austin — Daejeon

SEOUL SESSIONS — EP.5: DAEJEON… The most boring city in Korea? They tell you never to talk to strangers you meet online... Not only did we talk to one but we also took a one hour train to go and meet him and ended up becoming good friends. For months leading up to our trip I had been talking to @eatingwhatisgiven trying to tap him up for as many recommendations as possible. Austin is a full time professor and has been living, travelling and eating across Korea for over a decade. so he seemed like exactly the sort of person we needed to be speaking to. Then we landed in Seoul and kept seeing posters with his face on them in restaurants around the city… At that point we realised we’d somehow been chatting to a bit of a foodie celebrity without really knowing it. Whilst on our travels, Austin kept messaging us trying convince us to visit him in Daejeon. He told us to ignore its nickname as Korea’s “boring city” and assured us it was worth the hours train journey. We were on a tight schedule but we also knew and opportunity like this doesn’t come across often. So we thought… why not. And honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better host! Austin took us on a whirlwind tour around the city and gave us a history lesson on the food scene. This was one of those memorable experiences that money cant buy. Austin’s passion for food and for the culture is second to none and he welcomed us like old friends, to the point that we are now looking to book flights to visit him again to explore Oyster Farms and other lesser travelled parts of this amazing country. Now Daejeon… this city was far from boring. The people, the food and the places Austin showed us made it one of the real highlights of the trip. And yes… we meant it when we said we ate the best Korean fried chicken of the entire trip there. Go and give this man a follow and maybe even drop him a message next time you’re heading to Korea… You never know where it might lead.