My favourite cultural things to do in Korea have very little to do with landmarks. Take the photo in front of the palace, by all means. Then go a bit deeper: cook, drink, eat on a plastic stool, sleep on a heated floor. Here are the ten I’d do again tomorrow.
1. Watch the Nanta Cookin’ Show
Nanta was the first thing I booked for Seoul, and the first thing we did on our first evening. Four cooks, one wedding banquet, a terrifying number of knives, and a full percussion set made out of kitchen equipment. There’s no dialogue, so there’s no language barrier, and 90 minutes go by in a blink. It has been running since 1997, and after watching it, I understood why. There are theatres in Myeongdong and Hongdae, and yes, there’s audience participation. Choose your seat accordingly.
2. Take a cooking class
My Korean cooking class started at Mangwon Market, where our teacher Junghee made us buy the ingredients ourselves (the only Korean I retained was “juseyo”). Then came five flights of stairs to her apartment, because buildings under five floors don’t have lifts. We made dakgalbi, bibimbap and pajeon, and every single one of us flipped our pancake in the air successfully. My vegetables were cut unevenly. I had the best time anyway.
3. Drink in an alley
Korea’s drinking culture comes with drinking games, and the sillier they sound, the better they get as the night goes on. My two favourites: guessing the number printed inside the soju cap (wrong guesses drink), and taking turns pouring into a beer glass with a soju cup floating in it, trying not to be the one who sinks it. Find a narrow alley lined with tiny bars and plastic tents, squeeze onto a stool, order soju and a plate of something fried, and let the night take over. Silly? Very. One of the highlights of my trip? Also yes.
4. Eat Korean BBQ
You can’t leave Korea without eating Korean BBQ in Korea. Pull up to a table with a grill in the middle, order samgyeopsal (pork belly) or galbi (marinated short ribs), and let the meat sizzle while the banchan keeps coming. Wrap each piece in lettuce with garlic, ssamjang and a bit of kimchi, then eat it in one bite. That’s the rule. Pair it with soju, and don’t wear anything you love, because you will leave smelling like the grill.
5. Visit the Poop Cafe
Hear me out. The Poop Cafe sits on the rooftop of Ssamzigil in Insadong, right after four floors of spiral walking, so you’ve earned the break. Floor-to-ceiling windows, cubicles covered in graffiti (I spotted “sangat goblok” in there) and the best sweet potato latte of my life. Outside, the queue for chocolate poop pancakes never ends. Check it’s open before you go.
6. Make your own name stamp
While you’re in Insadong, get a dojang, a Korean name stamp. I walked past the shops twice thinking “what would I even do with it?” before dragging Fafa back on day three. You pick the body (plastic, wood, crystal or stone, round or rectangular), choose the name you want carved and the ink colour, then come back in about an hour. Mine says “Kulture Kween” in red and cost 40,000 KRW (tourist price, worth it). It lives on my desk and gets stamped on postcards and journals. My dojang story is here.
7. Eat street food at Gwangjang Market
Gwangjang Market is my favourite market in Korea, and I went twice. My first ever kalguksu came from Gohyang Kalguksu, the stall from Netflix’s Street Food Asia. The best tteokbokki and gimbap came from the lady who fed Gordon Ramsay without knowing who he was. Add bindaetteok, then fight yourself over walnut pastries versus twisty sugar doughnuts. Go between 5pm and 9pm, when the alleys come alive.
8. Wear a hanbok to a palace
Rent a hanbok and you walk into Seoul’s palaces for free. The rental shops sit right outside the gates, have rails of colourful options to choose from, and will even do your hair. Then it’s just you, a centuries-old palace, and approximately 400 photos. Gyeongbokgung is the classic choice, but note it closes on Tuesdays, so check before you get dressed up.
9. Send a postcard to your future self
Korea has slow post boxes, where you drop in a postcard and it’s held back and delivered months later. Write one to yourself. Tell future you what you ate, who you were with, and what you were worrying about that turned out not to matter. Then forget about it, until one ordinary day it lands in your letterbox and takes you straight back. Stamp it with your new dojang for bonus points.
10. Sleep in a hanok
For our anniversary, Fafa and I stayed in a hanok in Bukchon. The taxi dropped us on the main road, so a sick Fafa dragged both suitcases up the hill while I hobbled behind him after falling on the ice twice that morning. Worth it. We danced in the kitchen while we waited for instant noodles, sat on the heated ondol floor, and woke up to Bukchon outside the window. If you can’t stay in one, Baek In-je’s House in Bukchon is free to visit.
None of these is a hidden secret. They’re just the cultural things to do in Korea that made me feel like I’d actually been there.
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