Korea: Paldalmun Market

From the cafe, we slowly made our way to Paldalmun Market:

I love markets because they always mean awesome snack vendors.

Our first stop was this stand:

For some beondegi (silkworm pupae):

I think I would've been okay with the bugs if they'd been crunchy.  Instead, they were mealy from being boiled and the unpleasant texture really threw me off.  I ate one and I was done.

We also got some taffy-like candy:

Really sticky once you bite into it.

These perfectly round jjinppang (steamed buns) were calling to me:

We ended up buying two:

One had regular meat:

While the other had spicy kimchi:

This was the only thing I had in my entire two week trip that was too spicy for me to handle.  Insanely spicy.  I couldn't take more than a nibble.

To cool the flame on my tongue, we got a hotteok to split:

A hotteok is essentially a Korean pancake that's filled with some kind of brown sugar mixture:

I don't know what made this particular hotteok green, but it sure was yummy.  I really like hotteok, but the one thing that can be slightly off-putting about it is that because the filling isn't evenly dispersed throughout the pancake, oftentimes you'll end up biting into a pocket of pure sugar.  The key is to quickly take a bite of a doughy part afterwards.  Then all will be well.

Suwon may not be the bustling city that Seoul is, but it still has plenty to offer.  More food posts to come!