Category Archives: South Korea

espressamente by illy in Shingsae

No matter where you go…

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… there is coffee

With apologies to Buckaroo Banzai, of course…

espressamente by illy

espressamente by illy

As I sipped my illy iced Americano in espressamente illy @ Shinsegae Department store, I wondered if my coffee sense had been tainted by all the Starbucks, Paris Baguette, and numerous other slightly better (CoffeeMama) and much worse (GS25 or the crappy Kirkland Colombia CostCo blend that was in our crappy automatic coffee machine) coffees I’d drunk since leaving my beloved Francis Francis X7 (thanks Alicia!) in Cayman.

Francis Francis X7 in situ in Cayman

Francis Francis X7 in situ in Cayman

A half hour earlier I’d had an iced Americano at the Starbucks on a higher floor and I’d like to think that I could taste the difference but to be fair, I’m not quite sure.

Starbucks in Shinsegae

Starbucks in Shinsegae

Iced Americanos aren’t as true a representation of the coffee as much as, say, an espresso shot, with which I’m sure I could distinguish a good coffee from a not so good coffee. It’s probably for the best because if all the crap I’ve been drinking had been so obviously crap, I’d be much more of a grump.

I will say this about the illy iced Americano, the barista here did it proper shakerato style. Propers for that my Korean friend.

Iced Americano prepared to perfection by illy. Shakerato!

Iced Americano prepared to perfection by illy. Shakerato!

Ben eats a cronut

Korea Cheat Day Number One

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Thought I’d get around to this now that I’ve got some time on my hands.

As you may know by reading this, one of the biggest challenges for me in Korea is reconciling all the delicious looking pastries with staying on the Four Hour Body/Slow Carb Diet.  Luckily I’ve found a few sources to keep me on track, so when this past Sunday rolled around and I could let loose without fear, I took advantage of it.

Here are the highlights in order, food wise.  In my haste to in inhale as much crap as possible some pictures were not taken…

1. Conch shell pie from Paris Baguette

Paris Baguette conch shell pie

Paris Baguette conch shell pie

2. Chicken kebab from Instanbul Kebab in Hongdae.

3. Double chocolate cookie from Ben’s Cookie’s in Hongdae.

Ben's Cookies in Hongdae, Korean girls not included.

Ben’s Cookies in Hongdae, Korean girls not included.

4.  Cronut from Dunkin Donuts in Myeondong

5. Hot dog wrapped in potato chips in Myeondong.

Hot dog with potato on a stick

Hot dog with potato on a stick

6. Big slice of chocolate crunch cake from Starbucks in Myeondong.

7. Crunky! from one of the many subway stops to get back home

Crunky!

Crunky!

8. Steak pizza from Pizza School in Migeum.

9. These

Korean cheat day snacks

Korean cheat day snacks

10. Baskin-Robbins Quarterback crunch ice cream in a cone

I should also mention the Starbucks chocolate covered espresso beans I gobbled at random times during the day.

Starbucks dark chocolate covered espresso beans

Starbucks dark chocolate covered espresso beans

All-in-all, a good Korea Cheat Day Number One!  Can’t wait for next week.  Thinking Itaewon.  Maybe Sujis.

New Nikes

My feet are killing me…

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Jenn & I had an amazing day today in spite of being 40+ minutes late to meet our friends in Hongdae.

Nicole & her boyfriend Pat have (pretty much) lived here in Seoul for five years.  I knew Nic in Cayman during one of her previous lives and when she made the jump to Asia I was thoroughly impressed.  Not because I didn’t think she could handle it, just because I admired the chutzpah it took for a single gal to go through an ESL teaching course and travel halfway around the world to live and work.  That was awesome.  As I said a half dozen times to her, if it wasn’t for her input, the whole thing here in Korea would have been a whole lot more challenging.  And today was amazing proof of that.

The orientation group had skipped Namdaemun Market due to time constraints and we at least wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  So we set a date to have a quick bite in their dong, Hongdae, and then take the subway to the market where more food would be had.  it being Sunday (read: Cheat Day), I was super excited to let loose, especially with my new The Sports BigTen by E-Mart Nikes.

New Nikes

New Nikes

So we missed the first 5500 bus headed into Seoul, which gave me an excuse to get started on my Cheat Day via one of Paris Baguette’s conch shell pies.

Paris Baguette conch shell pie

Paris Baguette conch shell pie

We finally arrived in Hondae and after quickly checking out their pad, we made our way to Istanbul Kebab, a little no-frills joint down the street.  After finishing up and stopping at my (rather expensive) cookie place, we headed over to the market.

Ben's Cookies in Hongdae, Korean girls not included.

Ben’s Cookies in Hongdae, Korean girls not included.

Pat alluded to the fact, and I finally coughed it up, that Namdaemun is kinda the bottom of the tourist ladder.  But the sights and smells were unique and I’m glad we went.  Jenn got her fan and iPhone5 flipcase/wallet.

Jenn in Namdaemun

Jenn in Namdaemun

We smartly decided to head over to Myeondong Shopping Street, the same place I’d visited early last Tuesday morning.  It was even better with the throngs that flocked there…

Myeondong Shopping Street

Myeondong Shopping Street

There was some great streetmeat on display…

Myeondong streetmeat

Myeondong streetmeat

Pat had a previous engagement, so he split and after a fruitless search for quality ice cream and the beginnings of foot cramping setting in, it was time for a refuel in a Starbucks.  Then it was time to part ways with the lovely Nicole.

After a lengthy trip back home to Suji-gu which involved three different subway lines, Crunky bar, a stop in Pizza School, and a cab ride because we were just too pooped to deal with the public bus situation, it’s time to call it a night.

The Nikes held up awesomely… But they were definitely put through their paces.

There will be more pictures on the facebook when I wake up tomorrow morning…

 

 

 

Inside Tous Les Jours

Of eating healthy…

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I kinda fell off the 4HB wagon today and I’m not proud of it.  But it’s okay.

There’s a little something called a Hangul language barrier that goes hand-in-hand with a fried chicken and beer barrier which is a little farther down the road from a carbohydrate goodness barrier that has been erected all over Korea.

It took every ounce of self control I had not to gobble all the carbohydrate goodness that has been presented in front of me since moving to the RoK from the Rock.

There are an abundance of coffee bars on not just every main street, side street, and alleyway, but they are sometimes hiding on the second and third floors of what look like office buildings.

And in addition to having the life saving nectar of caffeinated ambrosia, they all have pastry.

Not just any pastry, but what looks like the most delicious of deliciousness.

This might come from Starbucks where they have the cookies and pieces of cake and brownies to accompany your soy chai latte or half-caf almond milk iced cappuccino.

In addition to the mermaid, there are Paris Baguette shops, Tous Les Jours shops, Dunkin Donut shops, Baskin-Robbins shops and other stands and sweet-selling and sweet-smelling shops all over the place.

All of the places below are within spitting distance of each other…

There is more pastry and sweet here in the RoK than I could possibly imagine. It’s everywhere. And it all looks so damn good.

At dinner earlier tonight with four other teachers, we hit the FryPan Restaurant in Sunae.  They serve fried chicken tenders and potato chips and a salad covered in sugary dressing.  I was going to pass on eating b/c I had my usual 4HB breakfast of (homemade) egg whites, spinach and black beans for breakfast, and a spinach salad with black beans and chicken for lunch and knew that I shouldn’t have the fried chicken tenders for dinner.  But something switched inside of me and the hunger got too much.  Poor planning on my part.

So we decided to make the most of it and have a dessert called a patbingsu.  Ashlea and Natasha had one last week at Paris Baguette with tons of fruit in them, but you know how anti-fruit Jenn and I are, so we had one at Tous Les Jours of the green tea variety.

Ashlea & Natasha and their fruity potbingsus.

Ashlea & Natasha and their fruity patbingsus.

Potbingsu at Tous Les Jours

Patbingsu at Tous Les Jours

Then it was cookie time.

I’m down to my lowest weight ever as an adult and I think I’m gonna cut myself a little slack…

From a walkway over the Hannam-daero looking north into the heart of Seoul.

Successful bus trip, finally

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I wouldn’t exactly call myself dumb, but why it took me more than a few days to successfully navigate a bus trip in SoKo, I have no idea.

It all started last week when I was supposed to meet Jenn at her school via the 5500 bus north from practically one block from the apartment.  Instead of being there early, I arrived a little late because I missed the stop.  I should point out that the stop I missed is the second to last stop south of the Han River and into Seoul proper.  So it was another 25 minutes up the road, over the river, out of the bus at the first stop, across the street, waiting for 20 minutes and then back down to where I should have been.  Except in my haste, I got off one stop ahead of where I should have been.  Perfect.  I did what any other person would have done in my position, knowing exactly how far away I was from the school and the fact that a walk up a big hill was coming.  I hailed a cab to take me 5 minutes away (10 via walking).

I’m not ashamed to admit it.  The SoKo public transit system almost had me beat.  A few other mishaps occurred since then but finally, with Jennifer’s help, we managed to have a perfect experience coming back from Cafe Street to Samick.

Being without WiFi has now become crippling.  Once we get our ARCs (Alien Registration Cards) and are able to get our mobile phone plans set up, everything will be better.  That’s if my old carrier in Cayman is finally able to do what they said they’d do with the CI$500 I paid them for my unlock.

But I’ll save that story for another time, when it’s hopefully resolved.

 

One of the differences here is that bars/restaurants/cafes are located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of what looks like business-type buildings.

1 Aug 2013, Korea

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Today has been an interesting day so far.

Jenn has had to get to school early for some admin work and today I decided to join her so that I could see where the main bank branch would be for setting up our accounts.  There are no joint accounts in SoKo, so we’re going to get two, because, hey, why not?

I’ll have to go back there tomorrow to finish up the paperwork, but she’s all sorted.

After the work was done, I went for a little walk around Sunae.  Lovely little area.

I’ll have some random food-in-grocery-stores photos coming soon for all my foodie friends.

Bibimbap. Photo by Jennifer

We’re here…

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So let’s get this out of the way first and foremost…

There is no way possible in which the Suji-gu area of South Korea is anything like Cayman.  A week in the USA did nothing to prepare me for the culture shock of coming from a Caribbean island to a major suburb of a major city.  And we haven’t even gone into the city yet…

Yes, really.

During the plane ride I decided to be a little adventurous…

Bibimbap. Photo by Jennifer

Bibimbap. Photo by Jennifer

Korean Air Bibimbap directions. Photo by Jennifer

Korean Air Bibimbap directions. Photo by Jennifer

Wasn’t too bad and the instructions card really helped.

Korean Air was great, except for feeding us at weird times.  So that when we got off the plane on Monday evening, we were hungry and tired.

Relief was nowhere to be found as we were the last to arrive and others were waiting for us.  So it was a dash to quarantine, where all of Jennifer’s hard work paid off and both of the pets arrived safely and healthy, if not a little worse for wear like their owners.

Gigi & Rooney are okay

Gigi & Rooney are okay

Jennifer & Rooney

Jennifer & Rooney outside the airport

2013-07-29 18.10.15

On the bus to the apartment

The first full day started early with a bus to the school and a quick tour followed by a trip to E-Mart Trader (like CostCo, which we will visit on Saturday) and E-Mart (dept store) for necessities.

Wine @ E-Mart Traders

Wine @ E-Mart Traders

E-Mart Traders

E-Mart Traders

By the time we made it back home, we had started to get silly from not eating enough, so we cruised around the neighborhood…

Fresh market

Fresh market

Street food: Dim sum

Street food: Dim sum

Tomorrow (Weds) I have a free morning and will meet Jenn back at the school for a BBQ.  I think.

 

Walking in Dulles…

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“I’m a rocket man…”

Elton John serenaded Jennifer & I as we rode the escalator up to the A Concourse at Dulles International Airport.

Walking thru the international hallway there are flags of various countries.

20130728-115903.jpg

Eagle eyed observers will ignore the Ben & Jerry’s and note the two interesting flags hanging on the left.

See you in the RoK.

It’s happening…

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Before I go on a trip I have these thoughts; these ideas really.  These ideas of what it will be like in another country or in a different situation.  Like “Next week I’m going to Italy… I wonder what I’ll be doing in Florence…”

And then this happens:

Ben in Florence

Ben in Florence

So I can only imagine what the scenes are gonna be like in SoKo.