Parent's Visit- Daegu

One of the places I took my parents to was Daegu. I'd never been to Daegu before, so I was also eager to see what it was like. Daegu is famous for their traditional market, named Seomun, as well as their traditional herbal medicines. It sounded like a place worth checking out.

After we'd stored our luggage in the subway lockers upon arrival, we rode the subway to Seomun Market. Seomun had it all- dried fish, seaweed, fruit, comforters, street food, and great people watching. We weren't looking for anything in particular, but enjoyed the almond samples and taking pictures of all the "strange" food (strange for Mom and Dad, normal for me!). I thought I was going to have to hold dad back from sampling one of the dirt-flavored silk worm larva- thank goodness I was able to convince him that they really do taste like dirt!


(thanks Google Images)

My friend Jeannine who lives in Daegu recommended some good street vendors for lunch, a place that specializes in flat mando, and a place that has the best Heoddeok, a fried pancake with sweet filling. However, once we entered the food area, I knew we'd never be able to find the right one! There were just too many! Every stand was busy, so we knew wherever we decided to eat that it would be hot and fresh.

We settled on the busiest stall, and came back once three plastic chairs were empty. We ordered 4 dishes- a plain kimbap roll, udon, guksu, and heoddeok. All the dishes were good, Mom liked the guksu best because of the non-fishy broth, and Dad enjoyed them all, especially the heoddeok! The best part was that we were all full after, and the meal came to less than $9!



The medicine market wasn't exactly what I'd expected, it was more a cobblestone road with various medicine shops selling roots, barks, seeds, and the like. We paused to look around the medicine museum, and sampled some tea made from 10 different herbs that we continued to look for during the duration of our trip, but never found.

We enjoyed the temples in Gyeongsangamyeong Park, close to downtown before meeting Jeannine for dinner and desert (spicy fried bokumbap and ice cream waffle).

Daegu was great to explore for a day, and even though we all got tired in the afternoon, having Jeannine as our guide perked us up. When we got back to our hotel (16th floor!) later on, we all crashed before 10pm!