Jokbal (Pigs Feet) and Whisky in Gongdeok Jokbal Street!

 궁중족발  (Gungjung Jokbal)

서울특별시 마포구 만리재로 23

(서울특별시 마포구 공덕동 256-30)

Exit 5 - Gongdeok Station 

(walk straight until you see the street to the right)

02-718-7087

Naver Maps

www.mapo-gungjungjokbal.co.kr/

Ever since coming to Seoul, I repeatedly heard about the 'jokbal street' in Gongdeok. 

How awesome is it that they have a street dedicated to pigs feet. I admit, it doesn't look or sound very appetising, but hey sometimes the grittiest scariest looking food turns out to be the best food!

I've been wanting to go check it out for sometime but had been saving it up for a rainy day when all you could think about is a bottle of soju and 'meat'. So one evening after a long week at work, we decided to meet outside gongdeok station to head down to the street.

I swear my boyfriend and his friend must think I'm one sketchy individual after all the alleyways I've dragged them into in exchange for a good but slightly less hygienic meal. Hey, but I do always deliver excellent meals though!

So tonight I lead them to the narrow alleyway of Jokbal Street.  All the restaurants seen above in the tiny side-alleway sell Jokbal and Sundae. There are couple of more famous ones: 오향족발 (Ohhyangjokbal) being probably the most well known and 궁중족발 (gungjungjokbal) coming close. I don't think there's a big difference in quality and they all have the same price-level too.

궁중족발 actually have 4 restaurants next to each other all served from one massive kitchen half indoor and half outdoor. 

I mean look at that! (At least they wear gloves right?)

Anyways the menu is pretty straight forward. Order either the small ($26) or large ($30) and a bottle of soju and beer. The small one should be enough for 2 adults (or 3 if you're not a big eater) and large for a bigger group.  The menu comes with UNLIMITED sundae and sundae-soup. Now that's what I call a good deal. 

As it is with these soju-fuelled restaurants (look at the pile of them in the photo below), it can get pretty loud so don't expect any high-quality conversations in there. 

When you're done with dinner and stinking of pig's feet and soju, you should shamelessly walk out and head to this gem of a whiskey bar.

It's called Valinch (google/naver) and has excellent choice of single malt whiskeys and cocktails.

The place is pretty small, and run by the owner himself who actually is very helpful in picking out new whiskeys to try depending on your preferences! He certainly helped us pick ours, and we both loved the ones we got to try. The prices vary from 12 - 30+ per glass for the whiskey and 10 -15 for cocktails. Alternatively you can order a bottle and keep it behind the bar too.

He also serves a generous portion of chocolate and biscuits so if you still have any space left after dinner, you can have your whiskey-fuelled snacks here! 

My favourite whiskey of the night was Glendronach 12 years! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for a bottle at airports! 

Second Day in Taiwan: Maokong Mountain and Taipei

Taiwan Trip Day Two

After waking up rather early, we headed out to search for breakfast before making our way to the Maokong Mountain. We found this little stall selling pan-fried buns right around the corner from our hostel and decided to try a few. The guy did not speak a word of english... and so we just picked a few with different fillings hoping they would be delicious...

We ended up with ones with black sesame and vegetable filling! They were both really delicious and different from the ones we had last night! There seems to be quite a lot of street vendors selling these around Taipei, so next time you see one make sure to try out the black sesame one (it's marked with a black sesame on top of the bun) as they are small enough to be a guilt-free afternoon snack!

We woke up extra early as I had though that the MRT ride to the bottom of Maokong Mountain would take quite a while!!! But the whole journey lasted only 30 minutes or so, and we soon landed on the bottom of the mountain where we walked just a little to the Cable Car station or 'gondola' station as they would call it.

There are two types of cable cars, one was the 'special' one with the glass floor and the other one being just a normal cable car. The line for the 'special' cable car is usually much longer but as we went in the morning it was short enough for us to bear the extra wait... :)

The view is rather scenic, with the city of Taipei clearly visible from the cablecar as well as the endless tea fields scattered over the mountains.

When we reached the top, we got to walk around the 'village' which consisted of many tea houses, restaurants and homes of the residents. It wasn't overly touristy or crowded and it turned out to be a very enjoyable stroll in a breezy spring morning.

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Although the place had more than enough restaraunts and tea-houses to choose from, the food was rather expensive and over-priced! Plus my friend wasn't a big tea-person unlike me so we decided to ditch the tourists and join the other local families and students by eating street-style food at a shabby canteen by the cable-cars!

I got to have my favorite food though!! :) I love sweet corns!!! And this one that I got from the old-lady on the street was so fresh, juicy and sweet that it totally made up for the bizarre lunch I got next...

Even after eating this.. I was still not sure as to what it was that I had ate.. I thought it was liver and tofu.. but it was DEFINITELY not liver. It was most likely blood-jelly.... even with my high-tolerance and appreciation of strange food and organs, this was a tad too much and stranger to enjoy.

My friend was a little more succesful than I was by going with a much more safer and generic choice of Fried Chicken... Needless to say I mooched off his lunch.... :(

Afternoon: Longshan Temple

After finishing our morning + lunch up in the mountains we came back down to the city to go visit the Longshan Temple ALthough the temple is far from 'breathtaking' or spectacular (I've been to way too many temples living in Asia), it was definitely worth the quick-visit.. I had more fun staring at the people praying, and the beautiful ornaments and carvings statues scattered around the temple.

     

Night: Endless (and I do mean endless) eating at Street Markets
We firstly visited the one closes to the Longshan Temple, which was the Tonghua Night Market. We were warned beforehand that this market is infamous for selling 'exotic meat, but that did not prepare for the strangest food being sold there... Ranging from 2m snakes to alligators to unknown creatures.. this market seemed to have it all... We ended up getting watermelon juice from one of the stalls whilst watching snake being sold in the shop opposite us. 

But near the entrance of the night-market there are many generic stalls selling 'normal' street food as well as cheap clothes and t-shirts as well! 

We then headed to Shilin Night Market where I met up with my friend studying in Taipei to try out some of the renowned street food that Taipei is famous for... :)

Chicken Kebab in a Bun? YES it was delicious. 

Random dried squid(?)- Check :)

Quail Egg Skewer? - MY FAVORITE! 

Fried Milk on a Stick? Best Dessert :) 

Instestine Noodles! THey were suprisingly 'ordinary' tasting! Plus now I get to say I've had intestine noodles hehe :) 

'Gold Medal Taiwan Beer'

We ended the night on a slightly 'healthier' note by trying out guava in a bag sprinkled with brown sugar! I've only ever had guava juice, and although they had a slight twang that I was unfamiliar with, it was a definite 'refresher' after all the heavy eating we did throughout the night! :)