[Shanghai Girl Eats] UnTour Shanghai Koreatown Food Tour
This past year has been a lot of things–disruptive, turbulent and unexpected to say the least. But with that also came reflection, self-discovery, and chances to explore something different outside of the months, years, and decades of routines we have built for ourselves. We were very lucky in Shanghai that things stabilized quickly early on and are fortunate to have been living largely “normal” lives the last few months in this bubble. Travel restrictions have put a damper on going anywhere internationally but domestic travel within Mainland China is booming more than ever. One of the places that I can no longer go to at the moment is Seoul for food and facials. As for the food part, I’ve managed to find a solution right here in Shanghai’s Koreatown. I am still working on facial options.
UnTour Food Tours has created a new “Beyond Bulgogi” tour that explores quintessential Korean food in Shanghai’s own Koreatown. Shanghai’s Korean community is largely rooted in Minhang district and that means most of you will have to travel a bit to get there (metro line 10 will do the trick) but it is well worth it.
The K-Town tours are conducted in small groups (8 people max per tour) over approximately three hours. There are about 4-5 stops ranging from street food at the night market to full dishes at sit-down restaurants to share. UnTour has scouted (i.e. eaten) many Korean restaurants in this area and curated a selection of places within walking distance. Please note the itinerary may vary slightly on each tour based on availability and dietary preferences. I can’t tell you the locations because you have to go on the tour!
I must emphasize this: pace yourself while eating. You’ll be having many, many pieces and spoonfuls of food throughout the tour and it’s easy to see something you like at first bite and proceed to eat a ton of it. I literally got KO-ed on the second stop (I was that person scraping the bottom of the pan) and spent the rest of the tour in a food coma haze.
Let’s begin!
First stop:
We met our tour guide Brian and started with street snacks at the Korean night market: tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), kimbap (seaweed rice roll filled with vegetables and most of the time beef), eomuk guk (fish cake soup), sundae (blood sausage made from filling cow or pig intestines with vermicelli noodles).
Deep fried chicken skewers covered in cheese, ketchup, and mayo.
Next stop:
Sit-down restaurant for two dishes: gamjatang (potato & pork rib stew) and dakgalbi (chicken & cabbage stir-fry).
The dakgalbi was my favorite dish on this tour consisting of stir-fried chicken, cabbage, kimchi, rice cake, and sweet potato.
After you’ve eaten some of the stir-fry, a layer of cheese is added to give this dish another variation.
And if the cheese wasn’t enough, we had a large vat of rice added to the mix to make kimchi fried rice. The kimchi fried rice was amazing especially with some crispy bottom bits. This was the exact moment that put me in a food coma.
Side note: UnTour was debating whether or not to add the rice option into this stop because they were afraid it would be too much food too early on and I guess they got their answer. So if you guys don’t see kimchi fried rice on your tour, it was my fault and I am sorry.
Next stop:
Soju bombs and snacks at a bar. I don’t need to explain soju bombs–all you need to know is that they end in destruction.
Deep fried spam with dark soy and Japanese mayo for dipping (as if spam could get even more tasty and unhealthy).
In between restaurants, we stopped at a small shop for some banchan (traditional side dishes paired with meals) where I bought some kimchi and pickled radish to take home.
Final stop (another whole entire meal):
This stop was originally intended to be cold noodles but the restaurant had sold out of it when we got there. Since it was pouring heavily during our tour, we had hot galbi tang (short rib soup), yukgaejang (spicy beef soup), and kimchi mandu (dumplings).
Rice is a must-have with the soups and as full as I was, I managed to squeeze in two spoonfuls of rice with each slurp.
As you can see, there were some changes to our tour due to dish availability so your tour may not be exactly what you see in this post. Regardless of what the variations are, you will get a solid spread of Korean food and can ask your guide for more restaurant recommendations.
For those who are based in Shanghai, this is a fun way to explore and navigate Koreatown for the first time. This tour will take you to various spots in the neighborhood and once you get familiar, you’ll be able to go on your own with friends.
For those who are visitors to Shanghai (eventually when travel opens up), UnTour also offers Chinese food tours ranging from dumpling making classes to hairy crab dinner tours. My favorite one is the breakfast tour, which is filled with fried & steamed dumplings, and noodles.
Learn more information about UnTour’s full range of food excursion offerings throughout China here.
