My family isn’t called the “Dinosaur family” for nothing, mainly due to our huge appetite for good food. Our noses always lead us to the best food anywhere in the world. One “dinosaur” saw a food vlog of Mark Wiens, yes, the famous travel and food blogger, on the best Korean dishes to try. After watching almost 20 of Weins’ vlogs about Korean food and salivating in the process, we decided to follow Wiens’ lead, packed our bags, and flew to Seoul for a one-of-a-kind food trip. With more than 10 million followers on YouTube, Wiens hit the spot with almost all of the dining places he recommended—from Seoul, Jeonju, Gunsan to Busan — for the best Korean BBQ, dak-galbi, street food, chicken ginseng soup or samgyetang, gamjatang, galbijjim, kimchi, and everything mashisoyo (맛있어요) (delicious)!

We arrived in Seoul on March 23 just in time for dinner, and Wiens’ recommendation was the hearty pork bone soup called gamjatang at Sigol Gamjakuk (602-32, Eungam 4-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul South Korea). At first, it looked unappetizing with all the ingredients — bones, potatoes, chili, outer cabbage leaves, and perilla leaves — piled on top of one another in a big pot. But once you dip your spoon into the broth and start peeling the layers of the gamjatang, particularly the fall-off-the bone goodness of the meat, you discover heaven in a broth, and start asking “Why did I just meet you now?” or “Where in the world have you been hiding?” with hearts literally flying off from your eyes. Seriously, the gamjatang is such a comfort food I could probably eat it every day and never grow tired of. Uncannily, we Filipinos have a similar dish we call nilagang baboy, pork meat (ribs, belly or hock) boiled in water in a big pot with onions and leeks and peppercorn until tender and when half cooked, we add chunks of potato, carrots, cabbage, and a dollop of 슬롯놀이터 seasoning