Insadong (인사동)

Today I went to Insadong (인사동), which is a district in Seoul that sells a lot of traditional Korean items/tourist souvenirs. Insadong has a lot of traditional Korean purses, pencil cases, decorations, accessories, etc. Since I had a late start to the day, I started with lunch at a place that's supposedly well known for their dumplings (according to my cousin's cellphone). The fried dumplings were good, but there were kimchi dumplings that were just okay...not really to my tastes.

The dumpling restaurant. 

Fried dumplings, dumpling insides, and kimchi dumplings.

Insadong

It was raining for most of the day again, so after buying a couple of souvenirs for my friends and family, we stopped at a traditional tea house. It was called Korean Traditional Tea House (really creative, I know). My cousin said that I had to try one of their traditional teas, which include teas like Citron tea or Plum tea... Chrysanthemum tea, and so on. I think Korean style teas are a little too sweet for me. I prefer the typical herbal/black/green teas, unsweetened. But anyways, since we were at a traditional tea house, I had to have traditional tea. I wanted to try a tea I haven't tasted before, so I tried a "Five taste" tea, which is supposed to taste like all 5 tastes: bitter, sweet, salty, sour...and...a 5th one. Normally I don't like trying different things, but since I'm in a different country! When the five taste tea came out, I was a little surprised by how red the tea was. I think I was expecting the tea to look more like Eight Treasures Tea (They both have numbers in the name, I don't know!), but the Five Taste Tea was just red. I was hesitant to try it at first. It smelled a little strange, but then I tasted it and it doesn't taste at all like it smells. It tastes a little sour, like lemonade. I didn't hate it, but I probably won't drink it again...unless I have high blood pressure. It's supposedly good for lowering high blood pressure (according to the description on the menu). But that was an new experience!

After the tea house, we did a little more shopping around Insadong and then called it a day. Tomorrow I'll be going to Ewha University and Seodaemun Prison Museum!

Korean Traditional Tea House, interior

Five Tastes Tea (bottom) and rice cakes + honey and...ginger cookies, maybe?