The foreigners’ mecca in Seoul: Itaewon.

And I’m not just alluding to the fact that there seem to be a ton of Halal shops there.

Existing around the US Army Garrison – Yongsan, Itaewon is a mostly expat community of funky shops and restaurants.  Read more about it and the famous Hooker Hill here.

Having been given a small introduction to the dong (neighborhood) on our first week in Korea, I was looking forward to going back there for some more recon.  Specifically for familiar groceries from High Street Market and the Foreign Food Mart*.

On the way out and about I did some random browsing thru the (mostly shlocky) inside underground malls… and came across this nugget: A place called (no joke) Baby Guinness*, which looked and felt a little like Fidel Murphy’s* in Cayman, if Fidel’s was on the second and third floor of a building.  The menu looked tasty:

Baby Guinness menu

Will have to put this place on the list.

So as the sun beat down on me and I sat on the concrete step at the bus stop, noticed the Mexican restaurant that we ate at on that first visit, Taco Amigo.

Taco Amigo

And fondly recalled the carne asada steak I had there.

All-in-all, a lovely day amongst the Westerners.

* Special note: How the heck is it in this day and age for ANY company, especially a freakin’ RESTAURANT to NOT have a WEBSITE?  Unacceptable on SO MANY LEVELS.  It’s like “Hey, I don’t care about your patronage, and I expect that word of mouth and bored bloggers will fill in the freaking gaps.”  Well, sorry.  Not gonna link to the Google Map of your place.  If you want that kind of service, then hire me to do your social media marketing.  And no, having a Facebook page for your business DOES NOT take the place of a .com, a .net, or a .co.kr.  #JustSayin’