CutiCuti: South Korea Day 4 - Najeongsun Halmae Jjukkumi (Spicy Grilled Baby Octopus), Jegidong

Assalamualaikum. 안녕!

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Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Gwanghwamun Square / City Hall / Namdaemun Market / Kwangjang Market

Updated (Feb, 2020): The price has change to 12,000 Won per person (320gm per serving / person). If you request for bokkeumbap (rice + seaweed), it will come with a small bowl of dwanjaeng jjigae (only tofu & clams). 

Jjukkumi bokkeum is the first local dish we had during the recent trip. Decided to go here for dinner. Ambil feel angin sepoi Seoul waktu malam sambil menikmati kesedapan & kepedasan tiada ampun sotong sambal. 

This bronze statue marks the Jjukkumi Alley. The alley is a mere 5 minutes walking distance from Jegi-dong station; Exit 6. 

The shop was already full when we arrived. But lucky us, we didn't wait long. Memang masa tu ada one group of people yang tengah bayar bil. Kelam kelibut masuk when the Ahjumma called & pointed a vacant table to us. 

Si Err bijak, buka sandals terus meluru masuk & duduk. Pastu panik bila ahli lain belum masuk kedai. Rupanya, sandals kena masuk dalam plastik & bawa masuk sekali. Ngek...nampak sangat sudah kebulur kan. Mesti Ahjumma depan pintu tu jiwa tengok aku ignore dia bila dibagi plastik. Mianhae Ahjumma.

Sampai jak ahli lain, belum habis melabuh bontot...terus datang hidangan. Servis kedai makan di sana memang first class. Ahjumma helped us with the cooking; obvious enough kami ni muka tourist. When the jjukkumi first arrived on our table, masing² tunjuk muka blur & angkat kening tanda menyoal sesama sendiri on how to cook the dish. 

Gochugaru (red chili pepper powder) marinated jjukkumi in a bowl, perilla leaves & other banchan / side dishes. Plain water is a must-serve drink at every restaurant there. Its FOC. Boleh panggil Ahjumma berulang kali untuk refill. 

"Ahjumma, mul juseyo."

While tunggu jjukkumi masak, harus ambil gambar sukaria. Pastu posing ala² macam tengah kacau masakan. Poyo sangat perangai. Perlukah? 

 Tengok diorang, posing senyum seringai jak. Ndak da tangan mau pegang sudu segala kan. 

Jjukkumi is being cooked on a cast iron hot plate. It is ready to be eaten when the sauce started to boiled down. 

Am I really hungry to the point I forgot to snap a picture to show the way how to enjoyed the dish?! Lucky images from yahoo saved me. The spicy grilled octopus is best enjoyed when wrapped in a perilla leaves; together with the banchan. In our menu, there's no kim / seaweed like those in the picture. But I swear, that white thing on the right bottom is super sedap. Bukan taugeh but it does look like it. Macam coleslaw pun ada sebab sejuk & creamy rasa dia.

Proof of truth that I was starving to death that evening. Non stop wrapping & sumbat mulut. Sampai Eomoni di sebelah tanya aku ni memang lut-pedas kah. Memang pedas gila sotong ni tapi rasa pedas tulah yang bikin sedap. Pasal tu non stop mengunyah. Susah mau explain rasa tu, it's different from our sambal belacan for sure. I never tasted the spicy taste anywhere before. Lupa terus kisah diri alergik sama sotong. Luckily muka ndak mengembang masa tu. . 

Ehem, Eomoni(??!?!?) ah. I do have my own reason by calling her that way. Tanda respect Korean memang macam tu. And the way she treated us like her own daughters was simply heartwarming. After the Ahjumma helped us to put the jjukkumi on the hot plate, she came to rescued us & showed us the cooking method. 

Tangan aku yang gatal kunun kacau masakan semata posing gambar, memang banyak kali ditampar beliau. Selamba kan? Nasiblah aku ni avid fan anything related to Korea thingy. Tu memang cara diorang untuk bonding with people. Nampak kasar tapi sangat helpful. Ayat! Pujian melambungs! When she asked my age & she didn't buy my answer...she slapped my arms few times.

Peramah ndak peramah? Try buat gitu sama tourist di KK memang siap kau kena sumpah seranah. 

Every now & then, Ahjumma akan datang to each table untuk tolong kurangkan kuah sambal tu. Kalau makin pekat & banyak, nanti cepat hangus hot plate tu.

After so many round of wrapping the perilla leaves, we surrendered. Patut pas licin sotong tu, boleh order nasi in which Ahjumma akan jadikan ala fried-rice with seaweed flakes added. Called Bokkeumbap. As shown in the picture (credit here) above. But because we were too full, we forewent the initial idea to try. Next time perhaps. 

Photo group with the super nice family who sat next to our table. Our savior in getting familiarize with the jjukkumi cooking skill; I must say. Abeoji (the man sitting next to Ms G) knows where Kolumpur is but he was quite surprised with our resistance to spicy food. Because few Malaysians he met didn't enjoyed spicy food like we did.

With little Hangul I know & little English their daughter speaks, we communicated. Biarlah ke laut Hangul aku as long as they understood. Kena puji lagi ok! Siap exchanged contact number. Eomoni owns a kids clothing store in Namdaemun Market. Why lah baru jumpa?! Kalau ndak mesti dapat discount beli baju anak buahS masa di sana tengahari tu. Fuh dasar!

Done eating, done posing...we proceeded to the counter before making our way out from the restaurant. The meal cost us 10,000 KRW per person. With super fun experiences & sweet memories; it's defo an evening to be remembered for lifetime! 

To get to Jjukkumi Alleys:

Just follow the map below & u won't get lost. Dijamin! We purposely chose to dine at Na Jeong-sun restaurant; the first to served jjukkumi bokkeum in the alley. From a blog I read, this shop serves only jjukkumi bokkeum. The banchan are all veggies. Other shops serve samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) which is totally a BIG NO to us. 

Muka founder terpampang depan kedai...jangan cakap terlepas pandang ok.

From Jegi-dong station (Line 1), we took the train to Dongdaemun (Line 4) Exit 8. 

It's in the itinerary to go to Doota Mall after dinner for souvenir hunting. Doota is open until 5a daily. And the underground shops at the subway station closed at 3a. Talk about shop till u drop, huh. 

Chung-sil Hong-sil souvenir shop. Pic from doota.com.

This is the shop selling super cheap souvenir; located at the 5^th floor of the mall. The staffs speak very fluent Bahasa as well. I got to know about this shop when I first came to South Korea Feb last year. Most of the items are cheaper than those sold in Namdaemun Market. Unsangkarable kan. Because we know goods sold at the mall is supposedly much expensive than those sold at the market. 

As if we haven't feed the tummy enough with jjukkumi, we went for a coffee time after the souvenir hunting! Berlambak coffee shop comel di Seoul, sangat rugi kalau lepas peluang untuk lepak di sana. At least once during ur trip. Walhal back in Malaysia jangan harap akan spend more than RM15 for a cuppa! Sekali di sana, bertripping tourist habis ok! Kalau boleh dan mampu, everyday pun mau lepak coffee shop. Gitu konsep orang travel poket kempis tapi bajet kaya, kan Bie.

Coffee shop ni banyak branch di Seoul. And pernah baca few reviews about the shop from various bloggers. Mula mau order patbingsu (malar!!) tapi habis, hence aku order lah mocha blended. Patbingsu kau tengah² malam ah Bie. Paling kerlas! 

Mine would defo be the one on the left...whipped cream extra banyak please. Ermm tapi kenapa nampak macam sukatan standard jak ah? Ms Z was busy sipping her orange juice she didn't notice we took this picture. Kami pun lah juga ndak mengasitau. Perangai!

Niat hati untuk lepak lama di Doota, bilang mall buka sampai Subuh kan. But considering we have to wake up early the next morning for another long journey...idea melepak put aside. Jangan menangis darah esok pagi gara² bangun lambat...terus masa di next destination jadi limited. Sendiri rugi. 

Where did we go next? Stay tune...

p/s Suddenly hormon Rajin datang menerpa pagi ni. Maka tersiaplah kesinambungan untuk previous entry. Bravo lah Bie!