While in seoul: GUIDE TO KOREAN street food

There is sooooo much good Korean street food in Seoul! As an enchanted tourist, some of my favorites are below.

The first one is an egg on what tastes like corn bread called, aptly enough, egg bread (GYERAN BBANG). This was a little stall in the shopping district of Myeongdong outside of hotel.  They are a delicious combination of savory and sweet and a perfect breakfast snack. I found a recipe for making your own here: http://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-style-egg-bread/.

My next favorite snack from a street stall was a cup of rice cakes (tteokbokki) doused in hot sauce called gochujang. Tteokbokki is chewy, spicy and oddly satisfying to eat. This particular cup was peppered with small slices of fish cake.

I'm not much of a seafood eater so avoided the many water-based culinary delights in Seoul. However I couldn't help but pause when passing this fried octopus (squid) as well as the famed "live" tentacle dish called Sannakji. These are particular common in the markets, such as the Noryangjin Fish Market, established in 1927 and the largest fish market in Seoul.

As an American, it was very jarring to see squirming tentacles moving on a plate (evoking an instinctive 'yuck' reaction) but it's popular for a reason: it doesn't get much fresher than that! The below YouTube link shows the tentacle dish in action: 

Also in Myeongdong were these adorable dressed up ice cream dishes skillfully scooped to look like a budding rose with chocolate, green tea and strawberry cream. Like the kid in the picture I desperately wanted to try one but the line was always too long at the Milky Bee.

Other favorites were cups of fried sweet potatoes and fried, fish-shaped bread (not filled with anything fish but with red bean paste). They were so good!