My friend Nayeon took me to the COEX, an immense multipurpose center with convention centers, a shopping mall, a theater, an aquarium, a food court, and many other things.

The food court is quite interesting for tourists: while the food served there is far from best, one can choose dishes from the various restaurants in the court; thus, I got the chance to get 떡볶이 (ddeokbokki), 순대 (sundae), 튀김 (twigim), and cheese ramyeon.

떡볶이 consists of rice cakes covered in a delicious spicy red pepper sauce. The dish on the left is 튀김 (fried food), here only fried vegetables; but, as Americans know too well, anything can be fried this way (shrimps, kimbap, peppers, etc.) It is actually surprisingly easy to reproduce these two dishes at home. For Ddeokbokki (click here for Maangchi’s recipe), you just need rice cakes, 고추장 (gochujang), and optionally fish cakes (오뎅 or 어묵); while for 튀김 (twigim) only the 튀김가루 (frying flour) and vegetables are necessary.

순대 (sundae) may sound gross to most Westerners; it is a sort of sausage made with pig intestines and generally filled with glass noodles called 당면 (dangmyeon) and pig blood. More than the taste, the smell will surprise many; and the texture is... special, to say the least. If, by any chance, you are wondering how sundae is made, just watch the video below.

As if these three dishes were not enough, I also ordered 치즈라면, or cheese ramyeon.

Besides food, the mall also features a gigantic Hyundai Department Store, a duty-free store, and a plethora of smaller stores; I happened to find the cutest passport cover in one of them.

After the heavy meal and the lighter wallet, we decided to burn some calories by singing our favorite songs at a 노래방 (norebang, Korean karaoke).

As if I hadn’t eaten enough that day, I had to try a new snack on my way home.

To sum it up, it is better to be safe than sorry diet-wise, so going on a two-month diet prior to traveling to Korea is greatly advised, as the occasions to gain belly fat are countless~

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Thanks for reading! More pictures and stories of my trip to Korea are available on this blog (Day 1 in Jeju, Day 2 in Jeju, Day 1 in Seoul, Day 2 in Seoul, Day 3 in Seoul). Also, make sure to like the Facebook page to receive updates!