Sunday 23 March 2014

Our first meal at Jeonju Sikdang: stir-fry pork, stir-fty squid, sundubu, and mackerel (3 people)

All exchange students should visit this Korean food place at least once during their time at Korea University.
Why?
Because:
  1. It's cheap (5,000 - 6,000₩)
  2. You get to taste homdemade-style Korean food
  3. The food is delicious
  4. The ajumma owner loves foreigners
  5. Unlimited banchan (side dishes) and mixed purple rice (tastes better than white!)
Each dish is either 5,000₩ or 6,000₩, the shared large stews are 25,000₩+. 
If you go alone, just order one dish and it will come with free mixed rice, a set of 5+ different banchans, and water. So you don't have to worry about eating just 2 things for one meal. You will leave the place stuffed since the ajumma will come over to offer to refill your banchan - especially the egg rolls and pajeon. 
Go as a group, say 4 (as I typically do), and you'll have a bargain right there. You can pick 4 different dishes and perhaps get a dish or 2 more banchans for free. I highly recommend going as a group since you can sample more dishes.

We loved her chicken stew so much that we ordered the huge pan version once (25,000₩)

Satisfying meal was satisfying
I personally recommend the grilled mackerel (고등어구이 - I think), spicy pork stiry-fry (제육볶음) and chicken stew (닭도리탕). My group of 4 almost always get these 3 dishes because they are super delicious! Especially the chicken stew. The pork and chicken dishes aren't actually spicy, they just taste a tiiiny bit spicy. You can ask for little to no spice if you want. 
The place also does doenjang jjigae, kimchi jjigae, sundubu, 2 types of kalkuksu, 2 types of fish stews, spicy squid stir-fry, and a few other traditional Korean dishes. 

Unfortunately the place doesn't have an English menu, so I recommend learning how to read Korean before you go or go with someone who knows. The ajumma doesn't knoew English either, but is very kind regardless.  

Directions to the place could be found here along with an image. The best way I could describe it is from the media building, turn left and walk down the street till you reach an intersection, cross the roads till you reach the side with 'Big Mart' (빅마트 on the map) and 59Pizza. Walk down the left alleyway next to Big Mart and you'll see a big yellow sign with black Korean characters saying '전주식당'.

Her free pajeon (kimchi pancake) and egg rolls are the best!
 BONUS: if you come here frequently, say once a week, the ajumma will start recognising you and give you larger portions of banchan by coming over frequently asking if you wish to have it refilled. The ajumma knows my group loves her egg rolls and pajeon (kimchi pancakes), so she'll always come over to refill it for us.
And during our last visit when we ordered 2x pork stiry-fry's, 1x chicken stew, and a mackerel, she gave us a stone bowl of chicken soup for free! (இ﹏இ`。)♥♥♥

The free chicken soup/stew thing on the left. Tasted soooo good!
Needless to say, I will miss her food the most when I leave Korea ಥ_ಥ

2 comments:

  1. All of the food looks so good! >.<

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  2. Wow!!!!!!! I will most definitely try this place out!!!! Thanks for the informative post!!!

    ReplyDelete