Food for the Seoul: Discover South Korea’s pristine beaches and delicious street food

Oil sizzles on griddles, steam hisses from bubbling pans and stallholders sell their wares as customers rush forward, eager to be served first.

It’s a chaotic but fascinating cacophony. When we join in, we’re dragged to the counters and ordered hotteok (pancakes filled with honey and spices), octopus tentacles, black pudding and fishcakes on skewers.

Most of the food is new to us, but it all has one thing in common: it is extremely tasty. The Gwangjang Market in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is a delight. And it’s remarkably cheap – a few thousand won (about £2) for steaming street food from the first order.

It’s easy to get sold in Seoul, as my girlfriend and I found out on a week-long tour. The country is experiencing a tourism boom that many attribute to the rise – and rise and rise – of K-pop culture, a musical sensation of catchy pop songs, slick choreography and high production values.

It’s all part of a revival of Korean culture, including with movies – like Parasite, the 2019 dark comedy that won Best Picture at the Oscars – and food – have you noticed how Korean restaurants are popping up in the UK more and more? ? The trend even has a name: Hallyu, which means “Korea Wave.”

Pictured is the interior of the Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was built in 1395

The result? Since the mid-1990s, when about 4 million international tourists visited South Korea, the number of foreign tourists has more than quadrupled. And since many of those who are addicted to K-pop come from younger generations, the only way to ensure it is popular is to make it popular. It’s an exciting time to be here.

And Seoul, with a population of 10 million of the country’s 51 million people, is at the heart of the Hallyu action.

We’ll be staying at the Le Meridien hotel in the central Myeongdong district – a polished affair a long way from Gwangjang Market. This is a neighborhood of labyrinthine streets that come alive at night when vendors sell everything from soft toys to cheap designer bags. Storefronts spill over into the streets, bustling with people, but the atmosphere is calm.

The people here are all unfailingly polite, well dressed and with a good sense of humour. There is an incredibly pronounced generation gap, with people of a certain age having grown up in the shadow of the Japanese occupation and the Korean War. The country is said to have modernized so rapidly, thanks to stratospheric economic growth, that vastly improved living conditions and healthier, nutrient-dense diets have caused the average height to rise more than anywhere else in the world in the past 50 years.

And food is one of Seoul’s big draws – it’s not something to turn to if you’re on a diet. We eat our way through fried chicken, toffee-covered strawberries, fried mandu (dumplings) and ttoekbokki (rice cakes). One night we grill our own lamb over charcoal and on another night beef ribs are cooked at our table. We notice the locals eating offal accompanied by bottle after bottle of Soju (a rice wine spirit) mixed with beer.

An evocative attraction in the city – especially to me, as my grandfather fought in the Korean War (1950-1953) – is the main war memorial. It’s huge, with the flags of every country involved flying in the wind. There is a museum attached to it, with armored vehicles and weapons used in the conflict, and information about its traumatic history.

Then we will visit the Leeum Museum of Art and the National Museum of Korea. Both are housed in huge, modern buildings with impressive exhibitions. The next day we spend almost a full morning at Gyeongbokgung Palace, built in 1395. The best way to get around is via the Seoul subway. Trains generally run on time, people line up in one line to board, and carriages are spotlessly clean. But as efficient as the subway is, wandering around on foot is more rewarding, admiring the vintage shops of the Hongdae district or the neon-lit nightclubs of Itaewon.

We also experience Bukchon Hanok Village, where we stay for three nights in an (ironically enough) traditional AirBnB. Hanok houses are built in the style of 14th century Korean architecture with arched roofs, sliding doors and wood panels.

Full of life: Hugo says the food at Seoul’s Gwangjang Market is “absolutely delicious.”

Hugo admits that most of the food he tries in Seoul is new to him. Above, a woman eats steamed octopus in the city’s Myeongdong district

After six days in Seoul, it’s a two-hour train ride to the country’s second-largest city, Busan. It is located on the southeast coast of the Pacific Ocean. Here, high-rise tower blocks and hotels almost spill into the sea, bordered by long, unspoilt beaches.

The city itself is hard to decipher – at once developed and somewhat charmless, while there are also neighborhoods that haven’t changed for decades. We spend an afternoon in Spa Land, a modern Korean bath house (Jimjilbang) in a shopping mall. It’s segregated by gender and requires stripping, but even in this modern setting, the full body scrub seems to be a traditional experience, almost a rite of passage.

The next day we get up for a morning Makgeolli making in the hills outside the city. This traditional rice wine is made by stepping on rice, yeast and grain to create flat pizza-like shapes that are then fermented in hot pantries.

In Busan (pictured), high-rises and hotels almost spill into the sea – and there are long, pristine beaches

Hugo travels to Jeju Island (above), which is three times the size of Seoul but is home to only 900,000 people and has a beautiful coastline

Next is Gamcheon Cultural Village, something of a tourist trap, but the brightly colored houses perched on the mountainside (more than 70 percent of Korea is covered in mountains) are spectacular. There are also quirky shops and cafes.

From Busan we go to the island of Jeju, off the south coast. It is three times the size of Seoul, but it has a population of only 900,000 and a beautiful coastline.

We stay at Jeju Shinhwa World, part of the Marriott chain that has a casino, mall, theme park, bowling alley and numerous restaurants.

Our guide insists on buying us lunch when she hears that my grandfather fought in the Korean War. “I want to thank you, descendant, for your grandfather’s service,” she says with touching formality. The memory of the war – and the menacing presence that remains in the form of hostile North Korea – seems constant here.

Before flying home, we return to the capital. We revisit our favorite cafes, wander the streets of Hongdae once more and, of course, stop by the Gwangjang Market.