We Went for Budae-jjigae and Came Home with Sandwiches and Keyrings

It was hot outside and cool at home. Honestly, there was little reason to leave the air conditioner that weekend. Still, spending the entire day indoors with the children made me feel a little irresponsible as a dad. Nobody grades this assignment, but every weekend I find myself thinking that we should at least go somewhere.

That was when my wife and I started talking about Kimnejip, the budae-jjigae restaurant in Songtan that we used to visit while dating. Once we had a destination, the plan sounded convincing enough: revisit an old taste, look around the food streets near the U.S. base, and take the children on a drive. So we got in the car.

A familiar crowd after an hour on the road

After roughly an hour of driving, we arrived in a Songtan that was still busy. Kimnejip was crowded, much as I remembered it. Waiting a long time in the heat with children looked less like making memories and more like testing the entire family’s patience, so we chose takeout without hesitation.

When we were dating, the two of us sat down and ate budae-jjigae there. This time we walked out with our children and a takeout bag. The place was familiar, but our family and the things I needed to look after had changed. I had barely enough time to feel sentimental before reality returned: the children were hungry, and more food was waiting.

The burger price briefly made me think about exchange rates

We decided to eat the budae-jjigae at home and went to a well-known old-style burger place nearby. Holding that familiar kind of burger brought back our dating days again. Any hope that the price had stayed in the past disappeared much faster.

“Have burgers always cost this much?”

Because the U.S. base is close, I even joked that perhaps the neighborhood ran on dollar-based prices. I do not actually know why the price had risen. Many years have passed, and the most likely explanation is that the price tag in my memory simply refused to update. Nostalgia is free; eating it again is not.

Fortunately, the children ate the burgers quite well. For a parent, the real test of food on an outing is often not how famous it is but whether the children actually eat it. By that standard, our first choice passed.

An 18,000-won sandwich and my one-bite share

Then we heard there was a cheesesteak sandwich that people considered a must in the area. We had already eaten enough, but people are weak against the phrase, “We came all this way.” A traveler’s stomach somehow gets extra voting rights.

The sandwich we bought that day cost 18,000 won. My first reaction was simple: brutal. My reaction after one bite was just as simple: delicious. Damn it.

I got exactly one bite, and my daughter ate nearly all the rest. My ownership in an 18,000-won sandwich amounted to a single bite, but I could hardly send her an invoice when she was eating so happily. Dad’s equity was low; satisfaction was strangely high.

Two keyrings that became more expensive than the sandwich

If the trip had ended with food, it would have been fairly ordinary. We bought each child a KitKat as a small souvenir and then stepped into a claw-machine shop. We came out with two small plush keyrings.

The problem was that winning them cost more than the sandwich. Minutes after calling the cheesesteak price brutal, I spent even more watching a claw close on empty air. I lost consistency in my spending, but we gained two keyrings. The children were thrilled while I quietly considered where all those bills had gone.

As souvenirs, though, they were accurate. The children will remember the moment the toys dropped. I will remember my one bite of sandwich and the claw attempts that cost even more.

One weekend assignment for dad, completed

On the drive home, my wallet was lighter and I was a little tired, but the outing had clearly refreshed me. It felt good to return with our children to a place my wife and I had visited while dating. Seeing them eat well and hold a small souvenir each made me glad we had left the house.

Going out in the heat is not always the right answer, and a family outing is not a duty for a father to complete alone. Still, that day felt like finishing one of the weekend assignments I had set for myself. Next time, when the weather is cooler, I would like to return and eat the budae-jjigae there instead of taking it home. Before that, I may need to practice walking naturally past the claw-machine shop.

We paid for all food and souvenirs ourselves. Nothing was sponsored or provided, and the prices and opinions here reflect only my experience on the day of the visit.