Category Archives: Food

20Dec / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

A bunch of bananas

Yup. Dole Bananas. After we returned our car in Jinju, I visited the emart before we loaded into the train to busan (ha-ha). I like bananas so why not. And they already yellow and Dole? Can trust right? The bunch of bananas had a bit of a journey. I may have dropped it here and there but they made it safely to Busan. After all that hassle, I tried a banana the next day and it was AWFUL. Oh my god I have never had a worse banana. Anyway, I think I tried a banana (non-Dole) at the airport lounge before coming home and that one was good. This was a big no-no.

Hawaiian Paradise Coffee Cafe

Look! A cute cafe in the Busan Train Station! It was pretty busy all the time. We don’t even have one of these here in Hawaii. I didn’t get to try it because I’m not much of a coffee drinker and there was a Krispy Kreme right across the way so I of course had to eat donuts.

Perilla Oil

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I learned the power of perilla oil during this trip. Just some oil in a dish with salt and you’ve got yourself liquid gold dipping sauce. We bought a pack of perilla oil at the Costco in Korea and it tastes SO good. I wonder if we have this brand here…

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16Dec / 2024

Hamyang Family Breakfast #1

Breakfast #1 Spread

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that my favorite meals during the trip was cooked by Chan’s Aunt, particularly this Aunt. She invited us to breakfast twice and both times were immaculate. You can tell the dishes were all made with such love, so much variety and so much fresh options. I wish I could eat like this all the time.

I wish I had the names of all the dishes but I don’t, sorry! This was like stirfried sliced meat dish. There was acorn jelly on the table which I wouldn’t surprised if she made that herself from scratch. My favorite on the table was absolutely the sliced octopus. She serves it up with perilla oil and salt basically. This trip is what made me fall in love with perilla oil. Good perilla oil that is.

Yes, I know, it’s just a bowl of rice. Well not just. It of course has some good beans in it, so good. Everything was so good. Insert crying emoji here because I miss this food so much!

Then she served up sliced pears on the little forks. I really felt like I was in a Korean drama. My only complaint? The heat in the apartment! I guess older folks like it warm so not only is their heater on, the floor is heated and the couch was a heated stone. OMG, us “youngins” were dying of heat. I couldn’t stand it and just wanted to walk around outside to enjoy the actual cold weather!

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13Dec / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Korean Corn

When we first arrived in Hamyang, it was in the early afternoon so it wasn’t time for lunch or dinner yet. As any Asian does, they start bringing all kine foods to the guest to eat. This was one of them! Simple steamed corn. I have never seen corn like this before but I have to eat it once offered! It was interesting. Waxy and chewy, I was a little confused at first but started to enjoy it afterwards.

Paris Baguette

Hamyang was a small town but they have a lot of the big franchises still. There was a Paris Baguette right by the hotel so we grabbed a quick lunch one day from there. Look at these cute mini hamburgers! The veggies look nice and fresh too. Chan and I enjoyed it! How come our Paris Baguette here doesn’t have this kine!

Before you ask, no I didn’t try it. Sorry, I know I try all kine stuff for you folks on this blog but I had to draw the line. Haha nah, it’s only cause I had access to so much good homecooked food in Hamyang that I didn’t want to waste my stomach space eating this. Curious about the combo, but not enough to eat it. Sorry.

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11Dec / 2024

Hamyang Family Dinner #1

We visited Chan’s mother’s side of the family in Hamyang. We stayed in a local hotel but everyone was basically a 3-5 minute drive for us. It’s a really small town but I loved it. His family are so loving and warm and they all were AMAZING chefs. One of the Aunts owns a restaurant so we got to grind so much good food every night. First night? Hanwoo beef, Korean beef! It’s like eating the wagyu A5 of Korea, they bought the plus plus version of it (aka $$$).

Mushroom Medley – peek that fluff ball! Does anyone know what that mushroom is called??

Here is the fluff ball unfluffed. They just dipped it raw in sesame oil with salt. It was delicious. A bit of a nutty flavor, I really enjoyed it!

HELLO. Look at that marbling. So good. Everyone super enjoyed the dinner. That meat was crazy.

No real dipping sauce needed or seasoning. They chopped up green onions seasoned it with sesame oil and salt and I’m sure other seasoning that we ate with the meat. It was the perfect accompaniment.

End the meal with a simple Doenjang jigae. Nice warm soup to warm up in the increasingly cold weather!

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09Dec / 2024

Train to Busan | Korean Rest Stop!

Everytime we said we had to take a train to busan, Chan would laugh. I think he is imagining me getting eaten by zombies but we’ll talk about that at another time. We took a train out to busan which then became the train to Jinju which is the closest stop to Chan’s family’s hometown of Hamyang.

I got a cute little kimbap/cone sushi pack from the train station for the ride. Was good! Nothing to write home about. I was surprised by the lack of bentos at the huge train station. They have eateries and convenience stores but even the convenience stores don’t have much of a bento selection (if any at all).

Jinju!!

From Jinju, we had to drive out to Hamyang. I forgot the exact distance. Maybe an hour and a half? So yes, Chan had to get his international license and drove in Korea! Rented this big van for all of us to fit in. Very comfortable and nice van. Chan did a great job driving through the countryside. There were a LOT of tight roads in the country side but he navigated through them with ease!

Before we reached Hamyang, we stopped at a Korean rest stop. I was so excited lol.

I love me some Engrish signs. I can assure you, if you bite me I will not love you. Hahaha! I didn’t try their buns so I can’t testify this statement.

The main eatery in the rest stop operates through a ticket ordering system. Order your meal from the machine and wait for your number to be called. Easy peasy!

Bibimbap

Chan and his family got noodles and I went for the rice. No regerts, I love the different vegetables they use! It was delicious.

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06Dec / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

If you watch social media, you’d know that plenty tourists love going to the convenience stores to grab a cup of ice and make their own drinks. I decided to give it a try! They make it so easy. The drink pouches are labeled by size that corresponds with the ice cup sizes! I heard that milk in Korea and Japan is doable with Asian stomaches so I had to try.

Yum! Tasted great and yeah, I didn’t get a tummy ache! Chan drank iced coffee every morning. Even mixed one with banana milk once (another trend). Wish we had this here!

Muscat Grapes

Chan’s parents bought a box of these muscat grapes from the Korea Costco. Don’t they look so pretty? Like perfection and packaged so nicely. But man oh man, we washed it up to try it and what a bummer. They were not good. A bit mushy and not at all sweet. Did we get a bad bunch???

DJ&A Potato Wedges

Found this at Costco and decided to buy a bag to try. I love potato wedges so I wanted to see how it would be as chips. It’s good! Interesting. Definitely look like potato wedges but tastes freeze dried? But also super hard to bite down on. Chan enjoyed it and I bought home the leftovers which the bros enjoyed too. Would buy it again! I wonder if we can find it here in the States…

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04Dec / 2024

Fred Pizza

This was our last dinner before our trek out to Busan/Jinju/Hamyang! Food delivery of course and we went for Fred Pizza. Korean interpretations of American food can vary in success as you saw with our BHC chicken experience. Here is what we got to try!

Half Mega Deluxe | Half Garlic Shrimp Flex Pizza

Garlic shrimp sounds good right? No can lose right? Can lose. I mean it wasn’t awful, but don’t expect a garlic scampi like topping. I don’t know what kind of sauce they used but yes, it was sweet. Not as sweet as the BHC chicken but it just didn’t taste great. I ate it but I definitely wouldn’t order it again. The Mega Deluxe is basically a supreme pizza so that was good.

Smoked Chicken

This was a very good side dish! Imagine huli huli chicken, nice and moist with great smokey flavor!

Bacon Cream Spaghetti (Rose Sauce)

Yum. Usually creamy dishes would send me running (to the bathroom) but this was good! A nice little zing of spice (okay maybe not so little zing for me). Very good! We said we should order from this place again (spoiler: we did). Good dinner before our travel day!

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02Dec / 2024

Macheuya – Seoul, Korea

One of the rare shopping days Chan and I had, we checked out the Shinsegae Department Store in the Myeongdong area. Well, I got hungry soon after some shopping so we checked out their restaurant level. The pictures of Macheuya looked so good and I was super craving Japanese food so in we went!

Matseuya Set | ₩32,000

Chan’s set. Doesn’t that look onolicious? Tempura, big plate of sushi, small bowl of udon and salad (no one needs that one). And what a deal! With the won to dollar conversion, this must have been like 20 something bucks! For all this! Chan really enjoyed this set.

Zaru Soba Set | ₩29,000

I’m crazy for noodles so it’s the dumb soba noodles that caught my eye. Hahaha, I know how cheap and easy it is to make this dish yourself but I just can’t help myself. This was my set, small sushi set, full tempura and of course the SOBA. And you know what’s great? They don’t just give you a manini portion like restaurants usually do (which is crazy because soba is so cheap). I super enjoyed my dish too. Chan and I are already planning our return visit to this restaurant!

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29Nov / 2024

Brown Tonkatsu – Gangnam, Korea

I see the brown donkatsu dish in many Korean dramas so I’ve been wanting to try it! Well, there was a Brown Tonkatsu restaurant near our place so we tried it out!

Cream Soup

This soup was good! Very mild in flavor but didn’t taste too rich. I definitely dipped my bread in and enjoyed.

Bread

Brown Pork Cutlet Set (Sirloin + Tenderloin) | ₩11,500

They ran out of shrimp this day so that was a bit of a bummer especially since Chan likes shrimp cutlets. So we got this set, I really enjoyed it. The brown sauce isn’t really a gravy, it’s almost like a tangy steak sauce gravy thing. I liked it. Chan’s brother wasn’t a huge fan and said they have nothing on Tonkatsu Tamafuji. Haha, I agree that Tamafuji is winners but I guess I wouldn’t compare this dish to theirs because it’s a completely different dish? Anyway, I enjoyed it! Fulfilled my craving. 🙂

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27Nov / 2024

Costco – Seoul, Korea

Costco Korea is cool as heck and I would go back again if I could. We actually went twice during this trip lol. They have everything our costco doesn’t have and it’s much less crazy. They do not check membership cards going in (so yeah, definitely no scanner either). I was able to use my Costco credit card as membership and payment card perfectly! The dollar to won rate is amazing right now so anytime we made purchases, we selected the Korean won option when asked. Look at their Executive Membership price, that’s like $70 bucks? Geez!

Found these Nike belt bags which is all the rage with my brothers so I got two for a good price! Why don’t our Costco’s have good brands like this? Korea is really into UCLA branded clothing and…National Geographic is a huge brand here. Yes, that National Geographic. I have no idea why.

Man if I lived in Korea, I would be buying their fresh foods all the time!

Everything looked so good…!

Look! They even have ready to cook soups/stews. How perfect!!!

I don’t know why I took this picture. Probably just another thing we don’t have here in the States. Wish I took pictures of their fresh sushi platters, looked restaurant quality. I didn’t even get to try their food court…they sell tteokbokki and a pork bulgogi bake (opposed to chicken bake) but I just wanted to get their hot dog. I wanted to make sure they use all beef hot dogs and not the asian sausages. I guess I’ll have to return to try next time. Have a wonderful thanksgiving everyone!

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