A taste of pancit, balut in Korea's little Manila

Who knew that one could eat pancit, puto, and even the exotic delicacy balut in Seoul, Korea? With some 82,000 Filipinos residing in South Korea, it is not surprising to know that there is a 'Philippine haven' there. Teeming with the smells and sights of Filipino food and products, the “Small Philippines” in Daehang-no (University Street), in front of the Hyehwa Catholic Church in Seoul, is open to everyone every Sunday.   According to a report from The Korea Herald, the Philippine Market “has been running for nearly 20 years,” starting in 1995, “when Filipinos gathered for Mass” at the nearby church.  The report said the Philippine Market is open at Hyehwa Rotary from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Sunday. For those who wish to visit, they may come out of exit No. 1 of Hyehwa Subway Station and walk about five minutes toward the Hyehwa Catholic Church.   “It was [a] little bigger [before], but after conflict with residents over traffic and the waste treatment problem, it has been kept to its current size,” said Park Il-sun, who has been selling goods there with his Filipino wife for 17 years. “We are now trying to minimize the conflict by observing traffic law and keeping the area clean.”   Filipino ‘mood’   In its report, The Korea Herald said the market has Filipino written all over it, especially because of the sampling of delicacies that can be bought there—from sticky treats like puto and pichi-pichi to the “exotic” item called balut.   One of the Filipinos selling these dishes is Ana Liza, who “parodied Korean street vendors, clapping her hands to keep time and mimicking their market banter, making her co-workers and passers-by laugh.”   “I have been at this market for 15 years and the cold does not keep me from coming here,” she told The Korea Herald. “I just hope more people would come.”   For Korean Choi Jae-hee, the Philippine Market reverberates a feeling “like I’m abroad.”   “We tour foreign markets these days. We visited an Indian market last weekend and got to know about the Filipino market by surfing the Internet,” added Nam Geum-sun. “Markets run by foreigners were unfamiliar at first, but eventually I realized that we were all the same people.” - VVP, GMA News