Brief Walk at Dongmun Market Place (東門在來市場) @ Jeju Island [Korea]

Following an extremely filling meal at Hwaro Hyang, we decided to cut through Dongmun Market Place even though we had a time limit (10 pm) to check in to the guesthouse booked for our Jeju stay and it was on the other side of the island! 

Touted as a traditional market with origins since the end of world war 2, we got there quite late at around 7.30 pm (operating hours are from 7 am till 8 pm). The crowd was thin and there appeared to be more foreigners than locals. 

Gamgyul - another delicacy of Jeju Island that was, in my opinion, a cross between an orange and a tangerine. There were so many stalls selling them; i thought Dongmun market should be renamed to gamgyul market! 

Friends who have been to Jeju frequently brought back Jeju orange related products (like chocolates with gamgyul filling); i have never really like such stuff but since we were physically there, it's a shame if we never try the 'real' thing! 

With so many stalls to pick from, we eventually chose the one featured in the photograph before because of this elegant feline which has naught a care for the happenings surrounding it. 

To earn our business, sampling is a must!!! 

Especially when a kilo had a price tag of ₩6,000 (around S$7) and could go way higher for better species! Cheaper alternatives were available although we decided to go with this range due to the samples freely dispensed to us by the affable business owner. 

As this route was a shortcut for us to reach the area where we parked the rented car, we didn't manage to check out the entire market.  

Shopping for non-perishables was limited and i guess shopaholics might have a better time checking out the nearby Jungang underground market (which we didn't have time for).

Ribbonfish for sale - a lot of what i know from Korea are from popular variety shows like Running Man and Family Outing. Remember seeing this in an episode of Family Outing. 

Raw fish might be hard for us to bring back to Singapore; fret not, you can consider the dried version! We didn't have much fish in Korea since my younger sister has never been a fan of it. 

I guess the generation of whom you are with when travelling determines the shopping style. If i am with my mom, an experienced ahjumma, she would likely spend more than fifteen minutes going through traditional wares. With my sisters, it was at most a 2-second glance. 

Food stalls!!! The one thing i dislike about travelling is the incessant need to get as much food as i could into my tummy and i could not afford to increase my waistline anymore! Argh!! The frustration! :(

Luckily, there were a lot of things i don't fancy having; like blood sausages, braised pork knuckles and pig's head!!! This would likely be a cultural shock for ang mohs! 

Black shelled eggs?! Now, that's interesting! We tried checking with the shop owner if we have to cook the eggs but she gave us a puzzling look followed by an intelligible train of Korean words. 

Guess it's easier to stick with buying oranges. 

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Location

Check out the address here. It is along the main dongmun-ro and is hard to miss this place if you are travelling to the black pork street!

Additional Information 

For those interested to rent a car in Jeju, check out my post here. 

For the summary of my inaugural South Korea trip 

(Seoul and Jeju Island), click HERE.