shanghai moon

Probably the strangest restaurant experience I've had in Korea, by far.

After aimlessly walking around downtown Wonju looking for a place to grab dinner, we decided to give this spot a try. I was hesitant but caved (someone is very persuasive), and when we got inside, the restaurant was completely deserted save for the cooks in their chef garb gathered around one of the round tables. The interior, the vibe... I felt like I was walking onto the set of an 80s Kung Fu movie.

This is what the restaurant looked like:

We were seated by a window and our server seemed nervous but kind. She waited on us attentively and watched us from her perch behind a plant (lol). Her Korean had a slight twang and it appeared the cooks were also Chinese (appreciated). We ordered a multi course meal and waited for what we hoped would be authentic Chinese cuisine, but at this point had no idea what to expect.

Pretty hors d'oeuvres made a good first impression

Rice porridge

The membrane-y sauce was a little off-putting but tasted quite yums, bamboo shoots I think, with mushrooms and bok choy

Pretty jjajangmyun

We had a number of main dishes (meat, veggies, the like) that didn't look pretty enough to photograph after our server plated them off the main serving dishes, but were quite good. Nothing spectacular, but nothing at all bad! A lot of very familiar flavours from the Chinese food we get back at home. So much food, so stuffed, and definitely one for the books of memorable happenings in SoKo.

I took a tonne of pictures from my school's sports day and field trip, so I'm hoping to post some of those next. After that, photos from this weekend's trip down south to hike up a purple mountain and revisit the green tea fields.

xo