙
My picks from the convenience store to start up my day are the nation's favorited (and super famous) flavored milk, Bingrae Banana Milk, and onigiri🍙
The milk comes in original, chocolate and melon flavor as well, but I think the banana is the best one.
For the onigiri, GS25 has various fillings and my fave is the tuna with mayonnaise fillings! At first I was confused on which fillings to pick, so I just pick the one that being mentioned in a Korean drama titled My Wife's Having an Affair this Week😆 So glad that I picked that tuna mayo fillings because it was super yummy!
L U N C H
When I rent the Hanbok (read my experience here!), it was during lunch time. After one hour taking pictures, we were exhausted and really need to munch something. However, we could not waste our remaining one hour to dine-in inside the restaurant; it is better to spend the time taking Hanbok pictures, right? We passed this little cafe called Big Straw in Bukchon-ro and decided to give their bubble tea and blueberry cream cheese bagel a try. I think cream cheese bagel is quite popular in Korean cafes as I saw several cafes have it in their display case.
It was my first time eating cream cheese bagel and I really loveee it! The cold cream cheese melts in the mouth and it pairs perfectly with the rather hard warm bagel. The portion was enough to gain me extra energy to snap more pictures!
S N A C K // T E A T I M E
Later in the afternoon, around 3 PM, it is the critical time for our tummy when it march for another nutritious supply lol. I managed to try Korean twisted doughnuts, kkwabaegi, during our visit in Seokchon Lake. The texture was quite hard, but maybe because the doughnut was already cold.
When we were looking for something sweet to drink at the convenience store, I fall for this coffee milk in a cute minion packaging plus the cherry blossoms illustration. I literally bought it due to the packaging lol. I'm not sure if they have this packaging available along the year or only during the cherry blossoms period, but I'm sure Korean product will always launch more adorable products and packaging!
My best choice for tea time is this Osulloc top notch green tea roll cake and and black roll cake. It's a major loooove! Osulloc is famous for the tea, thus no wonder they have this unique tea flavor in their cakes. The green tea roll cake filled with vanilla mascarpone cheese cream, while the black roll cake (chocolate flavor) topped with green tea cream. If I went straight home from Korea, I will definitely bring one whole cake with me home. Omo now I'm dreaming of this cake!
D I N N E R // S T R E E T F O O D
Here is my most favorite Korean food/street food: rice cakes with red sauce or known as tteokbokki! My obsession towards chewy food is fulfilled by the texture of tteokbokki, despite of the spicy red sauce that I need to bear. The portion of the tteokbokki is just right to hold your hunger, but still left some empty space for another night food hunt! I ordered mine with the fried mandu in Insadong for 3,000. Random food stalls selling tteokbokki are easily found in Korea and I bet they all taste good!
During my stay in Busan, my Korean friend Geunwoo recommended me to try ssiat hotteok, a Korean fried sweet pancake filled with seeds. When I was in BIFF Square, I found the stall selling it. Without hesitation, I line up and get my hand on this ssiat hotteok.
We could see the process of cooking the pancake, cutting the side and stuffing the fillings inside the pancake. Ssiat hotteok is filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts plus seeds. All the ingredients match perfectly with one another: the savory pancake and the sweet fillings. The pancake is quite oily (it is fried!), but I guess the healthy seeds compensate the oily pancake lol. Later on I figured out that this ssiat hotteok is the signature street food in Busan, so make sure to try one when you visit Busan!
I saw lots of my friend eat this egg bread or gyeranppang when they were in Korea. With the appealing looks of that egg yolk on the top of the bread, I directly ordered one when I saw it. However, it didn't really match my appetite 😕 Glad it only costs 1,000 hahaha.
Fish cake or eomuk also very popular with many street cart selling it in Korea. We bought one eomuk for 2,000, but then the ahjumma seller gave us another eomuk for free😂 The fishcake has carrot and corn inside. It is a simple and humble yet tasty street food that perfect for night snacking.
D E S S E R T
This is the bingsoo that I had with my cousin on my last day in Seoul in a bingsoo cafe called Sulbing. It is the only exception from my on-the-go meal as we need to dine in to eat this. However, we had it in late night after the full tiring day of activities, so it was like the reward after all the rush and to-go-meals 😉 Give yourself a break!
We ordered the milk bingsoo covered with chocolate powdered, sprinkled with dark chocolate chunks, topped with matcha (green tea) ice cream, and drizzled with chocolate and matcha sauces. Super yums❣️It is quite pricey for shaved ice to cost 9,900, but we could not miss bingsoo on trip to Korea, right?
Korea has various to-go meals that ready to fill up ourself while still being mobile from one place to other places. There are still so many more that I haven't tried! Finger cross I will try them all on my next visit to Korea!
Do you have your favorite Korean food on this post? Or you have other recommendations on Korean food? Let me know by leaving comment in this post!😋 Meanwhile, I'll see you on my next post! xx
