we're in Seoul, South Korea this is part three of our three-part series exploring
the hidden local food streets in the city, let's get food hunting
Seoul's food
culture is exciting, vibrant and delicious in this three part series
we're taking you around the hidden food alleys and entire towns dedicated to
serving one particular Korean dish this is where the locals eat, this is our
third video of the series and we're heading to the base of Dobongsan
Mountain to eat in tofu alley and then devouring a mountain of pork knuckles in
jokbal alley you don't want to miss this video get
ready for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing
a Plate, we hope you're hungry, let's eat!
this series is all about finding the hidden local food streets and food towns
in Seoul so streets that are devoted to serving one dish or one type of food and
we've left central Seoul and for this video we're starting outside a national
park and we've come to hunt down Dubu alley or tofu alley
tofu alley is more of a street that is lined with all of these hiking shops leading up to
the entrance of the national park and then the tofu restaurants are dotted in
amongst the camping shops so what makes these tofu restaurants really really
special is that they prepare their tofu fresh each morning we've spotted the
restaurant that we want to visit so let's go and eat
when you walk into this restaurant you get hit with the smell of soybean and
it's a really strong earthy almost creamy smell it is really really good now we've
ordered up a huge spread so this here is sundubu jjigae which is soft tofu
stew one of my favourite dishes when we're in Korea, to eat and you can see
how spicy that's gonna be look at all of those chilli flakes, this really
impressive looking dish is just their fresh dubu or their fresh tofu so
you've got the plain tofu at the front here, really thick slices of it, the orange
one is flavoured with carrot I believe and then this gray sort of looking one I
think it may be flavored with mugwort which is a bitter leaf and then there's
this huge pile of kimchi in the middle there and then with every Korean meal
you get an array of banchan or side dishes so we've got some sprouts, some
greens they look like they may be cooked with garlic and then we've got some kelp
here and then some pickled radish kimchi this looks incredible
a really common drink here in Korea is makgeolli so we've got a bottle to go
with this now this is fermented rice wine so you can see it's a cloudy rice wine so
you've got to just give it a little bit of a shake it's a little bit bubbly so
you don't want to shake it up a lot you just want to tip it and get all the
residue that's sitting at the bottom the sediment right through the drink so tiny
little fizz when I opened it there and they drink it in bowls but you can never
pour your own so I'll pour some for Sheena, so you can see, look how cloudy
it is and it's not too alcoholic this drink it'll be about maybe about nine
percent, six percent for a low percentage one, nine percent for a high percentage, I can't serve
my own so we'll have to wait for Sheena to pour me some, let's have some of this
tofu first so I'm gonna go with this the plain tofu and look at that kimchi so
the kimchi is is a fermented cabbage we've got some spring onions and some
sesame seeds on top that looks like it's gonna go perfectly with this tofu ah
look at that, so all the juice from the from the kimchi has run down and so then
soaked into the bottom of the, of the tofu ohhhh yes
alright we've got a slice so I need some cabbage on
there so we got some cabbage, spring onions and tofu
hmm mm-hmm
ohhh that kimchi is amazing hmm nice and sour
so a little bit tangy because of the fermentation
nice spice on it but it's not too spicy it's kind of sweet that that kimchi and the
tofu is incredible, it's really really creamy you can tell it's super fresh got a
great texture it's a little bit salty, that is really really tasty you can see if I
hold it just how firm it is, so it's not breaking at all, that is very very good
tofu, I mean this looks pretty boring I must say just a huge plate of tofu and
kimchi but that alone is really good, let alone these flavoured ones that is a
really really really good start
let's grab some kelp noodles for a sort of
in-between mouthful
it's just fresh kelp I think I said kelp noodle so it's
a pickled kelp it's got a sort of a vinegary taste and the kelp is um
so seaweed it's a little bit slimy and has a nice crunch once you bite through
this sort of slimy outside mm nice and salty too
Sheena's poured me some makgeolli so I can now try it, so remember you can never
pour your own drink here in Korea the person you're drinking with or someone
in the group you're drinking with, has to do it for you so I've got some here
oh damn that's so good I really love this stuff if you've had
soju before which is the clear rice wine you get here in Korea it's like that but
that cloudiness gives it a fraction of creaminess and it's ever so slightly
bubbly so just a tiny bit bubbly that's gonna go so well with these um
the spicy things so this is cold, this is from the fridge cold, oh that is good
all right check out this sundubu jjigae I've let it cool down just a bit because
it was really hot it was bubbling away so viciously and so I'm going to spoon
some of the soft tofu curds onto this rice and the rice I think it's got some
soybeans in it as well so besides the soft tofu there's also some shellfish I
think some clams in there they look really good so let's get one of those as
well okay let's give this a try
Oh man mmm that is beautiful the soft tofu is so
creamy and really really delicate in your mouth they just sort of break apart
the spiciness of the dish actually isn't too severe
Iike it looks very spicy because it's such a bright red colour but it's relatively
mild you've got that beautiful broth it's got a bit of a seafood flavour
because of those clams in there and then that tofu is such a hero of the
dish it's really really creamy and soft it's delicious
I'm gonna get into these slices of tofu so I'm gonna try the carrot one and I'm not
gonna eat it with the kimchi because the kimchi is quite a strong flavour and I
just want to taste the tofu by itself
it's got a beautiful sweet carrot flavour and it's a great texture, it's really
soft but it still has a bit of firmness and you can taste that it's really
really fresh and what's really brilliant is that you can pop outside and out the
back they're actually making the tofu
that was a really really great meal so as Sheena said before we were expecting
this to be a strip of restaurants serving nothing but that dish like the other
food towns or street food towns we've been to but this one is more hiking
stores a lot of hiking stores a lot of hikers but all the hikers were coming
into the restaurant for their massive tofu feed after their huge hike in the
national park here, it's a really really cool spot and we said it was outside of
the center of Seoul which it is but it's not far out maybe 30 or 40 minutes on
the metro so really easy to get to
we're gonna go for a quick little walk in the national park to get ourselves
hungry for our next stop on this food tour this is really beautiful in here and it
is incredibly hot today so everyone is soaking their feet after their hike so
they're sitting in the stream down there just soaking their feet in the cool
water it's really really beautiful
we have come back into central Seoul and we're at our next alley and it is jokbal
alley, jokbal are braised pigs trotters and if you've watched our channel
before you know we're all about finding the best food in the cities that we
visit and we hear Jokbal Alley is a cracker let's go
we're in the jokbal restaurant
and this place is heaving
it is absolutely packed with people
it's a really cool atmosphere
everyone's getting into the food
drinking, talking really, really loudly
it's really buzzy
and jokbal alley itself is brilliant
it's this tiny, cramped alley
the restaurants are lined either side
and the pace with which the kitchens are working
is furious, it's a furious pace
there are so many orders coming in for jokbal
we have got this massive jokbal feast in front of us
our table is laden so let me talk you through what
we've got, so this is the hero of the meal this is the jokbal
the pig's trotter and you've got the whole pig's trotter here
so you've got this huge bone and then
a pile of meat and a sprinkling of sesame seeds on top
this here is sundae which is Korean blood sausage
in the front here we've got some lettuce
which we'll use as wraps
this here is saeujeot which is salted fermented shrimp
and then we've got a huge pot of soup
and the soup's got perilla leaves, spring onions
I can see lots of pork offal in there as well
and then the banchan so we've got some radish kimchi
and then some kimchi so salted, fermented Napa cabbage
and then also to go with everything
we've got some salt, some ssamjang which is a mixture of
fermented soybean paste and gochujang which is Korean chilli paste
and then we have some garlic and some fresh chillies
the pig's trotter has been braised
in things like soy and sugar and a number of spices you can really smell
those spices so you can smell cinnamon and star anise and then things like ginger and
garlic and they braise them for hours and hours so they're really tender and soft
and like with the pig's trotter
it's made up of skin, meat obviously and then you've got a
whole bunch of cartilage and then it's just packed full of gelatin and collagen so it's
really good for you, it's good for your skin which is why I reckon Korean's have such fantastic skin
because they're eating a tonne of this jokbal or pig's trotter
so what I'm gonna do
is make up a mouthful, I've got my lettuce wrap and then I have got the slice of
jokbal there, I'm gonna add a bit of this saeujeot which is the salted
fermented shrimp
add that to that slice
and then I think that's all I'm gonna do
let's just taste this thing
ohhhh it looks so good
oh man, that is so delicious
it's got a beautiful texture, it's very soft, very
melt in your mouth, the skin
and the tendons and the ligaments are so, so soft and tender
it just falls apart in your mouth
and then any sort of richness or heaviness is sort of eased with the lettuce wrap
the fresh lettuce and then that saeujeot, the fermented shrimp paste is really salty
so gives it a real savoury kick
look at this crazy pork, it's so tender and soft it was amazing watching them
breaking them up at the kitchen out in the laneway she's grabbing the hocks and
basically just cracking the the joint pulling the bone our super easy
like nothing needed to get that bone away and then very easily slicing through it
because it's so soft, almost jelly like where there's that skin and fat layer, I just want to
have this piece pretty much naked but I want to put some ssamjang on it so some
of that chilli sauce with the fermented soy bean in it
Wow!
oh that is incredible the meaty bit, the real, the flesh, the meat, the pork
has got a beautiful tenderness to it, a texture
and then that outside, the fat and the skin is so juicy it just almost exploded with
some liquid it's so soft, kind of like jelly that is delicious and the skin had no
chewiness at all sometimes skin on a, just like this can be a little bit chewy
bit hard to get through, that is not even remotely chewy
gonna grab some of this
sundae or this bloodsausage so this is Korean blood sausage and it's really
really popular and really common here so it's got glass noodles in so you can see
the little sort of wormy like shapes in the cross-section that's actually
glass noodles and then it's steamed so it's really soft, it's almost jelly-like in
texture
that's really good
it's just got a slight sort of blood taste to it but nothing too major the noodles are an
amazing texture really really soft and squishy oh that's a really good side
I'm gonna give this soup a taste it is laden with offal and there's a ton of
spring onions and it's got perilla leaves in it and the perilla leaves smell really really strong
like a really strong aniseed flavour so let's
give it a taste, it's also really bright red so maybe it's quite spicy
ohhh yeah it is quite spicy so a real chilli hit and then you've got a beautiful flavour of spring
onions and then those perilla leaves in there, this is a great side again and what's
really brilliant about eating in Korea is that you get all these banchan to go with your meal
so side dishes so we've got the pickled cabbage so the kimchi
and then the radish kimchi, the banchan, the pickles, the fermented vegetables cut
through any heaviness there might be and it breaks up the meal a bit in a
really nice way
I love how rowdy it is in this restaurant it's such a local experience and each
table is getting sort of rowdier as they have more makgeolli so this is
Korean rice wine, fermented cloudy rice wine so it seems we've had a couple of tables
around us now that have come and gone and the've just got louder and louder and
louder as they have more bowls of makgeolli this is an awesome local experience
I've seen everyone just gnawing on the bones so I am gonna follow suit
ohhhh the meat is so rich and full of flavour
this is such an awesome dining experience
it's really fun, it's rowdy, the food is great there's all these varying textures and flavours
this is a must eat when you come to Seoul
that was an incredible dining experience and this is a proper little laneway so
a proper food street, every restaurant in this little lane is serving that dish
that was such a great meal, such a good experience and remember this is a series
of videos so we've done a whole series three videos on the food streets, food
towns, food alleys that you can find here in Seoul that was a good one and
check out the rest of the videos in the series, remember to hit that subscribe
button after Seoul we are heading to Istanbul so a ton of Turkish food videos
coming to you and give this video a huge thumbs up, pop a comment down below, say hi
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Patreon page, thanks for watching we'll see you next time, annyeonghaseyo (see you)