Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is delicious.
People like to sell beer at the same time, it's kind of a thing here.

By that I mean there's a place like this on every corner.
But I cannot fault this delicious, tasty logic.

 

 

We did think we were getting chips/french fries though not fresh cooked crisps.

Not that I'm complaining in any way.



We also seriously underestimated the portion sizes. (and we only ordered one serving of boneless chicken.) It was huge.

Nevertheless I soldiered on. Afterall, it was a rare opportunity.

I regret nothing...

Close to graduation I gave my homeroom classes lollipops....made mostly from sugar and suger substitutes.  Do I feel sorry for unleashed sugar-hyped tiny things out into the wild?

You know you've been in Korea too long when....

...you (and everyone else) whips out their smartphones to take a picture of whatever the server has brought to the table.

Sundubu

 

Sundubu jjigae is a pretty great winter dish. It's a little like a stew and it's pretty hearty stuff.

It's made with, among other things, tofu. When the soup arrives to the table, bubbling hot, you crack an egg into the mixture from a basket on the table leaving it to cook/poach or you can mix it in.



Naturally since this is Korea there are lots of side dishes because they no mess aroung when it comes to your sideplate.

Rice comes cooked in some stoneware, also piping hot. What you do is fill your bowl and pour the ricewater from the kettle onto the rice cooked onto the bottom. It rehydrates the rice and gives it a nice flavor.

Poutine

This is Poutine. Thank you Canada.

Hotteok

One thing Korea is very good at is street food.
Delicious, tempting street food.

*ahem* Anyway, while in Busan I tried Hotteok.

 



 Ultra cheap at only 1,000 won, it's a type of mini-panake 'fried' in hot oil and flattened with a special stamp. It's considered to be a winter food and is served piping hot.

There are different varieties obviously, and the kind we had was sweet. I think it was stuffed with raisins or something similar. It's crisp, crunchy and very filling.  (Which is good because I'm told the calorie count is simply outrageous. XD )

These however are less to my taste and more than my bravery can handle.

Barbecue...................AGAIN

We cross the country and of course go straight for barbecue because that's how we roll.

We got a recommendation from our hostel and headed out in search of dinner.

It was differently from the place we go in Songdo. The grill had additional segments for one thing.
One side had oil poured in for extra cooking, which we promptly dumped things into. I can't remember but I think it was garlic.

The other side, they poured a mixture of egg and vegetables and left them there to go to perfection.

 The meat was also in much thicker slices. It took a good deal longer to cook. Still tasty. :)

The rice was very funny though. I twas like something I'd cook myself the way they simply bunged a fried egg on top of it.  Also tasty!!

Ramen

Hakoya Ramen is a chain all over Seoul and the surrounding area (at the very least)

The Hobbit was preceded by Second Breakfast.

I had the Hakata style set meal.  Tasty but they went heavy on the sesame.

Sake

So, we went to a Japanese bar to try some Sake (Japanese rice wine). Unfortunately, it was not the famous variety that comes hot but a type that was best chilled.

Either way, colour me unimpressed. It's far, far too sweet for my liking.

I did, however, like the decanter. Fancy stuff there.

Ye Olde Rotiboy

We got a box of these at work the other day. Fresh out of the oven. Buttery, sugary, crunchy goodness. Dangerously delicious.

I think I'll pass...

It could be artificial. It could be genuine. All I know is I don't want a smoothie.

Weekly Trivia

The area is simply teeming with foreigners like myself so it's not surprising we eventually congregate in some shape or form.

To lure these elusive creatures alcohol is essential to the baiting of traps. Free entry and booze for the winners, losers and in-betweeners

Every Thursday (Well, almost) we head to Liquor Burger for miniburgers and to do epic battle in Trivia.

It's tradition to change our team name every single week and get ridiculously competitive.

Since it is a table quiz it goes with many of the usual affairs such as when the answers are read out and you either go:

Or

Despite our fluctuating membership we have an excellent track record - better than anyone else actually - for ranking high and winning a prize.

It seems I did not inherit the Finn gene for table quizzes but I'm not too bad. The week the picture round was girlbands is embarrassing though. I was writing and Steph turned to me and goes "Okay Aoife, Number X is....Oh, I guess you got them all."
I did, I am ashamed (This is the education my parents paid for), we were the only team to do that but it's irrelevant because we didn't win anyway. (Got the minibeers though!)

Helen and Karen are just a tad too awesome so I was thrilled this week that although we were obliged to split our team of eight in two I so got the best deal out of anyone.

First place baby!

In the front from left to right Eugene, myself, Helen and Karen. Behind  with the mock(?) fury Stephanie, Seth (Goddamn he looks chipper) and Katherine. Lucy was bathroom-bound.
The bounty was Jaegerbombs (which Eugene and I promptly gave away)

Not the only photo of our team on facebook but I don't have my eyes shut here.

As for this weeks name? Well, we had been to Noraebang beforehand....

All I do is eat

Today Stephanie and I went to make our hair sufficiently fabulous.

We then went for some vietnamese style food. (Naturally, it starts raining as soon as we exit the salon.)

We just had soup. I had a small bowl of hot chicken noodle soup (Pho ga). If that was a small soup I'm terrified to contemplate what a full meal consists of - far more than I could handle, that's for sure.

The meal comes with various garnishes to add to soup. You simply bung (Such an evocative word) them into the soup which is normally not completely cooked. The heat of the broth cooks the meat the rest of the way.

It's very tasty and just the thing for a chilly day like today.

What really had me all giddy though was the fact that the first thing they do when you walk in is plonk a fancy pot of tea in front of you.

Thank you, I will have all of that and more.

Kyoto - Airplane food

The food on the flight back was horrible. (No, not because it was japanese style! It was just really, really bad)

When they came around with Green Tea I was all "YES" with an edge of desperation

On the upside I successful split the chopsticks without breaking them. Go dexterity!

Kyoto - airport snacks

I thought I was getting ice-cream and mixed nuts but apparantly not.

The bottom was full of what tasted like frosties and raisins and the top was these strange dumplings. They turned out to be vanilla ice-cream covered in chewy, stretchy dough.

It was delicious and now I suddenly want another one.

Kyoto - Tea time

It was unbelievably hard to find somewhere reasonable to eat in Kyoto. (-especially as I was dining by my lonesome) Eveything seemed to have really long queues, enormous portions of horrific prices.

I lived on air and convenience mart for the better part of five days.

When I finally found a cafe that wouldn't bankrupt me, all I could get was tea and cake. :C
Granted it was nice tea but I could have done with something a bit hearthier.

the strainer was hooked inside the spout of the teapot which was interesting to see but my problem was how god-damn heavy the thing was. It was certainly built of durable stuff.

The cake had some sort of fruit in it, it was delicious.

Kyoto Tour - Om nom nom

As part of our full day tour we got a full lunch provided. It was delicious. I did magical things with chopsticks.

We also got a steaming hot portion of rice in a lovely red screw top container to keep it piping hot.
Needless to say there was much nomming all round.

 

The sign is all wrong, we didn't have half of that stuff.

The sukiyaki was good but by the time it was ready I was feeling pretty full.

The tofu was great - Now I don't mind tofu but it seems what they say is true and deep frying makes everything delicious.

That things that looks like breaded chicken was actually a mixture of beef and pork with some chicken for flavour.

Look, it was delicious and hearthy. If you're offered some -  take it.

Kyoto - The absolute BEST part.

While at Kinkakuji I had tea at the teahouse beside the shrine on the hill. It was staffed by girls in cute kimono uniforms and, I suspect, some of the monks.

In the picture above, you can see the view from the seats. Broad, low flat benches covered with a red cloth and a red umbrella.

I only had time for a small snack so I paid the girl, received my token and took a seat in the sunshine.

The snack was stamped with an image, which I found adorable, and I ended up bringing a box of them home. It tasted vaguely like marzipan and redbean. Tasty but rather rich.

The monk server appeared very quickly (and man, did he move fast in those robes) and rattled off a sting of instructions in japanes to which I smiled and nodded when I wasn't 'Heee~ tea-time! ^-^'

He firmly instructed me to eat the snack first and then to drink the tea. The tea was traditional matcha and foamy on the top. It was delicious.

I really would have like to bring some home but unlike the different blends of loose tea I haven't the foggiest notion how to brew it right.

To be perfectly honest, sitting out there in the nice weather, without any bugs around,  under the canopy with a nice serving of fresh tea was probably my favourite part.

Am I supposed to give thank you notes....?

Today I had an influx of gifts. Yay. It's not the done thing at home but here it's practically expected.

So first is a lovely gift box from the mothers of one of my kindergarden classes.

The brown envelope on top is a gift card for Shinsegae to a generous sum.

The box contained an assortment of rice cakes.

Behold my lunch in the background. (Oh, and a fancy assortment of ricecakes)

Unfortunately I am leaving in two days and do not know the expiry of these confections. So I scooped up a handful and left the rest for my co-workers.

Then in the afternoon I received a nicely packaged bottle of wine!

 Obviously too good for the likes of me but I'll still drink some of it.