After arriving in the city of Daegu on my ninth day in South Korea, my travel buddy Sam and I hit the ground running with a visit to 83 Tower, followed by a trip to Seomun Market to try some of the local street food! Come along with us as we explore the city of Daegu!
Our morning in Korea’s fourth-largest city began at 83 Tower, which is considered a symbol of Daegu. I heard that it offers incredible views of the city, so I couldn’t wait to go up and get a bird’s-eye view of Daegu!
83 Tower has (you guessed it) 83 floors. Its observation deck is located on the 77th floor and there is a restaurant on the 78th. It costs 10,000 won ($8.25 U.S.) for adults to go up to the observatory. We took the elevator up. The observation deck was beautiful!
The city was so big! I could see a park, stadium, an amusement park, and more. It was so cool to see the city nestled in the valley between mountains. On the wall, there’s a display that compares the heights of several famous towers around the world.
We ordered some green tea lattes from the café, which only cost about $2.50 U.S. each. My matcha espresso latte was cold and refreshing! From the tower, we headed to the Skyway cable car, which was free! It took us over the amusement park. After 10 minutes, we were back on the ground!
Daegu was so much bigger than we anticipated. We caught a taxi to Seomun Market, a traditional market that has over 4,000 stalls. It’s the last remaining market from the Joseun Dynasty.
It looked like we were the only foreigners in the market, which I loved! We found some pots that are used for storing spices, some kitchenware, vegetables, and nuts roasting in drums. There was also dried seafood like prawns, fish, and seaweed. I’d never seen a presentation like this!
Our first street food were a cabbage pancake and a leek chili pancake. They were served with a soy sauce with onions. At 2,500 won (a little over $2 U.S.) each, they were practically a steal!
The leek chili one was a little hot with very little batter. It was so healthy and tasty! The cabbage one was also good and not my favorite. It had more batter and a bit of leek inside.
Next, we passed by lots of seaweed and dried fish on our way to get a little waffle ball with walnut and red bean paste inside. It was very nice and contained a walnut and lots of red bean paste. You get 10 for 3,000 won, or $2.47.
We passed crafts, clothing, and kids stuff before we found more street food across the street. We found a lady selling oden, or hot pot, tteok cooking in a red chili paste, and blood sausage. The blood sausage was really spicy and had an amazing texture! It cost 1,000 won, or $0.82. The tteok was only 500 won!
The tteok a thick rice cake. It wasn’t too spicy but I loved it! Then I tried the fish cake (1,000 won). It was spongy with lots of herbs. I loved how dense and spicy it was!
We cooled off with a cold, cloudy, and milky rice drink called sikhye. It contains grains of rice floating on the bottom and is really refreshing. It reminded me of sugarcane juice from India! The rice at the bottom was really nice!
Next was a sweet doughnut-like dish called hotteok, which has sugar and seeds on it. They’re served scorching hot and have a crispy exterior with a soft, elephant-ear-like texture on the inside. It was amazing and super sweet! It cost 1,000 won.
I was full, so we laid off the food. I found some clothing for kids and looked for something for my daughter. It was never-ending! I found some Spider-Man and Iron Man shirts for about $7. The saleswoman even gave me a discount!
What an adventure! I hope you enjoyed exploring Daegu with us. If you did, please give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and subscribe you don’t miss any of my upcoming travel/food videos.
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann. For the last decade, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,000 destinations in 73 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
I actually love this. I'm a big fan of morcia. I eat this all day. Oh, this is so good.
There you go. Oh my god, the textures of all the organs. Very spicy. Wow. It's super spicy, bro.
Hey everyone, this is David Hoffman from David Bin here in Daegu, South Korea. Korea's fourth largest
city. Today I'm super excited because I'm going to take you to the top of 83 Tower to get an
incredible view over the entire city. I mean, the views from up there look amazing. And then after
this, we're going to Seomun Market, one of the most traditional markets here in Daegu, and they're
going to eat some delicious street food. Are you ready to go up and see Daegu from the top of 83
Tower? Let's go. The reason this tower is called 83 Tower is because it has 83 floors. The observation
deck is on the 77th floor and they also have a restaurant on the 78th floor. I don't know exactly
what's on the 83rd floor but there is a level up there. It might be a second observation deck. It
just didn't show it to me on the map. And here are the tickets. Ticket booth. 10? Might be 10. Maybe 10.
Oh wow, so if you want to go eat the restaurant it's 50 to 90. That's a buffet. They also have
a buffet in Seoul Tower. Yeah, I went there once. Phenomenal, man. I just ate so much.
We just bought our tickets and then we took the elevator all the way up to the 77th level.
And as you can see, it tells you the 83rd floor is coming soon. So they're going to open the
observation deck there as well but it's not open yet. And here we go. Let's see the views.
Whoa, this is amazing. This is really beautiful. I mean, I love coming to observation decks. I've
been to so many. Kyoto Tower, Tokyo Skytree. What else? I just went to Busan Tower. I mean,
there's so many towers. Each city I've been to in Asia has a tower where you have an observation deck.
As you can see, massive city. I mean, it's way bigger than I thought. I thought it was just an
area over here but you see in the middle where we are right now is a big park. There's a stadium
there, tennis courts. There's like some amusement park here. And they also have like another part
of the city right here. It goes to the south. Wow, just huge city. I mean, we are in a valley
so you see lots and lots of mountains. Just so many buildings. Lots of mid-rises but then farther
off into the distance you have a huge line of skyscrapers. It really never ends. What do you
think? Dude, we have practically have this observation deck to ourselves. There is like
five other people here. It is amazing. And there is like look at this. There is such comfortable
couches man. You can lounge over there. I noticed they are selling beer and coffee. You can just
chill up here for a long time. It is also nice and air-conditioned. I've been to a few towers
before where it is like insufferably hot. This is super comfortable. Yeah, and talking about
towers, check these out. Here you have everything to scale. Sydney Tower, been there. Daegon Tower,
been there. Seoul Tower, haven't been there yet. The Oriental Pearl Tower, been there. Eiffel Tower,
been there. I haven't been to the one in Moscow either but this is really cool that it gives you
like the comparison of how big it is. And yeah, like Sam said, they have a cafe. Epic views,
huge windows and then here we have something called a sky jump. I'm not gonna do that. I'm
just going to enjoy these views. And wow man. Hey, Daegon is way bigger than we thought.
Way bigger. So David something we noticed after kind of wandering around the observation deck
is that there is one entire neighborhood that is being like totally demolished. In a traditional
part of the city it is like completely demolished. There is a little oasis of maybe some condemned
buildings right in the middle. No idea why they are still there. Maybe they just haven't got
around to demolishing them. But that is definitely an area that is going to be earmarked for either
a big building facility or high rise apartments.
Oh, that is kind of hot. We're having a green tea latte at the moment. I got the hot one.
David got the cold one. Both delicious. Frothy, sweet. Man, such a good price. 2,900 Won.
1,900 Won which is like $2.50 USD. Oh man, super affordable for a tower. Normally they fleece you
for food and drinks but over here very reasonably priced. I definitely have taken note and appreciate
that. Yeah, this Matcha Espresso Latte is so good. It is so cold. It is the perfect way to like start
off our day here. And yeah like half of this observation deck is a coffee house. This one
right here. I mean as you can see lots of tables. And then on the other side we have that sky jump
which I'm never going to do. And then yeah after this we're going to go down, get on the cable car
and head straight to the market. We just exited 83 Tower or Daegu Tower. As you can see it's
right there. And we're walking over to the cable car. The cable car is next to the gift shop
and right below us we have an amusement park. I think we're going to go over the amusement park
with the cable car. It looks very nice. I love cable cars. It really depends where it is. I
went on one that was a little scary in Venezuela where it was like swinging back and forth in the
middle of a mountain. But usually they're really fun. You get great views from there. And yeah
after this we're going to eat some street food. I'm really hungry. It's already noon so it's time to go
eat. So right next to the cable car they have this ride. I don't like this ride. I've done it before.
I just hate feeling my stomach fire. It's top of my throat you know. It's not a good feeling.
Alright so here we are. Skyway. What's the cost of the Skyway? It doesn't say the cost. I'm not
sure if it costs money at all but it should. It should. I've never been on a cable car that's free.
Maybe it's free. Let's see. It's free. This is amazing. It's free. It's free. Hey the coolest
surprise. What's up? So we're going over the amusement park. Lots of different rides here.
Really cool. I mean you see everybody in the bottom. Look at that. I love that ride by the
way. It just sways back and forth. Oh my gosh. It's a lot easier. I hate all the rides. They scare me.
All of them scare me. Everyone. I just don't like roller coasters or anything that can make you vomit.
You know it's not it's not fun. Yeah. Wow and look great view. Great view of uh Daegu Tower right
there behind us. And just incredible view over an entire city. This was basically a park and
they made an amusement park inside it. And that's it. Only took 10 minutes. And actually this is a
little different. These little cable cars because they have a forward and a backwards. You can face
back or you can face forward. And yeah guys let's catch a taxi and let's go eat. Dude I'm hungry.
This city is much bigger than I anticipated. I mean it's huge. It's freaking huge. Six lanes on each
side. I mean that avenue is giant. Oh man. That's that's double the US one which is the main highway
in Miami. Wow. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. And yeah so we're going through a back alley right now.
Trying to get to Seomun. Seomun? Seomun. Seomun Market. And this market is a traditional market.
They have over 4,000 stalls. This is the last remaining market from the Joseon dynasty. Wow.
Wow that's cool. That dates back. That dates back how long? A long time ago. I'm not entirely sure
but. A few hundred years for sure right? Absolutely yeah. And so there's street food, there's textiles,
there's souvenirs. If there's tteokbokki we're grabbing it. We have to have it. We're on a roll. Every time we
have street food we got it. Dude it's delicious spicy rice. That's the one must. That's a must
every time. Alright we're gonna be there in the next like three minutes. Sweet.
Wow here we go. Market. Seomun Market. I think we're the only foreigners here which is great.
I love that. Let's see. Super local market. Wow. Dude. Hey. Sam it's massive. So these special
pots are used for basically storing spices. Basically different kinds of Korean pastes.
So red pepper paste, soybean paste. It's amazing. You're going to buy some? I'm thinking about it
seriously. I'm seriously thinking about it. I mean I'll have to find out the price but if it's
reasonable I may get one. Walking through the beginning of the market as you can see it's just a
lot of kitchenware. Lots and lots of kitchenware. Lots of vegetables. I've never seen this before.
Look at this. Roasted nuts. They have these like circular uh I guess like little drums that turn
and turn and turn. They're roasting the nuts in here. Pull them out and they're for sale. Right
across from the roasted nuts we have super dried fish. We have prawns. We have fish. We have seaweed.
We have like anchovies and then over here we have like a massive amount of nuts. I mean this market
is crazy big. This is just one vendor right here. One of four thousand. Wow this is blowing me away
because I've never seen it like this. Like I've never seen a market with all this stuff in this
in this presentation.
Okay so we're starting off our street food tour with Baejujeon and Pujujeon which is basically cabbage
pancake and leek chili pancake. And it also comes with a sauce here. It's like a soy sauce
with some onions. Oh this looks amazing. Each one of these costs 2,500 won so roughly under
two US dollars. Man they look amazing. I'm gonna start with this one because the chili is right there.
It's so good and so healthy. It's really amazing. Just straight leek. A little bit of chili so it's
a little hot. Very little batter. Dude this is like extremely healthy and the portion is giant man.
I really love the leek one. Super healthy. Tasty. Wow wow. Can't believe I'm trying something new
in Korea like every time I eat. Alright I'm trying the cabbage now.
It's good. I mean it's not my favorite. A lot more batter here. It's not kimchi obviously
because this kimchi is fermented cabbage. It's straight cabbage. It also has a little bit of
leek inside. I feel like there's way more batter in this one but if you mix it with the soy sauce
it's good. The only problem is because we got two of them there's a lot of food here. I mean so much
food. If we were to finish all this we'd be too full to keep going. So I'm gonna lay off this for
a second. I'm not gonna lay off anything. I'm gonna mix them. Why not right? Why not man? Dude it's so good.
Yolo. I like the spice here. Well that was amazing. I mean those are two different jeons I'd never
tried before. I usually try kimchi jeon or hamupa jeon. Those are some really unique jeons. Super
delicious. Huge portions and like I couldn't believe how affordable the prices were either.
Amazing value man. They were too good. We had to leave half of that because if not we wouldn't be
able to keep going. We want to try at least four or five more things and this area walking through
is straight up like seaweed. Dried seaweed, dried fish, dried everything. Yeah. Wow bro this is huge.
I've never been to a market like this. Never. I know this is something else. The size of that seaweed.
I know. It's like you're gonna take some home and get a whole new suitcase. Nah I mean I love eating
that. It's actually salty but wow man this is crazy. So next up we're trying a sweet. It's
this little ball. It's a little like waffle ball. Inside we have wanna and red bean paste. So I'm
just gonna open it up for you. Alright. I haven't tried it yet. Let's see.
Very nice. The thing I feel is that it's very little batter. A lot of red bean paste. A lot.
There's a big wanna in there. Very delicious. And you get 10 for 3,000 so like $2.50.
It's a pretty good deal. Best thing to do is to buy this and take it as a snack. Maybe we'll take it
on the train for later. And you can see right here the guy is making it. And he has this little
machine. He just puts the wanna, puts the batter, puts the red bean paste and it's done. I highly
recommend trying when you come here. You can also find this somewhere else in Korea and Seoul. Yeah
you can find these often at train stations and bus stations. Bus station stops. Well let's pack it up
and let's keep going. Let's do it. This part of the market has a lot of crafts, clothing, souvenirs. I
mean lots of kids stuff. Yeah so much clothing. I mean it's just like endless pottery. And right
across the street on this side of the market we have more street food. Lots of street food here.
I see one vendor. This is like a lot of tempura, hot dogs, like donuts. Over here more. This looks
more Japanese. Like little cakes. What else do we have? Oh this is gonna be good. I want to see what
they have here. Soups. Hello. Wow this looks great. Gotta sit down one of these man. So next up we found this
lady and she has oden which is basically like hot pot right. And she has the fish sticks over here.
She has the rice adok. But then she puts it into the red chili paste so it gets really spicy. She
also has these which are like the blood sausage right. It has like intestines, lots of different
organs. I'm actually starting off with that. I actually love this. I'm a big fan of morcia. I eat
all day. Oh this is so good. There you go. Oh my god. The textures of all the organs. Very spicy.
Wow. It's super spicy bro. Dude that's like overload of red chili paste sauce. I mean it's been bathing
it forever. I don't know how long they've been sitting there. But wow that is hot. And this one
costs 1,000 won. So like 90 cents. The fish cake as well costs 1,000. Yeah. But the adok costs
500? 500. It's the cheapest. Half price. I'll go for number two because I love this.
If you love morcia, you know blood sausage, you'll like it a lot. It's very spicy. It's a whole
different thing from the morcia from Argentina. Very good. Very organ-y.
All right so basically I said please one adok, which is one rice cake. Oh my god. And what she
does is she changes the skewer. She gives it to you in a chopstick and then she like drenches it
like basic in the sauce. I love the adok. Oh my god. Everyday adok. You've had this like every day.
Not as spicy as the last one was. I guess the last one had like absorbed a lot.
But super thick rice cake. As you can see it's like a big finger right. That's what they call
it. Finger rice cake. This one's a lot thicker. A lot longer. Pretty delicious man. I love it.
If I finish this I'm not gonna be able to finish anything else. So I'm gonna let that go.
Sorry. So she's transferring it from the big stick to the little stick bathing it in the gochujang
sauce. And there you go. Here it is. The oden. So basically this one is a fish cake. Fish cake
hotpot. She put it in there. This is maybe the spiciest one dude. This is the spiciest one? Yeah
it absorbs it super. And the blood sausage was super spicy. Oh man I just love the fish cakes.
The fish cakes in Asia are amazing. It is super spongy. Got some herbs in there. It is almost
like the rice cake but with fish you know. So it's like fish. Just the same thing. Very dense.
Oh it's spicy. Super spicy.
This might be the best one. Yeah? For sure. Oh yeah. Can you taste it?
Okay so after that really spicy meal we're gonna cool it down with some shike which is a
cold rice drink here in Korea. If you guys didn't know Korea is the land of rice. Here as you can
see it's very cloudy. Very milky right? But the very bottom you have all these grains of rice.
Oh wow super refreshing. It reminds me of like sugarcane water. Oh that's so nice. Super cold.
So the very bottom you have all this rice right? It's very clumpy so you gotta mix it.
Oh so nice. So nice. Oh you got a lot of it there. Got a little bit of a brain freeze.
Oh my god. You alright? Oh but the heat is gone. It's gone. Alright so next up we're trying a
sweet sweet Korean dish. It's called hotteok. It's basically a donut with sugar and seeds.
They're making it right here behind me. You can see the lady grabbing the dough.
She puts a bunch of sugar, seeds, throws them in the fryer. The guy next to her just keeps flipping
them over, flipping them over until they're done. Then they move them over to these cups
and they're really really hot. I mean they're really hot. Oh look at that. Right there you
can see the seeds. You can see the sugar. Oh dude I'm burning. I'm burning. And here we go. He said
it's extremely hot and it is. It's burning my hand. Awesome. Oh my god.
The outside is really cooked, like crispy.
I know inside feels like elephant ears at the fair. That's like the exactly the same thing
right? And then inside you have a lot of sugar, like a layer of sugar, a bunch of seeds. It's freaking
amazing. Super sweet. And only 1,000 won. 1,000 won. I'm good. I'm gonna take a break from food
for a bit because I'm extremely full and this market is really endless. And this area right here
we have some cool like Avengers. We got some you know some Spider-Man. We got some Iron Man clothes
but all for kids. All for like little girls. I want to buy something for my daughter. Let me see
if I find anything I like. I saw another one over here. Where are they? Yeah they have a lot of stuff
here. I mean shoes. This is a lot of kid stuff. Big kid section. Wow it really doesn't end. The amount
of stuff here is just really incredible. Yeah let's see. Let's see what I find here. I'm gonna
find some Spider-Man, some Iron Man. Iron Man all day. Robert Downey Jr. So like I said I've been
looking for some Spider-Man, Iron Man stuff. I found some pretty cool stuff and this is like
you know obviously it's not official Marvel gear but it's really cool and I just I don't know. I'm
It's pretty affordable. Everything else I've seen is like 30 or 40 dollars.
And this is for my baby you know. Just something she can wear in the house. I like this one though.
Yeah it's cute. I'm gonna take this one. It's so cute man. And then you have the other one. The
bigger one. Nine. Nine. Nine red. Red. No red. Less. Price lower.
All you have to ask. You just gotta ask for a discount. Discount. She gave me two thousand
off. Okay I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. Okay okay. Yeah cool. Let's take it. Guys this
has been one of the most epic markets of all time. I mean it is so huge. There's so many things to
buy. I mean we bought some clothing. We bought food obviously. We ate so many delicious things.
Oh my god my favorite thing. It might have been that blood sausage man. That blood sausage and
maybe the pancake in the beginning. The leek pancake. Oh it was so good. A little spicy.
Chewy. I mean great place to come if you want to eat street food. There's a lot more stuff. I mean
we just scratched the surface in terms of street food. But just come here. Besides for the street
food, come here to see the market. I mean this place is huge. Multiple buildings. Multiple levels.
We're here on this first level and you can see it doesn't end. Over 4,000 stalls. 4,000. You believe
that? I mean I've never been to a market this big and this is like real authentic Korea. The only
foreigners here are me and Sam. No one else. You have great deals. And yeah I think you should come
to Daegu and see this market for yourself. And guys if you love this video please give me a thumbs up.
Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel. Sam's channel.
And we'll see you in the next travel food adventure in South Korea. Peace!
