What's Up Tonight - mbc생방송 오늘저녁

I had the opportunity to work on a road show for a few months, walking around Korean traditional markets all over Korea this summer. It was not the greatest paying job, but it was definitely one of the most fun one I have had so far.

Doing that show got me to visit lots of new places and get to know lots of nice places in a few Korean markets, thing that I would not have known and not have gotten to do had I been on my own trying to to the same. I feel blessed to have had the chance to get to see and learn so many things....

SaeJong King's travel road market: Newly revamped market road, this market is clean and nice. While it doesn't have the beautiful old feeling one gets by going to a very old market, it has a beautiful quality of having amazing food from all over the place. It's a fusion type of market that has tried to modernize an old market road that was fading away. We met a beautiful grandmother and played Baduk with her (more like, the other MC got completely destroyed by her).

Tongil market: Famous for their oil rice cakes (기름 떡볶이), it is a market where you can get to pay with traditional Korean money by exchanging cash for special coins and build up a lunch box as you walk from food stand to food stand. We got to meet a great couple of old treasures: the husband fixing watches old-style, the wife making traditional clothes for women, the comfortable type they wore when they stopped wearing hanbok.

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... and eat so many things for free.

Canned Goods market (깡통시장): We went to a big market in Busan that borrowed it's name from the fact that Korean who got canned rations from people in the military to feed their families, they kept the cans and sold them in that area and ate other stuff they could manage to get, for the canned goods were worth more on the market. The place eventually got that name.

What is amazing in this market is the night market, while it looks like any other market during the day, at night there are so many people that you have to walk around like vehicles in roads, following the flow. They literally have foods from everywhere and tons of super special stuff, like candy that make smoke in your mouth and delicious food inspired by other countries cuisine.

We were two MC walking around, me and a traditional 'market specialist' who is completely nuts (a good nuts) about markets and the beauty they have over-ascepticized modern malls that have no story to tell. We walked along and got to learn the story, got a feel of the soul of every market and saw the beauty in the most simple things, up to the most fascinating ones.

Jagalchi market: We stayed a full weekend in Busan, visiting two markets at once (and thus skipping a filming week later on). The second day we visited what we expect when thinking of Busan markets: seafood market. It is the biggest seafood market in Korea, and you have the opportunity to buy super cheap fresh seafood and eat it directly on the spot! The second floor is a special space for tons of restaurants affiliated with the downstairs market owners. There is also the typical traditional fish market outside by the big mall.

Unfortunately I could only do the show until September, as the airing schedule changed and made it impossible for both me and the other MC to show up for the full day shoots. I still came out of it glad I could experience the greatness of it and ready for the next adventure!

Sinpo market: This market is well-known already for it's soy sauce chicken place, but we discovered a magical place in the middle of the little market that is shaped like two chopsticks (two little roads alongside each other). There is there, a rice cake shop, with a man who has travelled the world in search of the beauty of markets in many cultures. He makes amazing tasting rice cake, yes, but he spoke words of wisdom, bringing you in a deep inner peace, the like you usually would get by discussing with a buddhist monk over green tea.

Osaek market: This market was the last one I got to visit on that show, and it felt great. Why? because we literally started the day with a pint of micro-brewed beer. How can a day go wrong after that? We met an inspiring leather craftsman making designs on leather by hitting on his leather tools over 30 000 times per bag. We learned how to make beer and tried some of the special beer they make. Then, at night we saw a puppet show in the night market, ate an endless amount of food from all over the world, ate stuff with a full pig head to make the broth and I ate ...fried chicken anuses (?) and chicken that were out of this world. I mean it. I will go again.

Now ready for what is coming next!!!