Despite being back and forth between Korea and Australia for the last eight or nine years, I’ve never been to Kwangjang Market in Seoul. I decided it’s time to break that streak and head to the markets with my YouTuber friend Marie Anne. Since Marie Anne is a French girl who’s lived in Seoul for ten years but also never been to Kwangjang markets I thought it would be a great chance for us to experience it together for the first time! Little did I know when I asked Marie Anne but she actually doesn’t like markets. At all. (Sorry Marie!).

Kwangjang Markets at first seems to sell a lot of what the other markets sell, ajumma pants, souvenirs, snacks etc. But when you reach the centre of the market it forms a sort of intersection where each extended lane focuses on a different food. One ally is full of bindaetteok (mungbean pancakes), down the other is all tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), walk down another and it’s different again. Bindaetteok is one of my all time favourites and I’m yet to find someone who doesn’t like it so I thought I’d start Marie off on something simple. After that though it was diving in to the pig’s feet. I feel like pigs feet gets a bad wrap in Australia because of the name, but when cooked right it’s tender like pork belly and full of collegen which Korean’s tell me is good for the skin. I’ll take that.

The shop owner ended up giving us chicken feet as service, surprisingly though I found them really tasty. The sauce they were marinated in was spicy with a sweetness to it and they were very chewy. This sort of texture definitely isn’t for everyone, Marie was not keen, but I still stand by my comment that they tasted amazing.