Korean street food - Aunty's best Knife-Cut Noodles!! Secret Street Food in Seoul Korea (Spicy!)

What's up and welcome guys. I'm Luke Martin with chopsticktravel.com and today I am in Seoul, South Korea. We are here for a very short stop, but we wanted to take you guys on a street food tour. So today we're gonna be trying a couple different foods and we're also going to be going for an awesome hike. We are super excited about this and I hope you'll like it. So let's go. So we are here at the Namdaemun Market this morning. This is the largest traditional Korean market here in Seoul and we have come to have a street food breakfast and right here is the first thing we want to try. This is steamed buns or mandu. So we're here at a very popular stall in the heart of Namdaemun Market and this stall is serving, like I said, steamed buns. So we've got two different kinds. We've got the kimchi kind and then we've got the meat kind as well. So these just feel so like plump and the skin on the outside is like pretty soft and feels definitely juicy on the inside and these are steamed and pretty simple. I think this one's just stuffed with some meat and onions and maybe cellophane noodles. And then the second kind I ordered is the kimchi dumpling, kimchi mandu, and you can see already, you can see the orange from the kimchi kind of seeping into the wrapper of that dumpling. So let's break into these and try them out. So these are served nice and hot and fresh and that's nice on this cold morning here in Seoul. So let's try out this. This is the kimchi kind. Mm, oh yeah. Oh, that is awesome. You can see all kinds of different ingredients in there. Certainly there's lots of kimchi and then we can also see some cellophane noodles in there, some green onions, and that is a little bit spicy, a little bit sour. It almost tastes a little bit cheesy from that kimchi and then that wrapper is nice and soft, easily bitten through. And this is just nice and warming on this cold morning, like I said. Oh yeah, that kimchi's awesome. And you can just see all the dumplings steaming away in the background here. They're producing a ton of these and I can see why because they're going quickly. These are delicious. So let's dig into the meat dumpling here. Oh, that is very good as well. So you can see that's stuffed with lots of minced pork and it is nice and juicy. That's a little bit juicier than the kimchi one. I see some green onions, some regular onions in there and also the cellophane noodles too. Oh man, that is delicious. I just love this bun. It's super, super soft and this is just warming me up. This is an awesome breakfast. So we tried the kimchi kind and the regular meat kind, but they also do have a lot of other different kinds. So they also have this over here. This is the deep fried mandu and then over here, it looks like a red bean kind of sweet dumpling, but I really enjoyed the kimchi one. It was spicy and juicy and it was really good. So we're gonna keep going and see what else we can find this morning. So I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. If you ever come to Namdaemun Market, look for this door here, kind of a plastic door and inside here, some of the best food in all of Namdaemun Market can be found. This is called Kalguksu Alley. So let's go inside. So we are in Kalguksu Alley, right in the heart of Namdaemun Market here in Seoul and we just found a spot to sit down. There's tons of different ajumma selling the kalguksu, which is hand cut noodles and also they serve a couple other dishes. So we ordered up a few things and we're just waiting for our food to arrive, but this is such a cool atmosphere. They were kind of all over us when we walked in. They all wanted us to sit down, but we found a nice little place and it's nice and cozy in here. So we're just waiting for our food and then we're gonna feast. So all of our food has arrived and as I said, we have ordered up a small feast. Just check out all this delicious looking Korean food. Okay, so the first dish we've ordered today is boribap, which is very similar to bibimbap, but this is made with barley rice. So as you can see, there's just a ton of ingredients in there. We've got the nice barley rice in the bottom. I see lots of things, lettuce, some Asian pear and some bean sprouts in there, some chives and then it's all kind of drenched in this gochujang, Korean red pepper sauce. So I'm actually just gonna mix this up. You need to mix it up. And there is a lot going on in there. So let's give that a good mixing. Try to get that gochujang sauce on all of that barley rice. And this is another very popular dish here in Kalguksu Alley at the Namdaemun Market. And all of these ingredients look super fresh and delicious. As you can see, all the ingredients are actually just sitting right out in front of the stall. So the boribap is all mixed up now and I'm ready to take a nice big spoonful. Let's try it out. Oh man, that is amazing. All the different components in there is awesome. It's actually not too spicy, but that barley rice is just amazing. Kind of has like an earthy, like very, very slightly bitter flavor. So many fresh ingredients in there. I really love those bean sprouts. They're nice and crisp. Let's take another bite. Lots of bean sprouts in this one. That's just so healthy and fresh tasting. Really just wholesome. So as I mentioned, the famous dish here in Kalguksu Alley is kalguksu, which is hand cut noodles. So here we have our bowl and this just looks amazing. It's topped with quite a bit of seaweed. We also have this. This is yubu or yubu strips, which is kind of fried tofu. And then underneath all of this, we have some delicious handmade hand cut noodles. And then it's in a broth, probably just a light, maybe fish or chicken stock. And then also we've got some gochujang in here. It looks like some green onions. I'm just gonna mix that gochujang right into the broth. Get that a little bit spicy and work those noodles around. And let's take a big bite of that. This just smells awesome. Oh man, oh that is incredible. So that's actually like a very light fish stock, but those noodles are ridiculously firm, just perfectly cooked. And you can definitely taste that those are homemade. They're not uniform the whole way through. They're kind of bendy and all kind of twisted, but that makes it all the better. That is just an amazing texture of noodle. Just check those out. And that seaweed in there is awesome too. Not too spicy from that gochujang, just perfect. Let's take another bite. Oh man, perfectly salty, perfectly spicy. Oh, that is amazing. So as part of the set menu for the kalguksu, we are also given this. This is a seafood kind of like miso soup. And then there's some spinach in there. It looks like maybe some cabbage, maybe some seaweed and lots of stuff going on in there. Over here, we have some kimchi and some pickled water spinach, which looks amazing. And then back here, we have an awesome looking dish of bibim naengmyeon, which is these buckwheat noodles served cold. And this one is just topped with a ton of sesame seeds, some Asian pear, and a half a boiled egg. So that looks awesome. Let's try these. So let's start with this seafood soup. Oh yeah. It's actually a little bit spicy. I think there's some black pepper in there. It's very light. It does have kind of like a fishy seafood-y flavor, but that's really nice. Let's chase that with a piece of kimchi. And kimchi is just the best thing you can eat here in Korea. I cannot get enough of it every time I'm in Korea. Oh yeah. And that's good stuff. It's crisp, sour, spicy, really good kimchi. Let's try these pickled greens. Mm. Oh, those are really good too. Those are less spicy, but kind of like really juicy or filled with water. So next up, I'm going to try the bibim naengmyeon. And as you can see, it is just coated in this red gochujang sauce. I think there's a little bit of oil in there, probably some sesame oil. And let's just kind of mix it up first. Oh man. And then those cold brown colored buckwheat noodles. This looks awesome. All right. That is completely drenched. Might be a little bit spicy. Let's try that. Mm. Oh yeah. That actually might be the best dish in the whole table. Those noodles are awesome. They're super thin noodles, buckwheat, and that gives it kind of like an earthiness, but that is kind of sour. I can definitely taste some sesame oil in there. And a little bit spicy too. Not as spicy as I was expecting. And let's try another bite, but I'm going to go with a piece of this Asian pear in there. Oh man. Oh yeah. That pear, super crisp, but those noodles are just so ridiculously bouncy. That's awesome. So now I understand why there's a whole alley dedicated to one dish. These kalguksu hand-cut noodles are incredible. The texture of these are just phenomenal. So the way that she makes the kalguksu is she lays out the dough and thins it down to her preferred thinness, and then kind of makes it into a huge sheet. Then she'll fold that sheet several times so it's layered. And then she just uses a knife, no special machinery required, and she cuts the noodles up to perfection. And they are delicious, and she is a master at making these. Okay, that was an amazing meal of kalguksu and bori bap. All the different dishes, side dishes, everything was amazing. I definitely recommend coming here, but we were extremely full after that, so we're going to kill a little bit of time before we go eating tonight again. So let's go. There are a ton of hiking options here in Seoul City, and we're here today at Yeongma San, taking an afternoon hike to work up our appetite. And check out this view, it's awesome. Just finished off with our hike up Yeongma San. That was absolutely incredible, so beautiful and refreshing. But we have built up another appetite, and we have come to a small traditional Korean market, and this is called Myeonmok Market, and we are going to be doing a little bit of snacking this afternoon. So a lot of stuff looks good here. Let's go eat. Okay, we found a nice little snack to have after a long hike, and this is tteokbokki, which is the spicy Korean rice cake. So as you can see, we've got some big pieces of the rice cake in here, and then it's just smothered in this kind of red pepper gochujang sauce. And then also this spot that we're at now actually has some odeng, which is a fish cake. So it's the same thing, but just smothered in this red sauce. And this looks spicy and hot, perfect to warm us up after that nice hike. Mm, mm, oh yeah. So that is super chewy. Not too spicy, actually a little bit sweet. And the texture of that rice cake is awesome. It has such a nice bouncy texture to it, and then it's completely kind of absorbed all the flavor of that red pepper sauce. So let's try now the odeng. So this is the fish cake. It's kind of like a thin-cut fish cake, and this also just completely smothered. Mm, okay, yeah, mm, that's also very good. Doesn't have nearly as bouncy a texture, but really nice kind of seafood-y flavor, a little bit salty, and that red pepper sauce is awesome. It's not overly spicy and a little bit sweet. This is a perfect little snack to warm us up. So we've also been given a cup of the odeng fish cake broth. So normally the odeng's served on a skewer with some broth, but she gave us just the broth to eat with our ddeokbokki, so let's try this out. Oh yeah, very light in flavor and just a little bit salty, not overly salty, that's really nice. So ddeokbokki is really just one of the classic, typical Korean street foods, always good to have on a cold day like today. All right, guys, that's it for today's tour. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a little bit of a short one. We are only in Seoul for a very short time, and next we are heading to Gangwon-do, the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics, and we're gonna be making some videos there. I hope you'll stay tuned for those, and I hope you liked this video. If you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Leave me any questions in the comment box, and subscribe for more videos like this, and stay tuned for more from South Korea. Thanks for watching, guys, bye-bye.