Market Madness

Bangsan Market turned out to be a place to buy baking goods, especially things that are harder to come by in Korea. We saw a lot of cookie cutters, cake decorating utensils, sprinkles, flours,  nuts, extracts and oils, and packaging. It was neat to walk through to see what these 'specialty shops' had to offer but it wasn't what I was expecting so we mainly did window shopping.

I'm proud I can read the sign :)

While walking through the already narrow streets of the market bikes like these were zooming by us trying to deliver goods.

Compared to the markets we've been to it seemed to be on the smaller side. In walking around the area we found a few gems. 

We happened across the wallpaper alley. Every store along the way had racks of wallpaper, tape, rubber bands, etc. 

For some reason we also saw a lot of AstroTurf. And for stranger reasons Mike was adamant that we should buy the AstroTurf. Luckily he didn't want to have to carry it around the rest of the day so we settled on 'another time.'

We didn't cross the street but saw a lot of lighting stores in the area as well.

This was an unexpected but pleasant sight to see in the middle of the city.

Another unexpected sight...

  
By chance we came across another market-Gwangjang Market. There we found lots of fabrics and Hanbok clothing (traditional Korean dress) and street food--restaurants and produce. In reading about it, it is the oldest and one of the largest around today. We really appreciated the authenticity of it; it was neat seeing a more traditional side of life here.  

The second floor was filled with many textile stores, several of which featured Hanbok for women and children. There is Hanbok for men but it must not be a selling point based on the displays.

The lower level was half street food vendors and half produce/fish vendors. I hope someday I'll know what most of these products are or are used for!

Men used these types of bikes to weave in and out of people to make deliveries to the vendors.

There were lots of tiny restaurants lined up for people to eat at. We enjoyed walking through and seeing all the different foods available. Notice the foil covered benches--they get plugged in and keep you warm while you eat!

For lunch we chose to eat at one of the many places serving up fresh mung bean pancakes, or bindaeduk.  It was a neat experience as we could see the entire pancake-making process from our seats. 

First they scooped mung beans onto a spinning pestle that ground them up into a gooey consistency which dropped into a bucket below. From there the mung bean paste can be mixed with a variety of things--bean sprouts, mushrooms, ground up pork, sesame seeds, etc. It's all mixed by hand (think big rubber gloves!) in a large bucket and then plopped on a grill covered in oil. Ours was served with soy sauce and sweet onions. The pancakes were huge  and had a hashbrown-like consistency. We shared one and enjoyed a lot! Now to figure out how to make them myself...