Shindangdong Tokpokki

Korea has many famous food towns. Shindangdong is one of them, known for tokppoki. They have a street called Tokppoki-Gil or Tokpokki Street and a section of its street called Tokpokki Town. As you can see from the pictures belows, all the restaurants here serve only Tokpokki. The major difference between Tokpokki here and the ones that are sold on the streets are that these tokpokkis are served on your table on a pot with larger portions and much more added ingredients like ramen noodles, mandoo, and veggies.
This is the entrance into Shindangdong Tokpokki Town.
As you can see, rows and rows of tokppoki restaurants all lined up next to one another.

This is the place that we decided on. Why did we choose this place? Ajumma pretty much dragged us in. I guess that's how you survive here. Drag your customers in! But it was a friendly kind of dragging so I decided this place was good for us to eat. I noticed that most of the restaurant have TV channels written on their signs. Like KBS, MBC, SBS, showing off how many times they were featured in a TV program. To me, it looked like all of them were featured on TV once or twice. Couldn't really decide which place was the best though.But this place with a picture of an older lady named Ma Bok Rim seem to be the most popular one. Featured on TV programs more than others and even on the sign they claim that they were THE original tokpokki restaurant.

Picture of my tokpokki. 6000Won. It has tokpokki, mandoo, chewy noodles, ramen noodles, cabbage, carrot, etc... They bring out a pan and it's cooked right on the table.
Midway thru cooking. it's turning red but noodles not ready yet...
I think this is about right time to eat.
Right before taking a bite of tokpokki. It was pretty spicy~ But I think I ordered it spicy. I should order it medium or less spicy next time.
I'm too full! Can't eat anymore!!!

My favorite chicken place- Thunder Chicken

Introducing my favorite chicken place in my neighborhood. Thunder Chicken or in Korean 썬더 치킨 pronounced Sunder chikin. The sign says fresh chicken and drink but it's not really fresh chicken. It's fried. I think they were trying to say their chicken is freshly fried. One of those often seen funny translation moment in Seoul. ^^

I've tried many chicken places in our neighborhood but this place has the crispiest and tastiest chicken. 8 pieces of chicken for 7000won ($5). What a bargain! And the reason why it's so good...they fry it again when you order so it comes out super crispy. Yummmm...

A close up of the drumstick... my favorite part.

Yum yum

Famous 먹자골목 (mukjagolmok) Food Alleys in Seoul

I found a list of 먹자골목 or famous food alleys in Seoul. There are so many 먹자골목s in Seoul that I really didn't know where to start but I'm glad someone narrowed it down to 20! This is definitely doable. This is not a perfect list with all the famous 먹자골목 but in my judgment I think this is a pretty good list. This is my new mission! I am going to visit them all and write about them! And pig out of course! Can't wait!!!

1. 광화문 먹자 골목
2. 청진동 해장국 골목
3. 무교동 낙지 골목
4. 피맛골 일대
5. 신림동 순대 골목
6. 장충동 족발 골목
7. 낙원상가 주변
8. 삼청동 주변
9. 압구정동 스파게티 골목
10. 신당동 떡볶이 골목
11. 여의도 KBS 별관 주변
12. 강남역 패밀리레스토랑 골목
13. 발산역 주변 패밀리레스토랑
14. 오장동 냉면 골목
15. 인사동 한식 골목
16. 구기터널 주변 사철탕 골목
17. 연남동 중국음식촌
18. 이대앞 분식 골목
19. 서래마을 주변
20. 이태원 헤밀튼호텔~이태원호텔 주변