Korea Diary | Eating with Totoro (Day 35, Part 1)

6:53:00 PM mandy 0 Comments

One Piece and Hello Kitty may have been slight letdowns, but we didn't completely give up on themed restaurants. Our next stop was to eat amongst Totoro and friends in Edae.



The particular restaurant didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary on the outside. Signs with menu photos and waxed foods were a pretty typical sighting in Seoul.

What set Botong Saram 보통 사람 or Average Person apart was it's interior. Seating and tables were designed to look like tree trucks and leafy vines looped all around the walls. Totoro stuffed animals, figurines, and posters were placed everywhere. Compared to the previous two themed restaurants we visited, Botong Saram seemed have put more effort into decorating.


It was always a treat when spicy rice cakes or ddeokbokki was given as a side dish at restaurants. This was also, I think, the first restaurant we had steamed egg or gyeranjim for banchan.


An interesting food that we ordered was the egg wrapped mini kimbap 겨란말이밥.


Botong Saram's menu had a variety of classic Korea dishes: bibimbap, donkatsu, soups, etc. Something I wanted to try after seeing it on the menu was jjol myeon 쭐면.

I've had it once or twice before at the Food Gallery 32 in Koreatown. I really liked how refreshing it was. The dish is similar to bibimbap but with very chewing cold noodles instead of piping hot rice. While there is a another dish called bibimmyeon 비빔면 or mixed noodles, the type of noodle used is completely different from jjol myeon's and there aren't as many vegetable accompaniments.



I was glad that Totoro didn't end up letting us down. Food was inexpensive and atmosphere was nice, what more is there to ask for?