Day 25 | Seoul (Bakery Day)

Wednesday 6 November, 2024

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Today is 빵집의 날 ‘Bakery Day’! We are heading to Gwacheon to return the panniers we borrowed from the bike repair man and discovered there are a lot of bakeries around the area.

By subway it takes about an hour from Hapjeong.

We head to the store to give him the panniers, as well as a small gift that we have brought back from our cycling adventures in Japan.

He’s such a lovely guy who has a regular string of customers coming through the door. We have a quick chat before letting him continue on with his work. And so we begin our bakery adventures.

First stop is 빵마켙 ‘Bread Market’, a small hole in the wall bakery, with their bread ovens taking up 80% of the space. We buy something they call a ‘relief crop focaccia’ which I think uses up left over produce such as pumpkin, tomato and zucchini.

Cheye also buys a coffee from ‘Jass Coffee Lab’.

We pass through the local parks which are super pretty with all the Autumn leaves falling.

Our next stop is 과천식빵 ‘Gwacheon Bread’ which is mostly sold out by the time we get there but we buy some 소금빵 (salt bread).

We pass by 콩꼬물수제 꽈배기 ‘Homemade bean curd donuts’, a traditional donut shop that sells all your usual fried bread products including 꽈배기 (twist donuts).

A bit further down the road is ‘From the Earth’, a boutique bakery with products continually being baked throughout the day.

We decided on the cappuccino pannetone, which is a mini cappuccino-infused pannetone loaded with fruit, walnuts and a crunchy topping.

Around the corner is 행복빵집 (Happy Bakery) which has loads of delicious looking products. We are quite full but buy a basil olive & cheese ciabatta for later.

There are still two more bakeries on our list (‘Bacorporation’ and ‘Gontran Cherrier’) but we are all breaded out so we will save them for another time. On our way back to the station we notice a trend in Korea: barefoot walking. There are many locals walking barefoot through the park along dedicated trials, complete with an area to leave your shoes and wash your feet afterwards.

For dinner we head to a vegan restaurant called ‘Plant’. It’s quite close to the Hongik University area so we expect a lot of foreigners there, and we are spot on to the point where virtually everyone is speaking English.

We order the mushroom burger and Ful Mudammas (Egyptian fava bean stew) and it’s exactly what we need on a cold night like tonight.

Despite the cold weather, Hapjeong is still pumping for a Wednesday night.

We also come across a Ramen library. So much ramen!

We have a quick wander before heading back to our AirBnB to finally defrost.

Next post: Day 26 | Seoul (Hapjeong)