Exchange Day 86 - Trying new things

I finished the last of my waffle biscuits and walnut toast today for breakfast. I think I've grown to like the walnut toast actually, especially when I eat two at one go.

Today is an exciting day because I'm going to try 순대 (soondae) at the BIFF street! I had it once before at the foodcourt in Shinsegae and it tasted horrible because it had this gelatinous consistency, which I didn't like. I don't like anything that is not jelly and tastes like jelly.

Basically, 순대 is a local delicacy made from glutinous rice stuffed into pig's intestine and soaked in pig's blood, and is usually stir-fried in hot sauce alongside 떡볶이 (fried rice cake). It is quite similar to 猪血糕 in Taiwan although between the two, I'd rather eat 순대. 猪血糕 is really an acquired taste that is hard to capture, but I would strongly recommend everyone to try it if they have the chance to. Who knows, you might actually like it!

The friendly imo preparing our food! The soondae is the one on the right, in a dirty red colour gravy.

The imo says that the soondae is really spicy, so I asked her to mix it with the ddeokbokki, which was still spicy, but of a much milder spice.

I'm glad I gave it a second chance! It didn't taste that disgusting as I remembered it to be and the taste of blood was also less distinct when drenched in the hot sauce. It actually tastes just like normal glutinous rice! The soondae today had a harder bite, which I enjoyed and I shared it with a friend so it wasn't as overwhelming as the previous time when I had one whole plate by myself.

We also ordered 만두 (dumplings) to split and I had a 호떡 (red bean pancake with nuts) from my favourite stall for dessert. The queue at the hotteok stalls are crazy long nowadays, I think the cold weather has made the hot snack even more enjoyable than it already is. Somehow it didn't seem as delicious as I had remembered it to be and I think I'll not be eating anymore of those babies for the next few months.

Because I kept snacking on random food, I wasn't hungry when it came to dinner time but I thought I should still eat something so I bought a corndog. I love corndogs, especially hot toasty ones with mustard drizzled all over it, but they didn't have mustard here so ketchup was fine too.

The corndog looked really appetising but when I bit into it, I realised that there were tiny crystals on its crispy skin, which tasted sweet and melted on my lips. Turns out that the whole corndog was coated in sugar, which was a little weird combined with the salty ketchup. I regretted buying it, but at least I tried something new.

Sorry for the bad focus, the bus kept jerking and it was hard to get a good picture!

I went to the dormitory's cafeteria, wanting to get a kimbab when I saw that dinner was my favourite satay chicken so I bought a meal ticket (although I wasn't hungry). When I went to collect my food, I was appalled to see that the people in front of me were being served stir-fried beef with rice instead of the promised chicken. The imos ran out of the satay chicken so they had to serve something else instead.

I like this but I want my chicken!!!! I like crunchy onions :)

Kids, from this we learn that we should not be greedy and only eat if we are truly hungry, if not we will be wasting a lot of food and calories on unhappy eating.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 85

It's the election period for the Dong A Student Union this month and it's funny to watch how the students campaign. Other than printing huge banners with their faces blown up, they also dance cheerleader style on the roads opposite the shuttle bus stop. I might start voting if the nominees start dancing back in NTU too.

Look at their zest hahaha I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.

I had a late lunch after my group project meeting, which was very efficient (I like), at Bongusu Burger opposite the Bumin campus. My Korean friend brought me there, although I've had it once, because I think he wanted to show me how to eat the rice burger Korean-style. In Singapore, we eat our rice burgers like normal burgers but over here, they serve the burgers on plates and we use spoons to eat them like normal rice.

According to my friend, the first step (other than unwrapping) is to pour a little water on the burger, so that the rice grains will not stick to the aluminium foil. Then, you wrap your burger again and flatten the burger with your palm. Unwrap the burger and mix the rice and the other ingredients thoroughly before enjoying the burger! Honestly, I don't know what's the point of having the rice in a burger if we are going to mix it up before eating it.

My original burger, which has kimchi and tuna mayo!

His chilli chicken ribs burger, which he describes to be 'messier' so I should take a photo of.

It's interesting knowing a different way to eat the burger although I still enjoy it most like a normal burger. :)

Dinner was fried udon noodles from GGgo, where they serve all their food in cups. I had always wanted to try it for it looks cute eating from a cup and today I finally forced myself to do it. Other than udon noodles, there's also fried rice, buckwheat noodles, curry rice and chicken cutlet rice. For my udon noodles, I had a choice between spicy or spicier (which is actually not much of a choice) and I reluctantly took spicy.

I could smell the bonito flakes the moment I opened the lid and so could everyone who were in the same study area as I was. I apologise if I made any of you hungry. The octopus cubes were very chewy and some tasted a bit like it was fake. The udon noodles were very tasty but they were so spicy I don't think I'm gonna order it again.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 84 - Happy birthday!

I woke up feeling a teeny weeny grumpy today because of my project meeting that was scheduled right smack in the middle of the day. It sucks when such things happen as my whole day is basically wasted since I can't do much before or after the meeting, although I don't really have much things to do.

Breakfast was walnut rye bread with strawberry jam from PB! I regret not listening to my heart and buying the fluffy white bread because now I'm forced to endure this boring bread for another two breakfasts. The crust was dry and there were no crunchy bits of walnut inside the bread. At least the bread's thick. I love thick toasts.

The trees in school are all turning red and soon they'll all be bald! I should feel bad for the poor trees but I can't help but feel excited to see botak trees. Trees in Singapore are evergreen since we have sunny weather all year round so we don't get much of a chance to see them turn yellow, red and bald.

I finally had a very satisfying lunch of rice and many side dishes in my favourite cafeteria near school! Although I'm always awkward when I'm eating there (I feel like everyone's judging me for eating alone), I always finish all my food. I've eaten there for almost five times now and I still find it extremely delicious!

The young couple who was sitting beside me barely touched their side dishes and they only finished half of their rice! Why do they even step into the cafeteria if they're not hungry in the first place? I get really upset when I see people wasting their food because I feel that they're not being appreciative of the people who prepare the food. Also if everyone starts wasting food, restaurants and cafeterias will start serving smaller portions at the same price and food indirectly becomes more expensive!

I ordered bean paste stew for 3,500W and it's a little different from the ones I've had elsewhere as it's spicier. In a typical bean paste stew, you can find pieces of leek, cabbage, tofu and zucchini.

Today's project meeting turned out much more productive than expected but we're still meeting tomorrow to practise giving our presentation. I was hoping that we wouldn't have to meet tomorrow but I guess I should help my groupmates with their scripts as we'll be presenting in English, which my groupmates aren't fluent in.

I had 삼겹살 for dinner today, in (secret) celebration of my friend's twenty-first birthday, at Palsaik in Nampo-dong. Palsaik is best known for their eight-coloured fatty pork meat, which is basically fatty pork marinated in eight different sauces. 삼겹살 in Korean directly translates to 'three layered meat' and is usually barbequed and eaten wrapped in leafy vegetables. 

We ordered the Eight Colours set for 30,000W and it was good for four! The fatty pork came in this neatly classified tray that tells you the various flavours in the four most common languages used in Korea.

Other than the pork, each table is also entitled to a steaming pot of spicy seafood soup, when finished could be swapped for a pot of fried rice for a small fee.

Honestly, all the different pork tasted the same to me once barbequed and I couldn't really tell which was which. I gobbled them down hungrily regardless and I was surprised that I didn't pick out the fatty parts of the meat. Usually I do that, but I somehow forgot this time round.

After the meal, we headed to the Twosome Place for dessert, where we sprang a Chocolate Truffle cake on the very surprised birthday girl. We took a lot of mandatory selcas (but none directly featuring the cake) before heartily tucking into the decadent dessert.

The excited us who couldn't wait to tuck in.

Since there were only four of us, we each had to finish a quarter of the cake, which wasn't a difficult task actually. The cake was very rich (flimsy plastic knives would not be able to slice the cake) but not cloyingly sweet. The chocolate chiffon melted in my mouth and the lavish layer of truffle caressed my throat, rendering me speechless as I went back for more.

My sister and I both agree that I need help with food vocabulary as I seem to have exhausted mine.

Twosome Place is a dessert cafe that is better known for their luxurious cakes and chocolates, although they do serve the usual coffee and drinks. Although its name is suggestively exclusive, I believe solo diners will not be rejected from patronising the shop. I haven't tried going there alone though, but I will soon. Today's trip has left me asking for more of their yummy desserts.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 83 - Frozen goodness

I was supposed to go bird-watching again at Eulsukdo Nature Reserve today with my friends to make up for our previous failed trip and then visit our Korean buddy at a horse stable she works at but no plans were confirmed so I decided to go out by myself. Thankfully I went ahead with my own plans because if I had waited for their response, today would have been a wasted day. (or maybe they did go out but I wasn't informed)

Breakfast was honey cake that I bought from the dormitory's welfare shop yesterday and Mommy does not believe that it's only 230kcal for a big slice of cake. Well, it says so on the packaging, (I've checked umpteen times) and there's no saying that the cake's more than one serving. So I guess it really is only 230kcal. (smirks)

The honey cake was much tastier than I had expected. I refrain from imposing high expectations on a convenience bread because I'm afraid of disappointment. These few days I'm losing all interest in my food. (frowns) The honey cake was sweet, fluffy and so addictive I ate the baking paper that was stuck at the base too. Two bites worth before I realised it was paper. Oh well, more fibre in my diet.

A honey cake didn't satisfy my voracious appetite so I downed three waffle biscuits and a cheesecake bar. They still didn't do the job but I decided to curb my greedy tummy.

I had planned to eat something satisfying like rice for lunch but I ended up having frozen yoghurt from Yogurberry along the streets of the Dong-A Hadan campus. The shop has a self-service concept where customers choose a cup size and are free to take whatever yoghurt and toppings they like, before paying for their froyo at the counter. Prices for froyo go according to weight at 220W per gram and mine weighed exactly 200g so I paid 4,400W, which was similar to what I would be paying in Singapore.

There were altogether eight flavours - green tea, chocolate, mascarpon cheese, strawberry, blueberry, plain, mango and grapefruit - and more than twenty different toppings to choose from. I like being able to try a variety of flavours, so I took a bit of green tea, chocolate, cheese, blueberry and grapefruit. Green tea was fragrant but not too overpowering, chocolate wasn't too sweet, blueberry tasted a little creamy and grapefruit felt like a tangy sorbet. I liked all the flavours I picked except for cheese, which I felt was too rich.

I took the smallest size cup, which when filled to the brim is enough to be shared amongst two people, although eating it alone is much more satisfying.

Other than frozen yoghurt, the shop also sells 빙수 (shaved ice) but it isn't a fixed thing on the menu so it might change with the seasons. From the pictures, the shaved ice didn't look as appealing as its yoghurt so I would suggest to stick with the froyo unless you're sharing with friends.

Today's destination was Dongdaesin on Line 2, home to the Dongdaesin Market and neighbour of the Seodaesin Market. The word 'market' excites me a lot as it usually has the connotation of being cheap and local, which I love and hence I rushed to the market in hopes of finding cheap and delicious hawker fare to satisfy my grumpy tummy.

Every time I visit a market, I always draw stares from the ahjummas because rarely are there people my age at the markets. I bet they must all be wondering if I got lost while trying to find somewhere else. Unfortunately for me, most of the cafeterias weren't open for business, even when I walked all the way to the Seodaesin Market, so I left and walked out onto the main street.

I found a bakery, very happy that it wasn't part of any global franchise so I decided to give it a chance. There were so many mouthwatering bread and pastries I had a hard time deciding but I eventually succumbed to a 고구마빵 (sweet potato bread). So predictable I know. My sister must be mumbling to my mom how I keep eating the same thing over and over again.

Although the label describes this to be bread, I think that it's just a sweet potato baked in cheese. There's nothing about it that tastes like bread to me but anyhow, it was sweet and delectable. Very pricey at 2,000W but worth every single penny. The potato filled me up finally and I didn't even feel hungry for dinner although I still ate.

I went into Toms and Toms Cafe, for it's the only cafe along the street I haven't been into and I try not to repeat, and ordered a Rose Flower Tea. I was really disappointed because they didn't serve my tea in a fancy porcelain cup and the only thing fancy about the drink were the pretty rose buds in the tea bag. Not worth my 4,200W. The cafe was a little stuffy at the first floor where I sat but it might be better on the second floor, where most of the other customers sat.

The first floor of the cafe. I sat in one of the red leather chairs close to the windows.

My expensive rose flower tea.

Studying again! It's sweet for my books to always accompany me on weekends but I wished they'd find other friends.

Dinner was 튀김 (tempura) and 오댕 (oden) again from a popular street vendor in Hadan, although this time I ate significantly less and had a mini 김밥 (kimbab) too. You can find the shop outside Exit 3 of Hadan Station and the food is really affordable at 500W per piece. The tempura is always freshly fried and I'd recommend requesting the imo for the sweet and spicy deokbokki sauce to go along with your tempura for a gastronomical experience.

I succumbed to temptations. ): The ice cream was rock hard, which I loved but I got cheated by the calorie label.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 82

I forgot what was breakfast. These few days I keep waking up late so my meal times are pushed back later, and sometimes breakfast gets combined with lunch. I had lunch in the dormitory cafeteria. We had a choice today between 닭치리덥밥 (sweet chilli chicken and rice) and 잡체덥밥 (japchae with rice), and obviously after the previous mortifying experience I had with the dormitory's japchae, I chose chicken. No question about it.

Fried chicken is always delicious, but I would appreciate it if they could lay down a little on the sauce. I always end up rinsing my chicken in the soup (落汤鸡 pun haha) and people give me weird looks like I'm those girls who soak all their food in hot water and dab them with kitchen towels to remove oil. How people want to live is their choice okay, don't stare like we're animals in the zoo!

I heard something calling me from the convenience store to bring it home and I simply couldn't refused its insistent pleas.

Chocolate chunks and vanilla ice cream are one of the best combinations on Earth I swear.

I waited an hour for the bulge in my tummy to dissipate before dragging myself down to the gym. It's freezing in the gym so I've been putting off gymming for quite a while now, but it won't do if I want to continue eating well. I've decided that slacking around in the gym is better than doing nothing at all in my room so I'll try to go every day just for a teeny weeny bit of exercise.

After I did some reps at the machines, I went back to walking/jogging for a bit more, mainly because there was a volleyball match on.

I had dinner at the dormitory cafeteria again and the food was surprisingly scrumptious today. I tried hard not to finish the entire plate but I couldn't help myself. I even contemplated to lick the plate, but it looked so sparkling clean already there wasn't much to lick.

My hamburg omurice at 3,000W with a side of coleslaw salad!

The hamburg patty tastes like a beef-flavoured sausage patty, something like the sausage patties in McDonalds in Singapore except those aren't made from beef, and I absolutely love omurice made from short-grained pearls. If ketchup rice is only for children, then I don't want to grow up ever.

After dinner, I had a cup of strawberry yoghurt to stave off cravings for ice cream and also to get my bowels moving again.

Maeil Bio yoghurt, proudly endorsed by figure skate Kim Yuna!

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 81

Breakfast was a cheesecake bar and three waffle biscuits. I think drinking Starbucks yesterday made me lose sleep and I barely woke up on time for my morning class today. Scoffing down my breakfast in a hurry didn't make me full so I bought a strawberry cream pie and KitKat bar at the subway station.

The strawberry cream tasted a little like ice cream even though it wasn't put in the fridge.

This is my first time eating a KitKat bar since I left Singapore. I don't remember seeing it around much or maybe I haven't been looking.

Lunch was very satisfying, on the other hand. I ate at one of the street stalls near the BIFF zone and had my all-time favourite 튀김 (tempura) and 오댕 (oden), which was pure bliss in the cold weather. Today's weather was a little less chilly than yesterday but from next week onwards, Busan's gonna be delving into the negative degree Celsius zone. (faints) I really am not a winter person.

I tried one of each, except for the chicken wings, fried egg, spice leaf and chilli.

You can order corndogs, dumplings and kimbab at the shop too. I was really tempted to get a kimbab, but I didn't because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it.

The very nice imo meticulously frying my tempura and cutting it up into bite-size pieces for me.

My first round of tempura - squid, crabmeat with vegetables and yam! I had two rounds in total, so yummy!

After lunch, I walked around Nampo-dong in search of a warm and cosy cafe to spend my afternoon. The cafe culture in Busan (Korea) is really huge and cafes are so prevalent that you can find one almost every ten steps you walk. Since I have a huge break between my classes on Thursday, it becomes my cafe day where I try to visit as many cafes as I can.

On the way, I found these handmade Churros! It's crispy and so delicious, 1,000W for a 30cm Churro is really a steal.

Today I'm here at Coffine Gurunaru along Gwangbok Street. It's located above a telecomms shop (I forgot which one) and spans across two floors - 3F for smokers and 2F for non-smokers. I walked in at around midday, so the cafe was relatively empty, although it did get pretty crowded around five. The cafe has an extensive selection of drinks - caffeine, non-caffeine, even alcoholic - but I think most people come here for their toasts, which were mouthwatering but it's a pity I'm stuffed.

I ordered a Jejusarang Hallabong tea, which was actually yujacha (orange tea). So much for a fancy name.

Studying in a cafe is always productive for me (it should be since the drinks are so expensive). I think I should really start studying in cafes when I get back instead of painfully trying to focus at home.

I like sitting near the windows as it feels more relaxing but the sun was shining so brightly today I regret.

I had dinner after class with my friends in a Chinese restaurant around school. We were all really hungry so we ordered two fried rice, one bean paste noodles and one large 탕수육 (fried pork in sweet vinegar sauce) to split.

The very generous imo who gave us free kimchi radish and yakult drink.

(clockwise) 탕수육 (tangsuyuk), 볶음밥(bokkeumbab), 자짱면 (jajjangmyeon).

The meat was so soft and tender I could eat a whole plate by myself. The sauce could be a little too sweet though so I recommend dipping the meat into the accompanying chilli soy sauce.

Look at the glistening pearls of rice in its full glory. I love the runny yolk and the rice tastes so much like the ones back home I can't help myself even though I don't usually eat fried rice.

I think somehow my appetite became smaller here, which can be good I guess although it means I can't try as much food as I could previously. I remember being ravenous before dinner but I felt so full after dinner I thought I would explode. I didn't even eat that much. What am I gonna do when I go back home to the embrace of my favourite buffets? (sigh)

xoxo, ❀