Wednesday, October 30, 2013

What to eat in Seoul? Seoul Food Post (Oct 2013)

What to eat in Seoul? Here is a small guide on what I have ate during this year Seoul trip!
Sinchon Station
Palsaik Samgyupsal (팔색 삼겹살)
Sinchon Station (Line 2 Exit 6) Walk straight until you see the crossroad then cross the street walk further down for 10 minutes the shop is located on your right.
This restaurant is real famous! It offers 8 flavours of Samgyupsal and gosh this is the best Samgyupsal that I had ever taste in my life (real soft & tender). When you order it comes with a seafood soup (soup are fresh) set.
Palsaik Samgyupsal 8 Flavour Meat
Palsaik Samgyupsal 8 Flavour Meat
Palsaik Samgyupsal  Seafood soup
Palsaik Samgyupsal Seafood soup
Must try when you are in Sinchon is real good! You wont regret!
Beside this you can try the Choon Chun Jip Dak Galbi too.
Gyeongbokgung station
We came across this stall at Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 2 ) selling Premium Walnut Pastry and it was 3000 won for 12 pieces and is delicious the filling is red bean paste with premium walnut.
Cocohodo Premium Walnut Pastry
Cocohodo Premium Walnut Pastry
Next we went to the famous Tosokchon that sells ginseng chicken! From Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 2 ) and walk further 5 minutes you will see Tosokchon on your right side. Was so lucky when we went there was no crowd and we do not even need to queue! That time was 11+am and when we were out of the restaurant the queue was incredibly long!
Tosokchon
Tosokchon Gingseng Black Chicken
Samcheong-dong
The second best in Seoul (Seoureseo Duljjaero Jalhaneunjip) 
Angguk Station (Line 3 Exit 1) or Gyeongbokgung station (Line 3 Exit 1). The shop is just located right opposite Beans Bin Cafe. (Just find Samcheong-dong Beans Bin Cafe and you will reach the shop)
The second best in Seoul in Samcheongdong
The second best in Seoul in Samcheongdong
Is a small tea house and quite famous around the local. We order "patjuk" which means red bean porridge which cost 6000 won per bowl. Its best match with the mochi they gave the taste very traditional. What I observe is that all the locals order this as well.
The second best in Seoul: Red bean porridge
The second best in Seoul: Red bean porridge
55 Beonji Ramyon ( 55 번지라면)

Just walking around and we came across this 55 Beonji Ramyon Restaurant banner located out side (small path of an alley) When I saw the tasty road banner I was like OMG we gotta try this shop out! (tasty road is a very nice Korean food channel)

55 Beonji Ramyon

So we order the very famous Jjamppong Ramen 79 000 won minmum order was two bowl.

 Jjamppong Ramen at 55 Beonji Ramyon


Mussel was fresh and delicious! Nothing bad to say about the ramyon simply love it! The price is worth for the freshness. Plus is not spicy it just look spicy only!!!!


55 Beonji Ramyon
55 번지라면
Went we were there we witness live shooting as well seems like this shop is really famous!
Myeong-Dong

Myeong-Dong Gyoja is also the most famous gyoja in Myeongdong and this is my 3rd visit I blog it here! Located beside Myeongdong H&M (they have two shops).


Myeong-Dong Gyoja


 Just order it NO REGRETS!


Dong Seoul Station

We was loitering around the Dong Seoul Bus Station and we found this shop that sells fish cake & hotdog.


Dong Seoul Station (Food Stall)
Dong Seoul Station (Food Stall)
Jumbo hotdog and is super nice! The lady gave lots of cabbage it cost 2000 won plus her fish cake are good tho only 500 won per stick
Chain Cafe

I'm grouping all the chain cafe together. Literally you can find it everywhere!


Beans Bin Cafe

Beans Bin Ice Cream Waffle
Beans Bin Ice Cream Waffle
Expensive waffle it cost me rm30+ hahaha still acceptable since the ice cream is from Häagen dazs you get to choose 2 ice cream flavours of your choice.
Coffee Bene

Coffee Bene
Coffee Bene
I ordered belgium waffle with vanila gelato (2nd plate) and I like the waffle compare to beans bin! It taste very sweet and soft! IDK what the 1st thing called but is a bread with cream topping and chocolate syrup and is a autumn menu.
Kyochon Chicken


Kyochon Chicken
Kyochon Chicken
This branch is located in Hongdae and is quite hard to find when I ask the locals they seems to like NO IDEA on it and it was 11pm+ we were hungry and looking for dinne. It taste better than KFC hahahaha!
Seoul Station
Beside that I also manage to buy some meat from LOTTE MART it was on SALE during closure of their business hours; 3 box of Lotte Mart (Samgyupsal)  it only cost 15000 won mega cheap! So I bought some rice cake and mix it and thats for dinner!
Lotte Mart (Samgyupsal)
Lotte Mart (Samgyupsal)
Stay tuned for my next haul post!
Note I will be blogging at http://joyssan.wordpress.com

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Seoul Itinerary Blog Post 7D6N (October 2013)

Note post is a copy from my joyssan.wordpress.com blog as I planned to shift to wordpress since is more convenient. Will start blogging on two sides as I haven't finish understanding wordpress. Now back to the topic.
My travel period was on the 14-20 October 2013 (7 days 6 Nights) Itinerary to share with you guys. This only a summary itinerary, details will be cover in other post.
Day 1
Arrival at Incheon Airport at 3.20pm (have a light meal by purchasing chicken teriyaki sandwich from 7-11 on the arrival hall next to skin food & reload T-money) Hop on to AREX (Airport Rail Express) to Honggik University Station (Hongdae Station) to make a transfer to Chungjeongno Station.
Check in Brown Resident at Chungjeongno Station (Line 2/5 Exit 4)
Dinner at Palsaik Samgyupsal ( 8 flavours grilled samgyupsal) this is the best grilled samgyupsal I had in my entire life highly recommended! This restaurant is very famous and is located at Sinchon Station (Line 2 Exit 6)
Have some dessert at Twosome Cafe after that at Shichon branch and walk lottering around Sinchon and we called it a day!
Day 2 
It was rainy all the day and the lowest temperature was 9 degrees. Journey to Sokcho which is is located at the north-east of Korea so is nearer to the sea they have a lot of harbour around. Mt Seorak is the main reason to stop by at  Sokcho.
Headed to Dong Seoul bus terminal to purchase our bus ticket to Sokcho Intercity Bus Terminal. Dong Seoul bus terminal it is located at Gangbyeon Subway Station (Line 2 Exit 4). (Dong Seoul bus terminal is just opposite of the exit)
Tips: when purchasing the ticket to Sokcho, inform the counter to get a express bus ticket and it will take 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach Sokcho Intercity Bus Terminal while the normal ticket  will take up to 3 hours. Cost for single trip is 17,300 won.
Sokcho Express Bus & City Bus Route

Check in at Casa Seorak for a night stay. Highly recommend this B&B in Sokcho! The owner Mr Jun Hwa was very nice and friendly and the B&B was very relaxing indeed it feels like home.
Casa Seorak at Sokcho nice place to stay
Casa Seorak at Sokcho
Grab some light food at Tiamo Coffee Shop that sells New York hot dogs their fries was awesome. Is rainy heavily thus we shelter there for a while and then we headed to Daepo harbour by using bus number 7 or 7-1.
Daepo Harbour at Sokcho
Daepo Harbour at Sokcho
Daepo Harbour offers wide variety of seafood compare to others harbour around Sokcho it is just beside the famous Sokcho Beach. Their seafood are really fresh! (will update on my food post)

Day 3

On the next morning we depart to Mt Seorak (Seoraksan) by using the same bus by using bus number 7 or 7-1 from our bus station located near to Casa Seorak. From the bus station to  the main gate of Mt Seorak National Park took 30 minutes. Then you need to purchase cable car ticket, please be early as the cable car ticket sold out kinda fast.
Mt Seorak
Mt Seorak check point
What a beautiful view.
Autumn Leaves at Mt. Seorak
Autumn Leaves at Mt. Seorak
Day 4
Theme Park Day! This time we went to Everland since last trip we went to Lotte World theme park. The fastest way to Everland is take subway to Jamsil Station (Line 2 Exit 8 ) and then take Bus number 5700 this is way faster than taking the bus from Gangnam Station since the subway travel route from Chungjeongno Station to Gangnam Station was 44 minutes and the interval bus to Everland at Gangnam Station was 1 hour once compare to Jamsil Station 20 minutes once.
You will reach Everland Bus station and ride the free shuttle bus once you reach there.
Everland T-express
Everland T-express
Tips: Get the Q-pass which is FREE OF CHARGE at the ticket counter near the T-Express, if you want to ride the T-express and print out this Everland Discount ticket!
T- Express Q Pass at Everland
T- Express Q Pass at Everland
Day 5
Is leisure day and we went to Myeong-Dong to have our breakfast. Myong-Dong Gyoja is the best food to have in Myeong-Dong and then we register ourself to get our free hanbok experience at Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center  which is located at M Plazza Level 5(same building with Zara)
Hanbok at Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center
Free Hanbok Experience at Seoul Global Culture & Tourism Center
We shop a while around myeong-dong. Personally I like the Olive & Young store (the biggest store in myeong-dong) that offers direct tax refund and the store is connected to Twosome Cafe as well.
After Hanbok experience we went to get some dessert at Cafe Bene. Then we went to Shilla Duty Free nearest subway was Dongguk University Station ( Line 3 Exit 6)
Note: Exit 5 is the nearest way to reach Shilla Duty Free but the exit was closed during that time.
After that we spilt up and I went to Lotte Mart to get some snacks while the rest went to Namsam Park (since I have been to there I did not went back again this timeLotte Mart was located at Seoul Station (Line 1/4 Exit 1).
Day 6
Another leisure day and we spilt in to two groups as well I did not went to Nami Island (since I’m not a big fan of winter sonata) I went to explore around some area that I did not covered on my last trip.
Thus I make my way to Tongin Market to get some famous ttebokki but before I reach  Tongin Market I saw Tosokchon (the famous Gingseng Chicken Restaurant) was not pack and had my breakfast there. Lucky indeed as we went out, the line was really long and packed. (reach time 11.30am). Tongin Market and Tosokchon is located near to Gyeongbokgung Station ( Line 3 Exit 2)
Next we went to have our dessert so we went to Angguk Station  and walk our way to Samcheong-dong and personally I really like Samcheong-dong is really beautiful and fresh all the houses and buildings have their own style and Samcheong-dong is really near to Hanok Village. You can find beautiful cafe, restaurants and shops around Samcheong-dong.
Samcheong-dong Autumn
Samcheong-dong
We walk our walk from Angguk Station to Samcheong-dong and then to National Folk Museum of Korea the whole area filled with local tourist and it is a very artistic place indeed and few Arts exhibition and museum are located in that area.
View behind Gyeongbokgung Palace
View behind Gyeongbokgung Palace
From National Folk Museum of Korea (just located behind Gyeongbokgung Palace)   we walk our way to Insadong which is very near and I went Ssamzigil a very famous places that offers Arts & Craft items.
Ssamzigil
Ssamzigil at Insadong
Day 7
Depart to Airport on 6 am. The Subway opens at 5.33am
Stay tuned on my details trip, food and haul post! It will be more details ^_^

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Secret009Kalacs:Kurtos Kalac at Publika

Secret009Kalacs is located in Publika near Eat Village GF and they are famous for traditional Hungarian Wedding Pastry which is called "Kurtos Kalac"

There are few types of flavour to choose from; peanut, coconut, cinnamon, dark chocolate, almond and original.This is my second visit and this time I'm trying out dark chocolate.


It taste like a bread but the outer layer is crispy  and the dark chocolate powder is sheered on it. You can feel the crispiness due to the sugar coating and if you dip it with the fruit dip is taste da "BOMB"!


Here is the fruit dip I think they mix few types of fruit they have another savoury dip which is garlic dip that taste good too with original flavours.


Here are the few varieties display 


The bake it on the spot! You can see the process of it too.

I still prefer original flavour! If you like to try the crispiness of it eat it under room temperature and if you take away it will be soft like a bun and you cant feel how crispy is the sugar coating is.

They only offer half loaf of Kurtos Kalac during the weekday,while on the weekend you need to buy the whole loaf of Kurtos Kalac and it makes you real full!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Osteria Real Blue Solaris Dutamas Publika


Osteria RealBlue is an Italian restaurant that serve real good Italian authentic food. Bring boyfie to try it out since I wanted him to try their risotto coz he loves to eat risotto and is his birthday dinner as well. 

Osteria RealBlue is just located above paparich and if you are in Publika is just out the Nando's exit on your right hand side.

The lady boss Sherry and staff great us with a warm welcome and she also ask our opinion on what type of dish we would like to eat.  Also taste and preference so she can recommend to us their best dish.  Is really helpful since some of the menu is written in Italian word we cant really know what's the dish is really about.

We are served with white breads and they have one special sauce that look like our Malaysian sambal but Sherry said that she learn to cook this sauce from the Italians, weird right? coz is really taste like ours and they use anchovies to cook it. sorry no picture missed snapping it.


Gamberi Con Prosciutto

This is our appetizer it is scallop wrapped with bacon cooked with garlic oil I guess and wow the sauce really amazed us when we dip our bread to go with it. The scallop was so fresh and is a big one indeed.


Ravioli di Pesce

This is what I ordered is basically a type of pasta with saffron sauce  that look like "wantan" hahaha for the filling have seafood in it and I really can taste the freshness of the fish not sure what fish they use but is taste really good.


Risotto Tartufo

Next is the Risotto Tartufo is basically "Risotto with Truffle". The taste is really nice and savoury. Hard to describe it hahahah... I think they really cook a good risotto! Will try their others type of risotto on next my visit!


Panna Cotta

Received this  dessert treat from Sherry because of my boyfie birthday. Is an gelatin dessert with blueberry & Hershey chocolate sauce on it. Like the texture is really soft.

A good dinner indeed! Contact Sherry for reservation!

Osteria Real Blue
A3-UG-06, Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur
Contact: 017-7380163