Our last Only in Korea video showed what Korean pizza is like at Mr. Pizza. It was pretty strange and different than anything we have seen before in the states. This time we went to GS25, a popular convenience store chain, to try some of their fine dining! Yes, there is such a thing as convenience store dining.
Most convenience stores have a wide variety of foods that you can pick and chose from. Of course there is ramen, or ramyeon (however you spell it) in about a million different flavors. Ever since our super poor college days, we have loved and eaten ramen almost everyday. Korean ramen is either spicy or fishy, however, and nothing like the stuff back home. There is prepackaged kimchi, sausages, hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza, and dried squid! Once you have made your purchases, head outside to their ‘dining room’, which is just a bunch of folding plastic tables and chairs with shade umbrellas.
Everyday we see groups of people lounging in the plastic furniture having snacks or full fledged meals. At night, the older people camp out at these tables using, it as a sort of impromptu bar and slowly covering the tabletop with a myriad of soju and makgeolli bottles. We decided to buy a bunch of random food, some of which we had no idea what it was, and do as the locals do! We had a lot of fun shooting the video for this, so we hope that you enjoy it. We almost made ourselves sick from the conglomeration of crap we ingested for the sake of this segment.
Hedgers Abroad 
Ha! Your faces are great! I kept looking for the friendly grocer to show up behind you!
This is pretty common in China as well (though with some differences, of course) – my expat friends and I would often just collapse at the Circle K in our garden (community) with some of their food if we were too exhausted or lazy to head anywhere else for lunch. Some of it was tolerable… some, not so much. I loved the video, and I feel for you guys for having had to consume some of those things – I remember what it’s like. 😉
Haha this was good! I love the kimbap squares, too… can’t go wrong with the 김치 or 참치. My favorite convenience store dining is the 1000won ice cream cones at Mini-Stop. What’s your favorite? Ryan’s face was priceless after trying the fish-cake-tube-thingy.
Ryan really loves the ice cream as well. You can’t go wrong when it is buy two, get one free! Also, the super cheap Hot 6 energy drinks for 1000 won!
How interesting! Almost like a Korean 7-11!
They have 7-11 here too! They are just typically smaller and without the outdoor dining option 😉
This is actually so so funny!