stall food is in! x3

a lot of munching to catch up to! this past weekend, we were visiting jonggak station to catch the show JUMP, a martial arts comedy show (i recommend seeing it if anyone gets the chance ^^). i’ve been wanting to try this combo koreans seem to love: fried chicken and beer. we so happened to past by a cute one that even make their own potatoe chips (above)! its located to the right after you get off of jonggak station exit 4 where you’ll run into shops, karaoke, and restaurants. we skipped the beer and just got a refreshing bubbly sprite to cool us down but the combo was still delicious!

today we tried to find where my cooking classes are. we couldn’t find it and just found ourselves roaming around and getting distracted by random sights. for example, the changdeokgung palace and the changgyeonggung palace! after all they were right next to each other. unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the secret garden because you have to go on a tour to see it and when we got there, the tours were over but we decided to save it for another day along with the jongmyo palace shrine just down the street so it’s all good ^^. on our way back home around 6 PM we stopped by a shopping and eatery hot spot at station euljiro 1-ga station. even on a weekday, people filled the streets to browse and have a good time. we just walked into a restaurant that convinced our eyes with on-the-floor seating and big pots of boiling pork bone potato soup sitting on top of a burner in the middle of each table. the soup reminded me of mom’s filipino beef potato soup at home only this korean one was spicy and it had some noodles and some type of dumpling thrown in. as i felt my last sip of soup trickle down to my belly, it leaves a somewhat cleansing feeling ^^ after we payed our bill, we walked around the crowded walkways of shops and yes, stalls! these stalls in myeondong shopping area looked especially good so we couldn’t resist trying something and we ended up with our first CHOMP of spicy ddukbokki! jonathan also got some kind of seasoned fried fish cake smothered in their own spicy ketchup and a fried chicken stick covered in what else? spicy sauce! of course, after all these spicy foods in one go, jonathan felt a lil queezy but he felt that its worth it! to celebrate my first taste of ddukbokki here’s an easy recipe for it to try at home! CHEW your way into some spicy goodness~ xD

DDUKBBOKKI RECIPE

a famous spicy rice cake stall dish!

INGREDIENTS:

- a package of rice cake (dduk) fresh ones are best but frozen is fine too just make sure to thaw

- 7 good sized anchovies. remove the heads and the intestines

- about 3-4 cups of water

- 5-6 tablespoons of hot pepper paste

- 1 tblsp of sugar

- if you want you can add some hot pepper flakes to your liking

- chopped green onions to top it all off

(you can find ingredients at an asian supermarket or korean supermarket. try looking one up online near your neighborhood if you don’t know)

INSTRUCTIONS

boil the 3-4 cups of water in a large saucepan or wok and add the anchovies free of intestines or heads.

reduce heat to medium heat and let the flavors of the anchovies spread for about 8-10 minutes.

take the anchovies out of the water and add the rice cakes.

add the paste, sugar, and flakes (flakes are only if you want to add them)

stir until all the ingredients are mixed together

add the green onions

consistently stir until the dduk absorbs the flavors and the liquid has a smooth texture (pic of ddukbokki above)

plate it and serve! (if you want, eat it with toothpicks for fun just like they eat at the stalls in korea ^^)

yonsei yonsei yonsei yonsei~~~!!!

we’re getting ready for the big yonsei vs. korea university soccer game this friday! bought a couple of yonsei blue t-shirts to blend in with the other fans at the game or else im sure we’d stand out in a bad way. after my first week at yonsei i discovered that since the campus is so close to some mountains, it is very hilly! yet again i wonder how the ladies here handle heels in all hours of the day. i tried!…but i only lasted two minutes before switching back to flip flops again (-_-*) i at least  need to find some cute flats soon.

we went to see king sejong the great statue right outside gwanghwamun station exit 2 and Admiral Yi Sunshin’s statue just below from sejong. there were lots of kids playing in the interactive fountain surrounding Admiral Yi. the so-yummy picture above is from the japanese restaurant, so-yummy, that we randomly found just behind the big theatre next to sejong. we ordered classic udon soup, spicy pork cutlet with cheese, and pork cutlet with kimchi and egg on top. they truly lived up to their name! there was an italian restaurant next to it that had a huge line to get a table. now that i think about it, the koreans must love italian and japanese food because i see those kind of restaurants everywhere! anyway it was perfect to visit the king who invented Hangul (the korean alphabet) because that’s exactly what i have to memorize this weekend for my korean class ^^ we have a alphabet chart in our room so i went ahead and filled it out with the sounds (above).   go ahead and try it out!

movin right along~

yea i know why go to baskin robbins in seoul right? but you know what? they have different flavors AND cuter cakes here! america seriously needs more of these goods! the square pan dish was another random find when we saw many people enjoying this pan fired mixed dish that guided our noses through the door. unfortunately, there were no menus or pictures to point at so our waiter asked us in broken english what we liked: spicy? meat? (and i didnt catch this but politely nodded my head anyway) squid? in the end we got the ultimate mix: squid, pork, and bean sprouts with their own special sauce. yes, i CHEWED in some squid and to my surprise it didn’t have that sea taste that all seafood usually has. it wasn’t bad, not at all! the other full course was just outside the folk museum we went to that was in lotte world. you get to sit down on the floor and experience some traditional korean cuisine. jonathan got a spicy beef vegetable soup that included cooked cow blood. mine was a traditional pork soup that reminded me of mom because mom loves pork, especially the fat and my soup had a lot of both!

anywho, im enrolling in another class this semester but its a class outside of college. can you guess? a cooking class!!!!! xD im going to take at least one class a week of korean cuisine cooking classes here:

http://www.ongofood.com/cooking.html

CHOMP will be very happy :3 i plan on first taking all the beginners classes, intermediate classes and i’m especially excited about the pro classes! i also plan on asking ahjumma about how to cook some of her favorite dishes ^^ so i’ll come home fully stocked with recipes and a base knowledge of korean cuisine XD

it’s always fun to splunk

SHABU SHABU~ AND DUMPLINGS

i had my mind set on a restaurant called Naboo where they mix alot of goodness right in front of you but we couldn’t find it (T-T) so we went by eye appeal for a different one since almost everything is in korean. i spotted a restaurant on the second floor of a building that had pictures luring my taste buds. shabu! (i like saying shabu shabu~!! x3) we ordered dumplings not knowing that we would get the same dumlings in our order but with lots of CHOMPING power from jonathan we made a pretty good dent outta the seemingly endless supply of meat, broth (waiter kept refilling it), and vegetables.

afterwards we walked off with very round bellies to the seodaemun prison like we planned. they sadly didn’t let anyone standing in the chair that drops anymore (was hoping to film jonathan doing this) but at least i was able to stuff jonathan in a coffin example and lock him in the crammed space for awhile. we were able to see other monuments that were just outside of the prison as well. then we finally got to see the korean movie with english subtitles that we kept skipping out on! i didn’t expect it to be wincingly brutal (O_o) but overall it was pretty good. the movie was called the man from nowhere if you want to check out the trailer.

today we plan on losing our voices after we practice the 50 different cheers yonsei has for the big yonsei vs. korea university soccer event! the mentors club we are in planned this which im happy they did otherwise i have no idea how i would be able to catch on with 50 different cheers at the game! we also might try to get cellphones and figure out where our classes somewhere amongst the vast plains of the university.

we ate all this in one day…

seoullong tong, pork cutlet with curry rice, dumpling and rice cake soup, bread talk red bean smiley man, blueberry fluff, and apple bun~

just kidding! that was two days worth of food exploring! the last couple of days have been rainy and slow.  i think the rain has a set effect on both of us because the other night i slept for about 13 hours (-_-*) and jonathan felt under the weather himself yesterday. he feels fine now though and we are ready to go back in the rain! what better trip to go to in a thunder storm than to the historical jail where koreans were held and tortured by the japanese? thats our agenda today besides finding food and possibly the korean movie we always try to go see but somehow never manage to see it.

yesterday we did a little grocery shopping so we wouldnt be eating out for all meals of the day (just to save some food money for japan later). i went a lil creative in the instant ramen. by the time i was done with it it wasnt like instant ramen anymore with dumplings, bean sprouts, and mushrooms! jonathan added some rice that i made in the microwave as well and he achieved the unachievable by CHOMPING his way to being super full from “instant ramen”.

no this corn dog is not american

THE HEART ATTACK DOG

and yes that is a french fry dog. don’t worry it was bigger than that until jonathan CHOMPED it as fast as he got it in his hand. its the korean way of fried food and this dog is howling! sorry america but im going to have to be disloyal to you on this one! this is one of the many recipes i am not leaving until i learn it!

that dog was pretty much the highlight of my day. the rest was actually productive: waking up at the ungodly hour of 8AM to battle other exchange students in a click race for classes and tackling through a long line for alien registration at yonsei for exchange students. here’s a list of my classes as of now. maybe ill squeeze my way into something different later but here ya go: korean cinema, beginning korean, entrepreneurial management (not sure how this will go but it looks intresting. looks like we have to actually start a business for a grade), and swimming (since hip-hop was filled to the max (T-T)).

korea is a melting pot too!

FILIPINO MARKET

we had a little drama this morning when our fridge went on protest and stopped working (but i think jonathan broke it). ahjumma helped us take it out and gave us things from the empty room downstairs including a microwave, dishes, and a water boiler. thankfully we had another fridge stored in our room that works!

we had a late start but i insisted that we stay true to our plans on going to the filipino market thats held every sunday where local filipinos get together, eat(of course), and chit chat! i knew mom would never let me live it down if i didnt go ^^* after CHOMPING down on pancit, lumpia, and chow king’s siopao (moms cooking is better tho) we headed out for the gyeongbokgung palace! despite the simmering heat, the vast palace was filled with visitors. this was well worth the hike and only 3,000 won admission and the palace museum was free! since our legs felt like jello by the time we were done we decided to try to go see a korean movie we saw that had english subtitles at the electronic market/park mall. we mustered some strength to rush to the movie at 4:50pm but by the time we got there we could only get separated seats since the seating for movie theaters are assigned. giving up our hopes of cooling down with a movie and a bubbling soda we found ourselves exploring near ewha woman’s university where plenty of affordable clothing shops and hang outs reside.

by 6:50 we remembered that the ahjumma invited us in broken english to a get together dinner upstairs in the 5th floor at the shared kitchen. when we got there, other tenants arrived one after another and we found out that all of them are japanese! we didnt realize this after awhile when i realized them speaking japanese after talking to the ahjumma in korean. while we enjoyed our meal of miso soup, bulgolgi xD, and some other stir fried concoction(i ate it anyway) we discovered that the dinner was for kenta-chan’s(one of the tenants) 19th birthday! of course almost all of the conversations were in either japanese(since ahjumma speaks fluent japanese) and korean. mika-chan(another tenant and our neighbor) tried her best to translate some parts but i mainly listened and tried to figure out what they were talking about. i practiced some korean and japanese of my own! everyone was practicing another language in one way or another even our english ^^ i feel very lucky to find such a homely ha sook with a kind ahjumma and i can practice my japanese and korean at the same time!

another day…another CHOMP

BIBIMBAP!

i dressed better according to the weather i didn’t expect in seoul. HOT weather which means of course i didn’t pack summer clothes. oh no guess this means i have to go clothes shopping x3 speaking of wardrobe i have no idea how these korean girls sport cute heels and walk this much everyday! me, i brought my cutest heels for a night out in the town but i think i’ll be sticking with flip flops (-_-*)

today we had a mission: stay as cool as possible and what better way than to go to the aquarium! i found out that the aquarium is actually in the underground COEX mall that seemed like an endless maze of shops and yes, food. unlike the malls in the us the malls here are packed with restaurants and stalls. the hyundai department store had a whole floor dedicated to food=heaven. the aroma fills your senses with temptation and confusion on which one to pick! maybe the hobbits have the right idea after all having more than three meals a day: 2nd breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, supper, dinner….but we ended up with an old favorite: bibimbop! (mixed vegetables, beef, and rice in a hot pot) some koreans say beat the heat with equal heat so not only was it in a sizzling pot but the ahjumma also squeezed a good amount of red chili paste (i believe). it was getting too hot for me to handle especially with the packed crowd surrounding us (more like a stampede) so i let jonathan chomp more goodness. we topped it all off with some boba tea that was not made with artificial syrup oh no its all fruit and all good x3

we then decided to make our way to the electronics market just to take a look since its almost on the way home. it didn’t disappoint us when we saw floor after floor filled with electronics, furniture, and even a cute bookstore where i almost bought a couple of cookbooks. it also connected to a little mall and movie theater. i got excited when i saw that they had their latest korean film with english subtitles but we decided to save that for another bite adventure ^^