Seoul’s Most Popular Destination: Convenience Stores

If you are just beginning your studying abroad, you might be excited about visiting various local sights and meeting global friends. However, they all pale in comparison to Seoul’s most popular destination: eMart. By SK Global, there is an eMart that is open 24 hours almost everyday, and it is the main food source for almost every student. I guarantee that you will visit eMart or a convenience store more often than any other location in Korea, so you should know what food’s the best to get and how to best take advantage of everything on a budget.

Buy in bulk (BOGO deals)

If you find something you like AND there’s a BOGO deal on it, you are very lucky. I highly recommend that you buy these items using the deal as much as possible because it saves a lot of money, especially the Buy One Get One Free deal. Buy Two Get One Free deals are good but I wouldn’t use it if you don’t extremely love the product. I really like eating microwavable curry rice bowls, and I have used the BOGO deal on that many times. These kinds of foods are something you are very likely going to eat often, and I recommend it if cooking in the SK House basement kind of creeps you out like it does to me. Unless you have infinite money eating out, with some forethought, you can use these deals to better plan your meals. Be warned that you have to use what you buy, or else it is technically ‘wasted.’

Thoughts about Food

Best Rice Ball Flavors

They are all very good. I avoid the ones with meat because the texture is usually worse than fish products, but they are all very good. 

Ramyeon/Ramen 

My very hot take: I do not like Korean ramen. Even if I am Korean and eat Korean ramen at home, it is different from actual Korean ramyeon. I think the flavors are much stronger, but it is almost too much. I don’t like the spicy flavors that much and get sick of the generic taste. And unfortunately, despite the large aisle of Korean ramen, there is not actually that much true variety (at least in eMart). They’re generally categorized as spicy, non-spicy/seafood, and weirder flavors (think cheese). HOWEVER, I like chapagetti and prefer it to most jajangmyeons I’ve had. I am open to trying more because I want a food even cheaper than Kimbap, but I haven’t found it yet. You'll very likely have a different opinion; everyone eats the ramen here. I just don't eat it that often.

LOTTE Peanut/Strawberry Cream Sandwiches

My most recent eMart discovery are these cream sandwiches. You get five mini sandwiches filled with either fruity strawberry jam or a creamy peanut filling. It’s similar to Uncrustable sandwiches in America, and they are a good snack and dessert. Most importantly, they are good value. If you don’t manage to eat all the sandwiches at once, 2,200 WON for five sandwiches can get you decently far, and it’s something that fits with any meal.

Skip Most Korean Snacks

Hot probably not hot take: Korean snacks are rubbish. American snacks are way better. The majority of Korean snacks are very sweet, and it makes me personally feel sick eating them after a little while. Snack makers approach making snacks with their countries ‘preferred tastes’ in mind, but Korean snack tastes almost belong in the dessert category. There are occasionally good snacks (I love the lotte shrimp chips, but that’s a common snack in America too), but you should stray away from Korean snacks if you don’t want the chance to be disappointed. You should also stay away from American style snacks/brands because I think that they are direct imports from America, which explains their absurdly expensive price.