Another Food Tour (Chuncheon This Time)

A few months ago, I wrote about a food tour of Nami Island from a new tour company out of Chuncheon. I had so much fun on this tour, and I absolutely loved my tour guide. When I found out they had a new tour of Chuncheon area, I was so excited. I love Chuncheon, but being a foreigner, it’s hard to really know what to eat and where. 

So bright and early on one of my only days off this semester (Hangul Day) I got up and made my way to Chuncheon. The tour itself was in Myeongdong area. This is my favorite area in Chuncheon. It is the shopping area. Our first stop was at this dumpling place. It was next to two other shops that served the exact same food, but this one had been there the longest. We went in to get what our tour guide called “Korean Soul Food.” Food that makes you just feel good and whole. We got fried mandu (dumplings; this restaurant’s dumplings were vegetarian) and tteokbokki (savory rice cake pieces in spicy sauce).

After we ate, we were already full. And this was only stop one! So, we decided to walk for a little bit before going to our second stop. Our tour guide took us to one of the older Catholic Churches that looked like a little natural oasis as compared to the built-up city around it. It was actually really beautiful. But from the outside, I would never have guessed that it was a church.

Our second stop was what I was looking forward to the whole trip. dakgalbi. This is my absolute favorite Korean dish and Chuncheon dakgalbi is famous. I have written previously about it, but it is made of chicken, cabbage, sweet potato, tteok (rice cake) and a spicy sauce. It is so delicious. Our tour guide took us to her favorite one in the area, and I was really happy. It was so good. When we finished, we also got a serving of fried rice with cheese. This is fried up in the same pan as the dakgalbi and includes whatever is left over. It was so good, but I was so full at that point. How were we going to go to two more stops?

Next, we went to this little café that is actually quite unique. It was both a café and the owners were licensed in traditional Korean medicine. So, you could enjoy a drink and get seen by a doctor. Here we had a very traditional medicinal tea called 십전대보차. It was this really bitter tea that is said to be really good for your health.

Our final stop was at this cute little bakery where she had pre-ordered walnut brownies with our names on it. How cute?

All in all, I’m really thankful to the Tasty East Tour Company for a delicious day and I hope there will be more tours in the future that I can try out!