6
Jul
2010
Dongdaemun’s “Hobby Markets”
By Shannon Heit. Posted in Art, Community, Cooking, Cultural Exchange, Food, Korean culture, Living in Seoul, Pets, Recreation, Seoul Metro, Shopping | 1 Comment »
Photos by Fielding Hong
Most people know Dongdaemun as the pulsing, round-the-clock fashion and shopping mecca that never sleeps. Clothes, shoes, handbags, accessories – you name it, you can find it in Dongdaemun. Huge shopping complexes like Migliore and Doota are packed wall-to-wall, nine stories high, with stalls of vendors selling any and all of your fashion needs. And the buildings are open until the wee hours of the morning for those occasions when you need a new top at 3 a.m.
But what many may not know about Dongdaemun is that its many markets offer more than your everyday shopping experience. In the alleys and areas around the main shopping drag, smaller markets or shopping clusters offer some of the city’s most unique, one-stop shopping destinations for all of your hobby supplies.
Since the shopping areas are within easy walking distance of each other, you could easily spend a day wandering through them, choosing your next do-it-yourself hobby.
Bangsan Baker’s Market
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| Photo by Fielding Hong |
For those of you who like to make your own homemade confections and goodies, you were probably disappointed the first time you went to your local grocery store or even large supermarket and walked down the baking supplies aisle. If there are any at all, the supplies are few and often limited to standard flour, sugar, step-by-step cookie mix boxes, miniature cake pans and tiny pouches of uninspiring chocolate chips and sprinkles. No vanilla, no coconut, no bricks of bittersweet baker’s chocolate, none of the stuff that gives a baker’s sweets their own personal touch.
Enter Bangsan Baker’s Market. The market – just a street really – is in a hidden corner of the larger Bangsan Market and contains everything you need to bake just about anything you can imagine. The stores sell many ingredients that are hard to find in other places, such as dried fruits, assortments of nuts, molasses and fruit glazes, rye and wheat flour, along with various purees and extracts. You can find all of the other baking accoutrements you need for baking cookies, cakes, breads, muffins, brownies, tarts, tortes and pies. Baking equipment and tools are sold here, too, such as electric mixers (for serious bakers, you can even find KitchenAid mixers), cookie cutters, cake pans and baking utensils that aren’t commonly found in other kitchen supply stores or markets. Finally, the stores also offer the cutest decorative boxes, cellophane, ribbons and stickers so that you can wrap up your treats to look as sweet as they taste when you share them with your family or friends.
Not only is the variety of baking products vast, the prices are competitive, even for common ingredients such as sugar, flour and butter. As with most markets in Korea, vendors are sometimes willing to negotiate, especially if you are buying large quantities or are purchasing some more expensive items.
There are a couple of ways to get to Bangsan Baker’s Market. From Jongno 5-ga Station (line No. 1), go out exit 7 and cross over the Cheonggye Stream. From there, you’ll see the arch for the Bangsan Market entrance. From Euljiro 4-ga Station (line No. 2 or 5), go out exit 4 and turn right at the first intersection. From there, you’ll walk until you see the sign for Bangsan Market and turn right into the market, where you’ll find 20 to 30 baking supplies shops clustered together.
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