Pyeongtaek's Pizzas Supreme

Pizza Mall's "Chicago Deep Dish" pizza. 

Korean pizza (피자) is a great experiment in glocalization. Where else in the world can you find sweet potato mousse stuffed crusts, obligatory sprinkles of canned corn on every variety of pizza including cheese, plus pizzas topped with hearty potato wedges? Love or hate it, the Korean twist on pizza is insanely popular in the country. However, quality varies widely. If you're looking for a decent slice of pizza in Pyeongtaek, here are three places to get pizzas that are at least a crust above the others. 

Pizza Mall - New Core's Pizza Mall is the oddball in Pyeongtaek. And by oddball I mean they are the one that experiments the most with the American way of doing things. They were one of the few places I've seen in the whole country to offer an 18 inch pizza. The crust was soft and chewy. The toppings were fresh, large, numerous, and normal by American standards. What's more, the pizza was only 11,900 won, which is insanely cheap for a pizza that large. Sadly, they don't sell that size of pizza in Pyeongtaek anymore. However, they are the only place around that sells a Chicago style deep dish. It's one of those super cheesy-saucy pies that can turn into a big mess if you're not careful. And while it doesn't beat anything in Chicago, it beats a lot of Pizza Mall's competition. Their normal pizzas are good too, but I go there exclusively for the deep dish. 

Pizza Alvolo's "Super Deluxe Combination Pizza."

To get to Pizza Mall, take the 15, 1-1, 2-2 or any bus that says "뉴고아" (New Core) on the bottom left of the bus windshield. New Core's stop is in front of a Samsung store and across from a Paris Baguette. Walk all the way down the alley across from Samsung. New Core will be on your right. Pizza Mall is in the food court.

Pizza Alvolo - Pizza Alvolo (피자알볼로) has surprisingly good pizza for a native Korean chain. You can find outlandishly Korean pizzas at Pizza Alvolo, the kind of bizarre, expensive topping monsters that are not out of place at Korean Pizza Hut or Dominos. But Alvolo's pizzas are actually really good. Their pizzas have lots of stretchy cheese, a crispy-chewie crust that isn't tough or tasteless, and a sauce that isn't sweet. Plus, they serve an excellent garlic sauce on the side to dip your crust in. The listed prices are the same as most Korean chains, but cheaper than the mega chains mentioned earlier. Plus, when the NetBot and I order they always knock a couple thousand won off the top. It's a relative newcomer to Pyeongtaek, but with good prices and great pizza, Pizza Alvolo quickly became our favorite place to get pizza in the city. 

In other cities Pizza Alvolo has a dining room. Pyeongtaek's Pizza Alvolo, however, only offers delivery and take-out. You can find their menu here, and order at this number: 031-655-8495. The NetBot, Eat Korea's robot taste tester, recommends the "Hot and Spicy Chicken Pizza." If you can't speak Korean, you can take the bus and wait in their lobby. From the New Core bus stop in front of Paris Baguette, take the 3-5, 7-1, or 7-2 bus and get off at the stop after Deokdung Elementary School. You will pass the school on your right.  Walk down the street after you get off the bus.  You'll end up at a large intersection with a Paris Baguette. Pizza Alvolo is in that intersection on your right beside the big seafood restaurant with the fish tanks in front. 

If you are coming from Pyeongtaek Station, take the same busses to Myeongbeop Temple (명법사). Hit the stop button after you pass the grassy park on your right and can see woods on both sides of the street. When you get off the bus, walk down the street to the intersection with Paris Baguette. Pizza Alvolo will be near the opposite corner.

Costco's 18 inch "Combo Pizza."
(Decent photo pending)

Costco - The first two restaurants on this list make great Korean Pizza. However, if you want a genuine taste of home you need to go to Costco. The closest one is not in Pyeongtaek. But, located in Cheonan, it is close enough to sneak onto this list. 

Korean Costco is so American friends of mine say it even smells like America. The pizza in their food court is no exception. Costco's pizza is 18 inches of cheesy, American glory. There is enough sauce so you don't notice the lack of it, but not so much you think, "man this is really saucy." The doughy but firm crust is familiarly American in its elasticity, something Korean style crusts lack. And anyone who grew up in the USA will recognize the uniquely American flavors of Costco's pepperoni, sausage bits, peppers, onions, and olives on their Combo Pizza. Their pizza can even be bought by the slice. 

If you don't have a car or a friend with a car, Cheonan Costco is really hard to get to. For those who like to make a day-long adventure out of riding public transportation, you have two options. Option 1: take the subway to Cheonan Station (천안역). Take exit 1, cross the street in front of the station and turn right. Keep walking up the street until you find the bus stop. It isn't a far walk, maybe a couple minutes. From there most busses will take you to your next destination: Cheonan Bus Terminal (종합터마널) (aka: Shinsegae Department Store). There is a big bus stop in front of the terminal. Take city bus 25 for 28 stops. Costco will be on your right. It's big and hard to miss. Option 2: take the subway to Cheonan-Asan Station. Take Exit 1, and from the large bus stop in front of the station get on city bus 19 for 18 stops. Costco will be on your right a little up the street. 

If you do not enjoy long adventures on public transportation, do not go to Cheonan Costco. But if you really want to go, go to Seodaejeon Costco. A 4,800won train ticket will get you to Seodaejeon Station (서대전역) in about an hour. Costco is right next to the station on the left as you exit. It's so close you can see Costco's parking garage when you get off the train.

There are so many pizza restaurants in Pyeongtaek (and nearish by). If you have a favorite place to order pizza in Pyeongtaek, please let us know where by mentioning it in the comments.

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Tteokbokki All Grown Up at Bbun-Shik

Tteokbokki (떠볶이) consists of thick, stubby fingers of rice cake drowned in spicy sauce. Sometimes the rice cakes, called tteok, are stuffed with cheese or mashed up sweet potato. With all those delicious, simple carbs, it's easy to see why Korean kids love it so much. 

However, there is not much in it for the more rounded palates and stricter dietary needs of adults. There are no rich sources of protein, no vitamin rich veggies, and not near enough fiber help you out in the morning. So what is a tteok-bokki loving adult to do? 

You could try out Bbun Shik (뿐식).

Yubu-jeukbokki before and after

Bbun Shik is a new restaurant in downtown Pyeongtaek by the fountain. They advertise themselves as a "Fusion Tteokbokki" restaurant. And while there are western influences in their menu, the West doesn't mix much with East there. What they do fuse together are kid's food and adult food. Think of them as dietary training wheels for high-schoolers transitioning from cheap, unsophisticated, unbalanced kid's food to moderately priced, nutritious, mature, adult food. 

The set menu is the main feature at Bbun Shik. For 16,900 to 24,900 won you can get a three course, tteokbokki centered meal large enough for two or three people. Accompanied by Eat Korea's robotic taste tester, the NetBot, we chose the A2 set. For 17,800 won we got a variety of mature twists on common kid's fare. 

To start, our tteokbokki was upgraded from the typical dixie cup of spicy rice cakes to something called yubu-dong jeukseok tteokbokki (유부동 즉석 떠볶이). At first glance, I wasn't even sure there was any tteok in yubu-dong jeukseok tteokbokki (Let's call it "yubu-jeukbokki"). Before cooking, it looked like many of the stews found in Korea: a big pile of veggies. There were these two big Japanese-looking dumpling-like things on the top, though, which I later found out were yubu-dong. Sure enough, though, there were pieces of tteok (plain and cheese filled) at the bottom of the pile. There really wasn't that much tteok, maybe fourteen pieces. But, if you're trying to be at least moderately healthy, that shouldn't matter. The cabbage, kimchi, carrots, eggs, bean sprouts and noodles make up for it. As for the spice factor, the store owner asked us if we could handle spicy food. We said yes, but by my reckoning the yubu-jeukbokki wasn't that spicy. Although, after 54 months in Korea my tastebuds have probably been burned senseless.  

Gorgonzola Pizza & Honey

On to the next part of the meal, served alongside the yubu-jeukbokki was the only evidence of the west on the menu besides cheese: pizza. This wasn't your elementary student's Pizza School pizza, though. This was one of those crispy, thin-crusted gorgonzola pizzas that have become so trendy in "western style" Korean restaurants these days. In keeping with the trend, the pizza came with a dish of honey. And kudos to Bbun-shik, not only was the crust fresh, crisp and light, but they gave us a lot of honey too. 

Cheese Bokkeum Bap

Lastly, our meal came with a choice. If you order the A2 set you can end your meal with either nalchi-al jumokbap (날치알 주먹밥), flying fish roe rice balls, or cheese bokkeum bap (치즈 볶음밥), cheese fried rice. The NetBot and I aren't very adult anyhow, so we went with the cheese bokkeum bap. A yummy choice as you can see by the photo. 

The fusion of youth and maturity doesn't stop at the food, though. The music, as described by the
NetBot, was a combination of Korean opera and house music. I missed the opera part, so I can't verify that part, but I did pick out some Daft Punk and Jamiroquai on the speakers. 

Maturity levels may be mixed throughout Bbun-shik, but they at least know where to place their priorities. As any good parent encourages good hygiene and responsibility, the place is spotlessly clean, and the service is prompt, attentive and friendly. Adult life is a bore, though. They have to mix it up somehow. The large storefront window makes a perfect outlet for childish fun. In the room is an aluminum cup filled with colorful dry-erase markers. If you ask nicely the owners will let you graffiti their front window. Yeah!

2014.12.12 | 지도 크게 보기 ©  NAVER Corp.

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Eat Your Way to Suwon Immigration

More than four years ago I was standing between cars on the Mugunghwa train to Suwon. Unfamiliar scenes of rice fields and communities of concrete high-rises passed my view, and in my pocket was a torn piece of paper with Korean directions for the taxi driver when I arrived at the station. I had lived in Korea for a little over a month, and it was time for the Gyeongi-do ESL teacher's right of passage: a visit to Suwon Immigration Center to get an E2 visa card.

It was the first of countless trips to Suwon Immigration over the years. However, in retrospect they could have been much smoother and cheaper trips. An expat's life is full of expenses, namely alcohol and hangover food. To make things worse, many blogs and websites I've seen give confusing or inaccurate information on how to get to Suwon Immigration. Schools are not much better. Nobody needs the extra stress of trying to navigate confusing directions when you have to be back to teach in a few hours and you're still recovering from hoesik, the Korean company dinner-drinking-noraebang extravaganza. So here is the definitive guide on how to get to Suwon Immigration for newbies, along with the not so definitive guide on where to eat along the way.

1) Subvert the bus and cab drivers! Take the shiny new subway. It's cheap, convenient, and fast.

• From Suwon Station take the yellow Bundang line to Yeongtong (영통). 
• Distance: five stops away.
• Travel time: ~15 minutes 
• Cost: ~1,050 won.
• Take EXIT 1 out of Yongtong station. There will be a big HomePlus on your right and a large Lotte Shopping Plaza on your left across the street. Your view should look like this:

Yongtong Station, Exit 1

• Walk straight until you get to the end of HomePlus and turn right. This is what it will look like: 

  

  The end of HomePlus. Turn right here.

• Now here is the easy part. Walk straight for three blocks.

  

  One block down. Keep going straight!

  

  Second block behind you. Keep going! 

  

  Third block gone. The building behind the trees is Suwon Immigration.

Getting back to Suwon Station:

• Just retrace your steps and take the subway back towards Suwon.
• The first stop on your way back should be Mangpo.

Where to eat:

• There are hundreds of restaurants, cafes, and hofs in Yongtong making it a perfect area for a good night out. On a visa run, however, you probably won't have time for a long meal. But if you have 40 minutes to spare try the nearby Hakoya. I don't like to recommend large chains, but they have recognizably Japanese ramen, something I regularly crave having spent quality time in Japan. Their ramen is still a shadow of what you will find in the Dōtonbori district of Osaka, but worth it nonetheless. To get to Hakoya, turn left at the second intersection as you walk towards Suwon Immigration. The restaurant will be on your left. 
• If, on the other hand, you need good food in a pinch, try Nae Gohyang Wang Mandu (개고향 왕만두). You might recognize the brand if you watch a lot of Korean TV. It's a popular stop in the media, and for good reason. Their mandu and jjinbang are not only uncommonly delicious but cheap. Just one fist sized mandu will set you back a 1,000 won. They are across the street from Home Plus right after your first turn. 

Wang mandu (top) and jjin bang (bottom) from Nae Gohyang Wang Mandu in Yeongtong, Suwon

2) Take the Taxi. The drivers are characters.

• Exit Suwon Station from the front. The taxi stand will be on your right in front of Baskin Robins.
  
• You'll have to queue in line if there are a lot of people, but the line is usually small to nonexistent. 
• Tell the driver that you want to go to Suwon Immigration. It sounds like this, "Suwon Chool-ip-gook-gwan-lee-saw-moo-so-eh ga-seh-yo." And looks like this in Korean: "수원출입국관리사무소에 가세요." 
• Travel time: 10 to 15 minutes.
• Cost: 7,000 won and up depending on the driver. 
• If you are lucky you might find a cabbie like the one below who bombed the inside of his cab with a stadium's worth of Korean national pride during the 2014 World Cup. 

  

  Perhaps coincidentally, PSY's "Champion" was playing in the Taxi too. 

Getting back to Suwon Station:

• Taxis wait in front of Suwon Immigration up until around five or six pm, after which time you'll need to find the main road and flag down a taxi or take the bus or subway.
• To get back to the station tell the driver, "Suwon yeok-eh ga-seh-yo." In Korean it looks like this: "수원역에 가세요."

Where to Eat:

• There is actually a lot of great international food near Suwon Station. One of my favorites is a dark, strangely empty Russian restaurant in a basement. What it lacks in atmosphere it totally makes up for in rich, flavorful, hearty fare good for bolstering public school comrades and gulag hagwon laborers through the cold, long Korean winter. To get there cross the foot bridge at Suwon Station that goes over the taxi stand. When you get to the end look down from the top. You should see an alley below you leading away from the station. Take the stairs on your right and follow the alley to its end. Immediately in front of you should be Damunhwa Food Land (다문화 푸드랜드). Damunhwa takes up the basement level of the building with several different international restaurants like Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Mongolian, and, of course, Russian. 

A bowl of borscht. Not at all fancy to look at,
 but would you expect from Russians?

3) Take the not so bali-bali bus. It's a good way to see the south-central side of the city.

• Exiting Suwon Station, the bus stop for Suwon Immigration is on your right. It is past the taxi stand and pretty hard to miss with all the city busses traveling through it. 

  

  Suwon Station bus stop heading towards Suwon Immigration

• There are two main bus lanes. It doesn't matter which one you are in.
• There are six busses you can take: 5, 7, 7-2, 9, 310, 900
• Take the bus to Yeongil Junghakyo (영일중학교) Yongil Middle School in English.
• Distance: 29 stops away
• Travel time: 15 - 20 minutes, but 45 minutes during evening rush hour. 
• Cost: 1, 200 won without a transit card, but 1,100 won with a transit card like CashBee or T-Money — the same cards used on the subway.
• When you get off the bus turn to your left and walk down the street. You should be walking downhill and the school should be on your right. Take your first right by the 7-11. The school should still be on your right. Walk past the school, and then keep on going straight for a block until you reach Suwon Immigration.

Yongil Junhakyo bus stop. The school is behind the trees.

Suwon Immigration coming from Yongil Junhakyo

Getting back to Suwon Station:

• Walk the back to Yeongil Junghakyo
• Take the 5, 7, 7-2, 9, 9-1, 310 or 900 back to the train station. 
• Now, some observant subway takers might notice the bus stop in front of Lotte Plaza at the Yongtong subway stop. However, it is three blocks away from Suwon Immigration as opposed to just one. Moreover, there is only one bus on that stop that goes to Suwon Station, the 51 bus. And that bus runs every 17-20 minutes, so I do not recommend it.

Where to eat:

• Across the street from Yongil Junghakyo is Pizza Heaven, home to some of the best pizza in Korea. I worked as a pizza chef for seven years from high school through college, so I am very picky about my pizza. And in a land full of Pizza Schools, Mr. Pizza, and even pizza from Lotte Mart, Pizza Heaven is truly a pice-a-heaven fallen from the table of the gods. In other words, it looks, tastes and smells like typical American pizza. This isn't anything to talk about in the USA, but in South Korea that's BIG. To put it in perspective, while on the way home to Pyeongtaek from Seoul one day I hopped off the train in Suwon to bring home a pie from Pizza Heaven. This was during rush hour no less, and I stupidly took the bus. I'd do it again too, bus and all. Now, how many Americans would drive 45 minutes out of their way for take-out pizza? 

(Edited Jan 29, 2015: Added information and photos for Nae Gohyang Wang Mandu) 

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