Sundae Town (순대타운)

Seoul, South Korea

A covered alley off Sillim-dong in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, lined with sundae stalls that have traded side by side since the 1970s. The alley earned its reputation by doing one thing: steaming sundae all day, every day. Each stall keeps a wide metal steamer loaded with links and offal cuts. You sit at a low counter, point at what you want, and receive a tray with sundae, a cup of broth, and a small dish of salt and gochugaru. There is no menu in the conventional sense. The vendors know the portions, the regulars know the price, and the rhythm of the alley is self-explanatory. On weekend evenings the alley packs tight, with people eating standing when the stools fill up.

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Sausages served here

Sundae

Seoul & the Korean Peninsula

Sundae is Korea's street food sausage: pig intestine stuffed with glass noodles, pork blood, glutinous rice, and green onion, then steamed until the casing tightens around the filling. It is not a blood sausage in the European sense. The blood binds and colors, but the dominant texture is noodle. Seoul street stalls sell it by the portion from steamer trays, kept hot all day. You eat it with salt and ground chili powder, or with the broth from a sundae-guk soup. Every pojangmacha tent in the city offers some version of it, and the smell of a steamer at a street cart is one of Seoul's defining sensory landmarks.

porkblood sausageKorean