So Korean drama vibes!
My first experience with roadside plastic-shed street food in Bukchang-dong, Seoul

Text and photos by /MIKA


While enjoying some super delicious fried chicken at the kkanbu CHICKEN chain of Korean-style fried chicken restaurants, I chatted with a friend about all the plastic-shed street food stalls we'd seen along the way. We talked about how, in the Korean dramas I watch, the ajusshis (middle-aged men) always go there to eat and drink after work. I really wanted to try it out, but I never dared to go in because I was worried about language barriers with the ajummas (middle-aged women) running the stalls, and also concerned it might be expensive. My friend said he was curious too and wanted to check it out. So, driven by curiosity, after finishing our fried chicken, we headed straight to the plastic-shed street food stall right across from the chicken shop. We chose this one because I thought the ajumma here looked kind and friendly—even if we couldn’t communicate well, she probably wouldn’t give us a hard time, XD.
 

This is Bukchang-dong Food Street. As introduced in the previous post, this is a place where ajusshis love to come for late-night snacks, meals, and drinks after working overtime.

This is the ajumma I mentioned, who looks rather kind.


It turns out my gut feeling was right—she was super nice and very polite.

Turns out they serve seafood barbecue and the like, with each plate priced at W15,000. You pick what you want, and then the ajumma prepares it for you.

They also provide free soup!


Black rubbery fish cake and kelp soup—super tasty!! It was the best soup we’ve had in days.

Even though the weather wasn’t very cold, having a bowl of hot, delicious soup still really lifted our mood.

We weren’t actually that hungry since we’d just finished a big plate of fried chicken, as mentioned in the previous post.


So we just ordered a plate of octopus. And wow!!! After the ajumma’s simple cooking, the octopus turned out so sweet, fresh, and chewy. It was really delicious with a bit of sauce~

It probably just involved a quick blanch and some toppings sprinkled on—but how could it be so tasty? Must be because the octopus was super fresh!

Dipping it in Korea’s signature sweet-spicy sauce really elevated the flavor—it was so good!

Spicy stir-fried chicken nuggets


Simple chicken nuggets, but after the ajumma cooked them, they turned into this very Korean-style spicy stir-fried chicken dish—kind of spicy but so satisfying.

We were treated to scallops by the ajusshis—they were so warm and friendly, desperately trying to chat with us in English.

These were the two adorable ajusshis. We found that whenever Koreans hear “Taiwan,” their first reaction is always, “Oh yeah, I know, I know—that country that loses to us in baseball!” The more polite ones might say, “Oh, your baseball is really good,” but then they trail off after that last part. Sigh~ I really wanna beat Korea in baseball T T!!!

We had such a fun chat with the ajusshis and ajumma, mixing English and Korean however we could—it was all really amusing.


It wasn’t until we exchanged business cards that we realized—whoa—they’re actually company CEOs!

I felt that Koreans are actually really warm and kind, and everyone is quite helpful. Usually, when you ask for directions on the street, no one will brush you off. They’ll answer you patiently in fluent English. If their English isn’t great, they’ll still try using gestures and Korean, or even walk you there themselves. It’s rare to meet unfriendly locals. Also, Koreans’ English is really good. And when you look lost walking around, people often come up to help you. The funniest thing was when my friend was carrying luggage up stairs, an ajusshi even helped carry a corner of the bag. Once on the subway, an ajusshi warmly patted the seat next to him and gestured for us to sit. Oh, and another time on the subway, a kind ajumma even saved us seats!! The least friendly Koreans I’ve met were usually at street food stalls, Dongdaemun shop assistants, or taxi drivers—the ones running businesses tend to have worse attitudes.

I’m so happy I finally got to experience a roadside plastic-shed street food stall for the first time. It had such a Korean drama vibe, and I even got to meet two Korean CEO ajusshis. I’d recommend that if you really want to try roadside street food, go for this place. This ajumma is seriously super nice, always smiling, and even with language barriers, she’ll patiently use gestures—you’ll get the gist easily. Haha… it was a lot of fun. Although it wasn’t cheap, XD—we three ate two plates totaling W30,000, but it was totally worth it for such a precious memory~

Ajumma’s Plastic-Shed Street Food Stalls


How to get there: Located right after Exit 7 of City Hall Station. Cross the road, go straight, then turn left—you’ll see the first plastic-shed stall, and that’s the one!

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