Sashimi Till I Drop (Literally)@Caribu, Seoul

http://foodventuras2.blogspot.com/2013/08/sashimi-till-i-drop-literallycaribu.html

Coffee break@Coffee Smith, Seoul, Korea

http://foodventuras2.blogspot.com/2013/08/coffee-breakcoffeesmith-seoul.html

First Korean meal@Rest stop, along the way to Yeoju, Korea

Ever year, Pyung Kang Cheil church organizes retreats, inviting church members from all over the world to meet and have a great fellowship with Father. This year's retreat is held at Yeoju, during the warmest period in South Korea. The weather is very similar to Malaysia. Once we arrived at the airport, we departed to Yeoju right away.

We had lunch at a rest stop and there were so many people there, both locals and tourists. School children were having their summer break from school, and thus, family holiday time too. Feels like siesta in Barcelona. My first meal was the pork cutlet with rice, drizzled with cheese and BBQ sauce. What's interesting here is the ordering system runs with some online ticketing software or something, all these hungry souls will queue up at this ONE counter to order just about anything you want. It was hectic, crazy, and chaotic.

Firstly, it is all written in Korean, so we simply pointed and hoped we had our orders right. Then our orders are keyed into the system, and we were given a ticket with some Korean words and numbers written on it. We did not have time to ask much further, as hungry Koreans from behind were already pushing their way through.

Even waiting for the food was slightly confusing. Each counter serving different food may be putting up the same order number on the platform, so I did go the wrong counter initially.

But finally, my food came! Well, the food was so-so but we were hungry, anything goes! Quite expensive actually. This meal cost Korean Won 7900, so about RM 20 plus.

Summer food! It looked delicious, but it wasn't as delicious as I thought it was when I took my first bite. The dough was too thick and the sausage, was quite... economical. Sausage, sliced in half, thinner than ever. Cost was Korean Won 2000, about RM 6-7. Phew.....

Fry fry fry! Dakgalbi @Uncle Jang, Solaris Mont Kiara

This place reminds me a little bit about Myung Dong, Korea. Of course the surroundings could not match up to the environment back in MD itself, but the giant frying pan in front of us would suffice. 

The waiters here are mainly Bangladeshis, who could speak general Korean greetings. 

Cabbage and chicken fry fry fry fry! Dakgalbi!

A pack of instant noodles went in the giant frying pan too. Honestly speaking, it does seem like as if a mamak frying maggi mee goreng in front of me.

The only difference was some dolbokis added in dakgalbi.

And yes.. it looked as yummy as how you would imagine it to be from looking at this picture. The star ingredient was definitely the spicy paste used to fry along these deliciousness.

Super spicy, and the chicken slices were chewy and chunky. YUMS! The sheer fact of  the hot and spicyness makes you eat and eat and still don't feel full.... until you stop for a sip of water.

Surely, it seems like you could cook this at home, but I guess, the price you pay (RM22), is not just to fill up your tummy, but the eating experience that comes with it. Having a gigantic frying pan in front of u, everyone with a pair of chopsticks each squandering away as many strings of noodles and chicken as possible, and wearing a funky plastic apron while eating!

Dae Rae Korean Restaurant@Ipoh

We worked at a seminar held in Ipoh recently. The group had dinner at the Dao Rae branch, newly opened in Ipoh. In fact, the main manager (a Korean guy with long hair) was there too, managing this new branch. The side dishes, were only so so. Nothing great to shout about. What was great to shout about was the awesome success of the seminar and the company of friends present at the dinner table.

Grilled beef. A little too hard and salty. Average.

The pork came quite late. The pork slices were so fatty. They really had to be grilled really long on the charcoal heated grill to melt off the excess fatty bits. Even some of the hungry eaters who enjoy fatty meat felt this fatness was just overboard. Fail!

This cost RM30, for just kimchi soup and a pack of Maggi Mee. The soup was a little too sour for my liking. Almost like "Kiam Chai" (Everything goes in the pot) soup that mommies make at home, but Korean style. A little pricey to me, as most ingredients were just vegetable.

One key point to note: Anyone who orders this, should not soak the noodles too long in the soup. Just a couple of minutes after leaving the maggi mee in the soup really made the noodles fat and soggy. In no time the soup was sucked in by the noodles and no soup refills were given. I really do not think this branch in Ipoh serves good korean food. It was not cheap either. About RM 60-70 plus per head.

It was a great day nevertheless, the Word of God is flowing greatly in this town. May all who have bought the History of Redemption Series books will have their spiritual eyes and ears circumcised. Amen.

Apgujeong revisit@Solaris Mont Kiara

 Having truly enjoyed the first dining experience in Apgujeong, the crave to eat quickly came back. Within 2 weeks, we said hello to Apgujeong. We were served with a slightly different choice of side dishes this time. I really liked the raw thinly sliced beef with salty spicy marinate. Yums!

 They serve several mushroom side dishes which are quite delicious! I personally loved the fried anchovies with nuts.

One thing that I absolutely love about Apgujeong is how well our pork were grilled. You could see each piece was nicely charred, burnt brownish colour and they were nicely marinated too. The pork complemented really well wrapped with lettuce leaves.

Needless to say, second round of galbitang! The freshness of the soup with the dates and leeks. Delicious, delicious!

Tapao Worknights@WOW Chicken, Hartamas

Some nights became work nights. We are often misjudged by others thinking we lack work to do, but in fact, I spent many nights working. The comfort I get from taking my resting time to serve jail, is from the dine-ins!

WOW Chicken, is located in Desa Sri Hartamas. They have delivery service also. We ordered a pack of fried chicken for our working night!

 Siu Kai Yek! Ngo Zhi Sai Zhong Yi Sek!

Fried chicken ala Korean style. Do not be dismayed by the colour, in fact the chicken was very, very juicy. Truly enjoyable to chew, munch, bite. Half a chicken, RM 30plus. A little steep, considering the fact that you could eat a lot more for RM 30 with the finger-licking goodness KFC. However, the fried chicken in WOW really tastes different. Crunchy and juicy. Yumss...

 Wine, goes well with taking away the pressure from work.

A cheap Sauv Blanc, this time from Aussie. A slight deviation away from my NZ Sauv Blanc escapades. Peachy, and a little heavy on the palate. Luckily we had fried chicken to go with the wine. Nonetheless, only RM 30 over.. sometimes the tastebud's got to take the hit during economic downturn.

 

My dear friend bought me a pack of stroopwaffles at her pitstop at Amsterdam, coming from Prague. Wheeeeeee! One of my happiest work days. Next stroopwaffles eating session, June! Can't wait to eat you again, my darling stroopwaffle.

Ngarm, ngarm, ngarm, ngarm.

 

Apgujeong Restaurant@Solaris Mont Kiara

 Apgujeong proves to be a really good Korean foodie place in this Korean/Jap expat filled area. This restaurant just recently opened its door to patrons. We were greeted with a generous serving of side dishes, boy oh boy... they all tasted really yummy. Especially the fried vermicelli, slurpssss.

 Star dish! We ordered the galbi-tang, and the owner was truly kind. We did not want to waste the rice uneaten and intially told the waiter to skip serving the rice to us. The owner then added more beef for us to make up for the lack of rice. The broth was one good broth. Strong beefy taste, yet sweet and herbalicious too. Meat was tender, showed great stewing skills.

I was excited to receive a square shaped Korean pancake. It is usually served round shaped, and sliced into pizza slice portions. This is the first in squares. I liked it as a lot of leeks, spring onions and squids were added. The other dogma, however did not enjoy it. Awh c'on, RM 25 for such a huge piece. Steal deal!

The leftovers became my next day's lunch meal. Muahahaha.

Dinner like a local before the shytty 3D quality Pirates of the Carribean 4

We heard stories of thrilling movie watching adventures from friends who went to the 4D cinema in Seoul. The ticket cost RM 50, but the thought of watching an action movie with motion master seats sounded like a really awesome experience.

On our final few days left in Seoul, we decided to pay RM 50 for a 2 hour motion master ride.

Sadly, the only cinema that we came across as in Myung Dong, which did not have the 4D choice. We went online to check on cinema websites. Helpless act too, as it was all written in Korean. We went to another cinema branch few stops away from Myung Dong.

Hope suddenly appeared brighter for us when the cinema appeared to look big and prestigious. Despite our

struggles (unable to read a single word on the board, teenage ticket sellers by the counter who could not speak an ounce of English, walking for hours)... no 4D movie.

We settled for Pirates of the Carribean 4 3D. We could not even get the guys by the counter to answer us if the movie was dubbed in Korean or not. We just crossed our fingers that Johnny Depp would not speak Anyong in the movie. 

While waiting for the movie to start, we rushed over across to road and had our dinner. A quickie 1 hour bite before Captain Jack Sparrow went on board the Black Pearl.

 

My apologies on missing out all the restaurants' names, including this one. We were glad that our waitress was a Chinese lady, and she explained a little on some of the food when we ordered. Even threw in a free bowl of eggy-ish soup, somewhat reminded me of the starchless version of "Wa Tan Hor" gravy.

The place was decorated like as if we were staying in a wooden house in the midst of a jungle. Plants were everwyhere, and the place was packed with happy locals (Happy as in .. happy high, from bottles of Soju). Each table had at least 4 bottles of Soju lying around. What impressed me even more are the local ladies and their abilities to hold on their alcohol well. I know a bottle of soju is enough to turn me into a cooked lobster, and tipsy. I can't imagine 4 bottles on my own! Maybe if I stayed here several months more... .I might just pull through 2 bottles over.

The choices of appetizers served were slightly different from the usual stuffs. They gave more bean choices here. I wonder if different areas in Korea serve different appetizers. Hmmm..

The minced beef fried rice. Very interesting flavour! Quite delicious alright, but I wondered where did all the meat go. The pictures above was before the nicely piled rice get tossed all over looking for meat.

Beef curry. Awh so good! The meat was so tender. The meat would just fall off when you scrapped it off the bone.
The quantity was a bit too much for us. With regrets, there was quite a bit of leftover food. We could not stuff them in anymore. BURPS.

Good meal, good meal!

But the movie.... the movie, was disappointing. To think that in a country that produces Samsung products, and wherever you go, you see good quality TV screens displayed in public areas that the cinema quality would be top notch. THINK again.

The 3D was so dark, dim and the screen was tiny. As it was the movie was boring to me, the poor quality made it even worse. And yeah, the ticket cost me RM 40. RM 10 more I would get to sit a motion master seat, argh! By far the worse 3D movie experience that I ever had. Even worse than some I had in One Utama and Tropicana City mall.

Eric Kayser Artisan Boulangerie@EK Plaza, Seoul

Stumbled upon this petite, yet posh looking bakery situated along the underground walkway between one MRT stop to the other. There were only 2 to 3 tables placed inside the bakery. Patrons were mainly females. Like a 'desperate housewives' pit stop for gossips before going back to their hubbies/ boyfriends. We had to wait for quite while for a table because these chatty ladies just wouldn't stop their sizzling hot gossipy chats. 

The pastries looked delicious. Actually, more beautiful than delicious. The waitress by the counter told me that Eric Kayser's signature pastry was the chocolate eclairs. One eclair cost nearly RM 5!

Within two gulps, these smooth, soft, creamy eclairs disappeared. Very good eclairs I must say. Deliciouso!

Total damage. Coffee cost 2000 won..nearly RM 8! Coffee, on the other hand was nothing to shout about. Without conversion, and if I was earning Korean won, I would say cost of food here is considered cheap. Heck, for a cuppa coffee and eclairs in a nice cafe in KL, would cost me nearly RM 20! And local Koreans would only need to pay 4300 won.

Random interesting food@Seoul, Korea

 Strawberries come in abundance for a real cheap price here. I love it! How could a huge basin of strawberries only cost RM 15? These were easily the length of a finger. 5 of us ate almost half a basin and were full from these red juiciness. The remaining strawberries, we gave an old man who was sitting by the stairs heading to the underground MRT. You could see so many of them sitting nearby MRT stops where high traffic of peoplle walking in and out, trying to earn a tiny penny.

Some shine shoes, some sell vegetables, some sell socks. I really wondered how could their children allow this to happen to very people that brought them up from the time that crawling was only what they knew.

We gave our strawberries to an old man selling socks, and the joy on his face was a real joy for us to see. When we moved away, we looked back and saw him happily sharing his strawberries with another old lady who sat across from where he was.

 A blue fin tuna! Nicely sliced and slaughtered, displayed for all these hungry humans to gawk, salivate and slice even more. Found at the large mall (what was the name of the mall again?) by Namdaemun market. We were lost for a really long while, walking blindly in the rain.

A rather unpleasant walk, phew.

Korean dumplings! Not very good. Over here, you can purchase a frozen pack of 15 dumplings for RM12 - RM 15. RM 1 plus per dumpling... Not cheap too. Phew.

Dinner just outside PyungKang Cheil Church@Oryu-Dong

I made several mistakes this trip.I did not note down the names of the restaurants that I'd dine in.

I could only remember was the location of the area. This restaurant was situated just a street away from the church. We dined in together with some Singapore Zion church members after the service.

One of the better fried spicy pork dishes among the many that I've tried before. Super, duper spicy! An excellent choice for a really cold, chilly and windy night.

The seafood soup was also quite delicious. Hot soupy meals are always great when eaten in a cold weather. The chef was pretty generous with the ingredients. The picture clearly showed the squids and crabs popping out.

This Korean style chicken curry dish was average. If only the potatoes boiled a little while longer, releasing the stickiness of the starch, making the gravy thick and juicy, the dish might have been awesome. I still preferred our local "KahLiKeh". Local chicken curry rawks!

A fallen worldly dinner@I have no idea where this was, but it was along our way to the midnight shopping district

After the 3 day Yeoju retreat, we returned to Seoul. This was our first night out, and shopping, shopping, shopping was the night's agenda.
After receiving so much spiritual blessings, we returned to the ugly, frightful, sinful, fallen world. I'll explain why.

 We were heading towards the midnight shopping district. It was quite cold that night. Along the way, we came upon a stall, with puffs of steam coming out from pots and pans. Locals dining here were half tipsy, happily chatting away their day's endeavors. Some of us are fans of shell thingies (not for me), therefore we decided to have a quick bite at the roadside.

Peculiar looking shell thingies (varying breeds of clams) were placed on our table. My friends quickly toothpicked out the juicy bits inside the shells.

*barf*

 We also bought some fried chicken from a nearby vendor. Too oily, and sinfully fatty. Not good.

Although the fried chicken was below average, the lady owner has a heart of gold. She gave us a free plate of dolboki. Unfortunately, the dolboki tasted just as bad as the fried chicken. The rice cakes were too hard, and it was difficult to swallow them. The only good part was its spicy chilli sauce, which ended up as a dipping sauce for the blanched clams.

During the course of our street food snacks, we were reminded how we are still fallen, stuck in this sinful, dying world when several funny scenes happened right before our eyes.

a) Some drunk guy slurring, limping away decided to take a "leak" at a potted plant placed just next to our table. What a put-off sight and we crossed our fingers, hoping the guy wouldn't abruptly decide to leak on us.
b) Soon after, a MPV zoomed past us and stopped several shops ahead of our table. Sexy, skimpily dressed ladies walked out the vehicle and headed towards a narrow alley. Some went into a shady, neon lited corner lot shop. In a couple of minutes time, two policemen came in a car and the ladies were seen hurriedly running off. From nowhere, a different MPV appeared and the girls ran in and the vehicle quickly zoomed off.
c) Bunches and bunches of red faced drunkards in black suits, leather bags and shiny ties were seen walking out from the narrow alleys.
d) A homeless old man collecting old boxes punching a retarded fat girl, till the girl fell to the ground and bruised her arm. Policemen came not long after and broke the fight.

All these happened in just 20-30 minutes of our meal time and we felt that God has really opened our eyes that night to remind us what a world we are in today. We decided to leave the area. While walking away, we stumbled upon the highlight for the night.

Two old men, probably the age of 70-80, weary, haggard, thin to the bones, and whatever hair left on their heads were white. Both drunk, both laughing away, hugging each other. They were going into make-out mode. One of them was trying to kiss the other.

I thought to myself. My gosh! Even for gays, I had to witness the oldest of the oldest. The highlight reminder for us all.

Shopping temporarily took our minds off the incident early. After 1 - 2 hours of shopping, we grew tired. The sudden heavy downpour made things worse. We decided to go for supper. Tani! A jug of beer... impossible for 2 of us to finish at 2 a.m. The rest of  my girlfriends continued on shopping.

More fried chicken. Koreans love BBQ fried chicken, when beer comes into the picture. The spicy sauce fried chicken woken us up. The spiciness, phew! We could not finish them either.

When the heavy rain reduced to drizzles, it was already nearly 4 a.m. Ladies were still shopping. Madness!
We packed the fried chicken leftovers and they became supper food for my friend. He deserved a good treat, having carried out a tiring job of accompanying my girlfriend shopping from 10 pm to 4. a.m.

A quiet afternoon strolland tea@two MRT stops from OryuDong

I can't recall which MRT stop it was, but it was one or two stops away from Oryu-Dong. We decided to have an aimless walk around since we only had 2 hours free time before the 6 pm evening service at the sanctuary.

Paris Baguette, is a well established franchise bakery all over Korea can be found in almost every street available. At first, I thought it was a franchise bakery originating from France (from its name), but surprisingly, it was started by 2 Korean ladies who have great passion for baking. Today, there are more than 3000 franchises throughout the world, and they are also big in the US. WOW.

The other bakery that is also pretty obvious in the eyes of a streetwalker, is the "Boulangerie". I really wonder why most bakeries here are named with a whiff of French, rather than building a local brand name.

Bakeries excite me, especially ones that are nicely decorated with pastries deliciously presented. It inspires me all the time. Sighs. When can I finally fullfill this dream?

 

I ordered Boulangerie's trademark pastry, the cream puff. The cream.... Oh...my...gosh, was so light, fluffy, sweet, and cold too. Each bite can make one close their eyes, and smile like idiots. It cost about 1500 - 2000 won (Can't recall the exact amount)

 

This was the strawberry shortcake. The pastry is a lot harder than the puff above, a little mixture of cake-like and brownie-like. The cream used was quite similar as the one above, but somehow the tougher texture of the pastry blended well with the sweet cream and the slightly sourish strawberry slices. This was 2500 - 3000 won (Erm.. I think)

After a quick bite of sweet deliciousness, we strolled along aimlessly looking at the surroundings. Up ahead, we saw this stall where this hardworking Korean lady was busy making some local pastries and also cooking waffles on the hot pan.

Out of curiosity ( we were already FULL), we bought one to try it out. It was rather hollow on the inside, and the inner lining of the pastry was coated with cinnamon and butter. I think our local Hiao Pia/ Kaya Kok rawks this over anytime! 1000 won for this.

Nearby the MRT stop, there was tiny local coffee shop, called Coffee AD. The shop is no larger than an average bedroom, therefore the owner arranged tables outside by the pathway. The breeze was so strong at this time that anything left on the tables were blown away.

 

I found the decor of the coffee shop really adorable. If only the weather and road/walkways/public transport systems back in Malaysia permit locals to walk safely and conveniently, we may be able to have more shops like these which will create a more interesting makan environment for us. I wouldn't mind popping by for a cuppa coffee from this store everyday walking to work.

I ordered an ice blended green tea shake, which was one of the best I ever drank. Super sincere with the green tea powder, not sweet, and the ice was nicely blended (very fine). YUMS! Especially drinking this while sitting outside, enjoying the strong cold breeze.

Peaceful. Amen.