Korean Snack Foods - An "easy" hike with Uncle Joe

Things You Would Only Find In Korea-Part 5:

Choosing a snack food in Korea can be overwhelming at times.  There are so many different choices and most of them are very cheap.  You can't walk a block anywhere in this city and not see either a convenience store or a street vendor selling some sort of snack food.  Some of their snack foods our family really likes and some others not so much.  

I love to eat and I will try just about any food at least once.  And for the most part there are not many foods that I absolutely cannot stand to eat.  (Most of the time it is the texture that bothers me more then the taste.)  But recently I have come across a few foods here in Seoul that I just could not even bring myself to try.  Sometimes things are not made to go together...

Example 1-Peanut Butter and Squid

The squid in this picture looks angry to me, I think it is because he is being forced to wear a peanut butter arrow hat.  I would be mad too if I was forced to wear a peanut butter arrow hat. 

I really like squid and I like it prepared all different ways, but I could not get into eating it with peanut butter on it.  The line to buy this stuff was fairly long so it must be good.  We were rushing through a bus terminal when I saw this so there was no time to wait in line and get some.  Maybe if I ever see it again I will be brave enough to try it.

Example 2-Red Bean Paste and Green Tea Bread

They sell this, Red Bean Green Tea Roll, as a snack cake in the Starbucks around here.  Red bean paste is very popular in Korea.  It is kind of sweet and they often will put inside of pastries.  I actually really like red bean paste in many things, but the green tea-red bean paste combination just didn't appeal to me. The fact that the bread on the outside was an off green color didn't help either. 

Maybe another day I will be feeling a bit more brave to try some of these things...


On the other hand there are a few Korean snack foods that our family loves.  The girls especially love the Korean cookies.  When ever we go into a convenience store Lucy always asks to buy these.

Their favorite are the ones in the pink tube.  They are small character cookies that have chocolate inside.  A tube like the one pictured above would cost less then $1.00 at a convenience store.  They make a perfect "end of a hike" snack.

Another family favorite snack are called Manjoo.  It is small donuts with a sweet cream inside.  The cream isn't nearly as sweet as American cream but it has a really good taste.  Manjoo are sold in subway stops and you can smell them long before you can see them.  The girls know at which subway stops they sell Manjoo and they know I'm a sucker for the smell so they know that most of the time when we pass a small stand we are going to be making a pit stop.

They make them in these small presses.  They are shaped like an ear of corn.

They sell 2 different types of Manjoo.  The corn and the walnut ones.  We all like the corn ones better.

You can buy a bag of them for about $2.50.  There are 12-15 that come in a bag.

A small donut of deliciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In America, the president lives in the White House.  In Korea, the president lives in the Blue House.  It is named the blue house because the roof is blue.  It is easy to spot from far away because of the color of the roof.  Right before Uncle Joe came to visit us we were told about a hike that went around the back of the Blue House.  We were told it was a simple hike that would only take us an hour or so to complete.   In our minds that meant a nice easy, paved path that would take us on a scenic walk around the Blue House.   While Uncle Joe was visiting us, Russ took a day off from work and we decided to set out on this "easy" hike.

As soon as we began our hike we realized this was not going to be an easy stroll along a path as we had first thought.  The "path" was actually an uneven, rock stairway STRAIGHT up and over a mountain, down the other side and over a second mountain.  It was much more difficult then we had anticipated. We were not dressed correctly or prepared at all for this type of hike.  I had on winter boots and a turtleneck sweater, not really hiking clothing.

We decided to do as much of the hike as we could.  The scenery was beautiful as we hiked up the steps.

After we made it to the top of the first mountain we stopped to take a break. 

At this point we were all hungry and tired.  So we just turned around and headed back down the mountain the same way we came up.  We never even got to see the Blue House during our hike.  Hopefully we can go back another time when we are better prepared and actually finish the hike.  We now know it is not just a simple hike on a paved path.