내고향 왕만두 (Hometown King Mandu)

I haven't blogged about too much Korean food despite being in Korea...sorry 'bout that, heh. I just don't eat a lot of Korean food anymore. One Korean food that I do still enjoy, though, is mandu, a.k.a. dumplings. There are basically two types or mandu: kimchi and gogi (meat). You can also get them filled with red bean paste as more of a dessert bun.

This new bun place opened in Yeongtong located diagonally across the street from Homeplus' front entrance a few months ago and, according to a Korean friend of mine, is a quite famous mandu place. I know a few times that I've walked by, there has been a line down the block waiting to order some mandu. There are tons of mandu shops all over the place and such, but apparently this one is better? I dunno. You can spot mandu shops by looking for the round metal containers that hold the deliciousness in a steamy warmness.

Now, 왕 in Korean means "King," so the large dumplings are king dumplings. They are large enough to be a meal on their own and only cost 1000 won! And they come in this adorable bag.

But I really don't want to imagine my mandu with a cute little winky face that reminds me of Rocketslime.

Anywho, this is a king kimchi mandu:

The filling for kimchi mandu consists of kimchi (duh), clear noodle bits, and sometimes bits of pork, so if you're vegetarian, you still might have to avoid the kimchi mandu. King gogi (meat) mandu will be the same except more meat and no kimchi. I prefer kimchi mandu to gogi mandu. When you buy the king mandu, the outside is made more of a breading than a typical dumpling wrap. They are too big for that and would bust open all over your nice shiny suit if they were wrapped in the dumpling wrap. You can also get mini mandu (10 for 3500 won here) at the mandu places, too.

Now, the other dumpling you can get is the red bean bun (찐빵 - "steamed bun"). These massive bad boys also cost only 1000 won.

To give you an idea of how large these things are:

They are definitely big enough to share with a friend, but all I had was Bessie. Here kitty kitty...

She didn't want any :(

So, there ya have a mandu place. You can get mini-mandu at any number of Korean places, but you can only get KING MANDU!!! at the places that specifically sell mandu.

Enjoy!