Seoul, Jeju-do island, and Taipei pictures (warning: Super pic heavy with focus on food. Some images might cause emotional distress)

[ponyo]

My wife and I spent about 2 weeks visiting Seoul and Jeju-do island, South Korea and another 4 days visiting Taipei, Taiwan. We've been to Seoul many times and visited most of the tourist sites so I didn't take pictures of Seoul other than the food we ate. So I apologize for not having Seoul attraction pictures. But I do have some of Jeju-do island since the last time I visited the island was like 18 years ago. Jeju-do is considered Hawaii of Korea and it's popular destination for Korean honeymoon couples. If you visit South Korea, Jeju-do island is must visit along with Seoul.

1) Pictures from Seoul

My sole attraction pic of Seoul. This is picture of Seodaemun Prison which is famous prison used during Japanese colonial period to imprison, torture, and kill Korean liberation activists. After Japanese colonial period ended in 1945 after Japanese WWII surrender, South Korean government continued to use the prison until it was closed in 1987.

One of the first thing we ate in Seoul was KFC, short for Korean Fried Chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken might be more well known around the world but Koreans have perfected fried chicken and there are like zillion fried chicken places all over Korea and they all deliver even late at night. Nothing better than chicken and beer. Koreans even have name for pairing fried chicken with beer. They call it Chimaek which is short for chicken and maekju (Korean word for beer).

And after long night of drinking, breakfast is normally some type of soup. This case it's soybean sprout soup with some eggs and fruit herbal wine.

Koreans love soups and stew. Beef bone broth soup with noodles.

Cod fish egg soup

Pork blood sausage soup

Spicy pork neck and spine potato stew

Braised pork neck and glass noodles

Korean army stew

Hand knife cut noodles in beef bone broth with dumpling

But you can't visit Seoul and not eat famous Korean BBQ. Hanwoo is Korean beef. It doesn't have the insane marbling of Japanese Wagyu but it does have great marbling. Many people prefer Korean Hanwoo over Japanese Wagyu because they say the meat has beefier flavor with better meat to fat ratio. I love Hanwoo beef and think it's one of the best in the world.

My plate of Hanwoo beef with US Angus bone-in short rib mixed in. Left is Hanwoo ribeye and rib fingers, middle is US Angus bone-in short rib, right is Hanwoo brisket. You can clearly see the difference in marbling between Hanwoo and US Angus beef.

Free BBQ banchan (side dishes)

spicy chili fermented raw crab. This was my favorite side dish. All sides are free as are refills. I asked for refill of the crab.

lump charcoal used to cook Korean BBQ. The lump charcoal in Korea is amazing. I wish we could get the Korean lump charcoal in the US.

 

[ponyo]

Grilling Hanwoo beef

Free service bowl of iced buckwheat noodles at the end of the meal to cleanse the palate.

Premium quality lump charcoal on the right and starter briquettes on the left.

Equipment they use to fast light the lump charcoal

Some pork belly BBQ

Lighter and healthier fare. Grilled pork wrap

Some street food.

Steamed pork liver, steamed pork blood sausage, spicy rice and fish cakes, fried blood sausage in spicy sauce, and warm anchovy broth to drink.

And some fresh seafood. The fishes on this sashimi plate were swimming in the fish tank 20 minutes prior.

Some more raw fish, oysters, abalone, sea squirt

Free spicy seafood soup made from leftover fish head and bones. Nothing is wasted.

Fresh raw octopus with sesame seed oil.

Next up: Jeju-do island, South Korea

 

[ponyo]

2) Jeju-do island, South Korea.

Jeju island is quick 1 hour flight from Seoul.

Jeju island is nature lover's dream with beautiful oceans, mountains, waterfalls, hiking trails. When we visited, it was mandarin orange harvest season and all the trees were full of mandarin oranges. Unfortunately, I forgot to get even one picture of mandarin orange trees even though it was everywhere on the island!

Rental car is very helpful getting around the island. But in order to rent rental car in South Korea, you do need to get the International Driver's Permit. You must get the IDP while you're in the US. You can get it at any US AAA office for $20 fee.

Temple

Dol hareubang or rock statue of Jeju island.

One of hundreds of waterfall on Jeju

Next up: Food in Jeju-do island

 

[ponyo]

3) Jeju-do island is known for fresh seafood and black Jeju pig. Jeju Beltfish dish in particular is very famous. Jeju-do is also home to famous female free divers known as haenyeo. These fearless ladies free dive in the ocean with only wet suit and goggles and catch seafood and shellfish along the coast. One of my goal in visiting Jeju was to eat fresh seafood caught by these ladies and I was able to do that.

Hot stone abalone rice breakfast

The rice was flavored with abalone innards and pine nuts, jujube fruit, and other nuts. Really amazing.

Free grilled mackerel banchan that accompanied abalone rice. Unfortunately, no free refill on the grilled mackerel.

Plate of grilled abalone. It was the most tender abalone I've eaten in my life.

Jeju black pig pork belly cooked on cast iron cauldron lid

Fried rice cooked on the cauldron lid to end the pork belly bbq meal

Fresh seafood hot pot dinner

Shellfish caught and sold by Jeju island Haenyeo free divers.

Haenyeo diver ladies preparing my abalone and conch sashimi plate.

And one of the greatest meal I've had in my life. Grilled Jeju beltfish. Everything was so good including all the banchan sides. I ate all the sides and asked for refill. It was terrific.

Some of the delicious free banchan (side dishes) that came with the grilled beltfish meal

soy sauce fermented raw crab

Hot stone abalone rice that came with the beltfish meal. One for each of us.

Our server deboning the entire grilled beltfish for us using only spoon and fork.

Deboned grilled beltfish

My wife and I spent 4 days 3 nights in Jeju-do island and had wonderful time. I wish we could've spent like another 2 days but we plan to visit the island again in the future.

Next up: Taipei, Taiwan.

 

[IronWing]

Excellent pics!

What's with the disembodied hand groping the statue of the woman at the beach?

@ultimatebob , coolcoin time!

 

[ponyo]

Excellent pics!

What's with the disembodied hand groping the statue of the woman at the beach?

@ultimatebob , coolcoin time!

Thanks! I'm not sure on the hand. I thought it was weird too so that's why I took the pic.

 

[Chromagnus]

It looks like you travel like my wife and I travel, i.e. very food oriented. We did about a week and a half in Korea in July and loved it. We split our time between Seoul and Busan. It sounds like you've spent lots of time in Korea so you've probably been there but for anyone else that may be traveling to Korea I'd recommend Busan as well. We had some grilled eel there that may have been my favorite meal also it's really easy to get to by bullet train.

 

[ponyo]

It looks like you travel like my wife and I travel, i.e. very food oriented. We did about a week and a half in Korea in July and loved it. We split our time between Seoul and Busan. It sounds like you've spent lots of time in Korea so you've probably been there but for anyone else that may be traveling to Korea I'd recommend Busan as well. We had some grilled eel there that may have been my favorite meal also it's really easy to get to by bullet train.

We went to Busan for a week in April during my daughter's Spring Break. We didn't get to eat as much seafood as I would've liked on that trip because my daughter is not big fan of seafood. This Seoul, Jeju, and Taipei trip was the first trip my wife and I took by ourselves without our daughter. I hate to say it but my wife and I had so much fun that we're so looking forward our daughter going off to college soon so we can travel freely by ourselves.

I didn't get a chance to eat eel in Busan due to my daughter but we did eat lot of fish cakes (best in Korea), pork rice soups, and milmyeon (cold wheat noodles). Busan is known for those dishes in addition to eel.

 

[snoopy7548]

How do you not weigh a million pounds?

 

[highland145]

18 days of food? More like 3 months.

Awesome pics.

 

[Luna1968]

ill be honest. some looked delicious some looked disgusting.

 

[Luna1968]

How do you not weigh a million pounds?

becasue its pretty much all keto friendly

 

[ponyo]

I want to make a comment about Incheon International Airport in Korea. We flew in and out of Terminal 2 since we flew Korean Air and Incheon airport was the best airport I've had the pleasure of visiting and traveling through. It's on whole another level from any airport in the US and it's worth getting to the airport early so you can spend time exploring it. It's that good. And the Priority Pass lounges at Terminal 2 in Incheon were the best Priority Pass lounges I visited. The food selection was incredible for lounge, easily like 10 times the selection of lounges in the US and elsewhere. It was hotel or restaurant quality buffet.

Priority lounge at Incheon International Airport

OK. Onward to Taipei, Taiwan.

We flew into Taipei and took the MRT train to our hotel. Taipei had the best metro train system of any city I've visited. The Metro was awesome and so easy to use. We took the subway trains and buses everywhere while in Taipei and never once used taxi or Uber. We took the subway and buses everywhere in Seoul as well but I felt Taipei had the edge in easier to use MRT. But public transit is excellent in both Taipei and Seoul.

After settling in at our hotel, we walked to Ningxia Night Market to eat. Taipei is famous for night markets and there are more than dozen all over the city.

We ate some pork dumplings for around $1.75 and it was pretty good.

I experienced the smell of stinky tofu for the first time at this night market. I'm pretty adventurous person when it comes to food and can pretty much eat anything but the smell of stinky tofu is something else. It's so strong and repulsive that it made me want to gag and really turned my stomach. And that's just from the smell walking pass vendors that were selling it. I couldn't bear to get close enough to take pictures of it. It honestly smelled like strong rotten sewer garbage and piss from uncleaned bathroom toilet. I wanted to try stinky tofu before I got to the night market but after smelling it, I chickened out. I just couldn't get over the awful smell. But I did end up eating it later on the trip. But it was soy sauce marinated stinky tofu at a restaurant rather than fried stinky tofu sold at the night market stalls.

Couple observations about people of Taiwan. Both males and females are tall. I'm 6 ft tall and I saw so many people taller than me. Females were generally very pretty and fit. And I thought Koreans love to eat but Taiwanese might beat them. There were food and places to eat everywhere in Taipei. And food was generally much cheaper in Taipei than in Seoul.

Some attraction pics

Taipei 101. It was the tallest building in the world until completion of Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010.

Liberty Square

National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Lungshan Temple

Traditional market next to Lungshan Temple

National Palace Museum

Thermal Valley

 

[ponyo]

Taipei Zoo

Maokong Gondola

Some kind of fried pancake with egg

Mountain tea farm. I loved drinking tea in Taiwan and brought back lot of tea with us.

Banana tree. I didn't know they grew bananas in Taiwan.

Sunset at Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf

Standing in line to get some egg custard bread

Snacking on some deep fried crab

Shilin Night Market. The amount of people at this popular night market was insane. It was very difficult to move through the crowd. I gave up on night market after Shilin. Just too many people in too tight of space.

 

[ponyo]

Crowd waiting to dine at Din Tai Fung restaurant. I think we waited around 2.5 hours to eat lunch here. It was pretty good but definitely not worth the wait. It was the only restaurant we got charged mandatory 10% tip. But I was curious about the hype.

Dumplings at Din Tai Fung

I ate countless bowls of beef noodles while in Taipei.

And drink equal amount of bubble tea.

My favorite meal in Taipei was at cheap stir-fry.restaurant called Baxian Grill.

The restaurant owner gave us free service plate of marinated stinky tofu. We were the only table I observed that received the free service tofu.

I was scared to try it but it didn't really smell so I gathered the courage and ate some. It was actually pretty good.

Some other foods at stir-fry.

Taipei was really fun ,and I'm glad I visited. I saw crazy number of Korean and Japanese tourists in Taipei.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Really cool pics! Crazy to see the oddball foods in places like that haha.

 

[Mai72]

Awesome photos.

I miss South Korea. Sucks I can't talk about my travels to East and SE Asis since no one in my area has actually traveled anywhere!

 

[ponyo]

Really cool pics! Crazy to see the oddball foods in places like that haha.

Best part of traveling for me is interacting with the locals and eating their food. It's what I dream about. It's what makes me want to travel.

 

[Captante]

Wow .... Again very impressed nice work.

Also again, I'm freaking hungry lol!

 

[Exterous]

Awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing!

 

[TXHokie]

My bucket list - travel to Asia and eat all their food - all of it. My only requirement is that it's not moving while I eat it.

 

[ponyo]

My bucket list - travel to Asia and eat all their food - all of it. My only requirement is that it's not moving while I eat it.

What? You're not fan of Oldboy?

 

[Exterous]

My bucket list - travel to Asia and eat all their food - all of it. My only requirement is that it's not moving while I eat it.

Yeah I've got pretty much the same requirement of my food