My tenth day in South Korea continued as my boy Sam from Samuel & Audrey and I headed off to Namdaemun Market in Seoul to go on the ultimate Korean street food tour! Come along with us as we explore the best of Namdaemun Market!
Namdaemun Market is the oldest and biggest market in all of Korea. It dates back to 1414 and has 10,000 stalls. You can get just about anything there!
We made our way to the heart of the street food area. Our first dish was a hot dog on a stuck that is battered, covered in potatoes, and is deep-fried. It came with four sauces. My first bite was just French fries and batter! It was salty and the spicy sauce had a real kick to it! I also tried a second, sweeter sauce. It wasn’t my favorite, but it’s a good, filling treat to get on the go.
Next to the vendor was a restaurant with lots of bowls, but we wanted to stick to just street food. The prices we saw were reasonable, but there were tons of people in the market. It’s easy to feel claustrophobic with so many people!
We found lots of clothing vendors as we wound our way through the market. I wanted to get my nephews some shirts in a smaller size, but the vendors weren’t very nice to us and didn’t help us at all.
Next, we tried some fried rice cakes, which cost 1,000 won/$0.83 U.S. each. It was tough on the outside but chewy and dense in the middle. It was almost like polenta! It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. It needed some sauce and was pretty bland.
We had trouble finding more street food. There was a lot more retail and it was getting frustrating trying to find some. We headed to an indoor section, down some stairs where Sam had tried gimbap before. It was a lot less crowded down there and was more relaxed.
We found the gimbap with seaweed, rice, carrot, cucumber, and radish. It was really tasty with the spicy sauce, which was wasabi mixed with soy sauce. It was really potent and had a nice crunch with the seaweed and sesame seeds on the outside. I loved that it was filled with veggies. The sauce had a quick burst of heat, and that was it! It cost just 2,000 won/$1.65 U.S. and was a great value for the quality!
Back upstairs, we went to a Korean folkcraft store, where I could see tons of souvenirs. It was like a maze!
Then I found some cool-looking Korean masks. There was an amazing black one that cost 40,000 won/$33 U.S., which I tried on. I passed on it and we headed back outside. You would barely notice the entrance hidden inside the market!
Next, we got some rice cakes. The green one was spongy with powdered peanut on the inside. It was really sweet. I liked it! The white one was also spongy and dense, but I couldn’t make out what the filling was. I liked the other one better. They cost 1,000 won for four, so they’re super affordable!
Next were mandu, which are steamed dumplings. It cost 4,000 won/$3.30 U.S. for five, but we got a discount for four. The reddish mandu contained kimchi and was hot but heavenly! There were also noodles and pork inside. It was the best thing I had all day!
The second mandu was the pork one. It was really hot and felt moist. There were more glass noodles and an abundance of pork! It was beyond amazing!
Next was tteok-bokki. It comes with fish cakes and it all comes in a super spicy, delicious sauce. I ate it almost every day in South Korea. I liked the oden better than the rice cake, but it was all so freaking good! Sweet and spicy! They also gave us some good, fishy oden broth. It cost 2,500 won, or a little over $2 U.S.
We finished up with a green tea latte, which was really refreshing and thick like a smoothie.
What a day! I hope you enjoyed this street food tour of Namdaemun Market. If you did, please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment. Also, please subscribe to my channel and I’ll see you in the next travel/food adventure.
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann. For the last decade, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,000 destinations in 73 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
I'm really in love with this.
Like, I really love it.
Look at the whole thing. I can eat two of these.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in beautiful, sunny
Seoul, South Korea. Today what we're doing is we're going to explore Namdaemun Market,
the oldest and biggest market in all of Korea. It actually dates back to 1414 and there's
over 10,000. 10,000 stalls. There is everything here. Clothing, there is bars, there is cafes
and there is a lot of street food. Like a lot. And street food here in Seoul is amazing
so I'm super excited to share it with you guys. Are you guys ready? Let's go explore
the market. Follow us.
What is up man? We're just enjoying the sun here. Walking. This is just like the beginning
of the market guys. Wait until we get to the heart of it. Like it is packed with people.
Looking off into the distance it is just like a sea of people. They look like little ants
scurrying about. It is so funny man. And yeah we're just kind of uh we're working our
way into the heart of the street food area. Right now it is more stalls selling various
kinds of items but once we get to the street food area it is going to be fantastic. The
first thing we're trying is Mandukki. It is basically a hot dog that has french fries
on top and it is like mixed with batter and then deep-fried. Okay. I've actually tried
this before but I tried the version that is just cheese and not hot dog and it costs 2,000
won. It is like super Korean fast food. I mean really filling. I don't know if I'm going
to love it. I'll try some and we also have four different sauces you can put on top.
Yeah. I'll probably go with the super spicy. Let me just try it alone first.
Yeah no hot dog there. It has french fries and batter.
Very nice. A little salty. Put some of this on top. Super spicy.
Oh wow. Oh it has a kick. But you have to have spicy sauces in Korean food.
This is actually the sauce. Like a sriracha. It's spicy huh? Super. I'm going to try the
less spicy this time. Here. Right there. Now this is like sweet. I mean guys this is like
super fast food. Not my favorite. I mean I wouldn't eat it again. Yeah. But if you want
something on the go. Really fast. Filling. Try this. 2,000 won. So it's like $1.80. Not bad.
But I'm good with this. You want some more? I'm good too. All right. Yeah be careful with that
super spicy sauce. It's like way too spicy. And right next to the street food vendor we
have this little restaurant and right here they're showing you all the food right. So
so many different bowls. Oh my god that looks really good. Really spicy.
Yeah so I mean we're going to stay away from the restaurants. We don't want to like stick to
street food. My mouth is still very tingly right now. And you can see a lot of people. Like this
is like a never-ending amount of people here. Oh my god. It's sometimes like I get claustrophobic
just when it's like over abundance of people. Yeah I mean this is actually a good place to
buy stuff. Prices are reasonable. You can kind of find just about everything here. Like
you can buy eyeglasses, you can buy clothes, you can buy watches, you can buy shoes. You can buy
anything you can imagine they have it here. And they have some of these floating areas. I think
they offer even more discount type items. If you see a store that is really busy they're usually
having like a flash sale. That is kind of wild. Yeah. That is pretty amazing man. Wow. Now we
entered an area where it's like god you can't even move in here. So there's all these little
like floating vendors right. So they have their umbrella. But I don't see that much street food
around here. Where's the street food at? Whoa it's like a never-ending amount of vendors. Again
10,000 vendors. All right so I always get stuff for my nephews. I've been looking for shirts and
then I saw their favorite sport. They're literally like little professional soccer players. So I'm
gonna buy them this. This looks very small. So it's Korea in red FIFA 2014. Let me see there's
another one. This is older. Maybe that one. It's too big. Oh man this is like tiny though. This is
like for a baby. That's a baby size yeah. That's not good. This is gonna be hard man. It's gonna
be hard. The sizes are really difficult here. Yeah. I mean if not I'll get him one of these shirts.
Yeah. You know one of these just says Korea. That's really cool. But I feel like this is like
for a small doll. Because small. Look at it. It fits me. Yeah. I need for kids. Let me let me see.
So those vendors aren't very nice. They didn't help us at all. They weren't paying attention.
I was asking for small. They just didn't say anything. And Sam was telling me it's a little
it's a little rough around the edges here. Well I've been to a lot of markets in Korea and I'd
say this is probably there's a bit of it's a bit jaded here sometimes. I've always every time I've
come here I've kind of had someone tell me to put my camera away or just kind of like a little bit
unfriendly service. Not everybody but just always once every time I come here. I just think it's
weird. I'm trying to buy something for them. Spending money. Yeah. And no service. Yeah that's
weird dude. Whatever. Well let's go eat. A lot of other places. Yeah. Let's go find some food. Yeah.
And next up we're trying something I haven't tried yet. This is just rice cake fried. So it's duck
and it's fried. It costs 1,000 each. Okay. It's very tough on the outside. Nice and dense in the
middle. Very rice-y. What does it remind me of? It's like a almost polenta this one. Thick
polenta huh? Yeah. Mmmm. Not bad. Not bad. But I mean for a dollar what did you expect?
Um it was decent. I wouldn't say it was great. I mean I like the crispiness of the exterior but
man it was lacking the sauce. It really needed a spicy sauce. Like a gochujang sauce I would have
that would have 10x that for sure. Yeah and I mean basically the inside was chewy, dense,
tasted like an arepa, a Venezuelan arepa. You know it's when there's no cheese or ham or anything
and yeah I mean very bland. She definitely needs to get sauce. Get rid of the worms and get sauce.
Yeah. Definitely. Are you gonna eat those silkworms again? Oh never. Never. Never. Never.
It's been very very hard to find street food here. I don't know what happened because
you know it looks like one of the best places in Seoul to eat street food and there is super
like it is super limited right now. Yeah, you have to walk quite a ways in between stalls.
I've found every time I've come back to this market there seems to be less street food options.
I think they are kind of changing their uh it is just changing. The market is changing
to more retail I suppose. You know it is funny though because in China and Shanghai
they're getting rid of street food completely. Oh yeah? Yeah, they're just like getting like
gone. Maybe it's not as lucrative as buying things. I don't know. Maybe in China they're
thinking about the clumsiness. Yeah, yeah. Oh what's this? I'm actually getting a little frustrated
here trying to find food. It's like impossible. Where is the food? Oh my god I don't even know
why the cars are allowed in here. It's pretty crazy. You could hurt somebody. So basically
there's a ramp that's leading down underground and if I remember correctly a few years ago I
found some kind of a gimbap down here. So let's see if it's still there. Yeah I mean there's people
coming up with bowls and stuff right? So there should be food down here? It's like a stairway
down to a subway but it's actually not a subway. It's more the market. Alright so next up we're
trying gimbap. So it's basically like a rice roll, got seaweed, we have a radish, carrots, egg.
Pick one of these up. Oh that's amazing. Dip into the sauce.
Spicy. Spicy? Yeah she just said she warned you of the spice.
It's wasabi. It's like wasabi mixed with soy. Okay. Very nice dude. Oh dude it's like great
little roll. Very hot. It's really potent. My god. It's nice crunch. I love the way they wrap
the seaweed. It's got some sesame. Nice with the egg as well. I barely see that and that's the cool
thing about Korea is that their rolls aren't like, they're usually like this. Like more veggie
over you know seafood or meats. Oh let's try another one. So you gotta be really careful though.
Don't get too much because it will burn. Look at that. Whoa.
Mmm. Cucumber is a nice crunch. That is hot. It's really hot. It's a different type of heat you know.
It's not like the red chili paste that like really sticks for a while and like kills you.
This one's a quick burst of heat and you're fine. Look. Perfect now. Wow. I'm really in love with this.
Like I really love it.
Look at the whole thing. I need two of these. Oh in 2001? Yeah for the whole thing.
So less than two bucks for this? Way better value than some of the other things. Way better.
Way better. I think what is really cool about this particular place is that it is kind of
down in the basement away from all of the hustle and bustle. I think that is why you get really
friendly service here. The people are super nice. Also you get maybe a better price too
because of that reason. Yum yum. Try one here with the heat. With the heat. Oh yeah. Intense wasabi.
It's intense right? These are really good. You can tell they're nice and fresh and
the ingredients are crunching in my mouth so it's always a good time. Fresh ingredients. Very good.
So far that's been my favorite thing. So good. So good. Rice rolls in Korea. They're the best.
As soon as we got back upstairs we saw a sign and it says second floor
Korean folk craft. So they have a lot of stuff here like crafty stuff. I don't know. I already
bought my mask so I don't think I need that. This is really cool. Oh there's a lot of souvenirs. Oh
this is a place for souvenirs. Whoa. This is a massive a massive floor. Oh my god. I mean you
go in every aisle and it's just like. You know it reminds me of a maze. It is a maze isn't it? Luckily
I know we're over there. Yeah you gotta remember your bearings over here. Yeah and over here I mean
as you can see just everything. You got pillowcases. You have clocks. My god look at all the clocks.
I don't see anything that's super super Korean except this right here. This is what you got right?
Yeah I think that's basically literally what I want. Oh wow look more masks. Dude a lot of masks.
Here's all the masks. Oh look at you. You're a pro. It's beautiful.
So you said 40,000? Yeah. Oh wow dude. That's like a real mask. Oh wow. That's like a mask you put on.
It's good quality.
Yeah you think so?
Oh there's actually a thing for my head?
Oh wow. Where did David go? Yeah where am I? Where's David? I don't even see myself. It's very nice so
40,000 for that one. I think I'm gonna pass. Yeah I think I got two really cool ones. Might have to
pass on this. Alright we're back out in the market. That was intense. Hey how you doing? Yeah well
you got a really cool mask. Yeah? Yeah. Something right? I like it a lot and um yeah I mean just so many stalls
such a small space and it's just endless. That's just one floor. It just keeps going up and it
keeps going down. I mean to just explore that one mall it would probably take two or three hours
you know. Yeah and you would never notice the mall because of all the vendors. The door is like
hidden right here. It's a hidden door. It's a hidden door right there. Wow. That's crazy. And there's
stores like this throughout the whole market. It's unbelievable. Yeah because basically every single
building is similar. Yeah similar, similar.
Whoa we each get to try one each. That's perfect. What is that?
Uh the rice cakes. Rice cakes? Yeah yeah. I mean we found a lady here selling rice cakes. It's two
different types. Looks like it has red beans. Yeah she's got a mobile stand here. It's amazing.
It's a makeshift. It's like cardboard and wheels. I love it. I love it. She's out making some money.
So we have two different rice balls. One of them is green. One of them is white. This one has like
a little raisin on top. I'm going to start with this one. Oh wow. Super spongy. And then in the
peanuts. Like powdered peanuts. Oh very dense. It's a little sweet but just a tad. Not too bland.
So I like it. So I'm gonna keep eating. Favorite here. I hate it when it's too bland but that one's
super sweet. All right next one. I like the other one better. That one's sweeter. This one
I'm getting very spongy. Very dense. And I don't know exactly what that is.
Obviously it's not cheese. Maybe something like powdered sugar. Yeah. But it's not sweet at all.
No. I'll finish it. So the price for this was 1,000 Won for four. So like 90 cents for four.
Really filling. Great snack. Oh maybe the best value so far. Most affordable. Yeah most affordable.
Let's go. All right guys. So we're trying mandu. So it's steamed dumplings. Korean style. We have
two of them. We have kimchi and we have gogi which is like beef or pork inside. So it's just meat
right. And oh it's still really really hot. It actually costs 4,000 Won for five. But we just
needed four so they gave it to us for 3,200. So gives a little discount. Oh my god it's still
really hot. Piping hot dude. So super hot. Let me pull this out. Oh the kimchi one looks amazing.
Super red. Oh right there. I know I'm gonna love this. I love kimchi. Sam said he loved it. The
best thing all day right? Oh wow. Oh my god. It's a little hot. I love the layers in here. You have
the kimchi. You have some other I think there's like pork in here. What else is in here? Some
noodles right? Yeah little noodles. A little veg I think. Glass noodles. Wow look at that. This is
definitely the best thing I've eaten all day. Dude it's spicy. I just love dumplings. Mandu for the
win. Mandu for the win. Exactly. Oh it's so good. Very filling. There's so much inside. The dough
part is very little. They give you an excess amount of kimchi. Lots of noodles. Some herbs.
And I'm guessing it is pork dude. I'm guessing. It has to be right? It has to be.
It is the cheapest meat in Korea so usually dumplings have pork.
So next up we have the pork one right? Yeah. Straight pork. It is called gogi in Korean.
Gogi. Yeah. Oh this one is so hot. I'm going to put it on the plastic here so you can see it.
Wow. As you can tell it doesn't have kimchi because of the color right. So it is a little
green in the middle. You can see through there through the layers. Oh it looks more moist. I
feel it. I feel it is like hot. It actually is dude. It has got a lot of juice in it. Wow. Let's
do this. Mmmmm. Uh oh. Let's move let's move. Let's try not to get run over. I don't know why
this car is coming through here. I know. Every once in a while you get a random vehicle. You
have more glass noodles, obviously zero kimchi, a lot of pork. I mean excess amount of pork and
it is super juicy. I mean it is going to burst. Oh my god. Mmm. Super tasty, very filling, yummy.
Oh man. This is the best thing in the market. What is amazing is that vendor has been there
for over 10 years. Sam went there a long time ago. Obviously this place has been open since 1414.
So some people have been here for a few hundred years right? Yeah.
The mandu. When you come to this market this is the number one thing you should eat.
The mandu. I concur. Done.
So this is ddeokbokki. The most classic Korean dish. As you can see rice cakes like finger
looking rice cakes and also fish cake right here which is the oden right? And they put it in this
sauce. Super spicy sauce. Gochujang. Gochujang is in everything. It really is spicy. It is delicious.
I love this thing. Mmm. I've been here already like what nine days in South Korea. I've eaten it
almost every single day. Like I maybe missed one day because I ate like three times in a day
sometimes. I know. Super nice. Love the rice cake. A little spicy. This one is not crazy spicy.
Sometimes like the spice level can go from like one to ten for real. I've had it like
boiling before. This is fine. This is probably a four. I swear this stuff is making me fat.
It is. I love the oden more than the rice cake so what I'll do. I'll put them together.
Lots of sauce. Oh wow. I really can eat this every day. It's like when you're in Korea if
you don't eat this you aren't in Korea. No. Right? It's the king of street food as far as I'm concerned.
That one is like sweet and spicy. Wow. Whoa. Damn. I'm gonna lick this.
Lick that sauce. Is that good? I think I'm done with this. No you know what?
I forgot. They also gave us the oden soup so you know the basically it's a hot pot broth.
Very fishy. Oh this is great. This is perfect cure for a hangover.
By the way the tteokbokki costs 2,500 so roughly two dollars. Good deal. Good deal. Good deal.
We're ending off our Namdaemun street food tour with a classic Korean drink. It's the green tea
latte. It's super cold. Ice cold. Obviously there's ice inside it so it's really refreshing especially
in a super hot day like today. A bit thick as well. Like a little smoothie. I just love matcha.
We had an incredible day today at the biggest and oldest market in Korea. I mean it was a
little intense. You know like I'd say like 90 percent of people were really amazing, friendly.
They laughed. They offered us stuff. They'd always go like peace you know do you know fun stuff but
then you had a little bit of people that were like no no no no you know like getting a little
felt a little grimy at certain points but it was fine. I mean in terms of food really really nice
stuff. My favorite stuff was the end. Obviously the tteokbokki and then the mandu. The mandu. Yeah.
The mandu. The kimchi mandu. I've never had it before. It was like the two things I love most
here in Korea. Mandu and kimchi. Spicy. Just super delicious. When you come to Seoul you have to come
here. Experience it. You know people watch. Go shopping for souvenirs. Go eat some street food.
They also have restaurants if you don't want to eat street food so you can go inside sit down
have some traditional Korean dishes. There's no western dishes here so don't try to eat western
food in Korea and yeah guys if you love this video give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe
to my channel. Subscribe to Sam's channel. I will see you in the next travel food adventure in Seoul, South Korea. Peace!
