[WOW Korea] Some must-try Korean Food in Winter!

Winter has almost arrived in Korea, and while the great temperature range in the day is driving me crazy, I am actually waiting quite expectantly for snow since I missed out on it entirely last winter when I was in Japan for my exchange. Another thing to look forward to would be the food! Sometimes there are just some food that tastes better when you have it in certain seasons (like having naengmyeon when the weather isn’t hot yet is just weird), and so here I’m recommending three winter must-haves in Korea!

1. Odeng (오뎅)

One of the most popular must-try street food! Especially tasty in winter. Source: blog.naver.com/neep/120200402604

When Korean street food is mentioned you might think of ddeokbokki first, but when winter comes around odeng (fishcakes) is what people look for! It may seem crazy to be standing out in the cold eating from street stalls like this:

Packing – What to Bring and What to Leave out?

A comeback after a really long time! I always feel apologetic that I don’t have time to post much during the semester because of schoolwork, and during the breaks because I am usually working temporary jobs D: But by request from one of my readers (and new hoobae coming to UIC) I have decided to spend some time talking about packing! 😀

You might be thinking, of course I know how to pack! I just dump everything into huge luggage right?

I wish the story was this simple.

In fact, I hate packing so much that I don’t know if I’m actually the best person to be talking about this. But in any case I will talk about the things you should definitely bring to Korean and things that you don’t really have to!

Items you DON’T have to bring to Korea:

1. Clothes/Bags/Shoes/Accessories

Of course I’m not telling you not to pack any clothes to Korea, but your belongings will only increase exponentially if you bring too many clothes to Korea. (And you will start to get a huge headache when you graduate and think about how you’re going to bring everything home, like me T___T) Reason being that Korea is a shopping heaven. Korea is one country which places a lot of emphasis on fashion, and college students are especially susceptible to such fashion trends. Baseball jackets may be in trend this winter, but next winter you might see everyone in trench coats. It would be best to just buy your clothes in Korea, instead of using your luggage allowance bringing hordes of clothes from home, thinking that you won’t buy anything in Korea. Nope, not gonna happen. Especially when clothes in Korea are pretty affordable too.

Fall (Autumn) in Korea

I know it’s the dead of winter now in Korea but I had to start with a season I experienced first when I got to Korea ;D

Fall in Korea starts around late September and ends around mid November.. Although they always say that Fall starts in September, that’s not true cos it’s still as hot as summer the whole of September ==” And though they say winter officially starts in December, we’re already all freezing by the end of November >< (20th Nov was the most memorable, it was like 0°C that day ㅠㅠ)

The temperatures during autumn are pretty cool, usually in the range of low 20°C in the beginning and reaching about 10°C towards the end of the season… It’s a really enjoyable season in the beginning, but as it slowly drops towards 10°C and with the wind, you might start to feel cold D: