The Marmot’s Hole

Generally speaking, I try to avoid Seoul like the plague, but I had some business at the citadel otherwise known as the US Embassy to attend to, so off on the morning train from Kwangju I went. Got to Seoul at around one in the afternoon, and couldn’t help but notice that Seoul Station has undergone quite a major face lift. Heck, it resembles a modern train station now. Anyway, popped by the Embassy to do what I had to do, only to be told by the extremely friendly security folk that the Embassy is closed on Thursdays - this is probably something I should have checked into before I left. Still, having most of the day to attend to other business, the Marmotess and I headed over to Mongolia Town in Dongdaemun. It’s not like I hadn’t been there before - in fact, the Flying Yangban and I have dined there together on a number of occasions - but oddly enough, my yurt person has always been a little hesitant to be seen walking around the area hand in hand with some big goofy white boy in a hanbok. Anyway, this being the first time to Mongolia Town with a true insider, the Marmotess introduced me to a literal treasure trove of Mongolian shops and stores - one even had fermented horse milk bottled and for sale! Many of the shops and businesses are located in a multi-story tower that was most interesting on account that it was like six or seven floors of the most grim-countenanced people I have ever seen - to rip off the Lonely Planet, we’re talking about faces straight out of Brezhnev’s funeral. Nevertheless, where else in South Korea can you score Mongolian salami, Polish cream cheese, and best of all, canned Baltic sprats with veggies and tomato sauce straight from Latvia? Look at the pic below and weep, baby!
(Note: click on pics for full-sized photos)

Having secured such fine vittles, we headed to Shindang-dong for dinner. Now, Shindang-dong has long carried with it the distinction of being one of the Marmot’s Designated Culinary Pilgrimage Sites (the other sites, in case you are curious, are Ch’unch’eon, Cheonju, and Andong). For the culturally ignorant, we’re talking ddokboggi here - fried rice cakes in red pepper sauce. Granted, ddokboggi has to be one of the most common foods in the country - go to any school in the land, and I guarantee you that there’s an outdoor stall selling ddokboggi nearby. But in Shindang-dong, ddokboggi is a cultural treasure - only the finest spices, rice cakes, eggs, fried dumplings, ramen noodles, and jjol-myeon noodles are used, and if there is a God, I know in my heart that He feasts on the stuff when He’s running low on the dog meat. Anyway, there’s a whole street of ddokboggi shops in Shindang-dong, as you can see in the photo below:

We stopped into Ma Bongnim’s joint - she’s been at this since 1953 (and looks it, if her picture is anything to go by), and is apparently so good at what she does that she’s been designated a cultural property.

We ordered up ddokboggi for two - you can see what it looks like before being cooked up below. And as an added bonus, you get a rare glimpse of the Marmotess smiling.

And here’s the finished product - tell me that doesn’t look good.

Anyway, the Marmot’s Seoul Quest continues tomorrow. But now, I have to run back to the hotel to catch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on TV. Oh, that reminds me - check out this vending machine in the hallway outside our room:

Quite a collection, is it not?