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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Ramen, Expat Style

Ramen soup may be a Japanese invention, nevertheless, the popularity of instant ramen in Korea makes it almost as Korean as kimchi. If school kids sitting in the windows of CU and 7-11 slurping up cup-ramen every night on their way home from school isn't proof enough, try walking into any Korean corner store or grocery. Just the size of the dedicated ramen isle and the variety of flavors on the shelves will show you just how culturally ingrained the spicy soup is.

Instant ramen isn't exactly the healthiest of foods either. The nutrition information on the back of a pack of Ottogi Yeul Ramen (오뚜기 열 라면) says it has 505 calories and 1,830mg of sodium. That is 92 percent of a Korean diet's daily requirement for salt, according to the label. In a country that boasts their healthy cuisine, this makes Korean ramen akin to a native version of the fast food hamburger.

Despite the risks of hypertension, stroke and heart disease, if one lives here long enough, one tends to develop a taste for these dried packs of quick dinners and easy hangover relief. And given that ramen is so easy to make and successfully alter, many expats have shopped, chopped, and chomped their way to delicious but questionably nutritious alternatives to traditional instant ramen.
We've asked a few of those expats to share their ramen twists here.

Whatever Ramen: Michael Farrell, the chief editor here at Eat Korea, has been living in Korea since May 2010. Of his ramen recipe he said (with an attempt at sounding like Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World,) "I rarely cook for myself, so when I do, I use up whatever food is sitting in my refrigerator or it will spoil. As a result, I never make the same ramen twice." He claims, however, that the last bowl he cooked was pretty good, so we have immortalized it here. He will probably never taste it again, but maybe it will live on in someone else's kitchen.
Ingredients:
- Any variety of ramen (Michael used Ottogi Yeul Ramen.)
- Half an onion chopped
- A small zucchini or half a full zucchini chopped in big chunks
- Mini oyster mushrooms
- Any lightly flavored sausage chopped
- Processed American or cheddar cheese slices
- Sundubu (Korean soft tofu)
- Butter
- Water
Directions:
Step 1: Melt some butter in a saucepan and brown the sausage bits
Step 2: While the sausages are browning, sauté the onions, zucchini, and mushrooms. The onions should be translucent and the zucchini slightly firm.
Step 3: Set the sausage-veggie mix aside in a bowl and add a few cups of water to the saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Step 4: Add the noodles and seasoning packs and squeeze in a cup or so of sundubu. Stir, then add the veggies back in and a slice of processed cheese
Step 5: Turn off the heat and stir around to break up the noodles and mix everything.
Step 6: Serve with a slice of processed cheese melted on top.

Trevor's Marvel Vegetarian Ramen: Trevor Owens, a native of California, came to Korea in the summer of 2012. Sharp of wit and never lacking an opinion, this vegetarian whose apartment is
decorated wall-to-wall with Spider-Man memorabilia, searched for over a year before finding a brand of ramen that he could actually eat and still taste good. If you want to make Trevor’s Marvel Vegetarian Ramen, you will need to find Choroc Maeul brand Vegetarian Ramen (초록마을 채식라면). Choroc Maeul is a small, organic-food chain with locations throughout Korea.


Ingredients:
- Choroc Maeul Vegetarian Ramen (초록마을 채식라면)
- Diced broccoli, pre-prepared and frozen (Trevor says, “That’s the secret to amazing ramen.”)
- Diced bell pepper, mushroom and spinach
- Cayenne pepper
Directions:
Step 1: Bring water to a boil.
Step 2: Place the ramen noodles in a large bowl along with half the seasoning pack and enough cayenne pepper to suit your taste.
Step 3: Add the veggies.
Step 4: Slowly pour boiling water over the ingredients in stages, allowing the noodles to soften and the veggies to heat up. The veggies will remain mostly raw.
Step 5: Stir and enjoy.

Sergio's Secret Select: Sergio Cabaruvias has been around a few months longer than Trevor, and he's very particular about the way he makes his ramen. Some, like Trevor, make it in the bowl, but for Sergio ramen has to be made in the pot. His reasons are simple. You can make more and it's harder to reheat a bowl. (Microwaves and ovens are luxuries in the expat community here.) The bowls vs pots issue is one thing, but no ramen remix is worth it's salt without a special ingredient, and Sergio may or may not also add the blood of virgins in his own "secret" ramen recipe.
Ingredients:
- Jin Ramen (Sergio's preferred brand)
- Two eggs
- 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce
- Virgin blood (optional)
- Water
Directions:
Step 1: Bring water to a boil.
Step 2: Add the ramen noodles.
Step 3: Crack two eggs on top of the noodles. This prevents them from burning to the bottom of the pan says Sergio.
Step 4: Cook the eggs until cooked through and then turn off the heat.
Step 5: Add soy sauce, seasoning packet and blood then stir.
Step 6: Serve and enjoy.

James' Texas Dry Ramen: James Tieken, a Texan whose face wouldn't look out of place in a spaghetti western as the cowboy wearing the white hat, is a relative newcomer in comparison to the other expats in this ramen lineup. However, he has the most unique and straight forward recipe for preparing ramen out of the group. In true Texas libertarian style, there aren't any measurements or strict stipulations except that the broth be drained out after cooking. The result is a bowl of "dry" noodles. Without the broth there is still enough flavor for a tasty bowl of noodles, says Tieken. He also claims the lack of broth reduces the sodium content.
Ingredients:
- Two packs of ramen (Any kind will do)
- Any kind of hotdog or sausage
- Any processed cheese slice brand or flavor
- Mushrooms (again of any kind)
- Water of any variety (Texans sure aren't picky)
Directions:
Step 1: Bring water to a boil.
Step 2: Add the ramen noodles and seasoning packets.
Step 3: Cut up the hot dogs and mushrooms and add them to the pot.
Step 4: After the noodles are soft and the sausages are cooked through, turn off the heat and drain out the broth.
Step 5: Serve with as many slices of processed cheese melted into the mix as you like.

If you have your own favorite ramen twist that you'd like to share please post it in the comments below.


(Note: Sergio and Trevor returned to the United States shortly before the publishing of this article. We wish them the best of luck.)

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