On the morning of the second day of my Jeju trip, the first place I headed for was Dongmun Traditional Market. It sits about a five-minute taxi ride from Tapdong. My main goals for the day were a pilgrimage around sundae-gukbap places and buying local specialties. Jeju Island has two spots known for sundae, and one of them, Gwangmyeong Restaurant, turned out to be right in this market.
The main gate
Downtown Jeju isn’t that large, so wherever you are it doesn’t take much time to get around. Parking is difficult, though, so I came by taxi. The guidebook said the market opens at 11, but a little past 9 about half of the shops were already open. I moved on to my next destination around 9:45, and by then most of them were open.
This is what the inside of the market looks like.
They sell all sorts of local specialties aimed at tourists. The truth is that the whole of Jeju is a tourist destination, so there is no way to buy specialties especially cheaply wherever you go. (Places like the airport are especially expensive.) Not knowing whether I would have time later, I quickly bought chocolate, mangoes and so on. Mangoes are pricier than the rest, but they were fully ripened and tasted really good.
The rice cake shop you spot as soon as you walk in
Since I was on Jeju Island, I had to try omegi-tteok, the rice cake made with red beans. I have no idea which shop is famous for omegi-tteok, but since it is local home cooking anyway, I figured the rice cake sold at the market would be just fine, so I asked for a pack.
As soon as I asked, she made them right there.
I am not sure whether it was because none had been made up yet that early in the morning, or whether they always make them to order.
Omegi-tteok
Eating them while they were still piping hot, they were so, so good. The style is similar to Japanese ohagi, but the taste is definitely different. The whole red beans on the outside are not very sweet and have a bit of chew to them, and they went well with the chewy, warm rice cake inside. The taste of a rice cake made fresh like this is not easy to reproduce by ordering it in. I am so glad I got to come and play on Jeju Island.
Butcher shop
The quality looks really good.
Jokbal
I didn’t have time to eat agangbal on this trip. They say it is similar to jokbal, so I will definitely try it next time.
Banchan
They look delicious. This isn’t a market that caters only to tourists.
Silver cutlassfish
Apparently cutlassfish caught on a line is what gets called silver cutlassfish, and the price was a bit steep. It would have been awkward to carry around, so I just looked.
Inside the market’s restaurant alley
It has more scale to it than I expected.
Gwangmyeong Restaurant
This was my main target for the day, but they told me they open at 11, so I came away without eating (from what I had looked up they opened at 9, though). That day I was scheduled to have breakfast from 10, so I could not wait around. I will have to make another chance to visit this place and Gamcho Restaurant.