Pojangmacha- A pojangmacha is typically a restaurant on wheels. People cook food out of their trucks or vans and construct a make-shift restaurant with a tent. The walls of the restaurant are made with heavy duty plastic. A pojangmacha usually has plastic tables and chairs and has a raw charm about it. During winter months, pojangmacha owners may use kerosene heaters to warm the inside of the tent. While pojangmachas started out as a place to have a movable feast, some took the idea a bit further and decided to turn their tented restaurant into a permanent establishment. There are a few places in Apkujong near the Hak-dong intersection that are car garages by day and pojangmachas by night. There are several large, permanent pojangmachas in Hongdae where university students can snack after a night out clubbing. There are also entire streets of pojangmachas scattered throughout Seoul.
Don’t expect a nutritious three course meal at a pojangmacha, instead you will find all manner of snacks: pork dumplings (mandu), korean pizza known as chon, rice cakes covered in chili sauce (ddopoki), fish sticks, chicken liver sticks etc..
Why are pojangmachas so ubiquitous in Korea? Firstly, the price is right. The food at pojangmachas are often very cheap, since owners don’t have to pay exorbitant rents. Secondly, the atmosphere is lively and convivial. Pojangmachas are most often found clustered in areas where people are shopping, drinking and partying. You can go in there completely drunk, act loud and obnoxious and still manage to get a nice greasy meal to soak up the booze. If you want to continue drinking, most pojangmachas serve the alcoholic jet-fuel known as soju! In summary, pojangmachas are friendly places you can get cheap greasy snacks and chat with the owners or people next to you. It’s the fun atmosphere which makes pojangmachas a popular place for casual socializing. Click the thumbs below to enlarge!

Fruit, Veggie and Fresh Produce Trucks- Have you ever woken up in the morning to the sound of someone yelling over a loudspeaker? You may have wondered: Is someone launching a noisy political campaign? Or, is someone trying to tell people to repent for their sins since the end of the world is coming? Don’t worry, it’s probably someone selling some fruits, vegetables or fish out of the back of their truck. These trucks sell produce fresh off the farm. Instead of having to go out to the supermarket, you can just walk out of your house and buy a sac of oranges, bunch of bananas, or a serving of spinach off one of the passing trucks. How convenient! Again, the price is right, and you get to interact with the vendor, thus getting personal service and face-to face interaction. Isn’t that much better than the impersonal supermarket with it’s anonymous aisles?

Bondaegi- You may have seen fried crickets for sale in Thailand or frog’s legs on the menu of a posh restaurant in France. Well bondaegi is Korea’s most infamous disgusting delicacy. These brown cockroach-looking critters are actually boiled silkworm larvae! (Yumm Scrumm! NOT!!) Bondaegi is typically sold on the streets in Namdaemun, Insadong and at the front of Seoul’s surrounding temples. Usually some old ajuma will be boiling a ghastly batch in a big steaming vat. They serve warm Dixie cups full of the stuff and people walk around eating it like it’s popcorn! You pierce a toothpick into one of the critters to get it out of the cup and that’s how you get it into your mouth. If you can’t find it on the streets, you can buy tins of it at the supermarket!
How did Korean people come to eat this delicacy? Someone once mused that back in the days of the war, people were starving and didn’t have much to eat. Somehow, silkworm larvae became available and people started to like it. These days, the younger generation recoils at munching on the stuff, but some older people have fond memories of feeding themselves with the dubious bugs. Some people who have tasted it say it’s pretty bland and it’s somewhat soft and chewy. Many foreigners have dared each other to eat bondaegi because it just looks and smells so vile. Needless to say, it’s been the cause of much up-chuck. I believe there was even one episode of “Fear Factor” where they were forced to eat bondaegi.

All Night Shopping Sprees- It’s easy to assume that Koreans are not night creatures, but that is far from the truth. Not only are there many Korean restaurants open 24 hours, but you can even shop all night long if you want to! Many places don’t even open until 8PM and you can shop until the sun comes up. Alot of high school students will go social shopping with their friends at night instead of going out to a bar or night club. Generally though, these all night malls are for wholesalers, so you get a cheaper price if you shop at night. (If you are only buying one item at a time, the discount is not that great, but it's still cheaper than normal.) You would be tempted to think that these places are not crowded since it’s the middle of the night, but in Tongdaemun for example, it’s practically impossible to find parking or a taxi at some of these establishments. At midnight, some of these malls are jam-packed with store owners carrying huge bags of booty for their shops. There will also be the occasional Japanese, Chinese or Singaporean tourist there.You can come out of the clubs and go drunk shopping, or you can get off from a late night at work and go shopping! Is there anywhere else in the world where can you shop till the wee hours? Cool! Click thumbs below to enlarge!



Teri Oonjon (Guys who drive you home if you're drunk)-
Unfortunately, if you're a businessman in Korea, something you will inevitably have to partake in is big drinking sessions which are supposed to be bonding experiences for company people. During these drinking sessions, you'll probably be forced to down way more booze than you're accustomed to. If you drove your car to the drinking venue, don't worry! Certain factions of Koreans (like company men) are so used to drinking themselves into oblivion, that they came up with a convenient service whereby you can still come home in your own car! Instead of taking a taxi and leaving your car in a parking garage or on the street, you can hire a driver to drive your car home for you! These saviors are known as a teri oonjon in Korean. This clever service doesn't cost much and you can request for a teri oonjon at most bars and restaurants. It will save you overnight parking fees, taxi fare, a possible night at the police station with fines, or it may just save you from hurting yourself or someone else. Some teri oonjon services even have clever phone numbers as well. Some numbers end in 8282. (In Korean, the number 8282 is pronounced pal-ee pal-ee. That sounds like "hurry, hurry" and denotes a fast efficient service!) Drunk girls can also use this service; however, it's best to get a referral from a friend of a teri oonjon that you can trust.

Domis- Have you ever come across the opening of a new beer hof, mini-mart, car dealership or mobile phone shop and seen young girls dancing in micro-mini skirts in front of it? These dancing girls are a phenomenon unique to Seoul. They don’t only dance, sometimes they may also be recruited to stand around at motor shows, hand out informational flyers on the street or to serve drinks at parties. These pseudo-models are called “Domis”. Domis are “beautiful helpers” which attract attention to parties or businesses. Domis can sometimes be painfully beautiful, but may be too short or too sexy to be conventional models. There are many domi modeling agencies around town and some agencies have better quality girls than others. Only in a male dominated society would half dressed girls be shamelessly used to promote businesses. Undeniably, the time-tested marketing strategy of using beautiful girls to attract attention has always worked. It’s just a bit more obvious in Korea. At a recent party, there was a dancing domi show to which someone off-handedly remarked “They always need to have a little something for the ajosshis.” Click thumbs to enlarge!

Ajumas- On the flip side of the ‘Domi’ Phenomenon is the ‘Ajuma’ Phenomenon. Technically a woman becomes an ajuma once she is married. It’s like going from Mademoiselle to Madame. However, being an ajuma doesn’t just imply that you’re married. Once a lady becomes ajuma in Korean society, she is expected to follow a code of conduct appropriate for an ajuma. For example, at the urging of her ajuma friends, she may feel peer pressure to cut and perm her hair. Short hair is much easier to deal with when you have kids and when you are much older, permed hair supposedly gives your thinning hair the illusion of volume. A short permed hairdo also says to men: I am already spoken for, so don’t try to pick me up.” Ajumas wear their perms like a badge of honor and belonging. The perm says “I am a proud member of the ajuma club and I am proud to be no different from anyone else.” In the summer, it seems like all ajumas are wearing visors. Why is that? Apparently it’s because they don’t want to ruin their aging skin. They are also fearful of getting the low class “I’ve- been-working-out-on-the-fields” kind of tan.
While ajumas should, in effect, be respected for the sacrifices they’ve made for their families and children, the group, as a whole, has been the subject of much ridicule. Young Koreans have jokingly nicknamed ajumas “the third sex” because you can't tell if some of them are men or women. LOL! Click thumbs to enlarge!

Bangs- Did you ever wonder why there are always private rooms available at restaurants in Korea? In western culture, part of the experience of dining out is so you can be with other people. At real restaurants however (not pojangmachas) Koreans like the idea of private rooms. Being in a private room at a restaurant makes Koreans feel like VIPs. You can do whatever you want in there without being disturbed and in turn, you also don’t disturb others.
Translated from Korean to English, “bang” means “room”. There are many other types of "rooms"' in Korea where you can have your privacy behind closed doors. Find out what other kinds of "bangs" exist in the 'Cultural Insights' section of this site. Click Here and scroll halfway down to find the list of "bangs" and find out what activities take place in there. The photos below do not enlarge.

The Korean Sauna- Ironically, while Koreans like to dine in private, they enjoy bathing in public! Nowhere else is the world is public bathing and public nudity such a common and relaxing experience. Find out more about the Korean sauna, see all the sauna photos and find out which sauna to go to at this link:

The Naked Truth- An article about the mysterious Korean Sauna.
The photos below do not enlarge, however you can see them all at the above link.

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