Gluten/Sugar-free Brown Rice base Cakes
The other cake stall
Fried Flowers
Organic beef burger whose queue was super long
EGG BREAAAAAAAAAAAD MY EGG BREAD
This trip to Seoul has been especially rewarding as I got to discover many places where locals (note: Not tourists) spend their time at on weekends or free days. I found Marche:at Hyehwa through trazy.com where there is a list of weekend markets that Koreans frequent. Ok maybe for some well-known ones like the Hongdae flea market you will find some (not a lot) of tourists there. Since this is our second/third time to Korea, we decided to make sure that most of the places in our itineraries is not covered by tour groups from Singapore!
On Day 5, we had a free day where nothing was planned on the itinerary so we could go where we wanted and then at the end of the day, we would gather back into the apartment to watch Running Man and order Korean food delivery. There was no photos taken (wait seriously?) but we had Chimaek (chicken + beer) when we returned from Hongdae as none of us had dinner. Our dear friend Jinju helped us order BBQ chicken (endorsed by IU so we assumed that it was good) and damn, the chicken wings and drumsticks were fried and marinated to perfection. We ordered two different types, the fried one and the marinated sweet and spicy one. Both are equally good! If I'm not wrong, it costed around 21,000 won shared amongst 3 people. So it was pretty worth it!
Anyway, back to Marche:at Hyehwa! Marche is basically a farmers market, something like Pasarbella at The Grand Stand here in Singapore, held every month on either the first or second Sunday. Before going there, I advise you to head to their Facebook page to check it out first. Everything is in Korean but I'm pretty sure you can read numbers right?
Many local indie farmers/vegans/organic food wannabes/REAL LEGIT HIPSTERS will religiously come and sell their produce every month and the great spread includes: gluten-free/sugar-free brown rice chocolate cake/almond cake, beetroot pasta, fried flowers (yes i am serious), organic beef burger, egg bread, macarons, sweet potato cake, e.t.c. It is almost impossible to find a stall selling water there unless you would like to try some quirky concoctions (which comes in a glass bottle), if not, there is a cafe located at the entrance of the park where you can get some tea. I had their Lavender tea which costed me around 3,500 won!
Even though some food might seem really appetizing, sometimes sugar-free cakes are completely tasteless like the sugar and gluten-free brown rice almond cake that I had. I would recommend the Brown Rice Chocolate cake from this stall called PPUR or PPURI but other than that their food is tasteless.... :/ Too bad Ying and I were so full from stuffing our faces with tasteless cake that we did not have any more stomach space left. (Min went with JJ to become a princess at Changdukgung) I would recommend you to try the other cake stall that also has a very long queue.
Please do note that the locals who visit Marche:at are EXTREMELY environmentally conscious and it seems like there was a hidden agreement that EVERYONE brought their own lunchboxes to store food, except for me. Thank God most of them had nice carriers to store my cakes and whatnots so that I do not have to whip out a pathetic piece of tissue to hold my cake and look even more pathetic in front of the Koreans.
I had the BEST egg bread (no idea what is it called but I'll just call it egg bread for now) at Marche. It is basically bread with capsicum, tomatoes, onions, spring onions, and I forgot what, dipped into egg batter before they fry it shortly on a pan. IT WAS SO GOOD I CAN'T EVEN FIND A RIGHT WORD TO DESCRIBE ITS GOODNESS.
Marche:at is a super good place to have breakfast at on a Sunday with your good friends (please remember to bring people who can REALLY eat as the food sold are really super filling). My budget for this market was around 30,000 won but oh come on, aren't you willing to spend more for good (and healthy) food? :)
Till next time!
Stay hipsterrrific,
Ming.
To get to Marche:at
Walk straight ahead to Marronnier Park and you are there!
(9a.m. to 4p.m. but the food will normally be almost gone by lunch time)
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