A lazy guide to Daegu’s must-try street snacks: leaf-shaped pan-fried dumplings and sweet rice cakes at Seomun Market

Text and photos byLittle Paine

Three days and two nights in Daegu felt a bit too short—Seomun Market is truly a must-visit spot in the city. It’s full of character and home to local specialties, and the market is even larger than Seoul’s Gwangjang Market. It’s a blast to explore. Getting here is super convenient too—just take Daegu Metro Line 3 and get off at Seomun Market Station. Speaking of Daegu’s Line 3, it’s actually a bit unusual because it’s kind of like Taiwan’s Brown Line—it runs on an elevated track~

Once you arrive at Seomun Market, there are so many entrances due to its huge size—you can just pick any one to go in.

Seomun Market is a massive comprehensive market where you can find everything from daily necessities to street food.

I got here pretty early, so it wasn’t too crowded yet.

There’s also a large multi-story shopping complex here, with tons of shops on every floor—it’s endless to explore.

The layout of Seomun Market is really spacious, and I personally find it very comfortable to walk around.

There’s an interesting phenomenon at Seomun Market: you can find coffee everywhere—coffee shops and small stalls are all over the place. Both Café Bene and Angel in Us have tiny outlets squeezed into the market. Could it be that people in Daegu are especially coffee-loving?

Normally, I’d definitely try blood sausage here, but this time I didn’t dare to eat it at the market. Sitting there eating it in front of those huge mounds of innards felt way too intense—and there was no tteokbokki to go with it. Without the sauce, I’m not really into blood sausage.

Inside Seomun Market in Daegu, there are several food areas where certain items are concentrated. For example, the blood sausage I mentioned earlier is all grouped together, and there are also several knife-cut noodle shops that are super popular. Watching Koreans order these enormous bowls isn’t surprising, but what stood out to me was the huge bowl of chili peppers on the table. What’s the idea of eating knife-cut noodles with green chili peppers!!

While wandering around, I found this super popular little stall. When I was searching for good eats in Daegu, I noticed that many netizens had recommended this place.

The shop name seems to be something like “Pu??? Sang,” and they sell hand-made leaf-shaped pan-fried dumplings with scallions and something called “???” spicy stir-fried fish cake (similar to odeng/twisted cruller).

Just look at the amount they’re selling—this place is doing great business.

So many people are crowding around the stall to eat on the spot, and the onion soy sauce is probably meant to go with the fish cake.

I ordered the scallion leaf-shaped dumplings—a huge portion for 3,000 KRW. And you can’t order half portions, which ended up stuffing me.

They look delicious—the shape really does resemble leaves.

The size is huge, right!!

They’re quite heavy when you pick them up. Inside is a very Korean-style filling of glass noodles mixed with a bit of ground meat and veggies—the ingredients are super generous. The wrapper is thin, and it’s pan-fried to a nice crisp. Really tasty.

This other item is the spicy stir-fried fish cake, which was taken by a kind auntie from the neighboring stall. She said this is a beloved local specialty snack in Daegu.

There’s also another place that gets recommended all over the internet: “Ji??? Ja,” which sells ja??? tang (sweet rice cakes). And you actually have to wait in line to eat here.

What’s so special about sweet rice cakes?

The owner is so busy making sweet rice cakes that they barely stop—the business is booming.

Oh wow—normally we’d just take sweet rice cakes away in paper cups to eat whole, but here you can sit down and elegantly snip pieces off with scissors, then pick them up with toothpicks to eat slowly. Of course, you can also take them away in a cup, but eating here is more fun.

Cutting it into pieces—this is the first time I’ve seen this way of eating.

So delicious—this sweet rice cake is really excellent. The filling is amazingly well done, with fragrant, sweet cinnamon and black sugar (haha), and the outside is crispy and fragrant from frying. So good—you really have to have a piece before you leave. When I was sitting there eating, almost everyone getting takeaway was buying multiple pieces at once. It seems like most of them were locals.

Also, I randomly picked a place that sold thin dumplings. This was my first try here, and afterward, I went to the famousMi-sung-dangFor food, I think Meichengtang is tastier!

The so-called thin dumplings are just like this～～

It’s just the dumpling wrapper!

There really isn’t much filling inside, what you’re tasting is the flavor of the flour fried to a nice aroma, so how delicious the tteokbokki sauce is plays a very important role. Also, the texture of the dumpling wrapper matters a lot too, since there’s no filling. The texture of these thin dumplings is rather average, a bit harder.

Daegu Seomun Market
Hancom Map
Coordinates:35.869150, 128.581228
How to get there: Daegu Subway Line 3. Seomun Market Station.

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