Spicy Chicken

Nicholas and I are discoverig the city my favorite way- sampling all the food! We have been going through our guide book every few days and choosing another "best of" restaurant. We also like to walk to each new restaurant and neighborhood to get a feel for the city. Even when it is far, we feel like it is worth it for what is waiting at the destination.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the best spicy chicken restaurant in Seoul, at least according to our guidebook and to the long line waiting to get in. It took us a while to discover it was the small restaurant on the corner of a small but busy street lined with restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. We later found out we were near a university, hence the large crowds of young people.

Since at the time we couldn't read the characters, it took us a while to finally figure out which restaurant it was with our gps and going character by character of each restaurant and trying to match it with the name in the book (directions here are not the same as back home- if a building is number 12, the one next to it could be number 400... there is no logic in the numbering, so they don't use street addresses, especially since the streets don't usually have names... this is all for another post). We realized locating the restaurant was not our only issue, communicating was also going to be fun :)

Since the menu was only in Korean and had no pictures, it was a good thing I had read up ahead of time on what to order based on price. Otherwise, we would have been totally lost. I matched up the prices and we placed our order from outside while still waiting for a table. When they had us come in and sit, we got around to ordering beer and the side dishes that everyone seemed to be enjoying. That of course was with signing rather than words, although we did learn how to say beer :)

We had a great meal that night and every night since! The food is absolutely delicious. We have not had one bad meal and we have eaten at tiny, incredibly cheap restaurants to more high-end ones. The people here know the way to my heart, for sure!