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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25Nov / 2024

Soondae Guk-Bap – Seoul, Korea

Sorry folks, I might not have the names of a lot of restaurants for these posts since I left it up to Chan to do the ordering from food delivery apps and it’s not very English friendly. This was a very nice and warm and comforting soup dish! Do you know what soondae is? Why, it’s blood sausage of course! I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it is mine.

Soondae Guk-Bap (sorry I didn’t take a picture of the innards!)

Delcious soup! Huge portion, I think it gave us 2-3 extra meals worth of leftovers!

Rice and raw onions and chili peppers to add to your soup! And of course a side of kimchee daikon!

Korean Wanja Meat Patties

I think that’s what these are called? They are smothered in like a sweet soy marinade and mayonnaise. Was very good!

Assorted Mandoo

I may be in the minority but I only like steamed mandoo or pan-fried mandoo. I don’t care for deep fried mandoo. Mmm…this mandoo was so good!

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22Nov / 2024

bhc Chicken – Seoul, Korea

One of the biggest bummers of my trip lays in this post. I was so excited to try bhc chicken. I’ve been watching Korean mukbangers eat their “bburinkle” chicken on YouTube for months on end. It looks like it’s dusted in like a cheesy ranch coating – and they dip it into this white sauce and just made it all look so good. I think you know where this is going…

Bburing Hot Dogs

Now that I look at the pictures, I can see that we went hard and fast on the bburinkle seasoning not knowing if we would like it. We didn’t like it. It looks so nice and cheesy and savory. IT IS NOT SAVORY. Here is a hard lesson we learned in Korea, any dish that is cheesy is also very SWEET. I don’t know what the obsession is. So yeah, this coating was making everything sweet. It was not good.

Bburing Cheese Balls

The cheese inside the balls were nice and melty but once again, this was coated with the bburinkle seasoning so it was too sweet!

Bburing Bburing Sauce

Here is the dipping sauce I told you about that goes with the kitchen. So what is the white sauce? Well, it’s basically sweet plain yogurt. Gross.

Chicken Radish Pickle

Radish pickle, look…how can you go wrong with pickle? It was fine.

Bburing Fries

Sigh…yup, fries seasoned with bburinkle.

Bburinkle Chicken

I am ppurinkled out just from these pictures. The chicken was fine…but sweet. I really hated the seasoning. Sigh…we learned the hard way.

Spicy Choking Rice (LOL)

I can’t help but laugh at the name of this dish. I enjoyed it since it was the one thing not ppurinkle. Hahaha…and I didn’t choke! I don’t think I did. Anyway, this meal was kind of a tester for Chan to learn how to order food delivery because Korea is known for it. It was a bit of a struggle at first but he got a full handle on it and well, a lot of our meals were food delivery which is all good with me! Disappointing experience with bhc but at least we know now.

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20Nov / 2024

Golden Dragon – Seoul, Korea

First day in Korea! We went to the National Museum of Korea. I didn’t take much pictures inside because I didn’t want to be one of those tourists…hehe. But it was a very nice museum and definitely worth a visit if you are interested in Korean history.

The museum also has Namsan Tower as a backdrop so if you don’t plan to go up Namsan Tower, I recommend coming here and taking pictures. Admission to this museum is free! Warning, many school trips here so…many kids!

Lunch was Northern Chinese food from Golden Dragon, it was a restaurant located close to where we were staying.

When ordering Northern Chinese food, gotta have the raw onions, daikon and black bean paste!

Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Pork)

This is a must order dish anytime you get jjamppong or jajangmyeon. We had the sauce on the side and was dipping it at first and then just poured the sauce all over it. It was fried very crispy!

Seafood Gan Jajangmyeon

Gotta love jajangmyeon. Gan (dry) just means it’s like a less soupy sauce – I like the more concentrated sauce and of course I love seafood. Was delicious!

Jjamppong

This was Chan’s dish. He enjoyed. I think it would be too spicy for me, I tried some of the soup. Hehe…

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18Nov / 2024

Korean Airlines – HNL –> ICN

I’m back! Just got back on Tuesday and wow jet lag is real. Moreso like, I haven’t been able to sleep even though I am severly lacking in sleep! The trip was very nice and I really enjoyed meeting all of Chan’s family members! I relied a little bit too much on Chan and his Korean skills, woohoo. My favorite part of the trip was definitely in Chan’s hometown of Hamyang. The homecooked meals were amazing – best Korean food I ever had in my life.

Weather was a bummer, I was hoping for 40’s or at least 50’s but man it was basically high 60’s all the time. We brought cold weather clothes with us but it wasn’t needed and I was so sad. This happened last year in Japan! Same kind of weather in DECEMBER. Well Koreans must be like the Japanese because a lot of folks were dressed in puffy jackets, heck if I know why. Chan and I was basically walking around with a tee and jeans on. Chan said they tend to dress for the season and not the weather, I say…the weather report is there for a reason!

Anyway, first post will focus on the food on the flight over. We rode in Korean Airlines and wow, it was wonderful. Sorry to say this but it was much better than Japan Airlines. Here we go!

Seared Tuna Slices with Oriental Sesame Dressing

The salad was good, but too much ruffage for me. I just ate the cucumber and tuna. Gotta focus on the good stuff you know.

Korean ‘Bibimbap’ offered with minced beef and seasonal vegetables, accompanied by sesame oil and ‘Gochujang’ (Korean hot pepper paste)

Their famous dish! I don’t know what was up with me but I was not at all hungry. It was such a waste, I ate maybe 2 bites and stopped. I felt awful but I wasn’t feeling that great so I didn’t want to continue and get sick you know? I even passed on dessert and went straight to sleep but that worked in my favor because…

Ramen with Side Dishes

I could wake up hungry and order the ramen! I never get to try the side snacks so I was happy I was able to this time! It was good, nothing spectacular. It’s honestly just Shin Ramen. But I ordered their cookies along with this and she asked if it’s okay that they heat up for different times. Yes…sure?

Fresh Cookie

I understood why she told me the heating times now. The cookies took WAY longer. But MY OH MY was it worth it. They are freshly baked. FORREAL. Like so soft, ooey gooey and melt in your mouth. I don’t even usually like the plain cookies but I gobbled up all three. It was that good. I was dreaming of this cookies after the flight. I guess they used my cookie order to bake up a whole batch of cookies cause I saw them offering cookies to the rest of the passengers.

Salad and Bread Selection

Second meal starter. Oops, I got two breads. I picked the regular roll at first and then noticed there was a taro roll and asked for it too. LOL. The pineapple dressing was not good.

Grain mustard sauce with braised beef served with pasta and vegetables

Chan’s main dish – he enjoyed!

Seafood pasta with herb cream sauce served with broccoli and cherry tomato

Another risk for me, a cream sauce seafood pasta dish. I was fine tho! And it tasted good! I didn’t eat the tomatoes lol. Nice final meal.

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28Oct / 2024

And We’re Off…

I apologize that I didn’t blog again for a bit. Like I mentioned, this is the busiest time of year for me. And honestly, I’m just running on empty at this point.

I am excited to share that I am off to Korea! So no posts for a few weeks, please follow me on instagram (maybeitsjenny) if you are interested in daily updates! If not, I’ll see you in a few weeks!

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18Oct / 2024

Mixed Plate Friday

Buldak Fried Rice | $7.99 (on sale)

My brother loves buldak noodles so when I saw this in the Longs ad last week, I had to get em! At first I was disappointed because I kept looking around the oriental aisle thinking this was just like a powder seasoning I add to my own rice to make the fried rice.

Just by chance, I went to the freezer section and it’s actually the whole dish there! You just gotta heat it up on the stovetop or microwave. It comes with two individual packets inside.

Sorry, but I think the portion is kind of small. This is actually both packs heated up. It was enjoyed, also wasn’t that spicy but that’s according to my brother.

Homemade Bossam

Odeng!

I love Sundays with Chan. Sometimes we plan meals on a whim and on this Sunday, I told him I felt like odeng but odeng with the fish cakes on the skewers (just like you see in the Korean dramas). So we made our run to Hmart and got the kit and also picked up some fixings to make bossam! Bossam looks nice and seasoned yeah? It’s all thanks to Chef Chan’s skills. What a delicious dinner! Have a great weekend folks!

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16Oct / 2024

King Restaurant & Bar – Ala Moana, HI

I was so disappointed when I heard Yung Yee Kee Dim Sum closed down. Chan and I liked going to eat there and grabbing take-out from there. No worries, they still have their take-out location at the Lanai in Ala Moana but that’s just not the same to me. King Restaurant & Bar started serving dim sum recently so we decided to give them a try! They make great lunch/dinner food so let’s see how the dim sum is!

Sesame Mochi w Red Bean Paste Ball (Jin Dui) | $6.50

I’m not usually in the mood for like deep fried dessert items but I had that craving this day! I enjoyed it a lot. And it wasn’t super greasy like I’ve had in other places.

King’s Pork Hash (Siu Mai) | $5.95

So puny looking. I enjoyed it! Tasted good, just like the other Chinese restaurants. If I look at this closely, it looks like they put an ikura on top? Usually places put a carrot lol.

King’s Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow) | $5.95

I’m impressed by the look and size of these har gow. Nice and soft skin with jumbo tender morsels of shrimp inside, would recommend!

Pan Fried Chives & Shrimp Dumpling | $5.95

Chives and shrimp make such a great combo together, especially in a pan fried dumpling. I don’t make the rules okay? They have a steamed option but I think the pan fried option is the only way to go.

Stick Rice in Lotus Leaf | $8.50

Chan loves sticky rice so we got this. He enjoyed it! I need to make him my version of sticky rice, nice home cooking that will have a lot more innards and flavors than restaurants (sorry, not sorry!)

Twist Cruller | $3.50

Another favorite of Chan’s. I’d like to get this next time with their jook. I love eating this with jook.

Chicken Feet w/Special Sauce | $5.95

Okay, no need gag. Yes, I eat chicken feet. Just me. I only like chicken feet dim sum style. They did a good job!

Beef Chow Fun (Dried) | $16.95

Can’t have dim sum without one noodle dish. I usually like to order seafood chow mein but they make a good beef chow fun here and it has nice wok hei taste. What is wok hei? Look em up brah! Shootz.

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