Oh boy am I jetlagged still! I knocked out at around 9pm from lack of sleep and exhaustion and still woke up at 1am. I couldn’t go back to sleep. It’s daytime in the US.
I waited a bit until Vince woke up too and we went to do a quick morning workout at our hotel gym. It was small but nice because it was just the two of us.
For breakfast, we wandered and meandered around the nearby streets and taking note of all the busy restaurants we saw last night with long lines.
One of the restaurants was a 24/7 restaurant that featured mostly Korean soup and sausage. We wanted soup because of the super cold morning.
The sausages are packed with glass noodles, which with the heat of the broth, slowly fell out. I didn’t mind because it reminded me of noodle soup. There were also slices of pork that was tender and fatty but thinly sliced. I liked adding the additional pork slices from the platter to my hot soup to soften the meat and melt the fat a little bit.
Soondae hell rice soup. Vince got this soup as a person combo that also came with a plate of sliced pork and pork sausages. My favorite was the dark brown one because it reminds me of pork blood cake. But man, it says HELL in the name of the soup and it sure gave Vince hell. Even the waitress warned him it will be very spicy but he wanted spicy. He said it’s not Korea unless he can reck himself with their spice level. He totally regretted it! He was eating so slow and sweating profusely. He eventually diluted it with 50% cold drinking water after spooning some of the original soup out first.
Korean blood sausage soup. This was my soup and I chose a non-spicy one. I knew better than to challenge a spice level in SOUTH KOREA. I’m sure their spice scales are accurate; not like Vince. It was delicious and comforting in the deepest level possible. It was so savory yet not salty.
Afterwards, Vince and I went to visit one of the coffee shops we saw lit up last night as we walked from the subway to our hotel. It was called WITH COFFEE ROASTERY. The place is so beautiful and filled with large, live plants. It was very green. Cute shop.
Vince got the cafe latte and I got the caramel latte. They call themselves a roastery but I didn’t see any actual beans being sold. Hmm..
My caramel latte was mediocre. I wish they made a cute latte art. However, the earl grey cake was very yummy! It was very light, airy and not too sweet. The earl grey really comes through in the cream. I also liked that the cake had like 4:1 ratio of cream to cake! It’s the opposite of our usual cakes.
Afterwards, we went to a convenience store to try a banana milk to see what the fuss is about! In the airplane ride over, all of the Korean movies I watched had banana milk in it. It was .. good and drinkable. It was interesting. It tasted like sweet milk with a banana flavor. I think I would love it more if it were a different flavor.. like strawberry.. or chocolate… like chocolate milk?!
After walking around the Seoul Tower and Namsan Park, we took a short subway ride to Myeongdong to check out Namdaemun Market. It is known for their braised cuttlefish and noodle alleys.
The market is known to be a fashion district during the daytime and food market at night time. We went somewhere in the late afternoon. There are tons of stands of clothes and some food stands in the middle of the rows. We wondered where the food stands would be set up at night time. There were about 10 food stands total and and all selling the same things for the same price so it didn’t really mattered which food stand you got food at. Except, there was one food stand selling the cheese potato with a ridiculously long line. We don’t like to wait in line for food, especially on vacation so we went to a different potato stand.
Fried potato with mozzarella and vegetable. This was insanely good. Although it literally only had like 3 small carrot sticks inside, it was super stuffed with mozarella. All melted and overwhelming amount of fried melty cheese. I loved it. Even the fried dough batter was delicious and not too much. It was good!!! So good! I would eat this again in a heartbeat.
Fish cake stick. This was so simple yet so good. It was only 1000 won. You get one stick that they take apart and put in a small cup with some of the fish stick broth it was cooked in. The broth was very hot, very clear, very light and very comforting.
Vince was disappointed in the coffee shop earlier today because he wanted a real roastery coffee that served good drip coffee. I also have to admit even though I am not a coffee snob: it wasn’t that great either. I think even Starbucks is better. I think a lot of these coffee shops are set up for pictures and cute handouts.
Vince searched the web for Astronomer’s Coffee, which was nearby thankfully. He got the ETHIOPIA. Guji Denbi Uddo Natural G1 (honey, peach, blackberry). According to him, it was really good and satisfied his craving.
Very nearby, we also came across one of the many boba and tea shops. Why was I surprised there were so many?? I mean, the Asian countries aren’t that far from each other. It is a Taiwanese boba joint called Wanpo Tea Shop.
I got the Soybean milk tea. I didn’t feel like getting boba but just wanted hot milky tea to drink. And I’ve never heard of soybean milk tea combination in the States. It was very good! I could taste the subtle flavors of soymilk and milk tea at equal levels and they complemented each other well.
Continuing on our walk back, we ran by the stands we saw had the foods to try on the street: egg cheese bread. I had to get it!
The egg cheese bread was so good. So it was a hard boiled egg on the inside, lightly salted. The bread had a mild sweetness to it and texturally tasted almost like cornbread with a subtle cheese flavor. For once, the cheese not being too much was a good thing to not overpower the subtle sweetness of the bread and saltiness of the egg. It all married together perfectly well.
Vince got the chicken and green onion skewer. It was so simple yet so good. The chicken was moist and flavorful.
For dinner we got bb.q chicken. Of course, how can we visit South Korea without trying their fried chicken?! They served one of the best fried chicken back in the states and I heard this place in particular is number one back at home due to their twice frying technique to keep the chicken super moist on the inside yet attain the crispy crunch on the outside.
We got half and half of the Golden Original chicken and the Cheesling chicken, which is topped with a blend of powdery sweet cheeses. THE CHICKEN WAS INSANELY GOOD. I am not saying or feeling it because of the reputation, but it was the best fried chicken I’ve ever had hands down. It beat Popeyes chicken by a mile.
How moist and juicy the chicken is on the inside was insane!! And how crispy and light the batter was on the outside was crazy yet thin. It was so good. So ridiculously good chicken. The chicken was seasoned super well. Not just with salt and pepper. With something else that we could subtly notice but can’t pinpoint. Even the crust had a very subtle flavor to it.
The cheesling was a very mild yet distinctly sweet cheese taste that was so subtle yet delicious. I don’t know how they mastered this mild flavor so perfectly.
As a side, we couldn’t resist the Golden Egg Cheeseball because it said golden egg and cheese. It was the perfect marriage between the salted egg yolk buns from dim sum to the melty texture of mozzarella cheese. This was crazy!!! It’s one of those things you can try to describe but you just gotta taste it yourself.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish all of it. For about 25000 won, we got 25 pieces of fried chicken. We had 5 left so we took it to go. Even the takeout box they gave us was insane! It was such thick cardboard and such good quality. It was to absorb all the oil that usually seeps through out of thinner bags or containers. Impressed!!
So.. right after writing this at 4am Seoul time, I got the crazy craving to finish the chicken leftovers and see how good it still is at room temp. Yes, I never put it in the fridge because my plan was always to finish it sometime during the night if the when I am jet lagged and awake. The chicken was still very good. The crunchy skin still kept its crispiness. The cheesling skin tasted even better from the sweet cheese powders. The chicken itself still tasted good, but I wished I had a microwave to heat it up to enjoy it at its best! Ugh!
Again, so impressed!!!! I am so excited for another day of good eats again!
