Exchange Day 79 - A day of surprises

I woke up late today so I couldn't have breakfast at the dormitory cafeteria but thankfully my room mate gave me some waffle biscuits the night before so I didn't have to eat nothing for breakfast! I think I'll have to start stocking up although it probably means that I'm going to more of a hermit.

On a random note, sometimes I wish I can wake up not caring about how I look and what I should be looking like. I really want to be happy with myself and I know that some things cannot be forced but I just can't stop comparing myself to others.

I went out for lunch though I didn't eat at a fancy restaurant! I wanted something satisfying like caifan with lots of small dishes but I ended up walking into a noodle shop because it said it sold well-being food. I'm a sucker for health foods and I thought well maybe there'd be disgustingly healthy dishes that I've never tried before (I love trying new things), but it was just like any other noodle shop with the exception of two items on its menu - mung bean soup noodles and noodles in red bean paste.

I was so intrigued by the idea of handmade noodles in a sweet red bean soup I hastily ordered it, to the delight of the boss, and sat down at an empty table, patiently waiting for my meal. While I was waiting for my food, the boss, who was idling, started handing out Jeju oranges to the customers in the shop. The orange looked really pretty and tasty although I'm not a big fan of citrus fruit. I prefer orange in the form of tea.

Soon after, my food came! Honestly it looked really boring but what else could I have been expecting when the name of the dish states so clearly what it was. The bowl was steaming hot, which was comforting in the cold but I realised I'm too much of an impulsive kid to enjoy hot noodles. I preferred something cooler that I could stuff heartily down my throat and feel its goodness filling up my entire mouth.

I love kimchi radish and the radish here were the largest I have seen by far!

Smooth handmade noodles in a hot red bean broth.

I thought the red bean soup would be sweet but not only was it not the least bit sweet, it even tasted a little salty. My wish for something special and unique came true, but I wasn't satisfied at all by the meal even though it did fill up my very hungry tummy.

So when I reached school, I bought a packet of crackers from the school welfare shop, something I've been eyeing for very long but I didn't feel tempted enough to actually buy it. It's called POP and resembled popcorn chicken, which I think was what it was really modeled after. There are two flavours - Spicy Chicken and Hot Chicken - I'm not sure what's the difference but I think Hot is spicier than Spicy. I bought Spicy but I think I could have had challenged Hot because Spicy wasn't the least bit spicy.

I've been experimenting with food photography these few days. I really like close up shots of food!

POP was satisfying so I didn't feel too sad about my miserable lunch.

I had dinner at Midarae again, it's a Japanese restaurant located right outside the street leading down from the main entrance of Dong A Hadan campus. The last time I went there I was really disappointed by their sashimi so this time I thought I'd try something new.

True enough, you can almost never go wrong with tonkatsu, especially when you have cheese and 고구마 (sweet potato) in it. It's by far the crispiest I've ever eaten in Korea and bonus points for not coating my mouth with grease like most fried food. The salad was fresh and not soaked in dressing and the fluffy rice tasted great with the furikake. The tiny hashbrowns were also fried to perfection and two were just right.

My favourite part of the tonkatsu had to be the sweet and fragrant goguma paste!

I tried to take a good photo of the stringy cheese but I ended up pulling them all out into a huge cheese ball.

It's been long since I had tonkatsu with that familiar sweet sauce and I'm not sure where I've eaten it before but it really brought back memories of my childhood. Normally I don't eat the same thing twice if I can help it, but I think I might make an exception for this. :')

xoxo, ❀