닭갈비 및 막국수

Entrance to Myeongdong Dakgalbi Alley.

Anyone who has been to Chuncheon will know Dakgalbi and Makguksu. These two dishes probably found fame in Chuncheon much earlier than "Winter Sonata" did. Chuncheon Dakgalbi's fame status has led to the birth of the Myeongdong Dakgalbi Alley (명동 닭갈비 골목) . By the way, the Dakgalbi Alley is found at the Chuncheon Myeongdong and not the Seoul Myeongdong.

Myeongdong Bon-ga Dakgalbi, the place where we had our lunch.

Myeongdong Dakgalbi Alley is not very long but inside it you can find nothing except two rows of Dakgalbi eating houses. Myeongdong Bon-ga Dakgalbi was the place where we had our Dakgalbi lunch. Looking at the many endorsements the shop received from the different TV programmes, I kinda expected that it was not going to be a cheap lunch.

The start state of Dakgalbi.

As you can see, Dakgalbi started off as a pan filled with chicken mixed in Korean chilli sauce or gochujang. The other ingrdients were ddeok or Korean rice cake, cabbage, potato and some other vegetables. As the pan got heated up, the ajumma serving us, started to mix the ingredients until the gochujang was well soaked up by all the ingredients. It took quite a while, perhaps more than 15 minutes, and with constant stirring and mixing to get all the ingredients well cooked.

The end state of Dakgalbi.

Finally, after all the waiting, the Dakgalbi was ready to be eaten. The way to eat Dakgalbi was to wrap the cooked chicken meat together with onion or garlic in a leaf of vegetable and eaten in one mouthful. To spice up the food, you can add more gochujang to the meat before wrapping it up. It was a satisfying meal but as expected it turned out to be the most expensive lunch of our trip. If I could remember correctly, the meal cost us about S$60.

Hanmadang Makguksu was where we had our early dinner

To complete the double, we went in search of the best Makguksu in Chuncheon in the later part of the day. Our quest brought us to the Tourist Information Kiosk at Gongjicheon Park. The duty staff recommended the Hanmadang Makguksu as it was the nearest place from the kiosk to eat Makguksu. Though not necessary the best in Chuncheon, the staff assured us that all Makguksu tasted alike so it was not worth travelling the extra mile to eat the best Makguksu. So we followed the instructions given by the staff and walked down the road beside the kiosk until we found Hanmadang at the end of the road.

Makguksu before it is being stirred and mixed for eating.

Eating Makguksu was so much easier than Dakgalbi. Makguksu was served cool and all ready to be eaten. Before I ate it, I poured some vinegar, sugar, mustard sauce and pear juice into the noodle and mixed them thoroughly. The noodle had a nice texture and gave very good chewing sensation. I was enjoying my meal until the full impact of the spiciness of the chilli sauce started to take effect. I drank empty all the water available at the table but that did not seem to help a bit in curing the spiciness. Though I was unable to finish my Makguksu, I still found it delicious. Perhaps the thing I need to remember for the next time is to remove more of the chilli sauce from the Makguksu.