Gluttony over stories and food,

Ze friends from Sendai (Ogu and Saki) visited SK last week along with another friend, Lisa so I met with them for dinner. They only had a short stay so we didn't have much time to go around. Anyway, Yimei, who is a Korean (and is apparently studying in the same school as I go to) brought us to good restaurants where we can just try eating Korean dishes. Hence, food porn below. :D

[Day 01]

Bibimbap again! This one's more tasty :D

This thing is squid mixed with veggies. Its good but super spicy (E). 맛이지만 매오 (K). Oishīdesuga tsurai (J). =))) ;>

Who has the best spicy look? HAHAHA :D

Our conversations are so complex yet funny because we still have to translate everything into three languages (English, Korean, Japanese) for everyone to understand. Haha. But still we managed to have a good time though. ;)

[Day 02]

This small restaurant was in Namyeong. They have many customers so we waited for a few minutes outside to get seated - and it was freaking cold at this time, I'm already close to becoming frozen. x)

Naengmyeon - 냉면 tasted a bit sweet, but I think its good to eat during summer. We only tried it for Saki, Ogu and Lisa's sake. Hee. Brain freeze! :)

On their last night, we all decided to sleep together to help with the packing, and of course, more photos! Hoho. They left early the next day, while Yimei went to school, and I met Lyndon at the airport (blog here).

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A weekend of colorful and cultural.

Today, my korean "helper" Soyeon (or Tatiana, as what she likes me to call her) and I went to Insadong since she has been telling me that its a good place to take pictures and all. Insadong is one of the tourist spots here in Seoul with Korean traditional culture very much alive. Most of the stores sell korean handicrafts, antique pieces, ceramic potteries, and other souvenir items. Also, the store names, streets and alleys are written in Korean. Soyeon told me it was some kind of law imposed there. :) There are also lots of traditional Korean restaurants and tea houses hidden in alleys, so do wander around. During weekends, you would find the street car-free and with traditional musical or dance performances or parades for tourists to watch and enjoy.

Even Starbucks is in Korean! :)

So, one of the famous places inside Insadong was Ssamzie-gil (쌈지길). Its a five-floored colorful art gallery/building that contains stores that sells handicrafts, cute and quirky accessories, has restaurants, snack stalls and cafes.

Cute ceramic Soju shot glasses

Artsy map of Insadong :)

Graffitis all around the wall

For lunch, I wanted to try 한정식, (Hanjeongsik) so Soyeon brought me to one of the Korean restaurants there. Its a korean set meal with lots of side dishes. She said Koreans usually eat 한정식 during business meetings and if korean couples want to introduce their families to each other because the servings are kinda big. They served about 7-10 side dishes but most of them are vegetables so its not really hard to finish them all. hahahaha :DD

"묵" aka Acorn jelly, which I super liked!

"순두부 찌개" aka Tofu Jjigae, beats the cold weather ;)

I don't remember what they are anymore hoho. :D

On our way back, we bought 똥빵, which translates as "Poop bread". Weird name to call a food right? Haha. Its actually a bread with red bean filling. I can say its just the same with 붕어빵 (Bungeoppang). They only differ with the shape. But despite its inappropriate name, 똥빵 tasted really good, even better. ;) That explained the long line of customers! and though it was a little bit more expensive than 붕어빵, (3 for 2,000 won), I didn't mind. Hehe.

This place is a good place to wander around and to buy souvenirs but I'm not yet in the mood to buy so I didn't buy anything yet. For sure I'm going back here, and that time, I'll buy. :)

On our way home, Soyeon and I felt the need to change the cases of our phones so we both bought one. I bought red to give it a Christmas-sy vibe, hihi :">

What do you think? Hehe :"> I can't wait for Christmas! ;) :> xx

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Korean Food Challenge :D

Another one of my daily challenges, now this time I challenged myself to eat all Korean food in one straight week. :D It may sound weird since obviously, all the food here is Korean but if you know me, you'll understand that I don't go out to buy and eat food. Since college, I've been used to going to the groceries and stocking food in my room instead. And with food I'm referring to milk, cereals, oatmeal, yogurt and the like. But I'm not a picky eater though, I can actually eat any food, or Korean food there is but I just don't feel like spending too much on food. But sometimes, when I feel like celebrating, I go out and eat. Otherwise, every other day is a normal day for me.

Moving on, yesterday I started this challenge. Its kinda difficult for me since I had a little struggle budgeting my allowance for the week, and I had to cancel my grocery day since I won't be eating them anyways. But , I was able to complete it though and I'm very happy. Hahaha Aside from being able to tick this in my list (I've been going gaga to my list lately), this is an achievement for me so, yeah. Forgive me for that. ;) So to show you what are those that I've eaten, here are they:

Day 01 - Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

After my Stat class, I walked a few blocks and suddenly craved for tteokbokki. I saw this place and I heard they sell really spicy tteokbokkis so I tried it. I ordered Cheese Tteokbokki cause I remembered my roommates back in Manila, and its their favorite. ;) Its actually a street food found almost everywhere in Korea but I was not in the mood to eat it like that so I bought a take-out to eat in my room.

Day 2 - Goguma Latte and Green Tea Waffle (고구마 라떼와 녹차의 와플)

Well if you will think of it, waffles are not really Korean food but its a "koreanized" waffle since its made with green tea. Haha :D For the latte, its made with Goguma, or sweet potato. Koreans really love sweet potato, I swear. They have goguma snacks, pizza, and even cake! But for the record, I really love goguma treats. Ohh I can eat them everyday~ ♥

Day 3 -Walnut cookie (호두 과자)

This a one of the Korean winter street foods. Its not actually a cookie, its more of a mini cake I think. It made with pounded walnuts with some red bean paste inside. It really tastes good. :)

Day 4 - Bibimbap (비빔밥)

One of Korea's signature dishes - and one of my favorite Korean foods too. :) It could have different varieties, but the main ingredients are rice, mixed vegetables. and gochujang(고추장).

Day 5 - Bunggeoppang (붕어빵)

Another Korean winter treat! I've been eating too much street foods recently because of my work. I usually eat on the way there so I just buy whatever I see in the streets. Plus I this one tastes like pancakes so I intentionally bought this. Haha :D

Day 6: Mashed pumpkin (호박) and goguma pizza (고구마 피자)

*pizza not shown

We had our field trip today and our proffesor suggested that we eat at Mr.Pizza, one of the famous pizza franchises here. The food's really great, though a bit expensive for us. Hahaha =)) But its worth it and I would definitely come back here again, if someone would want to eat here with me. ;)

Day 7 - Bulgogi Toast (불고기 토스트)

As for my last day, I was planning to eat Bulgogi but since my friend and I had an appointment somewhere and we were kinda running late, we just bought this Bulgogi Toast at Isaac. Many students from my university buy here cause the sandwiches are so tasty. I couldn't argue with it anymore after eating this. ;)

Just blogging about these foods makes me hungry now, hoho. I think Im'ma grab some food first. So long! ;)

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Once in a lifetime.

They say that when you look at the clock and it reads 11:11, you should make a wish and for some reason it will come true. I didn't remember how I knew about this but everytime I catch the clock on that time, I would make a wish. For the last couple of years, I've been wishing for the same thing and for the same person. But as unfortunate as it is, it never came true. Everytime a hint of having that wish come true occurs, there's always another thing that gets in the way. So I decided that on 11/11/11, if nothing connected to my wish happened, I would let go of it already and accept the idea that maybe, it was never meant to come true.

On the lighter side, being here in Korea gives me a different way of celebrating 11/11/11. If you guys don't know, Koreans celebrate Pepero Day (빼빼로 데이) on this day. During this day people give Pepero sticks to each other most often couples, friends and family. Its not actually a holiday or whatever because not all Koreans acknowledge this celebration. Some thinks its just a marketing strategy of the Lotte Company (the company that sells the Pepero) or are only for couples. Anyways, since its my first time to experience this day, I thought it wouldn't hurt if I try to celebrate it to. ;) But I added a little twist in celebrating this day. Because I don't have a boyfriend to celebrate it with, and my bestfriend is miles away from me, I just treated myself for a change. Haha :) So here's how my 11/11/11 went:

I had another pancake fix breakfast at Angel-in-us cafe because I've been wanting to try that place since it opened in Yeokgok and I've heard they have great waffles (pancake places are far from here :|) so yeah, good way to start my day!

My fruit waffle and Vanilla Cafe Latte ♥

On my way back, I dropped by the convenience store to buy Pepero for some friends. If you have seen my Korea to-do List you would see that I've included in it giving out Pepero boxes today. ;)

I chose the nude one & the one with almonds since the red ones are so common already

And as the saying "Give it all away and it'll all come back to you." goes, I received Pepero boxes too from my friends and other unexpected people. I was more happier when I counted it and realized that I received 11 Peperos! Yay! So much for 11 huh? ;">

I also got this cute version Pepero bread from Paris Baguette. ;)

And I know its too early to buy yet, but being the eager one as always, I headed to Starbucks after class to buy myself the Starbucks 2012 planner already. I think they might ran out of stock after a few weeks so to be sure, I already got mine. Hehe I picked the half size because I don't want a bulky one anymore and it has stickers included as well so I don't have to buy separately like what I did this year. Hihihi B>

It already has a monthly planner, yeey. :)

Freebies! Freebies!

cute stickers!! ;)

So there, that's pretty much how I spent this day. You, how did you spend your 11/11/11? ;)

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