Apgujeong and Gangnam in Seoul

Apgujeong is the area where you could go to Louis Vuitton's gallery and the area is filled with lots of branded shops. I was pretty amazed by the LV's building as it was really classy and sophisticated and it stood out from the other buildings. I also found a pretty classy jazz bar which was actually filmed in some local dramas and we also went to try some local dishes.

BaekGoDong is a dish with octopus and vegetables and mixed with chilli sauce. We also ordered the squid rings which were really crispy and tasted delicious with soy sauce. Chijimi is a Korean-style pancake which is usually mixed with green onions and kimchi.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After lunch, we moved on to Costco in Gangnam area and beware of the time needed on the road especially on weekends since we took about 1 hour to get to Costco. This was the first time I visited Costco in Korea and I was excited to see a real mega supermarket in Korea. On the top floor, there was electrical appliances, clothings, daily necessarities and I found my favorite Tide-To-Go which I haven't seen it since I moved out of Canada.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We went to the food section and we saw lots of food products in large quantities just like the mega mall in Canada and the ham and cheese are definitely cheaper than what is offered in the local supermarkets. Ha! Ha! I found lots of pastries like bagels, muffins, donuts, cakes, and pies and it was definitely tempting to buy and try everything. Next was the pasta and pasta sauce. The price was cheaper and in bigger quantities and we bought 6 packs of pasta for 12,000won and it cost about 4000won per pack in the local supermarkets. I think we spent about 2-3 hours in there and it is better to go on weekdays if you could.
 

Sapporo, Japan

Sapporo is situated in Hokkaido which is the second largest island in Japan with a lot of snow during the winter and nice cooling weather in the summer. Hokkaido is famous for its delicious seafood, ski resorts, lavender and flower fields, hot springs, sapporo beer and volcanoes. I think the best time to go is in the summer as the other areas in Japan will be very hot but in Hokkaido, the hottest temperature will be around 20 degC.
I met my Japanese friends when I was in Canada and we were living in different parts of Japan. We decided to meet each other in Sapporo last year to catch up and also to try the local food since I have not been to Sapporo and we met up in Tokyo & Niigata the year before. After we checked into our hotel, we took the subway to Susukino station as that area was famous for its food and shopping. We went there to search for a Gingisikan (grilled lamb) restaurant but for a long time, we couldn’t find any decent restaurant. In the end, we asked a policeman who was standing in front of the police station and asked him to recommend us to a nice restaurant. Fortunately he knew one and he directed us the way to the restaurant. We went through the red-light district area (we must be crazy...) and finally found the restaurant which already had a long line-up outside the restaurant.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, we were finally able to get our seats and once we sat down, they automatically provided us the vegetables and 3 meat portions and we just had to grill the meat by ourselves. Once the meat was done, we dipped it into the sauce they provided and wow.. it was tender and juicy and it tasted really delicious together with rice. If you plan to go there, make sure you wear something casual as the smell was so strong and it stayed with us for the whole night.

On the second day, we joined in a local tour so that we didn't waste time trying to get around Sapporo. Fortunately, we were the only tourists so we had the whole bus to ourselves. The Japanese guide brought us to look at the Clock Tower and the Former Hokkaido Government Building. After that we went to Okurayama Ski Jump which held the ski jump competitions in Winter Olympic 1972. We took the chair lift up to the top and enjoyed a melon ice-cream while enjoying the spectacular view of Sapporo. The weather was great even in August and we had to wear a light jacket as it was pretty windy.

Next we went to the Shiro Koibito Park, which is actually a famous Hokkaido chocolate factory theme park and their cookies, white chocolate sandwiched by 2 thin butter cookies, are well-known among Japanese. Over there we saw European-style houses with cafes and the best part was going into the chocolate factory and museum as we saw many exhibits, the production process and the whole place smelled of chocolate and butter cookies. If you have children, your children could participant in the process and try their hands on making the cookies.

Finally, it was lunch time! We were so hungry especially after visiting the factory and the guide brought us to the famous Nijo seafood market to try the famous Hokkaido crabs. We walked around trying to decide which restaurant to go into and we were able to sample Taraba crabs or Red King crabs and the hairy crabs or Horsehair crabs. Personally I like the Red King crabs as the meat was sweeter and juicier. We finally decided on one restaurant and I ordered a salmon roe with crab meat rice bowl together with crab meat miso soup. The salmon roe was so juicy and fresh as compared to those bought in the supermarket and the crab meat was tasty and refreshing. Yummy!

In the afternoon, we visited the Sapporo Beer Museum that was the oldest (since 1877) and the most popular brand in Japan. We were able to join in the tour introducing the history of Sapporo and the beer-making process and we bought some soft drinks and a beer ice-cream as we were curious of its taste. The ice-cream was not very creamy with the beer taste and actually even though I am not a beer fan, the ice-cream was delicious and I finished it up! We were sad to say goodbye to our guide as she was really helpful and provided us a lot of useful information about Sapporo.

The next morning, we decided to try Sapporo ramen at the airport since Sapporo ramen is very famous in Japan and the miso used is not as salty as some parts of Japan with bits of soy beans. I tried the authentic Sapporo ramen which was with bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and slices of meat. My friend tried the Sapporo ramen with butter and the other tried ramen with cream cheese and asparagus which was like blending the Western and Japanese taste together as it tasted like ramen with white creamy sauce.

Finally, it was time to bade farewell to each other and we promised to try to meet each other again this year.

Samgyetang

For people who are new in Korea, you must be wondering what Samgyetang means since we could see many posters with Samgyetang everywhere in Seoul. In the word 'Samgyetang', 'Sam' means ginseng, 'gye' means chicken and 'tang' means broth and it is a small whole chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, red dates, garlic and ginseng and boiled in broth. This dish is commonly eaten in summer, often accompanied by ginseng wine as people believe that this dish helps to reduce our body heat and replenish our body water after all the sweating.

This restaurant 'To Sok Chon Sam Gye Tang' is pretty famous in Seoul and it is often visited by even the locals. One recommendation is to come here before or after lunch hour as there are always line-ups during this period. Since this is a traditional Korean house, you could eat and immerse yourself in traditional Korean atmosphere.

This restaurant also offers 'Otgyetang' which is wood boiled with the chicken broth and 'Okorgye' which is black chicken broth and both of them are also considered good for health and delicious.

This is Samgyetang with milky-white broth and it is usually served with seasalt so that you could add the amount of salt as you like. The broth is usually boiled without any additional seasoning so that you could enjoy the authentic taste of the chicken and ginseng. Check this restaurant out if you are near Gwanghuamun or Gyeongbokgung.

Direction: Get off at Gyeongbokgung station and exit from #2. Walk straight for 10 mins till you reach a convenience store (GS25) and turn left.

Gyeongju, Korea

Often referred to as ‘the museum without walls’, Gyeongju Historic Areas have been preserved as they were for over a thousand years and are designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Gyeongju is a wonderful place to visit in the spring, summer and autumn however, it could be too cold to venture outdoor in the winter and a lot of the spots are located outdoor.

    I went with my friend last December and the weather was pretty cold as it is situated near the seaside and the land is pretty flat. We took the train from Seoul station and it took about 5 hours to reach there. We didn't make any hotel arrangements therefore the first thing we did was to search for accommodation. After our 3rd attempt, we managed to find a cheap and simple hostel with korean-style heating floor and it cost us 12,000won per night. We put our stuff in the room and ventured to the local market and found a really nice small restaurant that sells Bibimbap with lots of side dishes and vegetables.

     After our heavy lunch, we walked for about 30 minutes and we found Cheomseongdae in Wolseong Park, the oldest astrological observatory constructed between 632 and 646. It constructed simply with 12 stones on the base which symbolise the months of the year and 30 stones from top to bottom which represent the days of each month with a total of 366 stones. At present, this area is an attractive park with walls and ruins. We kept walking for another 30 minutes and we reached Gyeongju National Museum, several buildings housing the best collection of historical artefacts in Korea. Over here you could also see many original, glimmering pieces exacavated from the Tumuli Park site including gold, glass and jade. The gold jewellery worn by the previous Silla kings were beautifully made with exquisite design. We left the museum around 5 pm and since we walked there, we didn't know where to take a bus back to the station so we decided to take the back lane and walk back again. However the weather was really chilly in the evening and we didn't see any taxi on the way so we waved to a police car and guess what.... the police officer stopped his car and told us to get on his car. He said that we were crazy to walk in this cold weather and we managed to get a free ride to the station. That was my first time in a police car and in Korea. Ha ha!

     On the next day, we took the local bus to Namsan area thinking that we could just hop around the temples and statues. However it was not that easy as it took about 1-2 hours hiking in the mountains to get to one and there are about 122 temple sites, 64 stone pagodas, 57 stone Buddhas and hundreds of paths. Due to that, we decided on Chibulan and hiked for about 1.5 hrs. On the way up the mountains we only saw three people probably with the same interest and chatted with a grandpa who also led us all the way to Chibulan and recommended us to drink the spring water near Chibulan.

     It was a huge rock carved with 7 buddha statues and beside this rock, there was a temple which one could stay to study buddhism. The area was serene and we saw people coming from the other way, stopping, saying their prayers, eating their lunch and moving on again. We took a long break, drinking some hot coffee, ate our lunch and we took the same path back as we were not familiar with the area.

     After another 1.5 hours hike, my friend decided to take the bus back to the hostel while I took the other bus to Bulguksa, which is the crowning glory of the Silla temple architectural and is on the UNESCO World Cultural List due to the excellence carpentry work, excellent painters' skills and the subtlety of its landscape.

     There were many praying halls and I stopped by almost every hall to pray for my family's health and happiness. Make sure that you have a good pair of hiking shoes and water as there was a lot of walking involved with lots of stairs.

     On our final day, we decided to go to the seaside to see the sea tomb of King Munmu by taking a Bus #150 towards Yangnam (for 1 hr) and we got off at Bonggil Beach. King Munmu was the Silla king who unified the peninsula in 668 and it's the only underwater tomb in the world with the idea that his spirit would become a dragon to protect the eastern shores of the Silla Kingdom from Japanese pirates. However don't expect that you could see any tomb as the islets are off-limits and it could be dangerous to reach there during strong tides.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     Apart from that, we were delighted to be there as the weather was sunny and we saw a lot of seagulls and blue sea. We walked along the coast picking up rocks and we saw squids drying on the string near the local restaurants. We decided to go into one to try some fresh fish. We weren't sure what to order so we just looked at what other families were eating and ordered the same one. For 2 people, we had raw fish, fried fish, shrimp, escargots, vegetables to wrap the raw fish, side dishes like kimchi, egg, fried pork... it was a huge feast yet mouthwatering and delicious.

       After that we walked around and bought some fish pieces (oval shapes - filefish or leatherfish) for snacks on the train. We took the bus back to Gyeongju station and bought some local food - Gyeongju buns with red bean paste for our friends. It was definitely a memorable trip with my friend and I hope to go there again in the spring.

 

North Korean-style Cold Noodles

Cold noodles or 'Naengmyeon' is a popular dish in Korea and it was originated from North Korea. It comes in 2 basic forms: Mul Naengmyeong (cold buckwheat noodles with icy cold broth, fresh vegetables and egg) and Bibim Naengmyeong (cold buckwheat noodles with spicy thick sauce, fresh vegetables, egg and without broth). There is no fancy ingredient due to the harsh condition North Koreans are living in, however it is definitely a refreshing and delicious dish to try.

The restaurant that we went to is near the entrance to DongGuk University and the name is 'Bir Dong Myeong Ouk'. It can be difficult to find but if you ask around, I am sure someone will be able to direct you.

The 'Mul Naengmyeon' is a simple dish and it tasted very good after mixing with some vinegar and mustard to the noodles and the sliced white radish they provided. Usually the staff will provide a pair of scissors for you to cut up the noodles as the noodles are usually pretty long.

The 'Bibim Naengmyeong' was mixed with spicy thick sauce and it's actually not as spicy as it looks.

North Korean-style dumplings were stuffed with minced pork, onions and vegetables and the taste was simple yet tasty when dipped in soy sauce. Over there, you could find grandpas and grandmas who were probably from North Korea and it was interesting listening to their accent. If you are in Seoul, come and try and immerse yourself in the traditional North Korean-style cold noodles.