Unjung-Golnagjimadang – Unjung/West Pangyo

Like octopus? You’ll love this place.

There’s something slightly sad about watching the octopus meet its maker, but it comes out so dang delicious it’s almost easy to forget the little guy’s escape attempts. This nice woman prepared the dish for us at our table, cooking the octopus underneath a bed of sprouts and veggies. After a few minutes, she cut the tentacles and mixed the entire dish in the layer of spicy sauce that had been simmering underneath the mound of ingredients.

If you don’t speak Korean, make sure you have Google translator at hand. This little neighborhood restaurant is really delicious and definitely worth a trip if you’re in the area and craving some eight-legged goodness.

뜰사랑 Tteul Sarang – Unjung/West Pangyo

The first snow of the year lured us out into the streets for a lunchtime walk. The snow was beautiful, but the temperature dropped almost immediately. Fortunately, we found this busy little lunch place not too far from us. Tteul Sarang was quite busy for the time of the day, and it was clearly very popular with the locals. There’s no lunch menu – 10,000 Won/person bought the two of us three main dishes and thirteen sides.

The sides included many types of kimchi, salad, sliced firm tofu, peppers, pickled apples, and others I couldn’t identify. I’m a sucker for any place that gives me a ridiculous number of sides. I appreciate having a ton of tastes to punctuate bites of my main dishes. The soup was spicy and full of beans, tofu, and veggies. The fish was yummy enough to win over my lunchmate, despite his general avoidance of oily fish. Small bones aside, I really enjoyed it, mostly due to the delicious sauce. Lastly, the spicy pork was my favorite. My only complaint was I could have eaten at least another plate of it.

On a cold day, Tteul Sarang was the perfect place to warm up and stuff ourselves. For 10,000 Won a piece, we both left full and satisfied. I’m confident that no matter what the dishes of the day are, the kitchen will put out something delicious and well worth the price.