I returned the rental car early, went to the airport and finished check-in, then took a taxi back out to get a meal. I’d done it that way in case I ran short of time, but it turned out I had plenty to spare. Going anywhere far was out of the question since I still had duty-free shopping to do, so I came to Doraji Restaurant, a well-known place near the airport.
The entrance
It’s been going since 1978, so it has more than 30 years of history behind it. It’s very close to the airport, and just a stone’s throw from the rental car office, so stopping by before returning the car would have been fine too – but returning it early and getting check-in out of the way was also a deliberate way of buying myself an interval. If I were on my own I might well eat lunch and then have dinner two hours later, but this time I had company, so that kind of hardcore schedule was a bit much. For the record, I filled the rental car’s tank all the way up and drove around for three days and two nights, and still didn’t use even half of it. If you’re renting a car, I’d say half a tank rather than a full one is plenty.
Side dishes
The prices aren’t cheap, but if you choose your dishes well it doesn’t end up being all that expensive either.
Tangerine makgeolli
The car was already returned, so I had a glass – er… hmm… a miss, this one. Yidam tells me a different makgeolli is the good one.
Jari mulhoe (cold raw damselfish soup)
The price was reasonable, it wasn’t spicy, and it went down nice and refreshing. There are plenty of places to eat mulhoe in Seoul too, but the local version here on Jeju Island was well priced and delicious.
Grilled silver cutlassfish
At over 10,000 won a piece it is expensive, but it’s worth every bit of it. This is the real thing, the kind of cutlassfish you rarely get to eat in Seoul. The flesh absolutely melts. Not the slightest bit dry or stringy.
Eating hobak galchi-guk (cutlassfish soup with pumpkin) was originally the final goal of this Jeju Island food trip, but of all things that was the one dish they couldn’t make, which left me crushed. My flight was leaving soon and there was no time to go to another restaurant at that point, so I gave up. I’ll save hobak galchi-guk as something to look forward to on the next trip.
We ate quickly, headed back to the airport, did a bit of duty-free shopping and then flew home. It’s a shame that the duty-free shop at Jeju Airport has a 400,000-won limit, but there were quite a few things worth buying, and I got to enjoy the shopping too. It was a light weekend trip, but I ate so well and had such a good time. Having a travel destination this good inside the country is a blessing for Korea.