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, ❀

Exchange Day 66 - Japan hour (Part 2)

I went to the Busan Modern History Museum next, which was just down the road from the 40 Steps Street. For those who drive, there's a parking space right beside the building so no worries about leaving the car elsewhere. Similar to the Center, the Museum has many floors but only two of its floors (2F and 3F) are dedicated for the museum exhibits.

I was greeted warmly by the receptionist upon my entrance and although admission is free, I had to enter my name in their guestbook before I could explore the place. For visitors with young children, strollers are available at the reception counter free of charge.

The lift was full so I took the stairs! Climbing makes good exercise.

Everything reminds me of Baca's class and Korean political propaganda. It's really interesting when you can actually see for yourself what you're learning in school. I'm glad I picked his class, although it's the really stressful.

I think this is some sort of a treaty signed between Japan and colonial Korea.

Map of Joseon. Baca's class again.

The original Japanese flag in colonial Korea.

Poster promoting less consumption of rice during wartime.

3D map of the Jagalchi-Nampo-Jungang area. There are buttons at the front of the exhibit, which are linked to various landmarks in the area. Pushing a button will activate an informative video about the landmark and the building lights up in the 3D map.

Gyeongsong (now Seoul) branch of something I'm not too sure of.

Liquor vessels and jars that were used in the brewery industries back then.

An old phonograph.

A realistic portrayal of the modern Busan streets.

A traditional sweets house selling cakes, pastries and candy.

I thought it was a real lift, but it's just a painting.

All that walking made me really hungry so I went to Kappa Sushi for lunch. I was googling "eating alone in Busan" when I came across a review of the restaurant in one of the links. I'm quite an independent (I wanted to say solitary but I think that's too extreme) person so I'm fine with going anywhere alone, and I enjoy doing that too. It's difficult to always eat with friends as a lot of time and effort goes into planning lunch dates and sometimes all we want is just a quick bite. For all lone diners like me out there, this restaurant is a safe haven for you! (cheers) But of course, parties with two or more are welcome too.

Kappa Sushi is located in the building opposite to the humongous Art Box in Nampo and you have to walk inside the building to get to the restaurant as there are no side doors. It's hard to miss the restaurant as it'll be enthusiastically adorned with eye-catching cartoons of the 'kappa', a Japanese sea monster.

According to the number of people in your party, the staff assigns you seats and similar to most conveyor belt sushi restaurants, you get to choose between a counter seat or a normal seat. Don't worry if you have a big party because the group seats can seat up to six comfortably. Hot green tea and soft drinks are complimentary and diners can help themselves to free refills at the self-service bar.

These are the larger group seats. I sat at an individual counter.

Apart from taking the sushi right off the conveyor belt, you can also order food through its electronic menu. It's easy for foreigners to use this menu as it is available in other languages such as English, Chinese and Japanese.

The food comes really quickly in a mini KTX train, which is really cute and also saves the waiters much hassle, especially during peak hours.

After your food arrives, you have plenty of time to take them down from the train before pressing the 'okay' button, which sends the train back into the kitchen.

The food came really quickly so I didn't have to wait long. For first-time diners at the restaurant, I recommend ordering using the computer as the restaurant does not have a hardcopy of its menu. Also, its conveyor belt is pretty empty most of the time as there's only one plate per type of sushi.

Each plate of sushi costs 1,700W regardless of type and sashimi costs 3,000W per plate. Other than sushi and sashimi, there are also proper meals (bentos and udons) and dessert. Bargain hunters can catch the lunchtime special of set meals for under 7,000W on weekdays. I would say that food is generally affordable but don't expect too much from the quality.

(clockwise) Teriyaki chicken yakitori, salmon belly sushi, basil sauce raw shrimp sushi.

This was surprisingly really good! My favourite out of everything I ate today!

Somehow I don't think this is salmon belly ):

The yakitori was too soft and disappointing.

I had a mini bowl of tempura udon, which was delicious! 2,600W for a mini bowl!

My room mate and I wanted to try the cakes from the bakeries here so we decided that every last day of the month would be Cake Day! Today it was my turn to choose the flavour so we got a Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Cake from PB. Chubby says I keep eating the same food in different forms, which is amusing, but I really love sweet potato and pumpkin!

17,000W for 500g cake!

The moment I opened the box I could smell the fragrance of sweet potato and the cake was so soft and yummy it melts in your mouth. In between the cake layers were tiny cubes of potato and the cream wasn't too rich even I could accept it. The flavour is really unique and unlike anything I've eaten before in Singapore so I'm really pleased! The only downside was that it made my throat feel really dry, even though I drank a lot of water. Since this cake was meant to be my dinner, I ate one third of it and we gave some of it away. Some day I am going to eat a whole cake by myself!

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 56

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and since I woke up late today, I had no choice but to eat the cookies that I bought from Paris Baguette yesterday! The cookies are sold in assorted packs of five for 4,500W or separately at 900W each. Come to think of it, there wasn't any discount for buying more, I should have just bought one or two. But I did manage to chalk up 5,000W of spending thanks to the cookies and the cashier had no excuse to turn my Happy Points card application this time round. (evil laughter) 

There are altogether five flavours and I am going to release them one by one. This blog needs a little excitement and mystery. So today for breakfast, I had cranberry oatmeal and double chocolate, both of which were the reasons why the cheapskate me even agreed to part with my cash in the first place. As the cookies had the thickness of a mouthwatering soft-baked cookie, I was expecting them to be as chewy and moist as the latter but boy was I disappointed.

(left) Cranberry oatmeal and (right) double chocolate. They'd be perfect if they were softer and more moist. Sigh.

If you like your cookies hard and crunchy, then this is perfect for you! If not, unless you like your teeth broken, I rather you spend your money on their bread. I couldn't really taste the oatmeal grains although there seemed to be a lot of them, which was a pity, but I liked how the dried cranberry flakes were chewy yet do not stick to the teeth. The flavour of the double chocolate cookie was fantastic though. Its bittersweet taste was a pleasant contrast to the cloying fudge cubes and helped ensure that nobody overdosed on chocolate. (for calorie-counters, each cookie is around 130 kcal)

Disappointed by the lack of lustre in the day's breakfast, I spent the whole morning (actually what's left of it) moping in front of the computer, preparing for my Seoul-Taiwan trip after finals. I must be the only person in the entire student body who still has the heart to meddle with such trivial matters when the whole world is frying their brains in school libraries and cafes trying to cram as much as they can for the midterms next week. Even for an exchange student, I think I might be a little laid back. Just a little.

After hours of detailed analysing and harsh comparisons, I have concluded that Scoot is indeed the king of all budget airlines and I'm glad I've finally settled my flights! Now for the even more daunting task of searching for accommodation.

It has never occurred to me that the dormitory cafeteria could be transformed into a studying hub out of mealtimes but that was exactly what it was when I went down for lunch. In an effort to encourage the students (I think), the welfare shop was open for business today despite its usual practice of resting on Sundays, which was good for it too as it seemed to have more sales today than usual. Studying makes people really hungry.

Lunch, at 2,800W, was beef bulgogi rice with egg soup and the cafeteria lady gave me more meat than usual! (but she gave me a lot less rice than others) The beef bulgogi was sweet yet savoury and I loved how she threw in lots of fresh onions, cabbage and carrots for a healthy mix! There were even larger-than-usual bits of fried egg in the miserable-looking soup! I hereby crown this as my favourite dormitory food. (cue trumpets)

I resisted the temptation of ice cream and opted for the healthier yoghurt drink instead! It's actually quite tasty but a tad bit pricey at 1,600W. 

Searching for accommodation is hard work especially if you are a miser who expects to stay in a clean and private room with an unbelievably low budget. Such hard work deserves a chocolate chip cookie, so I ate another cookie from the pack. No photos because it was a quick snack. It tasted like a gigantic version of a Famous Amos' chocolate chip cookie.

Dinner at the dormitory was bacon fried rice. I like neither bacon nor fried rice, so I forced my lazy bones to hike down the mountain for real food. Whenever I eat alone, there's no one I can rely on to make decisions so I always end up walking rounds and rounds before my grumpy stomach brings my legs to the nearest foodhouse available. But today was slightly different.

I only walked one round before I decided that I would try the barley rice I chanced upon yesterday. I remember watching about barley rice on YouTube when I was in Singapore and how it talked about barley rice being very healthy and suitable for the calorie-conscious. Determined to try all kinds of local food, I walked into the restaurant and asked for one serving of barley rice (they only had one item on the menu), only to get rejected with a smile saying that there's a minimum order of two servings. Since there's only one thing on the menu, does this mean that singles are barred from this restaurant?! I should have ordered two servings just so I could stay there. Now I understand why it's so tough being a single lady in this country.

In the end, I had Japanese cuisine at another nearby restaurant. Although the imo did a double take when I first stepped in, she was kind enough to let this poor lonesome soul eat. I ordered a 회덥밥 for 5,500W and was happy that it turned out bigger than I had expected. Plus, I didn't wait long for my food. 회덥밥 is the equivalent of a sashimi don, except with the sashimi cubed instead of sliced and the addition of loads more vegetables and spicy leaves. It's meant to be eaten like 비빔밥 (bibimbab), where you mix all the ingredients evenly such that there's a bit of everything in each bite. For spice-lovers, you can also choose to squeeze in a liberal amount of hot sauce into your rice.

The name of the shop is Midarae! I should think that it's a franchise outlet, since it even has a website!

Check out the freshness of the shrimp roe! It tastes really good just by itself, but mixing it into the rice would give the rice a whole lot more flavour.

If you can't take spicy food well, don't be a smart aleck like me and squeeze in too much hot sauce! 

All in all, the rice bowl was value for money but it's a pity they used frozen sashimi instead of fresh fish. The frozen sashimi was tough and rubbery, which I felt was unbefitting of true sashimi, but fresh seafood is hard to come by here so this is good enough.

I couldn't resist the temptation of a good dessert and I haven't had sweets in such a long time so I bought myself an ice cream from the convenience store. It looked nothing like how it was advertised in the packaging and I didn't eat it immediately after I bought it so it got all soft and squishy. I hate it when my ice cream gets all soft and runny but in spite of this, it was the most mind-blowing mochi ice cream I have ever had in my twenty one years of existence. Yes, it was that good. The mochi skin, although ugly, was soft yet chewy and the walnut chunks gave the smooth vanilla ice cream a delightful variation in texture. Best part about the ice cream was that it came in a pair! Perfect for sharing with a friend or other half, although I strongly recommend you to usurp both. Sweet dreams!

1,000W for two mochi ice creams! There's a tiny fork inside so don't worry about getting your hands dirty!

xoxo, ❀