Today at home started with my honey making a ball and picture frame from her Magic Snake she got at Daiso the night before.
Today’s trek around town started with a walk to the main bus stop. On the way, we met up with an iced coffee lady with a cart outside a corner restaurant. She had the BTS member coffees that our daughter had looked for in the convenience store here. Next was a bus ride from the bus stop on Yanghwa-ro street bus stop. This bus stop is in the middle of the street. We found a crosswalk just prior to the stop and crossed there. We then looked for the stop for the number 9 bus to take up town to Hanaro Mart.
Korean Hanaro Market
Take the escalator ramp to the second floor or the stairs or elevator down to the bathroom.
This market is similar in some respects to big box stores in the states in that you can buy a 50 lb. bag of flour and a gallon jug of mayonnaise to make some kind of scary pancake. Most of the street food favorites are available here to buy and cook at home. For example, a bag of tteokbokki peanuts, rice cakes shaped like peanuts in the shell, are about $3,00 a bag and the sauce is $1.50. So you can make your own at home for $5.00 for 3 to 4 servings. Fish cake was similar. A bag of fish cake was around $3.00 for 15 pieces. these are what you get double over on a stick at a street stall for 1000 won for 1 stick. Fix it yourself for about .20 cents/200 won each. Many other street food items like corndogs and cheese corndogs can be purchased by the box for a fraction of the cost of the street vendors. We bought some caramels and dried pineapple slices and went to bathroom downstairs. When in South Korea, always take advantage of a potty stop when you find one especially if it is not a squatty potty.
Right outside the store is a bus stop where we boarded bus 9 again. We walked the streets of Hongdae. We found 1000 won ice cream waffle just before the Hongdae Free Market entrance. Grape, banana, something green and something pink for four flavors of ice cream in one waffle. The waffle was crispy and cooked fresh while we waited. We walked up the hill to the right and found the Meerkat cafe.
We continued to wander the streets finding graffiti, little alleys and interesting gates. We stumbled across a poet’s cafe by chance. There as a beautiful outdoor seating area and natural garden spot full of edibles. From thee we walked down a street by a school of art that was just letting out and found one of those Korean drama walls. We kept on walking, enjoying the gentle rain and cool breeze. We made it to the area just to the North of the Hongdae busking area, passing noraebongs and arcades on the way to Meating.
When my wife talked about her plans for the day, she stated that after Meating we would waddle our way home. She was right. meating is an all you can eat Korean bbq place. For one price, we picked what meat and vegetables we wanted and cooked them ourselves on the bbq table grill. Total for the two of us was 27800 won, less than $30 usd. And we did waddle home afterwards. We made a stop at a bookstore and came home to crash for a bit before the next adventure.