광장 시장 (Gwangjang Market)

At the Gwangjang Market, we all got to meet a connoisseur of South Korean street food. She gave us a lot of historical context regarding the foods we ate, which made the food even more appetizing. She also recommended some of the best street food that South Korea has to offer. The market was full of men and women of all ages browsing through the dozens of stalls, looking for their favorite street foods. The ceiling was decorated with hundreds of flags from dozens of countries. All of the vendors welcomed us with open arms and served us diligently. We ate a lot of delicious foods like 떡볶이 (spicy rice cakes), 만두 (dumplings), and 튀김(various fried foods). By the time we were finished, I was completely full!

I got to try out some foods that I'd never tried before. There was one food called 왕족발, which means king pig's feet! It was a huge piece of pig's feet, which I'd never had before. A lot of people were nervous to eat it, but everyone who did absolutely loved it! It tasted just like every other part of the pig. It was so big that we had to use a glove to grab it. Another food that we tried was 순대, which is blood sausage! It sounds weird, but it was actually really delicious and filling. The texture was kind of crumbly, which I wasn't expecting at all. Probably the weirdest thing, however, was the chicken's feet and the pig's skin. It was really chewy and thick, but the flavor was good! It seemed like there were mixed opinions among the rest of the CIEE group, but I gave the food a thumbs up! 

At the very end, we tried one of the best street foods I've ever had, 호떡, which is a Korean pancake desert filled with a sweet filling. The ones we tried were filled with honey and cinnamon! It was the perfect way to end the street food tour because the hot pancake warmed us up from the cold, rainy weather outside. With heavy hearts and full stomachs, we said goodbye to the Gwangjang Market and our wonderful tour guide and headed home. I plan to return there as soon as I can to try out even more of the amazing food that the Gwangjang Market has to offer!