Seoul 2016

My 10days in Seoul [Mar.14-25] & my photos/stories. Got questions? DM, comment, or email me at [email protected] :]

[myseoul16-blog]

top & honorary 5 eats in Seoul

Happy holidays everyone!!! Didn’t think I would post so soon, right? ;) Well, I’m back~ & in this post, I will share with you my top 5 eats in Seoul!

I started counting how many meals/times I’ve eaten in Seoul during my stay for the 10 days but I lost count about half way through. Mainly bcos I didn’t know whether or not I should count street food as a “meal” or not =/ it’s a gray zone (but I wanna know what you think) haha for these top 5, I considered each individual “dish” rather than a restaurant.

The top 5 in no particular order:

1. Yook-hoe (raw beef) at Gwangjang Market. The texture was like no other!

2. Kalguksu in Namdaemun kalguksu alley. Noodle in hot & slightly spicy soup is totally my jam.

3. Chicken skewer from Edae streets. I loved the tender chicken & the sauce & the free ddeokbokki.

4. Seafood jjambbong that was 3000w in Insadong booth. Super cheap & delicious. & spicy!!!

5. This last one is a tie: Yoo-ga-ne chicken+squid+cheese fried rice vs Sae Ma-eul Siktang pork stew mixed in rice. I’ve mentioned this in my posts before that they were like parallel with each other & that I couldn’t pick a favourite. .. Well, its really hard when both are so hearty & tasty! 

Here’s the honorary 5 eats that didn’t make the top 5 but were in my top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Fist-sized steamed dumplings at Myeongdong Gyoza. So big, & juicy!

2. Hot pot bulgogi at Na-Sal-Deon Go-Hyang. My 1st experience of this form of bulgogi. I really enjoyed it.

3. Baked chicken from “o-beun-e bba-jin dalk”. The texture & crispiness was different from that of fried chicken.

4. Seollongtang from Sinseon Seollongtang. Plain & simple ox bone soup with slices of beef & noodles, served with rice & radish.

5. K-bbq at Samgeori Butchers (YG restaurant). The pork belly.. . super fatty & good!

[myseoul16-blog]

chi-maek hunter

This will be the last photo-content post (aka: “the last post”) of this blog. I want to thank those of you who have been reading my posts anonymously, whether you’ve just landed on my blog & just read 1 post, or if you’ve been following since the beginning. The end won’t really be the end though! I promise you that there will be an encore =P

Let’s go back to where we were. This was day 10, March 25th, my brother & I got thru customs & security smoothly, picked up some tax refund cash, found our gate for departure to Vancouver, & checked out some shops.

We are now entering this cafeteria at ~4pm. It was located quite close to our gate (Gate 118).

Of course the entrance would have a chicken & beer place. You could smell the chicken from miles away!

A pastry place across chicken & beer.

This place is called Chi-maek Hunter. “Chi-maek” is an abbreviated term that stands for “chicken” & “maekju” (beer in Korean).

Various sets they have to offer & ready-to-eat chicken! Omg.. so golden!

1. Crispy fried chicken (their original or 2. spicy): 4 pieces 6500w, 7 pieces 9500w.

3. Fries 3500w

4. Chili fries 5500w

5. Chi-maek set (original fried chicken + fries + 1 beer): 12000w

6. Hunter set (spicy fried chicken + fries + soda): 10000w

7. Pop: 2000w; 8. Domestic beer: 4000w/8000; 9. Imported beer: 3000w (smaller size but more expensive).

Yup! In line!

View from our table - looking at the new terminal.

A cafeteria shot.

Waiting for that buzz.

We got the Chi-maek set (choice of domestic beer: Cass)! Officially our last meal in Seoul haha

For 12000w (approx. $14CAD), this was awesome! I mean, compared to the places outside the airport. .. but for airport food, this was a great deal!

Selca. Before getting our fingers greasy.

& cleared! Chicken & super crispy & deliciously-seasoned. The fries were better than I had thought. I like thick, crispy fries but these were very thin & long. They seemed oven-baked but they were very crispy. A different texture than what I’m used to & like. I ended up liking the fries a lot. & the CASS! hehe I turn red like almost instantaneously from alcohol so I was scared to drink too much before boarding.. . but whatever. I drank about half, which was quite a lot for me!

We boarded our flight. My brother slept most of the time, while I tried but couldn’t. I think I was still “excited” from the trip - a different kind of excitement than when I was heading to Seoul. It was almost like an excitement for “I can’t believe I’m leaving now. .. too short of a trip!” You know?

As promised, I will have an encore! Regarding what.. . you’ll just gotta wait to find out! I’ll be busy these few days bcos it’s Christmas so I likely won’t have time to post anything; however, I till try my best & get it to you before 2017! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas season wherever you are! & visit Seoul!

[myseoul16-blog]

Around 4pm on March 25, 2016 at ICN, beside Korea Traditional Cultural Experience Centre.

So... Lotte Duty-Free.. . they are REALLY good lol depending on the product(s) you buy at Lotte Duty-Free stores in Korea, you don’t necessarily need to grab the product when you purchase it. If you are a serious buyer, would you want to carry your stuff with you while you walk inside the rest of the store? & what if you still have places to be after you shop? You’d have to drop off things at your accommodation. & what if you’re city-hopping throughout the country? Having to bring so much goods around can be very frustrating & can make packing really difficult if you do have to travel around a lot.

Well, you shouldn’t have that fear! Lotte Duty-Free offers an option to have your product(s) be ready for pick-up at ICN when you are departing the country. Essentially, the idea is: you pay for your product at the store; if your product is eligible, the product(s) will have your name stickered to it, & it will be ready for you to pick-up at ICN shortly before your take-off time.

Here’s the catch (& also the reason why I wouldn’t use the service): aside from the fact that I’m not into duty-free shopping.. . it’s very dangerous in a sense that you could easily forget what you’ve purchased during your trip & how much space your items need. You may have saved room in your carry-on for it, you may underestimate, or you may be just out of control & need additional bags. You’ll need to unpack your goods from the Lotte wrapping & somehow make it all fit in your belongings. Isn’t that stressful? A few small items are alright but if you’ve bought a lot. .. It will be a challenge!

Nonetheless, an option if you are interested =)

[myseoul16-blog]

to & in Incheon

So sad to be leaving. .. I never want vacations to end. I had often said that my trip to Korea in 2014 was merely scratching the surface. During my 1st 24hrs here in Seoul this time around, however, I had changed that thought. In 2014, I had only scratched a fingernail of space. This trip, now I can say, I only got maybe. .. 5 fingernails lol. Bad analogy, I know. But what I’m saying is: there is so much to see & do & EAT here! I will have to live here forever to experience it all~

Anyways, we are on our way to the Incheon Int’l Airport (ICN) - we left Insadong & walked back to our hotel, grabbed our luggage & then walked across the street to wait at the shuttle bus stop. There was a bus arriving at 12:30pm; fare was 10000w/person.

Selca. With my red ginseng drink on the bus.

Highway to ICN.

Overlapping highways.

On a bridge.

The bus ride was surprisingly very enjoyable. You weren’t just stuck seeing the same things haha.

After our stop, the bus had another stop, & then it was an express shuttle bus to the ICN.

The ride was a little over an hour & 15mins long, not quite 1.5hrs.

K for Korea! lol

We got our boarding passes & at the same time, asked about tax returns. The lady at the desk told us not to check in anything yet if we have tax refund items in our luggage, & informed us to go to the customs declaration counter. We went according to instructions & handed our slips to the officer. Bcos we didn’t exceed a certain amount (I think it was 75000w), we were eligible to use the self-serve kiosk for the refund. They were ATM-like machines next to the counter; there were a few (4?) machines & a line of ppl waiting to use them. We lined up too! But the wait was short. What took long was the use of the machine. There was English but it wasn’t as simple to use as we had thought. After the paperwork was done, we checked in our luggage at the oversized luggage counter, got thru security & found ourselves “on the other side” of the frosted glass. The next step was to go the specific refund counter (by gate number) to actually get our cash refund. That part was very easy!

A map of the eateries. 

Ceiling LED screen.

This was so cool!

Exploring continues. ..

Selca. En route to checking out some duty-free shops in ICN.

LV.

A shot of the new terminal. Still being built at the time in March. Not sure what the status of it is right now; probably testing signals if they are in sync with their schedule? This added terminal will be for the 2018 winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

I took the photo of the new terminal when I was this space. Guess here this was. Doesn’t it look so deserted. .. like a temporary shelter for evacuees? Just kidding, but not really. The ceiling was quite low & plug-in’s were rare

Gate 118 - the gate where we board our flight to Vancouver. It was in the basement level of the ICN lol

From the perspective of the seating area. Stairs, 1 flight of “down” escalators, & beside that (not in photo) an elevator that took forever.

We then proceeded to check out some nearby places bcos we had time to kill. I asked a girl at a shop about the Hello Kitty Café & Charlie Brown Café but she told me they’re both closed =( I wanted to take photos there!!

A traditional Korean painting.

Ikon.

Big Bang’s “E” album.

GDYB.

I was close to buying it but. .. too expensive.

If you didn’t get a chance to wear a hanbok during your visit, you can do it here!

World map.

LINE x CHOCOLATE! Super pricey, but the items were cute~

What is going on here?

[myseoul16-blog]

eating in my hometown

The time now was 11:20am according to my photo.

We had our DIY breakfast at the hotel just before 9am. .. which means, we are having brunch ~2hrs after breakfast lol. It’s hard with so much good food around & all for a very, very pretty price. I had imagined traditional Korean cuisine to be VERY pricey before I came to Seoul - for many reasons. Traditional Korean cuisines are all very delicate & come in small portions (but there’s many portions/dishes), making it seem like it’s very “high end-esque”. It’s unlike your modern Korean cuisine like the stews & noodles, bcos they sell “traditional”. The restaurants themselves are also very well-furnished & give a very homely, traditional vibe, which means they care about (spend a lot of Won on) interior design. For someone like me, especially, who is Canadian, Korean food on the whole here in my hometown is EXPENSIVE. The seafood jjambbong that was 3000w is $15CAD at least, depending on where you go. Plus tax & tip... you’re looking at ~$20 for a jjambbong that’s the same size (or a bit smaller). 3000w is approx. $3.50CAD! You do the math. As such, I had expected traditional Korean cuisine to be at a price that’s about the same as “my” regular Korean food. But no.. . Insadong is known for its traditionalism & so most of Seoul’s “traditional” restaurants are concentrated here & in its neighbouring area, Bukchon (more in Insadong). & they are very affordable!

Back to the main topic: brunch here, at Na-Sal-Deon Go-Hyang. It literally means, “My Hometown”.

Their menu board. I’ll list some items & their pricing for you below bcos the items are too small to read from the photo.

- Ginseng chicken soup: 12000w

- Steamed kimchi with boiled pork: 7000w

- Spicy pork course meal for 1 person: 12000w

- Soybean paste stew (Deonjang jiggae): 6000w

- Mushroom bulgogi stew (1 size for sharing): 30000w

- Army/military stew (budae jiggae) for sharing: 20000w

- Spicy marinated octopus stirfry: 20000w

Shared dishes/stews obviously cost more than an individual one, so it may seem like it’s a lot more expensive compared to the other items. The table next to us actually ordered a shared stew & the portion size was huge for 2 ppl. It included 2 bowls of rice, & 6 banchan (sidedishes). ***Disclaimer: I eat a lot & so for me, it was a good “2-persons” sized portion, but ppl that know me personally or for an average person, it’s more like a dish shared by 3 ppl. For 3 ppl, 30000w, that’s still only 10000w each.

View from my spot. Only 2 tables of customers at this hr (11:25am) & we were one of them.

The ceiling. I liked how simply it was.

We were still looking at their menu when they brought this pumpkin soup out for us. Honestly, this has never been my thing: butternut squash soup, pumpkin soup. .. I’m not a fan of the texture. This was no exception. It was sweet with a grainy texture.

Selca~

After we ordered our food, the banchans came out. Ddeokbokki as a banchan was definitely a first for us! & geeez, it was super spicy despite not looking so hot! Then kimchi, radish kimchi, mushrooms seasoned with salt & sesame oil (MY FAV), & spinach (??) that was also seasoned with salt, sesame oil, & sesame seeds. I’m pretty sure it was spinach but the flavour was a little different. Maybe it’s the native Korean-grown spinach. Seaweed is a must! & the 2 sauces were for our pancake.

Dolsot bibimbap (7000w). Nothing “special” about this, it was strictly comfort food. The bibimbap sauce (not in photo) was sweeter than ones I’ve tasted before. We actually scooped some ddeokbokki sauce into it bcos that was so spicy, so it added a kick to this. I also regret not waiting long enough before stirring bcos I did not get that crispy layer of rice properly =(

Steamed egg (3000). There was really not much taste to it, tbh. There’s egg, green onions, & a total of like 10 small tomato cubes in it. We both liked it a lot bcos it was refreshing. Many dishes I’ve eaten here in Seoul were either spicy or had a strong flavour, so it was nice, on this last day, to eat something plain but still tasty.

Hot pot bulgogi (7000w). Can’t believe this was 7000w! A lot of beef & enoki mushrooms for 7000w. I’ve never had bulgogi in this form before. Usually it’s a stirfry or on a hot plate, but in a soup form? I didn’t even know such a thing existed. This was very delicious~ Sometimes the beef in stirfried or hot-plated bulgogi can be quite tough & dry, but in this soup form, the beef was amazing! Very thinly sliced & drenched in the flavoured broth.. .mmm reminded me of the beef steak in pho. Had that texture, if you know what I mean?

Vegetable pancake (forgot how much this was but was like <10000w).

Its size in relation to my chopstick.

Again, on the plain side but that’s why there’s a dipping sauce (which was soy sauce with a hint of vinegar), right? This was my least favourite dish during this meal bcos the pancake was very doughy. It’s soft, a bit chewy, while I was expecting it to be more crunchy. I also don’t recommend this to those of you who don’t like green onions much bcos there’s a lot of that in here, both in slender form & ring form.

So yeah, this traditional Korean cuisine was a very comforting meal; everything was not spicy (besides the ddeokbokki) so it was a great way to cleanse the palette after such a spicy trip haha I highly recommend the hot pot bulgogi from here =]

[myseoul16-blog]

branching alleys

Wandered to Insadong 1 last time after checking out & putting our luggage in a safe place~

This is a traditional tea house. A very long & narrow one. The 3 larger Korean characters says, “In-sa-dong”.

Across from the tea house was this little raised stage that led to more shops. We’ve passed by it before but there wasn’t much going on. Today, there was a caricature booth set up on there. I loved the colorful paper cut-outs that were hung up.

Next to the stage was an alley that contained these restaurants. My brother & I went to one of them for brunch. Can you guess which one? haha

Here’s the beginning of the that alley. There’s more to the left & right if you continue into that smaller alley. If you turn right at the wooden door with the black/white sign, there are 3 restaurants before you reach a dead end.

Same spot but with me in the photo. We are actually standing in front of the restaurant, where we had brunch. We took a walk around & looked at some menus, we were most satisfied with this one. Many of the restaurants here were traditional Korean cuisine, thus they all served similar dishes if not all the same dishes. But this one was the most cost-friendly. & I also liked the font of the restaurant haha I will share the meal with you in the next post.

This was one of the very few non-traditional Korean restaurants in Insadong; located next to the restaurant we dined in, this Italian restaurant is called Ahndamiro.

Here’s that “dead end” I was talking about earlier. This alley was very narrow. Only like 1 meter wide.

To the “V” sign is the Ahndamiro restaurant; its dining space actually extends all the way to the back. To the left of the black/white sign (which says Ahndamiro) is another restaurant. Next to that (left corner of thie photo) is a Korean restaurant.

A cute corner.

Behind me is that long but narrow alley from the main “entrance”. This was like a main road, where you could turn left or right & find more small eateries.

Spotted this through a window. Glossy handmade man-du (aka dumplings). They were so stuffed. .. & yeah, glossy. They were so shiny it almost looked like they were a display, but I saw a lady making them & then putting them onto the tray.

Various “jeon” (aka fried pancakes that primarily consists of vegetables like zucchini, & kimchi).

A that appears quite large from this angle but it’s actually just really narrow & long. I loved the exterior design/walls of this place.

Besides restaurants, there were several small shops as well. These hanging tea light holders are so cute!

I apologize for the glare. I should always check photo quality after taking the photo. .. but at least you can see my reflection =D lol anyways, I took a photo of this bcos I thought it was interesting-looking. It’s a block of wood with a string through it, & it’s meant to be hung like a curtain as decoration. Each block of wood is sanded & sculpted (& probably more sanding) so that the block of wood resembles a fish. An abstract fish. 

My brother & I explored the alleys in this branch of Insadong & eventually we got back to where the mini stage was that was at the entrance bcos by then, we had decided to eat at that 1st restaurant. Close to the stage were these 2 posters, “Young Creative Korea 2016.” From what I read online, it’s seems like an exhibition of works by young ppl, where the creator apply to be featured in the exhibition. I love these artsy things. Too bad I only found out about it on the last day, in the last 2 hrs before heading to the airport =(

[myseoul16-blog]

DIY breakfast @ Doulos

Before we went back to our hotel, we stopped at a convenience store. It wasn’t a franchise one like G25, CU, 7-Eleven, it was just a local one we passed by in the area on our way back to the hotel. My brother & I each had some money left on our T-money card & so we figured we should spend it all. I think the combined amount was under 4500w but we couldn’t combine the 2 cards so he got something that max’ed out his card, & I did the same.

This was what we got: Sesame flavoured instant noodle, Ramen-bokki, & a red ginseng drink (for tomorrow’s bus shuttle ride to the airport). Now, we each have <200w in our T-money cards haha

[fast forward to the morning of our last day in Seoul]

Breakfast in the hotel as usual; however, if you noticed my previous breakfast plates, this was wayyyy less than what I’ve been getting before. Still got the mousse cakes though. I can’t skip out on those =P I have a reason for getting less things though!!

Here’s why! I DIY’ed my own cup noodle! Added the cherry tomatoes, corn, sausage, cucumbers, & hard-boiled egg into my cup noodle. Now it’s somewhat “healthier”. & a slice of cheese~ So yummmmyyy!!!

After breakfast, we checked out, but kept our luggage in the supervised closet in the lobby.

Our hotel, Doulos Hotel, has won several awards in the past. Not gonna lie, the breakfast was amazing! For the price we paid for, I wasn’t really expecting such a grand variety of breakfast buffet items. Most items were the same for the 5 days, but I mean.. . they change up the other things (& it’s the good stuff that way keep everyday anyways). Like the mousse cakes. I did not mind having that every morning. No regrets haha. In terms of the location, I liked the area it was in but the hotel was very hard to find. It’s pretty tucked in; you need to travel down some narrow alleyways to reach either one of the 2 “exits” onto a bigger street. That was the biggest issue I had. Staff was helpful; the general manager spoke excellent English & the other staff members were all really friendly. Wifi (bcos it’s important) was good too. The hotel was also very clean.

Elevator selfie. No 4th floor bcos “4″ is a bad/unlucky/evil number.

[myseoul16-blog]

yoo-ga-ne

Officially our last dinner. ..

This was a place that I’ve been eye-ing for a long time; since 2014 to be exact lol. They specialize in what you see on their banner: chicken galbi, which is like ‘chicken meat’ & fried rice (on a large skillet).

Does the front & their logo remind you of any. ..Kdrama in particular? This franchise restaurant is called Yoo-Ga-Ne. If the front doesn’t look familiar, let me take you to the inside?

Inside at 8:40pm. My brother & I JUST made it to the last available table; the next group of customers had to wait in line. As we continued our meal, more ppl were in line.

Another view from our table.

The kitchen was right behind me. The glass shelf of little dishes was the self-serve banchan station (in the middle of the restaurant).

Any ideas yet?!

Ok, I’ll tell you. ..

This place (well, not this location) was featured in (one of the sponsors of) the Kdrama “That’s Ok, It’s Love” starring Jo In Sung, Gong Hyo Jin, Lee Kwang Soo, & Lee Sung Kyung! Now do you recall?!?! T=It was Gong Hyo Jin’s mom’s restaurant.

Korea No. 1 Chicken Galbi!

They have quite an extensive menu but they’re all variations/combinations of the same thing. The majority of the “base” of the dish was always chicken, & it’s basically all fried rice dishes (order by “head count”; you can’t get 2 servings of Item A & 2 servings of Item B if you’re in a group of 4, for instance). You can choose what you want with your spicy chicken fried rice, if you want anything in addition to chicken: vegetables, seafood, squid, etc. ..These are all more expensive but <5000w compared to regular chicken. If you want to top it up a notch, you can add toppings too! Like “extra chicken”, or cheese! These are also available for a small fee.

If you don’t feel like having chicken, you could get the beef only version (or beef + veggies... etc) or a seafood version (or seafood + veggies, etc). It’s essentially a choice of protein haha

Let’s get some banchans!

We’ve never seen the mint green radish before. It was super sour!! My fav was the yellow radish & then the raw cabbage with sesame dressing.

Our “dish” is out! We ordered the chicken + squid fried rice. The server brought out this large skillet & placed it on our table-top gas stove. Also included: cabbage, onion, green onions, & a few pieces of rice cakes.

We also got a side of cheese~

Once the gas stove was on for a minute or 2, our server came back & started cooking this for us. They do this for every table, not just bcos we look like obvious tourists.

The server came & went, came & went. One of his stops, he brought out this large platter of rice, kimchi, & shredded seaweed. This was for 2 ppl only.

It’s about halfway there!! Can see the squid getting smaller & the chicken changing color.

What I appreciated the most: they hand out aprons for every customer (but you can’t keep them).

The rice, kimchi, & seaweed got added to our skillet of spicy deliciousness.

Then in goes the cheese.

Mix to let the cheese melt.

Then pat down on skillet (then turn off as).

Selca~ Waiting for the crispy layer of rice to be created.

So yummy!!!

We finished it all!!

Final words:

- the cheese makes a difference

- the fried rice was pretty spicy. .. getting banchans (& re-filling on them) was an excellent idea

- 1 thing I wished they put in or have as an option = corn (bcos I totally would’ve ordered that!)

Another fast meal - took us like 30-35mins in total from the time we stepped in to the taking of this selca.

I can’t if I like this spicy chicken + squid fried rice more or the 7-minute kimchi pork stew from last night more. Both were so hearty, spicy, & yummy! If I HAD to choose one, I think I’d pick the fried rice bcos I like the crispy layer of rice that was present. Although. .. the stew mixed with rice was also very delicious. .. I can’t decide!

[myseoul16-blog]

pre-dinner

How many meals are we going to have today?

This pre-dinner ‘snack’ was food stop #4 today: breakfast at hotel, Noryangjin “brunch”, noodles as afternoon meal, & now pre-dinner at ~8:10pm!

But. .. bring it on! I can always eat more!!!

The street food booths just outside our little alleyway (a route we take from our hotel to the main street) changes. Some stayed the same, but others are new. We walked past this one before we got to our neighbourhoods food street so we decided to get something from here. They have several items including hotteok, some fried pastries that had red bean filling, & takoyaki (see the red banner on top).

We got the 8 takoyaki for 3000w. Not gonna lie, I would rather get the 3000w jjambbong again lol. I am not an expert on takoyaki’s... but I felt the inside of these ones were a little too soft & dough-y, maybe even undercooked? I was indifferent about them, but I still ate 4 of them. Why? Bcos I was hungry again. I needed to prepare my appetite for our last dinner!

[myseoul16-blog]

jjambbong + jjajangmyeon

Itaewon was a beautiful place & if I could, I would’ve wished to stay there longer but we had more things to do. ..

I honestly don’t recall which subway station this was; we went from Itaewon Station to Jonggak Station, stopped at Ssamgakji Station & Seoul Station to switch subway lines.

Likely Jonggak, I would say. Very interesting artwork along the pedways.

& this one. A depiction of ppl riding the subway, each doing their own thing (or zoning out).

So now the question is: why are we at Jonggak Station? Well, I’ll give you 2 hints!

Hint #1: we saw this at our next ‘destination’ (reason why we went to Jonggak Station). Isn’t this a beautiful painting? It’s an art print but still. .. wished the real deal was displayed somewhere.

These were actually real - they were acrylic paintings.

Hint #2: It’s 3:30pm on our last full day in Seoul. What did I NOT have yet, in terms of food???

Ok, I’ll tell you the answer now. We came back to Insadong lol. It’s really not a surprise. .. it’s close to our hotel & we both liked Insaong a lot! The true reason for this visit was: to eat jjambbong & jjajangmyeon! I basically told you the answer in the title of this post. Did you read the title?

For the 2 times we came to Insadong, we always entered from “this” end, the end closest to Jonggak Station. At the “entrance”, there was a little corner tucked behind the art stall (where I took the 2 photos from earlier). We saw this food stall/”restaurant” twice (& that sign twice) haha we have not had jjambbong nor jjajangmyeon yet!!! This was the cheapest booth we’ve found. Besides the price catching our attention, the booth inside was very “familiar” to us - it’s the type of place that ppl in dramas go to after work when it’s dark out, have a beer & slurp some noodles with a close bunch of friends. The last time we walked by, they even had several foldable tables & plastic stools outside their door, meaning the inside was full. Can’t go wrong with a place like this, right?!

We sat down; surprisingly not too busy. It is 3:30pm, after all. Most ppl are still at work, & it’s not morning/lunch time.

Their menu was simple. 3 noodles (jjajangmyeon/black bean noodles for 2500w; haemul jjambbong/spicy seafood noodles in soup for 3000w; udon for 3000w), sweet & sour pork for 3000w, & 6 drinks (soju, makgeolli, beers, Coca Cola, & soda/cider).

The kitchen, a fridge, cashier counter (with storage space underneath), & self-serve station of the yellow pickled radish. The lady there was the cook, the server, & the cashier (& maybe even the owner)! Talk about multi-tasking! She was so quick at it all too. Must’ve been doing it for yrs.

Self-serve water station; cups are on top of the fridge, which contained plastic bottles of water.

Waiting for our noodles.. . We were pretty hungry at the time. The seafood brunch we had wasn’t that filling haha

Jjajangmyeon. I liked it, while my brother loved it. For 2500w, they gave a good amount of thinly-sliced pork pieces. I honestly wasn’t expecting any meat in here at all. There was also some potato slices in there. I especially liked the noodles! Soft but chewy, not soggy. I saw how the lady did it: she had raw noodles kicking around on a tray (organized per serving so it was like balls of noodles), she threw a ball into the pot of boiling water (in a strainer), then after like 2 minutes, she took it out & put it inside a bowl. She had a separate pot that contained the pre-made black bean sauce only. Hence this bowl of noodles took less than 5 minutes! So good!

Similar idea with the seafood jjambbong. It was another type of noodle (this was slightly thicker). Threw in a ball of noodle into boiling water, & put the noodle inside a bowl when ready. Except, while she’s cooking the noodles, she also put in seafood into another pot, then later some bean sprouts. I’m sure the pot contained the soup & veggies bcos from the texture of the cabbage & carrot, I could tell the veggies have been in the soup for a while (so soft!). This was also done in less than 5 minutes.

Everything was just so. ..streamlined & quick! I was amazed by her skill, & looking forward to eating the noodles that were prepared/cooked in front of my eyes.

Let’s eat! If you know a place that has cheap jjajangmyeon & jjambbong, pls let me know! I obviously LOVE jjambbong. This jjambbong made me sweat so much bcos it was so spicy~ Spiciest one I’ve eaten my whole life thus far lol. & look at that insane amount of mussels for 3000w?!

Selca. Before the food.

Selca. After the food.

There was about a dozen of mussels in my bowl of jjambbong, minus the shrimp & squid rings. Bang for your buck, or what?

Selca.

I highly recommend this place, except I don’t know their name. If it what I think it is, they’re literally called “if you come to Insadong, ‘Here’,” 인사동에 오면 “여기”.

After eating our afternoon meal, I did some last minute souvenir shopping just in the beginning part of Insadong (from this end of the street). Then, we went back to our hotel, where we did some packing. We also needed to charge our devices & rest a bit. I’ve walked for a longer period of time during my trip but somehow it felt more tiring today. Maybe it was bcos I know the end of near. .. or maybe it was bcos we spend a lot of time taking the subway (both transferring & the ride itself). In any case, we spent maybe 3 hrs or so at the hotel. We got info regarding the shuttle bus from the hotel manager so that we are ready for tomorrow. The last thing we did before heading back out was calling our parents to confirm our arrival time back home~ That took us till almost 8pm by the time we were back on the street again. For more food.

[myseoul16-blog]

Itaewon to be explored

Here is part 3/3 on our Itaewon stroll.

Dori Kitchen. This restaurant was beautiful!!!

Selca. In front of the Dori Kitchen.

Dori Kitchen is an Italian restaurant, serving mainly salads & pastas.

One of the best photos my brother took during his time here in Seoul with me lol I think it might just be the place itself is so nice from all angles =P but yeah.. . it looks fancy but the prices weren’t that bad. More expensive than Korean food but even those have a huge range.

Front view of the Dori Kitchen

Next to Dori Kitchen is this fancy green German pub called Hirsch. They only open for evening/midnight service.

Here’s a pop quiz for you: what are these metal ‘containers’?

These are street vendor booths that are not opened yet. You’ll see some of these everywhere you go in Itaewon. 3 that are this close to each other meant this is just a parking spot for them.

Graffiti. This reminded me of Hongdae - another area I miss dearly.

What is Apeach doing here? I didn’t get what the sign said, but he waved at me bcos I had my phone out taking photos, so I naturally snapped a shot of him.

Cute little patio shared by a few shops.

The alleys are never-ending.. .

Mr. Bean was here.

Justin Steak. I love how big those windows are.

Maddux Pizza.

If you have a restaurant/pub in mind you want to eat at here in Itaewon & you’re in the area looking for it, make sure you look up & down. As I’m sure you know by now, many buildings are multi-level. While the 2nd floor is Maddux Pizza, the main/ground level is another restaurant, & their name is hard to read/find.

A narrower alleyway that leads to residential apartments (or maybe guesthouses/hostels).

That, my friends, was where we stopped with Itaewon. We made a left turn at some point & got back onto Itaewon-ro, then we went straight to reach the Itaewon Station.

There’s much, much more to Itaewon than what my 3 posts were able to show; however, I hope you enjoyed reading them~ That being said, I MUST revisit thi place next time I’m in South Korea!

[myseoul16-blog]

exploring Itaewon

In this post, I will continue to take you down the same street as from the previous post - a smaller alley that runs parallel to Itaewon-ro. I know the name of this street now haha it’s the Bogwang-ro 59-gil~

“All Kill Ddeokbokki”.

“Coffee & Photography” AKA Coffeegraphy. This was half café & half photo studio.

“The 12 Grow” - a Korean restaurant + pub that resembles cargo containers? At least that’s what it looked like to me.

JJ + JS (clothing & accessories). They also provide image consulting services & personal fashion styling.

Petit bene coffee bar.

This took me while to consume haha there red structure was literally a wall in front of the 12 Grow & beside the Greek on the Grill. You can see the sunlight through the little slit between the wall on the building of the 12 Grow. There was maybe 1 meter x 2 meter of space ‘inside” the shop that had a simple counter. Everything they sell is outside; hung on the racks. This was so different! I liked the ceoncept very much.

O’Tres, a fashion boutique.

A Korean cuisine restaurant, Wi-in-jeon-jib.

On the ground level of the Wi-in-jeon-jib is coco lounge.

BLINK. Believe it or not, between Blink & the Serendipity vendor shop is a narrow alleyway that apparently leads to all those things on the red signs.

A charcoal-colored building that housed many different things.

YD Partners Café & Pub, feat. poster of Obama’s visit.

Carato (I think it’s a pub?) & Mountain 80 Dining Bar.

An escape room is also here, or maybe that’s what Carato is.

Across from the Carato building: Oda Hair & Baa Lamb haha

Lian * Joy life style gallery & shop.

There is literally something new at each corner. So much to explore here in Itaewon~ I think I’ll need a yr to try out all these restaurants & bars in Itaewon alone haha 1 more post on Itaewon coming right up & then it is time for us to bid farewell to Itaewon =[

[myseoul16-blog]

unexplored Itaewon

From Gangnam area’s Sinnonhyeon Station to Itaewon Station, it took approx. 50mins. It involved 2 transfers of subway lines & about 10-11 stops. I have “10-11″ bcos it depends on which route you take, but regardless, both are about the same. For us, we went from Sinnonhyeon Station to Terminal Express Bus Station (line 7), switched over to line 3 to get to Yaksu Station, then lastly, switched to line 6 to Itaewon Station.

Compared to the walk on Gangnam dae-ro, I gotta say I enjoyed the stroll here in Itaewon MUCH more. There’s much more diversity in the types of shops here, esp cafes. Furthermore, among the shops, although there’s a lot of accessories shops, each has a unique charm in their products. Very boutique-ish. You’ll never know what you’ll find in the hidden alleys! Thus was the purpose of our visit - exploring the unexplored in Itaewon!

We got out of Itaewon Station exit 4 & continued walking.

Love this feel.

I was here a few days ago (omg, last week!) but I didn’t explore this end of Itaewon.

Adidas & Aldo.

CoffeeSmith.

Love the vibe in these narrow alleys.

Mandatory photo =P I was on the other end of Itaewon last week (the end towards Hangangjin). Now, I’m here on THIS end (the end towards Noksapyeong Station & Samgakji Station).

Okay, let’s explore~ We then turned back towards Itaewon Station exit 4 again.

Walking along Itaewon-ro (away from the Noksapyeong Station/Samgakji Station end, towards Hangangjin Station).

We made a right turn into this medium-sized alley. My attention was caught by those tote bags, tbh, which were at the very corner of the turn. But once we did turn, I was in awe by the cool stuff behind it haha a line of shops selling plus size clothing haha “Jean House, “Tiffany”, “Run”, “ABAD”, etc. ..

At the end of the plus sized clothing line of shops, you’ll find yourself looking at this beautifully designed café.

Selca. My brother pretending to be a Kpop star, feat. my baseball cap from Namdaemun Market.

From here, we made a left turn. So now, we are actually walking on a street that's parallel to Itaewon-ro.

Yellow Container. Look at thin that building is.. .

A caps shop! So cute!!

That place says, “A very beautiful moment with BSWAN.” It’s a small boutique selling jewelry & some simple home ware like mugs & keyholder dishes.

We continued walking & going into random shops, checking out what they sell.

Passed by Greek on the Grill. It’s so adorable! Only 2 bar stools available.

Side of the Greek on the Grill.

Liking what you’re seeing? I have more photos of my stroll in Itaewon in the next 2 posts :D

[myseoul16-blog]

Gangnam walk 2/2

This 2nd half of the walk was actually more interesting than the 1st half. I began to notice something that I hadn't realized during the 1st half. .. If you want to know what my discovery was, keep reading!

Lotte Cinema inside a building that had a million other shops, restaurants & services. A little hard to imagine that a movie theatre is inside a building but hey! Works for them!

Muji + Uniqlo.

Folder (shoe & apparel store, mostly shoes).

My brother & I walked into 3 stores in total in Gangnam, & here was 1 of them (the others were a ground & basement level shoe store, & the 1st half of the Uniqlo store). This shop, called Cath Kidston, is a floral print accessory store.

Their inventory mainly consists of bags of all sorts, but they do have some shoes, clothing, home ware, & stationary. If you like floral patterned things & vintage-styled items, this shop is worth checking out.

Zara.

Aritaum - Etude House - le coq sportif.

A-ha! This is the perfect place to tell you about my discovery. Literally.

While most ground level to maybe 5th floor are cafes, restaurants, shops, & services (typically beauty salons), the upper floors are offices, like I had mentioned. What I have failed to notice during the 1st half of our walk was: most of these “offices” were surgery clinics & academies. You’d be surprised. Many are banks, foreign services, trading companies, etc. .. but “reconstructive surgery” was what stood out. There was literally at least 1 sign of it in every building! In fact, this entire building (the middle one with full glass windows) is dedicated for reconstructive surgery. It was crazy! I can’t believe how many of these places there were just on 1 single street. Our walk didn’t even cover a lot of distance!

We almost reached the next subway station, which was Sinnonhyeon Station - we exited via exit 11 of Gangnam Station, & then just walked down the Gangnam dae-ro, eventually, you’ll get to exit 5 of Sinnonhyeon Station.

A look-back.

A look-forward.

A look-below.

A look-straight.

So these Street Media ‘stops’ in the Gangnam area is worth mentioning haha some yrs ago, a Gangnam “street project” was created & developed (later put in place), called U-/Ubiquitous Street project. 12 ‘stops’ in the area were built, where each served as a mini entertainment/information stop. Most had a touch screen gadget (maybe even multiples of them) that allowed ppl to search up news, play games, look at a map, or a photo booth that ppl could take pictures at. Most also had plug-ins for ppl to charge their phones. Since then, the project grew & there are now more ‘stops’ added to the initial start-up collection of 12. This #17 one was a full length mirror for taking a full-body selca =)

From Sinnonhyeon Station, we went to our next destination of the day, which was.. . ITAEWON!

[myseoul16-blog]

Gangnam walk 1/2

From Noryangjin, we took the subway to Ichon (line 1), switched over to line 4 to get to Sadang, then switched to line 2 to get to Gangnam Station. A trip to Gangnam was necessary only bcos it was Gangnam. .. but it was on the bottom of my list, almost like an “if time allows” destination for this trip. There are several famous places & of course the nightlife but before heading there, I actually already had a feeling that it wasn’t really a place for me.

The Gangnam Station underground mall.

It resembled other underground malls. .. so nothing too exciting!

A lot of bags, clothing, & accessories, plus some electronics stores, like phone rental, wifi egg rental/purchase, etc.

Finally on the ground level! Current location = walking along Gangnam dae-ro. A lot of tall buildings, where it’s all offices on the upper floors but shops & restaurants on the 1st-5th floor.

The Tongyeong Building. Don’t know anything about it. .. I just liked that design above the name.

What Gangnam dae-ro looks like at 1pm. This area definitely had a different “population” than what I’ve seen in all the other districts I’ve been to. It wasn’t student-dominant like the obvious student areas like Edae & Hongdae. You won’t see a single person with a hanbok walking around. They weren’t many ahjumma’s nor ahjussi’s either. Rarely you’ll see a woman wearing floral-patterned ajhumma pants. Ppl here were, generally speaking, very well-dressed. Most uncle generation ppl wore suits. Most ‘ahjumma’ aged women wore either a nice top & bottom, or mountain-climbing wear, which was a little weird to me. Student-aged ppl wore what normal students wear. I wouldn’t say ppl were very glam, but they looked very put together & neat.

8 seconds store!!

The 12-floor shops & services complex (in the middle of the photo) that merges into a WooRi Bank Tower. Beside that, the Pagoda Academy. Essentially, it is an adult foreign language school. The company hires foreigners to be teachers to teach Koreans foreign languages so that the country can develop better global competitiveness. It’s also for local ppl who’d like to work overseas in their professions, thus there are profession-specific foreign language classes here too.

Shops & restaurants on either side. Good luck finding a ddeokbokki stall here if you suddenly crave ddeokbokki, bcos I didn’t see a single one here!

Maybe these alleys would have one?

The walk continues down Gangnam dae-ro. Honestly there’s not much to do here for me. A lot of franchise cosmetics & coffee shops that are all over Seoul. Don’t know about at night, but day time.. .. nothing much for sure!

Selca, on Gangnam dae-ro.

Selca - this was about the halfway mark on Gangnam dae-ro that we had walked along.

Part 2 / the 2nd half of our walk on Gangnam dae-ro in the next post.

[myseoul16-blog]

seafood brunch

Recall from last post: my brother & I are at the Noryangjin Fish Market. It was near brunch time; we walked around the main floor/ground level & saw many different types of seafood. On the 2nd floor (where we arrived, once we got there) had a long hallway of restaurants that will either cook something you’d like or you can order off their menu.

To get the most out of our visit, we decided to find a place that will cook our selected seafood for us (the way we’d like) bcos we can order seafood off a menu any time. At the vendor that we bought our seafood from, there was a nearby “restaurant” that did this. Below is the photo of the restaurant. It was more like a kitchen stall with 3 small round tables & a bunch of plastic chairs.

The restaurant kitchen =P with a fridge full of soju & beer! I suggest not coming here (esp for food) if you are a germophobe.

An opening next to us that was a storage room, feat. an old & dusty folded carpet.

Here’s the rest of the restaurant’s dining area lol. On the other side of the plastic curtain is a space that contained some freezers/fridges/seafood tanks. Not sure who uses them.. . vendors? Restaurant ppl? Maybe there are some frozen seafood for ppl who’d like to purchase pre-packaged frozen seafood? Anyways, the dining space was TINY!

Selca. All the chairs were the plastic 4-legged circular ones, like the regular ones you see at street food stands. My back was against a mini fridge (beside it, a water machine with self-serve water on top), on which a rice cooker & self-serve bowls were kept.

Selca. This place was pretty cozy, tbh. It was “outdoors” but it was warm. Probably bcos it was right next to the kitchen & a bunch of strangers haha oh yeah, let me tell you about the kitchen! The place itself had 3 staff members from what I can see. Lady in purple was the cashier-server. 2 kitchen staff: did prepping, cooking, & “plating” simultaneously. They pretty much ran the whole show in that tiny kitchen, which had 2 stove-tops. The guy in red vest was like a “runner”; during our time there, he occasionally brought back bagged fresh seafood from outside & handed it over to the kitchen.

Alright, let’s eat!

Live octopus! We got 4 octopuses that were about 6inches long in length from head to toe =P The kitchen cut them up for us into 1.5inch-long pieces, seasoned them with sesame oil & sesame seeds. Still squirming on the plate!

Look! They stick onto the plate =D I have been waiting for this day for yrs! Saw a bunch of YouTube videos of ppl’s reactions on eating live octopus in South Korea & without a doubt, I added it to my bucket list!

Are those eyes???

MY personal experience: my chopstick skills are really good & I had some trouble picking up the octopus pieces off the plate bcos of their suction lol it was quite challenging! I hesitated when I looked at it, thinking, “it’s movingggg! I know it’s their muscle spasm.. .but they’re moving!” Then I put the piece into my mouth & felt it moving! Yes, inside my mouth! & then I bit into it.. wow! I cannot describe it. It was so good! Very sesame-y, & salty, the texture most closely resembled lychee jelly. It was very crisp but very fresh. So yeah. . imagine salty lychee jelly in a linear form & moving? haha

The mystery “tunicate” that we got for free. This was served to us raw cos we had no idea how to eat it. .. this was NOT good. The texture was ok, very slimy but it was tolerable. It was soft. .. but the issue about it was the flavour. It was not seasoned with anything; which was ok, but it was bitter! A very hit-your-nose type of bitter A bad one, perhaps? Or maybe it’s normally like this? We don’t know. We each tried 1 piece & that was it.

10 steamed oysters~ YUMMYYY!!! The oysters were very. .. grainy, but ZERO sand! I’m always scared of oysters bcos of the sand. That moment when you bite an oyster & you hear that *crunch* is one of the most goosebump moments ever.

2 grilled abalones. Not the biggest fan. I think they’ve over-grille them bcos the abalones were very chewy. They were only alright for me. This definitely needed a sauce (which was available, also self-served).

Selca with our finished seafood brunch feat. our self-made sauces haha one was a simple salt +sesame oil + sesame seeds, & the other was a garlic + green (chili) pepper + ssam/gochujang sauce.

All done~

My favourites (in order): live octopus > oysters > abalone > tunicate.

How much was this meal? 40000w. I don’t remember how much the seafood cost but it wasn’t that much, maybe ~26000w (10 oysters + 4 live octopus + 2 abalones). 3000w per person was charged as a “sitting fee” bcos we were dining in at this place = 6000w for 2 ppl. & the rest of the charge was the cooking fee, like what I had mentioned in the earlier post. I don’t know how the breakdown works. I believe they have some sort of system between the vendors + these restaurants (esp if they are nearby), which I had only realized after the fact. We “purchased” our seafood at the vendor but we didn’t pay for it then bcos they had figured we’d like to eat at the Market, so our bill was 40000w at the end (likely rounded), which included everything!

[myseoul16-blog]

legs for days

This sea creature deserves its own post bcos. .. they were so amazing! lol

Octopus!

I didn’t know octopus can be so big!

Selca. With legs for days.

Its head was like the size of my torso =O

Another look at them. It was pretty disturbing, yet so cool! How would one cook that if they bought it? Or. ..would they cook it at all?

These look less intimidating, but their length is still long.