S E O U L (2) : Tea Time in Insa-dong [인사동]

Today, I'll take you to Insa-dong, which is also one of the famous tourist destinations in Korea. People usually go there to experience traditional Korean culture. In Insa-dong, you can find traditional restaurants, tea houses, art galleries, and more. It is a place you definitely have to stop by when you visit Korea.

One thing I noticed was that the stores' names were all written in Korean when they are usually written in English. For instance, the Nature Republic store's name was written in Hangul. This was also the case with the area around Gyeongbok Palace (post on that coming up). I guess it was to make the street looks more traditional :) There were many stores that sell Hanbok, traditional clothing, and hand-made jewelries. You can also find many food stalls selling traditional food and sweets that are hard to find outside of Insa-dong.. If you go there, I recommend you to try the walnut cake when you see one. It's a sweet and delicious pastry with red bean and walnut fillings - one of the best traditional Korean dessert, in my opinion.

The O'Sulloc Tea House building was so pretty and iconic. I wanted to stop by but I didn't since I wanted a more traditional experience, and I went there at Myeong-dong already :) Compared to Myeong-dong, I saw a lot more Westerners here. They were probably more interested in cultures than cosmetics lol.

This is the place to go to if you want to buy some souvenirs. There were lots of cute traditional products like pouches, key chains, bookmarks, and many more. For an art person, there were many beautiful traditional paintings and sculptures, which can be more expensive than other small goods.

Yes, I bought this lol. It's so funny and so Korean. There were quite a lot of cool and cute postcards in souvenir stores.

Since there were many tea houses in Insa-dong, I decided to stop by one for a traditional tea experience. I went to '뜰과 다원' or 'Garden and Tea' in English (from Google translate). It was in a small alley, but it was not hard to find since they put up a big sign on the main street.

The tea house was cute and cozy, and the owner/server was very nice. The traditional interior was beautiful and easy on the eye - it was a perfect blend of traditional and modern design. We chose to sit in the indoor garden because it was brighter and more personal. There were a big group of ahjummas inside at the time lol.

The menu has English translations so you don't have to worry if you don't understand Korean. I think people around here are always ready to handle foreigners since it is a tourist area. I ordered my favorite tangerine tea, while my mom and sister had ginger tea and strawberry milkshake (my sis is not a tea drinker). We also ordered a set of ddeok or rice cake. The one with red bean filling was quite good. The teas were great. I loved mine and my mom said hers was delicious.

I really enjoyed Insa-dong. It is a place full of beautiful culture and tradition. The next time I visit Korea, I'd definitely go back there and visit more traditional tea houses and restaurants. Oh, and of course buy more walnut cakes! That's all for today. Until next post!