One thing I haven’t really mentioned in my travel posts yet…the food! I knew I liked Korean food before I visited having eaten at various Korean restaurants in London and on other Asian travels but having visited it’s true love! I didn’t have a single bad meal and food is so reasonably priced. My unstoppable sweet tooth found a new love – patbingsu – shaved ice desserts topped with red bean, fruit, chocolate, cheese… I might have had a giant bowl of ice for lunch on a fair few occasions. Here are my foodie highlights:

Hello Kitty red bean patbingsu – topped with Kitty’s face and with the red bean and mochi served on the side, this was a sweeter take on the dessert but who can resist biting into Hello Kitty’s face in ice cream form?! The Hello Kitty cafe I visited is in Myeong-dong.

Veggie udon noodles and an inflatable flamingo cupholder in the shabby-chic Kinfolk Kitchen in Myeong-dong.

I did a cookery class with Ongo food – we started with a food market tour. Kimchi is a staple in Korea and while in the UK we only seem to have the cabbage variety, Korean markets sell all sorts of kimchi. Be warned, its a lot spicier than the UK version! 

Proudly presenting my bibimbap! I learned to make bibimbap and a Korean salad – both very easy with professional help and the ingredients already prepared! 

My finished bibimbap and salad. I love doing cooking classes on my travels – I’m not much of a cook in real life so I think this makes me all the more proud for managing to make something edible!  

The best bowl of patbingsu – the reason? I was accidentally hiking up a mountain having not had lunch. When I saw the cafe I genuinely thought I was hallucinating and that it was a mirage. Perfect hiking fuel and the last few kilometres to the top of Namsam were a lot less hangry. 

A traditional Korean feast at 126 Mansion. It was so fun to eat with our hosts and the other guests. Korean pancakes are so good!

A night food tour with Ongo – this was so much fun. First stop was a Korean BBQ restaurant down a side street I would never find on my own. The BBQ was washed down with a cocktail containing Coke, soju and beer… not quite my usual G&T! 

Next stop on the food tour – an off the beaten track cafe for Toppoki, a Korean stew with dumplings, noodles and rice cake.  Here we sampled plum wine and played Korean drinking games which thankfully I didn’t lose at! 

As night fell we were led down an alleyway (known as “Avoid Horse Alley”) to a tent restaurant with hand drawn menus and loo roll hanging from the ceiling! Here we ate mackerel to boost our brain power and drank a mix of beer and soju to simultaneously lessen it… 

Our last stop was a market restaurant to eat a Korean pancake which originated in North Korea. The pancake is made of mung beans and is flour free. This was washed down with makgeolli – a milky rice-based alcoholic drink which weirdly I liked the best. Or it that could just be due to the three drinks before it. The night tour was a great way to try restaurants that you’d never find solo, order foods that might not be recognisable and be introduced to Korean drinking culture rather than ordering a G&T which turns out to be 90% gin and definitely does not contain tonic water… 

Street food in Busan – the items on the left are frankfurter sausages encased in a sweet batter served on a stick. Korean fried chicken (KFC) and tempura make for good snack options at around 50p a go. 

Spicy cheese-topped topokki. Korean rice cakes are a world away from the dry crackers we call “rice cakes” in the UK. The rice cakes are dense and chewy – Asian food is often more about texture than taste but I really liked these. Covered in spicy sauce and melted cheese and with the obligatory kimchi and pickles on the side. 

Bubble tea is Taiwanese but is popular in Korea – I tried a standard milk tea with tapioca because the menu wasn’t in English and this was the only option my Korean-reading could stretch to. 

Cheese-topped patbingsu in Hongdae. This rather odd-sounding combo actually worked.

Last bowl of patbingsu at Wicked Snow in Gangnam – topped with golden powder, mocha and red beans. Every spoonful savoured while trying not to think of the up-coming British winter. 

Airport breakfast – cheese gimbap. Gimbap (/kimbap) is Korea’s version of sushi. It’s a bigger, looser roll than Japanese sushi and the fillings are…varied. I saw tuna and sweetcorn, ham and cream cheese versions. 

Safe to say that sandwiches and any food that doesn’t come with a large dose of spice feels sad now. Bowls of sugary ice aside, Korean food is pretty healthy so if I manage to re-create anything which is tasty and looks instragram-worthy  I will share the recipe!