Since I go back and forth to Japan so often, I end up at the Lotte Department Store duty-free or Myeongdong a lot. So this time our drinks were in Namdaemun. Last time I came the braised hairtail wasn’t all that impressive, but this time it was pretty good.

The front entrance

Once you step into the braised hairtail alley there’s a whole row of hairtail places, and honestly none of them looked all that different. We went into the one furthest in; they did tout for customers, but the food was good so I was happy. Maybe the quality has gone up with all the extra tourists.

Inside the shop

It’s cramped inside, but I think that’s part of why you bother coming all the way to Namdaemun.

Braised hairtail

The fish are on the small side, so I think they really are domestic. Tasted good.

Steamed egg

This was fine as a drinking snack too.

The mackerel we ordered to go with the drinks…

We drank way too much… we kept running out of food to go with it…

We left well fed, but something still felt missing, so we went to a Chinese restaurant called Hongbok. It’s a pretty big operation just in front of Namdaemun.

Qingjiao rousi, or gochu japchae in Korean.

What surprised me a bit on the first bite was how solid the basics were. That’s not easy to pull off in a tourist area…

Jjamppong

There aren’t many things that go with soju as well as this. I really drank well that day.

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