Delicious Poop

We've re-visited Insadong a number of times since December, and each time I've stopped in and bought some of the delicious tea on the ground floor. Across from the tea shop is a stall selling hot chocolate and pastries. But not just any pastries! These are Dong-bbang.

Dong-bbang literally means Poop Bread, these little pastries are filled with gooey red bean and they're pretty tasty. Poop is considered lucky in Korea - dreaming about poop is a good omen, and if you do have a 'poop dream' you should buy a lotto ticket. I'm not sure where it originates but I also know that poop is lucky in Japan too, as the Japanese word for poop sounds like the word for luck. 

The Poop Bread came in a paper bag, which I got my student to translate for me. In between giggles, she explained that it instructs you to eat the bread, then poop, inspect your poop, and use the stars and smiley face squares at the bottom of the bag to rate your poop quality. You can keep the bag as a reminder of your poop experience.

The guy on the bag is Dongchimee, a character who is associated with the Dalki cartoon. Dongchimee is obsessed with poop, and he collects it, draws with it and wears it on his head. His name means 'poop stick' or 'poop needle' and to ddong-chim someone is exactly like kancho-ing someone in Japan - sticking your fingers into someone's butt. Korea is weird, but dong-bbang is delicious!