Eat & Shop at Myeong-Dong (Part I)

Day 4 in Korea and we are finally free to go ROAM around the country! The very first thing on my mind is... FOOD, FOOD and SHOPPING! That's two things but you get it. So one of the places that all tourists would go at least once would be Myeong Dong. I would say it is an overrated place but it is a tourist place. If you are a tourist, you will have to visit there one way or another.

Firstly, let me tell you what I think you SHOULD and SHOULD NOT do there. Here goes...

1. Do NOT shop for clothes here. The clothes here are often overpriced! One example would be how my friend actually found out she paid twice the amount for a blouse at Myeong-Dong as compared to at Express Bus Terminal (I will be sharing about my experience there later).

2. Hold your purchases for cosmetic and skincare products as well! Not exaggerating that you should not shop here, but there are places where you could get a better deal. For example, you could visit Lotte Market, Supermarket at Seoul station (I will be doing a post on this too). The shops there often have discounts and free gifts too. If you really could not find what you want at Lotte Market, then feel free to go back to Myeong-Dong to get them!

3. Although I say you should hold your purchases for these cosmetic and skincare products. There are some products that I noticed which are not available at Lotte Market. Actually, I only noticed this for Etude House. Other than Etude House, you can still get nail polishes from for example, Faceshop at Lotte Market. If you are a... 'cheapo' like me, you should just visit the many Etude House stores at Myeong Dong to get your hands on the many nail polishes they have! What I did is to wait till their "1 for 1" promotions come, and you could get the nail polishes for as cheap as SGD1 each! Isn't it awesome?

4. Do not shop for bags here as well. You know how your friends might have mentioned that you could buy bags for as cheap as KRW10,000 each? Personally, I do not see many stores at Myeong-Dong offering them. In fact, I seen perhaps just one or two lurking around the corners of the streets. Even if these shops do sell them, there is a lack of variety. Therefore, wait till you get to Ewha's Women University station to shop for bags! There is this store called Stylish T-One where they sell a large variety of KRW10,000 bags (You can find the post about Ewha here). So hold your horses!

5. Please do not buy seaweed from the Myeong-Dong street too. Just get them from Lotte Mart when you visit them for your cosmetic and skincare products.

6. I guess this is pretty much about what you should NOT do. So one thing that you totally SHOULD do is to taste the large variety of street food at Myeong-Dong street! The very first one that I am going to recommend would be this shop selling Korean Pancakes and Chalbos. I am not exactly sure of the directions but you would probably pass by this store when you walk around Myeong-Dong. Scroll down for more photos!

The round one is Korean Pancake. Basically, it has a sticky sweet paste inside. If you have eaten a Chinese's 年糕 before, that is how it tastes like but it is more chewy. The rectagular-ish ones are Chalbos. They come with a few different fillings such as sweet potato, pizza, bulgogi and etc. The Korean Pancakes cost KRW1,500 each and the Chalbos cost KRW2,500 each.

This is the sweet potato Chalbo. I think there is also a few red beans mixed in with the sweet potato paste. Overall, it is delicious!

7. The second street food which you should try is Tornado Potato! It costs KRW2,000 per stick. On the potato, there is cheese powder so if you like fries, you probably would like this too. The only problem I have is that I could not finish it on my own and it is very difficult to consume the whole stick of potato when you are walking around. So you could share this with your friends and maybe take this opportunity to walk slowly and admire the MyeongDong street?

8. Another street food is the Egg Bread! I bought one at KRW1,500. Basically it just tasted like an egg on top of a bread. I like the bread more than the egg itself. Go figure haha. (By the way, that is my friend holding the bread!)

9. What about the J-shaped ice-cream that everyone is so excited about? To be honest, it looks nice but it is probably not my thing. The cone is not as crispy as I would like it and the ice-cream melted too fast before the both of us can even finish it! It is probably not worth the KRW3,000 we paid but do try it since it is an experience (as everyone say so) haha.

10. Other than the street food, you should visit restaurants and cafes at Myeong-Dong too. I will be writing about my experience at some restaurants and cafes, namedly MyeongDong Gyoza and O'Sulloc Tea House for the next post on Eat & Shop at Myeong Dong (Part II).

11. Moving on to shopping, there are things that you could shop for other than clothes and cosmetics! In the evening, there are some stores and booths along the street which sell earrings at KRW1,000 per pair! Aren't they pretty?

12. There is another thing that you could buy at a cheap price and that would be socks! I think we bought them at KRW1,000 each too.

Secondly, this part is for students who are staying in Seoul National University. How do you get to Myeong-Dong from SNU? If you are staying at the dormitories at SNU, then you could hop onto Bus 02 and take it all the way till Nakseongdae Station. Then, take the train on the dark green line to Sadang station and transfer to Line 4 to get to Myeong-Dong station!

That's about it for today. Till next time:)