Tips for shopping in Seoul
When in Seoul, shop around the university area for good deals.
Ewha Womans University area is one of the most popular shopping districts in Seoul as most of the stores retail affordable clothing and bags.
Before you start to shop, do pop by Ewha Womans University first!
Address
52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 서대문구 이화여대길 52 (대현동,이화여자대학교)
Directions
5 minutes walk from Ewha Womans University Station (Subway Line 2) Exit 2 or 3
The university is at the end of the street
This place is good for OOTD.
Super gorgeous flowers that bloomed in the cold.
Roadside stalls that sell food, clothes, accessories and other misc items.
I went to Ewha on the first day and last second day of my trip.
I think it's one of the best places to go for shopping.
What to buy in Ewha
1. Socks
There are a few shops and roadside stalls that sell all kind of socks at ₩1,000 per pair ($1.20).
2. Basics
Korea fashion is kinda different from Singapore's. Don't expect to find blogshop style of clothing there. You can get good quality basics there for ₩5,000 to ₩10,000 ($5.90 to $11.80).
Don't feel shy to walk into the shops because there are where the gems are at!
3. Bags
There are a few shops that retail bags for only ₩10,000 ($11.80). You can find all sorts of bags there. Backpack, sling bag, shoulder bag, handbag, you name it, they got it! And for some shops, regardless of the size of the bags, the price is the same. I got 6 bags from Korea and I'm totally lovin' it. The quality is superb and its so lasting.
_
You'll probably come across many Korea cosmetics stores like The Face Shop, Etude House etc but don't get your stuffs there! Get it at Myeongdong instead.
What to eat in Ewha
When in Korea, eat like the Koreans!
Forget about patronising cafes, just go for the authentic Korean food & street food, its all about the experience.
Alchon (Fusion Flying Fish Roe Rice)
My first meal in Korea and it was so so good!
Address
서울특별시 서대문구 이화여대7길 1
Directions
Take Exit 2 of Ewha Womans University Station, walk down the main street
Turn left on the third lane and look out for Alchon on your right
Opening Hours
9AM to 9PM daily
Ordered the Garlic Albab ₩3,500 ($4.20)
It consist of sunny side up, cabbage, crab stick, seaweed and the main ingredient fish roe drenched in garlic sauce.
The concept is somewhat like bibimbap, you've to mix everything in the stone pot together.
The meals range around ₩3,500 to ₩4,000 ($4.20 to $4.70) and it comes with free flow of kimchi and soup! The menu selection is pretty limited, apart from Garlic Albab, they serve Cheese, Curry and a few other variations.
Ewha Andong Jjimdak
이화 안동찜닭
Address
43 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Directions
Take Exit 2 of Ewha Womans University Station, walk down the main street
Turn left on the third lane and look out for Ewha Andong Jjimdak on your right
(It is located on the same lane as Alchon)
Opening Hours
11AM to 10.30PM daily
We ordered the traditional Jjimdak (serving for 2, that is actually good for 3) that consists of half chicken, glass noodles, potatoes, carrots, rice cakes and vegetables boiled in soy sauce.
Serving for 2 - ₩17,000 ($20.10)
Serving for 3 - ₩25,000 ($29.50)
Apart from the traditional Jjimdak, the restaurant also serves other flavours like curry and Gochujang (red pepper paste) Jjimdak.
I expected the Jjimdak sauce to be savoury cause it looked like the savoury kind of braised chicken that we see in Singapore. Unfortunately, it's too sweet to my liking. I guessed they used the sweet kind of soy sauce. If you prefer sweet over savoury, you've to try this! The chicken and potatoes is really flavourful.
Modak Modak Grilled Chicken Skewer
모닭모닭
Directions
Take Exit 2 of Ewha Womans University Station, keep a lookout on the right where all the roadside stalls and the stall is somewhere along the main street.
The stall is located opposite of Yes! APM Mall.
This is how the stall look like
Known as Modak Modak or Edae Grilled Chicken Skewer, this popular street food has been featured on several television programs. You can find similar grilled chicken skewer along the streets of Korea but I don't think they will taste as good as this because this is freshly grilled on the spot, while the others was grilled beforehand.
Other than chicken, on the skewer, you can find leek and capsicums. You can choose the level of spiciness that you would like for your chicken and after the grilling is done, the owner will top it off with mayo and cheese power. The grilled chicken is spicy, sweet and juicy, very different from what you get in Tori-q. Many people visited the stall at night and the queue will be ridiculously long. If you would like to try, visit the store in the day, around noon time where the stall just open.
This is something worth trying but it's not worth queuing for 20 minutes or so.
The Grilled Chicken Skewer costs around ₩2,000 ($2.40).
Street Churros
I'm sorry, I couldn't find any address or directions for this. But this is located at the back of Ewha.
They do have a few outlets in Seoul and one of the store is at Yongsan, here's the address:
222, Noksapyeong-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Street Churros is not in my itinerary but I'm so glad to chance upon it.
The stall has different combination of churros dessert like churros with coffee or churros with soft serve or you can get churros alone.
I had the soft serve with churros and I got it for ₩1,500 ($1.80), the original price was ₩2,000 ($2.40). The stall were running a 'tourist promotion', so all churros with soft serve were retailing at a discounted price.
This has got to be the best churros and soft serve that I've tasted. I always love churros but most of the stalls that sells churros in Singapore doesn't taste good, its akin to eating oil. All you taste is oil.
But Street Churros' churros taste sooo good - hot, fresh and right amount of cinnamon sugar.
This is definitely worth trying even if you have to queue.
On one of the day, we picked a random Korean Traditional Family Restaurant for breakfast.
Apparently this restaurant has been featured on television program, and it was a pretty good choice.
When you don't know where to have your meals in Korea, simply visit a Korean Traditional Family Restaurant because you get to find almost everything there!
Kimbap that were so much fatter than what you see in the street stall.
Kimbap resemble Japanese maki roll, it's somewhat similar as the filling is crabstick, egg and cucumber but the taste is pretty different as they don't mix vinegar to the rice.
Cold noodles!
Korea has different variation of cold noodles. The one that I ordered is the dry version.
Buckwheat noodles that is like mee sua together with red pepper paste, vegetables and hard boiled egg.
They have the soup version of cold noodles whereby you can find ice cubes or blended ice in the soup which looks like this:
Kinda regretted not trying the soup version cold noodles.
Fried Chicken in a Cup
So much goodness in a cup.
Fried chicken coated with sweet sauce, fried potatoes and fried rice cakes!
You can easily get this popular Korean snack on the streets and they come in small, medium and big portion.
I bought the small portion that costs ₩1,500 ($1.80) and the small cup consists of 2 pieces of fried chicken, potatoes and rice cakes.
Egg Bread - Gyeranppang
This Korean street food staple is basically everywhere in Korea!
With a whole egg on top of the bread or muffin, some stall owners prepared the egg bread with melted cheese on the top which makes it even tastier.
Price ranges from ₩800 to ₩1,500 ($1 to $1.80).
A pretty famous Tai Parfait stall at the back of Ewha.
Queens Bagel
Directions
5 minutes walk from Ewha Womans University Station (Subway Line 2) Exit 2 or 3
Located near the university which is at the end of the street
On both days, whenever I walked Queens Bagel, there is always a ridiculously long queue.
We didn't try it, because we didn't want to waste our time queuing.
If you don't mind queuing, I suggest you should really try it. There are tons of positive reviews online!
Don't forget to get your highly raved banana milk / honeydew milk / strawberry milk from the convenience stores!
It's not cheap, ₩1,500 ($1.80) for a bottle.
This is the end of my Ewha Womans University / Edae Guide.
Thank you for reading and I hope it helps!
Dongdaemun guide up next! x
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