Our second attempt at local Korean food wasn’t as successful, but still an experience. I was slightly surprised at Terry’s choice, but followed on in. The one choice menu was sea snails with leek in broth, omelette, and a side of dried white bait fish and some kind of spring onion. It tasted better than it sounds. I promise. The owner was nice enough to show us how we should eat it by opening up a part of the omelette and placing a snail in it. Although I think we did disturb his chat with his friends who kept him company while the restaurant was empty.

A short metro trip later we were in Hongdae, close to the university, with lots of hip clothing shops geared mostly towards students and younger people. Terry felt right at home. Our main reason to come here was the Nanta theater cooking show. It sounds absurd, and it is. And you don’t want to miss it. Some people say you haven’t really been to Seoul unless you’ve watched it. It’s a mix of percussion showmanship, slapstick, circus tricks, mixed with a little bit of magic. Benihana meets Jackie Chan is the best description I’ve seen. We were laughing and clapping the whole way through. And of course Terry was brought up on stage to help make dumplings in a competition between the red and blue team represented by each half of the audience. And the lack of Korean language means zilch. You do not want to miss this if you’re in Seoul.

Afterwards I lost track of time at a cat cafe for abandoned cats. Nothing makes me happier than being surrounded by furry friends. Unfortunately it took a while to find a cat cafe that was for rescue cats because it turns out that even though cat cafes abound, most of them are just a collection of thoroughbred cats that may or may not be taken care of if the cafe shuts down. And since many of the cafes have Scottish Folds and other problematic breed I’d rather not support them. At the abandoned cat cafe there were both cats off the street with a sniffle and lackluster fur, and cats that had disabilities as a result of overbreeding. There were half a dozen that I would have taken home, but Terry put his foot down and also reminded me of our baggage limits.

To round off the night, we stepped into a Korean pub serving some kind of Korean meat with kimchi, rice, vegetables on a hot plate. We also tried Soju, the Korean rice spirit. Surprisingly good, and a clear winner over vodka. It looked as if the locals agreed since we were welcomed by one guy stumbling up the stairs as we arrived, and loud “the weekend has begun” conversations at the tables with shot glasses all around. The Koreans know how to eat, drink and enjoy themselves.