Despite South Korea’s rising popularity many tourists only traverse Seoul, which we don’t blame. Vibrant, technology-fuelled, and fashionably urban, there are very few things the capital has to offer, from the best of food, the wackiest activities, to all the merchandise that caused the Korean wave.

Still, to get to Seoul, most people land in Incheon Airport (인천국제공항), the largest in the whole country. This is despite its location in the metropolitan city of Incheon, about an hour southwest of Seoul itself. With many visitors only on short holidays, most take the 1-hour express train ride directly to the capital, foregoing the sizeable port city for a bustling, drama-like high life. They’re not to blame. Thanks to Korea’s habit of closely guarding local secrets, there’s a surprising lack of information in English on where to go and what to do. Incheon, though not as high on people’s radars as the eating city of Busan or the island of Jeju, is a rising star as a tourist destination.

Sinpo Gukjae Sijang Sinpo International Market (신포국제시장)

Korea is a country of late risers and even later sleepers. Unlike a typical market that starts at the crack of dawn, we found ourselves wandering through the sleepy set-up stage even in the late morning, and it wouldn’t be until the afternoon before it becomes the busy shopping street people envision. In fact, locals recommend visiting after 2pm.

A typical market of Korea, it consists of covered alleyways with its merchants operating out of the buildings. The original 19^th century market consisted of mostly Chinese immigrants selling vegetables to the Japanese population, but nowadays it offers all manner of merchandise, fresh produce and groceries, and cooked street food.

Sinpo International Market may not be well known amongst travellers, but it’s famous for a variation of Korean fried chicken, a dish that’s taken the world by storm.

The stall near the eastern entrance of the market, ChanNuri DakGangJeong (찬누리닭강정) is said to be the creators of the dish dakgangjeong (닭강정), a style of fried chicken that involves cooking the pieces of fried chicken in a hot wok with chilli and a gangjeong sugar syrup, which hardens when cooked to create a crispy glaze. ChanNuri offers its smallest portion – a medium size – for ₩14,000 (US$11.70), so we figured it best to scope the market first.

Kimchi Jeon Savoury Kimchi Pancakes (김치전)

Something highly associated with Korea and its food is kimchi (김치), a spicy fermented Chinese cabbage whose flavours vary from pungent and sour, to mild and salty. A common use for this side-dish is to blend it into a paste and mix into a batter to make jeon, savoury pancakes (전).

The one that we chose was still warm when we purchased it for ₩1,000 (US$0.90), a surprise considering it is common for Korean street food to be pre-cooked and left on display. The pancake was soft but not mushy, like some can be, with a delicious aromatic fragrance from the fermented kimchi. This is despite the flavour of kimchi often becoming dull after cooking, but in this case it was still textured from some stray kimchi pieces. A great start, despite no expectations!

DakGangJeong Sweet and Spicy Fried Chicken (닭강정)

Around the corner further into the market from the famed ChanNoori was another stall which sold the famous fried chicken dish in smaller cup sizes for ₩3,000 (US$2.60). The chicken is topped with nuts. It was cold by the time we ate it, which was disappointing to be fair, but the flavour of the fresh chilli peppers made it unlike any other Korean-style fried chicken we’d sampled before.

It’s sweet, with a rich flavour of soy sauce, and a fair bit spicy, to warn those who may not expect it. With its standing as an iconic dish of the market, we highly recommend giving it a go, especially if you can make it to the original ChanNuri.

Mandu Eomuk Dumpling-Filled Hotbar (Fishcake) (만두어묵)

Hot Bar (핫바) is a strange but common English loanword for the Korean style of fishcake, also known as eomuk (어묵). Fishcakes are a paste made of fish and flour which is deep-fried to form a soft, chewy, savoury patty. Though unusual to some, fishcakes are enjoyed throughout Asia, and very much in Korea. Versions of hot bars often include rolling them with fillings and serving them on a stick, which we found in most markets.

Here in Sinpo, we came across one filled with mandu (만두), Korean dumplings. In understanding that Koreans often combine foods in such a manner, we knew we had to give it a go. The ₩1,500 (US$1.30) whopper was hefty in weight, and other flavours include cheese, vegetable, bacon, and sausage, so you can eat to your heart’s content. The sauce brushed onto it was sweet and a little spicy, the fishcake soft and savoury and tasting only slightly of fish. The mandu was sadly mushy, likely due to a lot of cooking, but it was an interesting – and very filling experience.

PatJuk Red Bean Porridge (팥죽)

Red beans in Asia are typically considered sweet, made into pastes to fill things like mochi rice cakes, steamed buns, or as dessert toppings. Sweet red bean porridge is also a common dessert in Chinese cuisine, which was why we were keen to try some of the Korean style of patjuk (팥죽) red bean porridge on the cold, late-winter morning. One huge bowl, still piping hot, was only ₩2,500 (US$2.15).

It seemed the day was full of surprises – this porridge was savoury, unlike what we were accustomed to. Much like a typical sweet red bean porridge, the soup is thick and a little grainy from the blended red beans, and is lightly salted – enough only to flavour the dish, and is served with a crispy, fresh cabbage pickle that is also a little salty. Our surprise was obvious – the store owner came by worried we didn’t get what we expected, but it’s a dish that is likely comforting to those who grew up with it. Overall, our experience of it was fairly neutral, but only because we didn’t have the associated memories. The dish was enjoyable.

Chinatown

Despite Korea’s proximity to China and its population density, there’s only one official Chinatown in the whole country, and it’s located in Incheon. It was established in the 19^th century around the time when the Port of Incheon opened just a few minutes’ walk away. Originally, the stores were occupied by merchants who used the port to trade, but now it is mostly filled with restaurants cooking up Chinese-Korean fare, a whole cuisine of its own.

At the entrance of Chinatown is a Chinese paifang (牌坊) gateway. While many of its estimated 50,000+ Chinese residents are now second- or third-generation descendants of the original Chinese settlers, they keep the town thriving thanks to the strengthening tourism industry in the area.

Its identity as a Chinatown is not lost on anyone as you walk through – the streets are red with Chinese-centric décor, with lanterns hanging from overhead and hanzi Chinese characters on all the shop signs. The stereotypical atmosphere is not subtle.

Wander out a little bit further, and you’ll find western-style architecture, as influenced by the European traders who settled in the port city. Despite Incheon’s size and density, its atmosphere depicts the diversity of its past, and a reminder of the rich history that took place even in a widely mono-cultural country.

GongGal Pang “Fake” Bread (공갈빵)

Chinese immigrants introduced many dishes to Korea, which became popular amongst the community in Incheon. One such dish, which you can find all throughout the Chinatown area is gonggal pang, or “fake bread”, called such as its large, voluminous appearance was incongruous to its hollow, insubstantial reality. Based off pengbing (椪餅) or tu bing (凸餅), a yeast-based dough is filled with sugar, flattened, and baked in a tandoor-like oven by sticking it against the inner walls. The steam as the sugar cooks creates it to puff, and the thin dough hardens into a crunchy, cracker-like texture.

Typically, one of these gonggal pang goes for ₩1,000 (US$0.90), though it’s much more common to buy larger packs to take home as souvenirs. The texture is like a pita crisp with a satisfying crunch and a lightly sweet, toasty flavour from the cooked sugar inside. It’s cheap and super delicious, so it makes for a great snack while wandering around.

JjajangMyeon Black Bean Noodle Museum (짜장면 박물관)

Arguably one of the most famous Korean-style Chinese dish found throughout the country is jjajangmyeon (짜장면) black bean noodles. Chewy flour noodles are topped with a thick, black, sweet-smoky-savoury black bean sauce which has been cooked with pork and vegetables. Based roughly off the Chinese dish zhajiangmian (炸醬麵, or “fried sauce noodles”), which uses a lighter, more savoury bean-paste sauce, the dish has evolved so discretely from its original that it is inarguably its own dish.

In Incheon’s Chinatown, where supposedly the Chinese-immigrant-run restaurant which popularised this cheap dish is located has since been converted into a jjajangmyeon museum. For only a ₩1,000 (US$0.90) entrance fee, you can find a comprehensive exhibition of information on not only the history of jjajangmyeon into the internationally-beloved dish, instant and otherwise, but also its part in feeding the community during difficult times. This requires a look into Chinese immigration in Korea, and how the simple dish was central to their integration into the Korean community.

Pamphlets are available in English, with many staff being able to communicate with basic English to guide you through the process. While the information on the plaques are predominantly in Korean, we highly recommend taking a bit of time to translate it using an app to improve your experience. It was a fascinating look into a piece of history that is commonly overlooked or disregarded, especially with the wave of Korean pop culture taking a huge limelight over much of Korea’s incredibly complex and diverse background.

If you like jjajangmyeon, food, and history, this is a perfect stop for you! While the museum isn’t large, it has plenty of information which kept us fully occupied for at least half an hour. We highly recommend it.

JaYu Freedom Park (자유공원)

Located just a couple of minutes’ walk from the museum is the hill upon which JaYu GongWon (자유공원), or Freedom Park, sits. This western-style park is the first of its kind in Korea, honouring the American General Douglas MacArthur for his service in the Korean War that lead to the liberation of Incheon from Japanese occupation. Throughout the park you can find more information on plaques about him and this battle in history.

The park is serene, full of immaculately-manicured flowerbeds and trees that were beginning to blossom in the late winter. It offers little but a peaceful atmosphere, provided you’re prepared to walk up a relatively steep hill for some beautiful photography opportunities.

SongWol Dong Fairytale Village (송월동 동화마을)

Again in the Chinatown area is SongWol Dong Fairytale village, a colourful collection of houses and buildings painted with characters to add liveliness and attract visitors to the area. This movement began when the community found itself losing many of the younger locals to the bustling capital of Seoul in search of bigger, brighter futures, and it worked. Since the beginning of its colourful life, it has seen tourists gather for photos and to stop in the surrounding shops, restaurants, and cafés to step momentarily into a different little world.

Despite efforts, we didn’t find it the most vibrant place in the world, but we recognise that our perspective may have been influenced by the drizzly weather. The rain and low-tourism season were also contributors to many of the shops being closed, a trend we came across frequently throughout our trip. On nicer days we figure it will make for a much better atmosphere.

Chinese-Korean Cuisine in Chinatown

Jjajangmyeon mentioned before is one of the most iconic dishes when it comes to Chinese-Korean food, and is typically one of three that comes to mind alongside jjampong and tangsuyuk. Jjampong (짬뽕) is another noodle dish with a spicy red soup, and often served with seafood. Originally the dish was white in colour, which lead to the Japanese calling it chanpon (ちゃんぽん) after a Japanese noodle dish with similar appearance. Its name translated into the phonetical Korean jjampong. It was not until the 1960s when chilli oil and red pepper powder was incorporated into the dish which resulted in its iconic, bright-red colour.

In a typical style of eating Chinese-Korean food, normally one noodle or rice dish (such as fried rice or jjajang sauce on rice) is ordered per person, and communal dishes are ordered for the table. Tangsuyuk (탕수육) sweet and sour pork, is the most common example, though other dishes include sweet and sour prawns or chicken, stir-fried meat and vegetables, or chilli chicken.

While the Chinese roots are fairly recognisable in the other dishes, it’s the jjajangmyeon black bean noodle and jjampong spicy soup noodle that are indisputably so far off from its originals that they have become standardised dishes recognised as Korean food. Still, in Incheon’s Chinatown, you can dig around some of the established Chinese restaurants and find hints of a much more Chinese presence within these meals.

ManDaBog (만다복 / 萬多福)

Amongst an inexhaustible list of Chinese restaurants in Incheon is ManDaBog (KR: 만다복 / CN: 萬多福), arguably one of the most famous in the area. We chose this restaurant because of its more extensive menu when it came to variations of the two noodle dishes we wanted to try most. Though we wanted to try every dish they had on offer, we knew that with our stomach capacity it would be impossible.

We ended up choosing two dishes: 100-year old white jjajangmyeon bean sauce noodles (하얀백년짜장면; ₩7,000; US$5.85) and old-fashioned white jjampong seafood noodle soup (옛날식하얀짬뽕; ₩8,000; US$6.70), in other words, complete turnarounds from the common black jjajangmyeon and bright-red jjampong. Other options include 100-year old black jjajangmyeon (백년짜장면), normal jjajangmyeon (짜장면), and typical spicy red jjampong (짬뽕), as well as a variety of Chinese-style stir-fried dishes.

Both the noodle dishes are completely unlike the standardised versions that we were used to. The white jjajangmyeon bean sauce noodles had its usual thick, chewy noodles, but the sauce on top seemed more like a stir-fried mince than a thick, black paste. It has a light, fragrant nuttiness from the beans with layers of ginger and garlic to combat the deliciously greasy pork mince. This is compared to the rich, sweet, molasses-flavour of the usual sauce. To us, it was much more reminiscent to a Chinese-style zhajiangmian. Completely different, it was a revelation of a dish that shows a much more gradual blending of Chinese and Korean food.

The jjampong had a creamy-looking white soup and heaped with seafood, pork mince, and vegetables in a bowl the size of our head. The soup was shockingly good, a light but deeply flavourful meat stock with a slight sweetness from the vegetables and an indescribable smokiness. If we were to guess, the vegetables and seafood on top were initially stir-fried before topping the noodles, resulting in that wok flavour that is so central to Chinese cuisine. It was so flavourful that Jos considered this one of her top picks for food – a must-try if you’re in Incheon’s Chinatown.

Undoubtedly, in peak travel times we suspect that the area will see a lot more hustle and bustle. Our drizzly, week-day visit may have seen sparse visitors but it was highly enjoyable nonetheless, with plenty to see, do, and especially, eat. Just a short location from the airport where most will stop or leave South Korea from, we highly recommend taking a day at the start or the end of your trip to immerse yourself in a subculture of Korea that shouldn’t be overlooked.