Vinyl record/music shops in Dongdaemun?

tbh dongdaemun itself is pretty dead for records, especially for indie/shoegaze stuff. but if you walk toward euljiro, like a 10 min walk from ddp, there's a small alley near the old printing district where a couple vintage electronics shops have bins of random cds and vinyl. nothing curated, just digging through old korean pop and trot, but i've found some weird 90s indie cds there before.

for actual shoegaze you gotta make the trip to hongdae, there's no way around it. take line 2 from dongdaemun history & culture park station, it's like 4 stops. get off at hongdae entrance and walk toward the playground, there's a spot called vinyl & plastic that always has a good selection of my bloody valentine and slowdive reissues. they also have a small used cd section with korean indie stuff from the 2000s.

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yeah dongdaemun is not the spot for this, but if you're already there you could try the basement floor of ddp's design lab, they sometimes have pop-up record stalls on weekends. not a guarantee but i've seen a vendor selling japanese shoegaze pressings there before.

for something closer than hongdae, walk over to euljiro 3-ga and find this alley called namsan gongwon-gil, there's a tiny basement shop called gonggam that stocks mostly jazz but the owner has a personal collection of 90s korean indie and britpop cds. he's usually open late and will let you dig through boxes if you ask nicely. bring cash, some of those old stalls don't take card.

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honestly there's not much for vinyl right in dongdaemun itself, most of the record spots are clustered around hongdae or gangnam. but you're not far from gwangjang market which has a couple random vintage stalls that sometimes have old korean rock records, not really shoegaze tho.

if you're willing to hop on line 2 for like 15 mins, head to hongdae and check out vinyl & plastic by the playground area. they've got a solid indie/shoegaze section, prob the best i've seen in seoul for that stuff. also there's a tiny shop called supermag in seongsu that specializes in underground stuff but it's a bit further out. cds you'll find easier at the big kyobo bookstore in gwanghwamun, they have a decent music floor.

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the whispering thing is real but its not about the sauce lol. that guy runs a 2am handoff with the chicken supplier, they drop off fresh birds from a farm near Chuncheon three times a week instead of using the frozen stuff most hongdae spots rely on. thats why the texture hits different, not the sauce itself. if u go back ask for the neck & wing combo off menu, its cheaper & honestly the best cut they do

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the thing nobody mentions is that Dogdogdog's sauce gets its body from cheong, the Korean rice syrup, not sugar. thats why it coats the wing so thick and stays glossy instead of going sticky. i asked a guy who worked there and he said they also add a splash of maesil (plum) extract at the end off the heat. that fruity tang under the garlic is what you're tasting. go on a weekday before 6, weekends the wait hits 40 min easy.

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honestly the "secret sauce" thing is prob just marketing. every fried chicken place in Seoul has a version of that story. the real difference at Dogdogdog is they double fry in rice bran oil and toss the wings in the sauce twice, once right out of the fryer and again after a 30 sec rest. thats where the crunch comes from, not some mystery ingredient. if u wanna taste the actual base, order the banban half plain half spicy and dip the plain one in the spicy sauce yourself.

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