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 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 80

Today nothing much happened. It's probably the most boring day so far here. But the weather was really cold again today, it dropped to 3 degrees Celsius. My classmate told me that the newspaper reports this year's winter to be the coldest yet in Busan. My first winter and bam I got a big one. I really miss sunny Singapore and frozen yoghurt that actually melt.

Breakfast was half a packet of Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion pretzel pieces I got from PB yesterday and six waffle biscuits. I was supposed to finish the entire packet but it was so salty I think I'll never ever buy it again. Nor try any of its other savoury flavours. The caramel one was pretty good though although it can potentially break my teeth. But, I love challenges.

As I didn't want to leave the room until I finished typing out my essay, which my professor didn't even bother checking (I think he forgot), lunch wasn't until I reached school and had only half an hour to chow down a meal. I hastily settled it in the school cafeteria.

I was deciding between tuna omurice and 정식 when I figured I owed myself more than just tomato rice and a thin slice of egg so I took the latter. I love it when a lack of time forces bursts of decisiveness out of me. Time's always wasted pondering over the many choices I always have to preempt myself on my next move. Sounds so robotic.

(left to right) Minced meat patties, fluffy white rice, kimchi cabbage, kimchi kelp, spicy mungbean sprouts and cabbage soup and potatoes with quail egg. No s.

Since lunch wasn't all that satisfying, I bought a packet of Chicken Pop! This time, I made sure to try the other flavour - Hot Chicken. Sure enough, it was hot. It's the first spicy snack to ever make me feel warm inside out (a wonderful winter snack) and I swear if I finished the entire packet in one go I could breathe fire.

My classmate gave me a chocolate from Jeju Island. She got it from her mother's friend, who had travelled to Jeju Island. It's so cute and tasty.

Dinner was a small cup of fried chicken and hashbrowns from the stall opposite school and our favourite Isaac Toast! I should have tried other flavours but I didn't feel like being adventurous so I stuck with the usual ham and cheese.

The christmas drinks are out at Starbucks! As usual, I drank Toffee Nut Latte. The two other flavours are Christmas Cookie latte and Mocha Praline. My room mate took the cookie one and it tastes like gingerbread. I shall get that the next time! Okay I have nothing else to say, good night.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 70 - Shopping at Centum City

I nearly missed breakfast this morning as I woke up just ten minutes before the dormitory cafeteria stopped its service. Thankfully, I'm not the sort to primp myself before meeting the world so I rushed straight down after I brushed my teeth and I made it with five minutes to spare!

Breakfast was mung bean sprouts and ketchup hotdogs with a mountain of rice and potatoes-flour dumpling soup. It's so annoying when breakfast is carbo-loaded because I feel like finishing all the dishes yet if I do, I wouldn't be able to have lunch and I'll get constipation again. The mung bean sprouts were very salty today but the ketchup hotdogs were good as usual. I think the thing I'll miss most after I leave Korea would be the fluffy white rice. I'm so tempted to buy one bag of rice back to Singapore, but that would be crazy.

My cash book ran out of space and I refuse to use any other books except for this particular one so I had to go down to Kyobo Bookstore in Centum City to get it today! Not that I'm very fond of travelling so far out but I checked other bookstores and Kyobo's other outlets and none of them carry this book, which leaves me with no choice.

I left the room at around 1pm and I decided that I would have lunch at Shinsegae since Daddy said to eat better food and not always scrimp and save. I was kind of hungry as I had breakfast really early and it would take at least an hour before I could reach the place, so I bought a sweet potato puff from PB to snack on the bus. I ended up finishing the pastry even before I reached the bus stop.

The sweet potato paste was fragrant and delectable, but the puff was a little hard. Still, not bad for 1,500W!

I wanted to be less of a scrooge and try one of the restaurants in Shinsegae but I walked the entire floor at least twice and I just can't bring myself to walk into any of them. The meals were really expensive and I'm not sure if they are loners-friendly because the restaurants were really crowded. Somehow everyone decided to have their lunch much later today. So I gave up and decided that I would go to the food court.

But before I could go, a huge dinosaur caught my eye. I knew that Shinsegae had a rooftop dinosaur park but I never know it's free of charge and open to the public. I always thought that visitors had to get a ticket to view the exhibition. The park is located on 9F right in between the Japanese restaurant and the grill bar. Most of the visitors there, like with the other sky parks, were families with young children, who were really adorable as they all started growling as soon as they saw the dinosaur sculptures.

This is a Stegosaurus. I still remember some dinosaur terms from young when my brother and I used to memorise names of dinosaurs for fun.

Map of the park.

This is a Triceratops.

Velociraptors are small but fiesty and they normally come in packs so they can take down dinosaurs larger than them.

The diplodocus used to be my favourite dinosaur because it's a vegetarian and seemed nice. 

Of course everyone knows this big guy with the tiny hands - Tyrannosarus Rex.

This tree reminds me of Singapore's Gardens by the Bay although I have never been there.

Pesky kids trying to steal Pterodactyl's eggs.

There are lots of huts like this in the park for tired parents to rest. Other than dinosaurs, this park features various metallic robot animals as well.

And there are also rides for little kids to enjoy! I'm not sure if they are charged though. 

Naughty Elephant Sprays Water.

I regret not updating my iOS to the latest one, which allows my iPhone to take panoramic photographs.

Little kids fold paper in paper boats and try to float their boat down a river into this pond.

At the end of the park is a pirate ship. I have no idea what's a pirate ship doing in a dino park.

After much deliberation in front of the electronic menu, I decided to get 부대찌개 (army stew) for 6,500W. The stone pot was really heavy and I almost didn't manage to make it back safely to my seat. I was so hungry I finished all my food except half a bowl of rice and the kimchi. The side dishes were delicious and so was the stew even though it was a little too spicy for me. Inside the stew there were luncheon meat, hotdogs, rice cake, sweet potato noodles, cabbage and even baked beans, which merged wonderfully to give a rich flavourful taste. I wished there was cheese in the stew!

Dinner was fried chicken and pumpkin from the basement food hall, which I snuck up into my room. (smirks) The chicken had no bones so there's no evidence to destroy. I wished I could have warmed it up though so that it'd taste better. The pumpkin was too cold.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 69

I did nothing today but watch an entire idol drama starring Victoria from f(x) and Zhou Mi from Super Junior M. This is why I don't follow dramas because once I start, I have to end it. There's no waiting, and I tend to skip away lots of parts as I'm only interested in finding out if the bad guy gets his just deserts and if the leads get together in the end. Like every idol drama, of course the leads got together in the end after a series of unimportant problems, which they could have solved long ago had they been more resolute, and the bad girl (in this case) became good again.

I got the poster off the Internet! It stars Calvin Chen and Shao Xiang as well! Victoria's really cute so it makes watching the very predictable Cinderella plot okay. 

Breakfast was three quarters of the blueberry and cream cheese baguette I bought from Familia Bakery yesterday. Familia is just outside Exit 6 of Hadan Station and sells delicious but pricey bread. It is however very generous in its sample portions so you sort of get your money's worth from sampling all their bread.

I didn't expect the bread to have cream cheese inside it because it wasn't mentioned on the bread's description label. Plus when I tasted it at the shop, there were only bits of blueberry and blueberry jam so the cream cheese came as a pleasant surprise. The baguette was quite tasty but I have to say everything tasted better as samples in the bakery.

Lunch was the remaining quarter of the baguette and two persimmons from yesterday! I bought a whole bag of persimmons for 5,000W and there were fifteen rock hard fruits inside that I could use to attack any robber that decides to mob me. They looked a little green and bruised (a marvel for something so hard) at first glance so I felt cheated by the friendly imo who told me that I won't regret it as they are delicious. Come to think of it, nobody would say otherwise about their own goods.

But since I already bought it, I thought I had to at least cut them open and try them before I decide if they are truly inedible. Surprisingly, they turned out to be crunchy and pretty tasty, although they were not as sweet as the softer ones I had in Singapore. But I like it! This shows that appearances may be deceiving and we can't judge a persimmon by its skin.

Sitting in front of the computer staring at it all day long is really bad and I could feel it in my bones so I decided to go down to the dormitory cafeteria for dinner, regardless of what was on the menu today, partly because I had no more food left in my room except for a bunch of fruits and I was too unmotivated to head down the mountain for food.

It turned out to be the worst decision I had ever made but at least I learnt (although through the hard way) that the 비빔밥 (bibimbab) here is truly inedible and not an exaggeration by my friends. The beef, rice and soup were okay, although they weren't particularly tasty but the vegetables really, let's just say I tried my best. I left out the hot sauce because I can't take spicy food and now I understand why it had to be there in the first place. Being a bit too raw (vegetables) is okay for me, I like vegetables so I'm not that adverse to its natural taste but tasting of soap really makes me wonder what goes on in that kitchen of yours.

Beef bibimbab for 2,300W.

Dinner was so bad I bought a chocolate bar to cheer myself up. It's similar to Top, where rice crispies are embedded inside the chocolate to give more texture to the creaminess, but this rice crisp tastes a little different from the usual. It tastes more like wheat, so I guess it could be healthier but it wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be.

I shouldn't have stayed in sigh. Let's hope tomorrow will be better!

xoxo, ❀