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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08May / 2014

Street Food – Seoul, Korea

So yesterday, I showed you the bad things that can happen when you eat street food. Let me share a few pictures of the GOOD things that can happen! While the corn dog was a set-back, I would still try street food!

Okay, this is gonna make me look like I only want sausages but CHECK IT OUT. Five different meats on a stick. It was DELICIOUS. I believe this was in Myeongdong.

I always see this on Korean TV shows so I had to give it a try. It’s an odeng food cart, the Korean version of Oden. This is fish cake, it’s the only thing I got this time because we were between meals. Was good!

Sundae. My gosh, I was so disappointed by this. I got it at the E-mart next door to our apartment and it was terrible. The ones in Hawaii are much better but I am sure it’s because I got it at a chain grocery store. I gotta try a good one from a food joint next time.

I didn’t get to try this food stand but I thought it look super cute. There were a lot of these types of carts in the Myeongdong area…I really want to go back to Korea SOON.

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07May / 2014

The Day the Hot Dog Betrayed Me…

Oh you read that right. During my trip to Korea, in a crowded Edae Shopping Street…I met my match. A nice old Korean man was selling corn dogs covered with crinkle fries out of a cart. Let me repeat that, CRINKLE FRY ENCRUSTED CORN DOG. I had to get it. I did. You know what else I got? For those who have a faint heart, avert your eyes now. Diarrhea. This dang corn dog was not cooked enough. As I ate it, I thought it had melted cheese in the middle with the hot dog. Oh. That was raw batter. I suffered! Then I had to look up diarrhea medicine in Korean to show to a pharmacy. And yes, it’s just like the Korean dramas! You walk into the pharmacy store and get whatever medicine you need! I thought that was pretty cool. 🙂 The pharmacist who helped me was very nice.

Scene of the crime

Doesn’t that look good? 🙁 Why did you have to hurt me so corn dog?

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23Apr / 2014

Healthy Bibimbap – Seoul, Korea

Can I start this blog off with a rant? Sorry guys, you can skip this paragraph if you want to go straight to the happy (I wouldn’t blame you!). Anyway, I finished work today and did my usual walk to my car and guess what I see? Someone had scratched my car. My new car. 🙁 The car I saved so hard for…has a big scratch on it. It looks like the person had opened his/her car door and let it fling open onto my door. There was white paint all over, luckily I got side body molding installed on my car so it’s the molding that got the grunt of the hit. Still hurts though and makes me sick since my car is only 2 months old. Sigh, wish the person left a note. Even if it was just a note that said sorry. I understand things like this can happen and it’s an accident. I think I sat on the curb in the parking lot for about 20 minutes because I was so mad/sad…lol. I feel a bit better now, not great but nothing I can do now right? No can change what’s done.

Oh! I forgot to wish everyone a Happy Easter! I hope you folks had a good one. I had a nice and restful one…had some cleaning too. Today’s entry will be sharing a nice meal we had before we hiked up to Namsan Tower. I don’t remember the name of this place but I am pretty sure it was a restaurant for tourists. They had a menu with…interesting English. We were able to order okay! I liked the food. I didn’t take much pictures because the waitress was a bit rude…

I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again, banchan is EVERYTHING. The banchan here was amazing. Not sure what the top right dish is…but it was my favorite! Does anyone know?

Sometimes a nice bowl of tofu soup can be the cure all…

I usually don’t love the earthiness of this type of veggies – but these were great! Tasted great.

Until we meet again – so delicious…

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21Apr / 2014

Trip to Seoul Korea – Apartment Tour

I took a trip to Korea last year and it was awesome. I enjoyed my trip so much – the food and shopping was great and affordable! I long to be back on the streets of Seoul sometime soon! I haven’t been able to share my trip so I will try to post everything that happened! Today, I am showing you the apartment we stayed in. We decided to take a big leap and sublet an apartment through Airbnb – it was a great decision. The apartment was about the same price for a single hotel room. This apartment came with three rooms, one bath, full kitchen, living room and washer and dryer – tell me that isn’t a better deal! We stayed in Yeiouido which is a city located away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist areas, it’s also home to all the major television networks and the Han River. I loved taking the subway back home after a long day and unwinding in a nice and quiet neighborhood. This apartment was also right next to an Emart which made for super easy omiyage shopping..hehe. Okay time to share some pics!

TV and Toaster…:) This apartment also had free wifi – we watched a bunch of shows we couldn’t understand. Loved the shopping networks.

Isn’t this living room so cute? I loved it. This apartment had a real cute and homey style that I loved.

Cute dining nook and bookcase full of books we couldn’t read.

Full kitchen with washer and dryer! The washer doubled as both the washer and dryer. Why don’t we have that here?? Or do we? Anyhow, the hosts were so gracious. They even had some food in the kitchen for us to eat, that was very nice. They greeted us when we got in and came to say goodbye to us as we left. A great experience renting this apartment.

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