Every SNU student knows Exit 3 of Seoul National University Station: it is where the 5511 and 5513 buses and the campus shuttle pick up. Fewer stop to look at what surrounds it. Within a few steps of the stairs, vendors fry pancakes, stir tteokbokki and bake fish-shaped pastries into the evening. Here are three street vendors worth visiting while commuting.

About 30 metres from Exit 3, Seouldae-yeok Jeonjip (서울대역전집) works like a pojangmacha (포장마차), a street-side food stall, and opens only on Tuesdays and Fridays, from 3 pm to 11 pm. Its speciality is jeon (전), savoury pancakes fried on a wide griddle. Families fry trays of them for Korean holidays, like Chuseok, and many Koreans crave them on rainy days. Kimchi (김치전) and chive (부추전) pancakes cost 2,500 won each, potato (감자전) 4,000 won and squid (오징어전) 9,500 won.

Portions are generous, and so is the oil, which regulars happily forgive at these prices. The stall also sells mung bean pancakes (빈대떡) and fish cakes (어묵). However, expect a queue in the evening.

Right beside Exit 3, a stall called Happy Ingeo-ppang (행복한 잉어빵) has sold fish-shaped pastries for at least the past two winters. Ingeo-ppang (잉어빵) is the carp-shaped cousin of bungeoppang (붕어빵). Invented in Daegu in 1998, it adds butter or oil to the batter and spreads the filling all the way to the tail.

Last season, three cost 2,000 won, with red bean (팥) or custard (슈크림) inside, and the stall also sold egg bread (계란빵) and fish cakes (오뎅). Fish-bread stalls are seasonal and tend to reappear as the nights turn cold.

Tteokbokki (떡볶이), chewy rice cakes simmered in a sweet and spicy gochujang sauce, is the backbone of Korean street food. Haengbok-i Ssal-tteokbokki (행복이 쌀떡볶이), a street stall in front of the Egg Yellow (에그옐로우) building near Exits 3 and 4, makes it with rice cakes rather than the wheat ones many stalls use.

Its Happiness Set (행복세트) costs 4,000 won and brings a little of everything: tteokbokki, a few slices of sundae (순대, Korean blood sausage), fried snacks and a boiled egg. It is enough for a light dinner, and reviewers praise how clean the owner keeps the stall and its frying oil. It usually closes around 10 pm.

Many stalls prefer cash or a bank transfer (계좌이체), so keep a few 1,000-won notes in your pocket. Ordering is mostly pointing: “이거 하나 주세요” (this one, please) covers nearly everything. So the next time the 5511 pulls away without you, take it as an invitation.

Written by Hugo Adam, OGA Supporter

Please note that prices and opening hours may vary depending on when you visit.