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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