Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

KOREA: DAY 3 & 4: Shopping/ uhh....SHOPPING LOL

Haiii everyone ^-^ Ok so we have successfully moved out of Crib 49 into Seoul Backpackers, but before I move on about how Seoul Backpackers is, I must firstly give the most praiseful and fantabulous review of Crib 49!! 

Ok so although it's located on top of this crazily steep hill and everytime we go back to the guesthouse, it kills our feet, THE SERVICE IS AMAZING. And the aircon is awesome!!

The guy that owns the place speaks amazing english and if you guys recall, he also was the one that drove us from Eco-guesthouse to Crib 49, free of charge! Also, on the day that we moved out, he also DROVE us from Crib 49 all the way to Seoul Backpackers with all our luggage and everything AND IT WAS PRETTY FAR!!!

We didn't even ask, he OFFERED!

And we sorta got lost since Seoul Backpackers wasn't the easiest to find, and poor him, lol he had a hard time navigating through the crowd to find the place ^^"

BUT OMGSH, he's so nice T-T LOL If we didn't already make the reservation at Seoul Backpackers, I would've totally stayed at Crib 49. Here's the list of reasons:

-Crib 49 has aircon, SP (Seoul Backpackers) only has aircon for June-August
-Crib 49 has large tv, SP has a very VERY VERY small one
-Crib 49's wifi works very well, SP's internet doesn't work on my laptop, only iphone
-Crib 49's sink is larger, mirror is larger, overall place is cleaner, SP is pretty small and not THAT clean
-Crib 49 has washer and dryers to use free of charge and kitchen is big with free ramen and coffee and water etc, SP has laundry service that costs 5000 won and kitchen is very small and only free water and coffee, no ramen
-Crib 49 has an amazing rooftop view, SP's view is blocked by buildings and more buildings

There's prob more reasons, but generally....I prefer Crib 49! So if you guys are ever looking for a place to stay and somehow had to pick between these two, now you know which one to pick! :)

(I would upload pictures of SP, but the thing is I haven't taken any yet because 1) too lazy 2) too tired everytime we get back 3) too lazy LMAO) One day I will, but not this week hehe

OKOK, enough about guesthouses, time to move on about what I've done for the past two days.

Because the past two days have mostly been about shopping and eating and REPEAT, there wasn't much to blog about so I decided to combine day 3 and 4 into just one post ^^

Ok. 

Day 3:

We basically wandered around today to Gangnam (yet again, I know == but don't worry, we plan to explore Itaewon, Insadong, Edae, Hongdae, Lotte World, ETC ETC in the days to come. Whole schedule is planned out ^^) again and on the way we bought some amazingly delicious waffles


 Yep, ok bad picture, but hey, we were walking and it was weird taking a picture of the food you're holding in public and...yeah...xD
I forgot the price, but I just rmb that it was DEF CHEAP!! AND SAO GOOD.

After not doing much, we ended up going back to Myeongdong. Here's how the city sorta looks like in broad daylight


 Again, sorry about the bad pictures, but it's just really weird taking pictures in public xDDD

And you can spy the subway station that is closest to our guesthouse that we always use in the picture ^^ Line 2! (to this day I am still confused as heck about the subway system. It's all Lillian. Without her, I die)

At night, we were in the mood to eat something western and...uhh...we settled for McD's xDDDD

Yes, I know, what the heck? Come to Korea to eat McD's xD But HEY, in our defense, the McD's was sorta different here, AND CHEAPER :DDD


 

And again, I forgot the price, but I just rmb it was cheaper than in Canada! (this is why I should always blog ON the day of, not after =___=)

Oh, and the drink cup was different  hehe. And they don't call it 'combo' here, they call it 'set'.

The McD's we went to had two floors (I guess it's because there aren't many McD's around and so when there is one, it's big). We ate pretty late so the second floor was completely isolated, which is very sorta soothing in a strange way xD and the view was pretty good.





 After that, we sorta called it a day. It had been a very tiring two days from when we first landed, so we decided we should just chill and rest. We didn't really get much sleep either for the past few days so we completely passed out :P



Day 4:

Ok, I lied. We didn't just pass out, we actually researched a bit about Exo's fanmeets and whatdoyaknow, their last fansign is tmw!!!! So being the hyped up fangirls we are, we stalked about how to get the tickets and where the fansign is at ...ANDDDD, turns out that they give you 4 days to go buy the album from the Lotte department store bookstore (AND ONLY FROM THERE), and they will give you a number and a ticket. Day 4 was actually the last day to buy the album to be eligible for the draw for the fansign. Call us lucky...or whatever.

So we subway-ed to Lotte department store (one hecka long ride), in the early morning (ok more like early afternoon, but it was like morning to us xD). Here's the bookstore we bought it from:

 

 (albums were slightly more expensive here than in other places we checked out. SO here's a tip for shopping in Korea, : NO MATTER if you think that what you are buying should be the same price all over, it's most likely NOT. For most of the items we've been buying, we've had lotsa moments where we found the exact same item elsewhere for cheaper!!! So yes, DO look around and DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!


Ok so, obviously we will have no chance of winning LOL. But hey, now I can say I honestly tried :D This other girl, she bought 60 Exo albums @.@ She got in (we got our results on the same night later) which ofc, is good for her lmao cuz 60 albums...is...o.o LOL

And we checked a few minutes ago, and we didn't get in T-T

BUT NOT TO WORRY, we shall go stalk them tmw at the fansigning regardless and see their awesome handsome faces <3 LOL

Darn it, I really wanted to talk to them and troll them =( SIGH

Anyways,

I also bought BAP power album:

^ Exo cost about 12000won, BAP cost 11500 won

BAP will come in handy later, for our weekend adventures ;) It's a secret where we're going atm, but it'll be exciting :DDD Weekend will be full of kpop. I might just die.

Ok, moving on, here's some pics (horrid and blurry) of the Lotte department store (it had many many levels, the bookstore was on the 6th floor)


 


 

 This is from the food area in the 2nd or 1st floor, I forgot. This pic was of the rotating sushi table thing that you always see in dramas and whatnot. ONE DAY WE WILL GO EAT THIS, rotating sushi things are cool, I like rotating sushi things :D



There were some AMAZINGLY COOL and awesome foods on this level, ranging from awesome macaroons to intricate sundaes, to fondues, to ETCETC. I couldn't really take pictures because it was...well WEIRD, LOL but here's one I managed to get. So many desserts, I'M GOING CRAZY. 

But ofc, being Lotte department store, it'll be hecka expensive. SIGH. FOOD WAI U DO THIS TO ME?!

After we bought the ticket, we stopped by at a cafe (trust me, when you're visiting Korea in the summer, the most treasured things are aircon and free wifi LOL), and we stayed there for about 2 hours.



 The name of the cafe...sigh...way to make us lonely LOL

Here's what I ordered (since cafes are pretty expensive, I didn't get a drink):


 

If I rmb correctly, this was 6000 won.

Yep, cafes are def not the place to eat a cheap lunch.

As we subwayed back to Myeongdong, we bought quite a few things from the unerground subway stations (there are quite a few stores down there and some are really cheap and cool)
 



^ 15000 won



^ 20000 won


(OH OH, at this store, this young guy (looked about our age or slightly older, heehee he had blonde dyed hair) was the sales person and LOL he kept looking at us while we shopped...like rly closely xD And so we spoke English to try to sorta throw him off, but he ended up still standing there and following us around but trying to decipher what we were saying xDD LOL sorta annoying but cute.

And lol he started talking to me (in Korean ofc) and we had a convo and LOL it was hilarious. So I talked about university, learning Korean, coming here for vacation, and SOMETHING ELSE WHICH I WILL KEEP A SECRET BUT OMFG IT CRACKED ME UP SO BADLY). 

He seemed really talkative and I felt really good using my Korean to carry a convo :DDD

LOL Lillian and I dubbed him to be a "good friend to go drinking with sort-of-guy". XDDD


Ok, anyways, I also bought:


 ^iphone backcover (cuz the back of my iphone is always so dirty, even if I have a case). 5000won


 

 ^necklace, 4900 won


 

 ^ I'm not sure what you call this, but it's the thing where you plug it into your earphones jack on your phone or etc when you're not using your earphones to prevent water or other dirty stuff from coming in. This one WAS SO CUTE. THEY had tons of other cute amazing ones, but i really only just need one (and I prob don't even NEED it since I use my earphones so much anyways)
 8900 won

Then we walked around Myeongdong to eat again ^^ This time it was at Myungin Mandoo



^menu


^where you order from (yes, you'll need to know how to read Korean)



^what we ordered: Mul naengnyun, regular naengmyun, Kimchi Mandu, Meat Mandu, plus coke and calpis for drinks

Total  cost was SUPPOSED to be 18000 won (so 9000 won each) BUT the ajusshi charged us 13000 in total o.o I'm not sure whether he made a mistake or we calculated wrong, but we were glad we could save some money because I was about to go broke =___=

Here's a pic of Myeongdong at night again! I love nightlife <3


Here's a random horse:


don't judge me


And here are some pics of the subway trains:

 

^very spacious, but ofc during rush hours, it's hecka crowded

Oh OH, and sometimes there's ajusshis walking around with large boxes trying to sell hair ties or small light-y spin-y things. LOL I feel so bad because I always look away and pretend I'm doing sth on my phone because I feel obliged to buy it if I look at it for too long xDD




^ Regular seats are blue but these seats are red. This is what I call the forbidden seats. Why? Because they're reserved for elders, pregant ladies, military people, people with strollers, etc. If you sit there, even when it's empty or when there's none of those people in sight, people will either yell at you or look down on you and give you dirty stares. 

SO DON'T SIT ON THE RED SEATS!!

Lol I was about to, until Lillian stopped me :D


One more thing about subway etiquette. In Canada, we have skytrains and like it's common courtesy and almost an unspoken norm to wait for the people to get off first before the people waiting for the train gets on. 

But there is no such thing in Korea. LOL it's free for all. People push and budge and don't really give a crap. So, don't expect people to wait for you to get out of the train before they get in, they will knock you over xD Just get out asap!!

And one more thing.

Fruits.

It's hecka expensive here. LIKE REALLY EXPENSIVE. 

Lillian and I have been craving fruits the entire time we were here. It's so hard to find places that sell fruit here on the streets (UNLIKE CHINA LMAOLMAO)

And even when we do, it's unbelievably expensive, so we buy only the bare essentials we need.


 





This is actually the first serving of fruit we've had since we've got here....sad, isn't it?

Very very very expensive.

Beware!

Ok, tmw is Exo day and more food! Will update those tmw later ^^ MEOW!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Random Post

Hiiiii,
here's a bunch of random pictures



Exhibit A: Kyung Bok Palace

^ Teriyaki Chicken

^Woops, forgot what this was :D Was it japchae? Hmm but it doesn't look like japchae...

^ My lovely bibim naengmyun

--> sowwiez for the low-quality peekchures. Guys were being stupid and tryna photo-bomb ma pictures!

Review: Well, can't rly say too much about KyungBok. Been there several times and food is pretty good. Prices....expensive...(used to have this supa awesome lunch deal where you pick five dishes and together it was like 20 bucks or sth) T-T

NOW IT'S EXPENSIVE T-T

But always a good option to go to when I feel like eating Korean food and don't want to go far (and when my wallet is somewhat healthier). Ahem.

(On the other hand, the service seems to have improved. Props)

6/10

Exhibit B: Claypot


Next few pictures are with the same guys that tried to photo-bomb my pictures at Kyungbok =__= So yesh, more blurry pics?

This time we went to go all-you-can-eat hotpot at Claypot (also pretty near).


^I personally like the plum juice, iunno why like half of the guys didn't like it :\ It's nice!


^ @.@

^ LOL it did sorta overflow after I took this pic. :P
BUT OH SO YUMMEHS

Review: Experience was EHHHH. Service could've been better =____= Minimal wait-time :D Hmmm...I suppose they were nice for taking back the dishes that we didn't touch (and that weren't raw) 'cause we ordered too much =___=

Being with 6 other guys, I'd have expected them to eat so much more!
(JOKES, they did eat a lot actually. And so did I. BUT OMG, at first we looked at the portions and were like OH PSH we got this let's order more! But then...somehow...the portions started looking larger and larger as they kept coming and....YEAH)

Place was very busy!! Somewhat crowded :\ It was, as my high school IB business teacher would say, a typical Chinese restaurant = a fire hazard xDDD

Price was about slightly over 20 bucks? OKKKK, but not the best. I know of all-you-can-eat hotpot places that are cheaper.

And maybe I was expecting too much, but the service was really...nothing special :\ Almost neglecting.

5.5/10

Exhibit C: Cake!

^ Yeap, Mom brought home some cake for no reason again. ^^

Exhibit D: Me Cafe


With Suki at Me Cafe late at night procrastinating. We come here not because of the food (oh trust me..=___= def not for the food) but because they have rooms. We come equipped with our laptops and whatnot and we sit and chat for hours. And it helps that it's located like 5 min from my apartment. :D

This time we stayed until almost 12 I believe. They close at 2 ^^



^Parfaittttt~


^and again


^ chocolate toast (this was just...OK. I prefer the one they made at Whatever Cafe. But hey, maybe it was just because I was too stuffed from eating all the other foods we ordered here that I didn't take a picture of :X)

Review: Ok sooo...well honestly we aren't expecting much from Me Cafe. really.

Almost everytime we go, we order something and then it'd either be sold out, or no more ingredients left to make it. We almost ALWAYS have to re-order.

AND the food takes FOREVERRRRRRR.

ANDDDD when you walk you, they don't necessarily greet you. One time I went and there was no one at the front desk. They were in the back and I rang the bell thingy at the front. They obviously heard and even looked toward us but didn't say anything.

So I waited there for 5 minutes.

They came out and still didn't say a word. So I thought it was maybe not open yet, so I asked and they replied really nonchalantly that they were open.
...
..

Their tones aren't very welcoming, but then again, a lot of the asian restaurants here don't exactly have the best service (AHEM E-CANTEEN BACK WHEN IT WAS STILL OPEN AHEM SLAMMING FOOD DOWN ON THE TABLES AHEM)
with exception to Japanese and Korean ones I noticed

But yeah. Parfait was better than I thought. But still expensive.
Toast was meh.

3/10

Exhibit E: :')






^ letter from one of my students at the studio. I'm taking a large break from work just because school is keeping me really busy and well...the studio is RLY far. Just transport alone to uni, then back home, and then to the studio, and then back home takes 4 hours. I should be studying instead.

Exhibit F: Chocolate :D


^ SOOOO GOOOOOD

That is all.