Mar had a workshop today and it basically took the entire first half of our day. When we came back from the workshop, it was during mid-afternoon and we both were pretty spent. She was tired from learning all the new stuff from the workshop and I was tired from translating the stuff she was learning during the workshop. So, we decided to have a break/nap time before going out again for dinner.

After Mar woke up from her nap, we went out to look around the restaurants around the neighborhood. We weren’t really sure what we want to have for dinner to be honest but when we passed by this one restaurant that has meals with rice, soup and banchan (백반) on their menu, we wanted to try it. Well, I’m always down for eating rice and soup and Mar wanted to try it mainly because of the cheap price of the meal. I mean, getting all the things pictured on the banner in front of the restaurant for just ₩5,000 (≈$4) per person is a pretty good deal.

So we went in and was eager to order and eat (especially since we haven’t had any proper lunch yet and it was like 5 pm in the afternoon, so we’re pretty hungry). But then when we went in, nobody was there. The lights and TV were on and everything but not one person was in sight. We even waited for 5 minutes or so hoping that the owner or the server of the restaurant would appear but nobody showed up. So after a while, we left and decided to look for another place to eat.

Mar was suggesting that we should go get Naengmyeon (냉면) near the restaurant we went to with our friends the first day we were here. But neither of us remembered what the restaurant name was and how to get there. After walking around for a while and saw nothing that really interest us, we decided to go back to the first restaurant and try our luck the second time. And what do you know. This time, the owner was inside and we can finally have our meal.

We ordered 2 servings of the sundubu (순두부찌개) and they came with two bowls of rice, two pieces of fried fish and 12 different banchan that you can ask for more if you want seconds. The ahjumma gave us free fried eggs too which was really nice of her. We also got to talk with her for a bit when we were having our meal. She was wondering what are foreigners like us doing in this neighborhood since the area is not exactly a tourist spot. I told her that we’re visiting our friends who live around here and she nodded in understanding at that.

Anyway, for ₩5,000, I’d say this was a pretty good meal. The food tasted like a home-cooked meal for sure and it was really fulfilling. We even ended up walking around for a while after our meal because we were so stuffed before finally going back home.