Pizza Hut - Seoul, Korea

My cousins ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut the other day and I thought it was bizarre enough to warrant a post. It's called a coconut shrimp pizza. It has coconut shrimp, fried potatoes, bacon, green bell pepper, honey mustard sauce and balsamic glaze. The crust is composed of little cheesy bites, which have mozzarella cheese and sweet potato filling in them.

Here is my verdict. I give them props for making the crust into little bite size pieces that you can pull off and eat and the sweet potato filling was good, but the remaining 90% of the pizza was so odd. I tell you Koreans have the weirdest flavor combinations, sometimes it works, but other times, it's just plain weird. I'm surprised they didn't put any mayo on this pizza.

I say skip it. Far better things to be had here in Seoul.

Yoogane - Seoul, Korea (Myeongdong)

I tried Yoogane when I was in Korea this summer and really liked it, so we decided to bring Jung here for lunch while we were in Myeongdong one day. They have several chains throughout Seoul. They specialize in dak galbi, which is chicken marinated in red chili paste sauteed in a large skillet with cabbage, rice cakes, potatoes and green onions. You stir all the ingredients together and let it cook. You can order an extra side of ramen, mushrooms, potatoes, onions and rice cakes if you so desire.
At the end, you can order a side of rice and they will make kimchi fried rice for you, which I think is the best part. Yum!
Here's the waitress mixing up the rice with the leftover chicken and kimchi.
Then they flatten it on the hot pan for you to eat out of. You wait for the rice to get crispy and then it's every man for himself.
I recall it being a lot spicier this summer and having to drink gallons and gallons of water to get through this meal, but this time the seasoning was just right. Not too spicy and not too bland. Jung said this was one of his favorite meals so far ... but Yoogane has since been toppled by another lunch, which I will blog about soon.

I think it's virtually impossible to give you the exact location, but it's a chain restaurant so they have locations all over Seoul, but I know of two Yoogane's on the same street in Myeongdong, which is bizarre, but I guess they do really well. I'm sure if you ask someone on the street they will point you in the right direction. Here's their phone number just in case: (02)3789-3392. Their website is www.yoogane.co.kr.

Meal Top - Seoul, Korea (Hyundai Department Store in Apgujeong)

This place has the best patbingsoo (shaved ice with sweetened red bean paste) in Seoul, I'm sure of it. It's so simple but oh so good. You will find it on the top floor of Hyundai Department Store in Apgujeong. The cafe is called Meal Top and even in the dead of winter, it is packed with people. Here's what the cafe looks like.

They have milk, coffee, fruit bingsoo and also patjook, which is red bean porridge. I've tried the coffee and milk bingsoo here before and the milk one is my favorite. It's kind of pricey for a rather small size of bingsoo, but there's a reason why this place is always packed and people are willing to fork over the dough.
My cousin told me that she read somewhere that the guy who's in charge of shaving the ice has been working here for over 10 years. Whenever we come here we pick each other's brains about how the shaved ice could be so good. First of all, the ice is shaved really fine, it just melts in your mouth. But even if the ice was shaved fine and they poured milk into it, wouldn't it melt real fast? But this one doesn't! So our best guess is that maybe freeze the milk and then shave it? No? I have no idea, but curious minds want to know! Anyways, it's icy, milky goodness in a bowl. They also give you two pieces of injeolmi, chewy rice cake that has a slight coffee taste to it.

No fruity pebbles required in this bingsoo. It's just that good.

Kong's Riceball - Seoul, Korea (Ewha Womans University)

Right in front of Ewha Womans University entrance is Kong's Riceball. I don't recall seeing this last time I was in Korea, so it must be pretty new.

It's a tiny little space and all they sell is rice balls. You get a choice of filling like tuna, marinated beef, salmon, spam and even kimchi.

They form a ball with the seasoned rice, put the filling in the center, roll it in roasted laver or seaweed (it's tastier than it sounds) and they put it in a little container for you to go. It's a great snack for on the run. They give you a little spoon to eat it with too. Ahjin liked the tuna one and Jung said the salmon one was not all that great. I was too full to get one so I stole a bite of theirs.

You take Subway line 2 to Ewha Womans University and walk to the front entrance of the school. If your back is facing the school, you'll see it on the left side corner of the intersection.

Original Food - Seoul, Korea (Ewha Womans University)

Original Food has been in existence since 1967 and was a favorite lunch spot of my mom and her friends during college. A few years ago, they remodeled, but up until that point, she claimed it looked exactly the same as when she was in school. They kept the front area, where they have the two friers, the same and they still specialize in tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) and fried squid. We come here nowadays mostly to eat the fried squid. We had already eaten lunch elsewhere so we stopped by for a midday snack. Here's the guy, clearly not focused on the glorious task at hand, overlooking the two huge woks where the squid and other veggies are fried.

Here's why I think it tastes so good. First of all, they only fry the squid legs and not the body of the squid. The squid legs are a lot chewier and not as rubbery. The best part is that they fry an extra ruffle of batter that gets extra crispy and tastes like you're eating a fresh shrimp chip. I know I am not doing the fried squid proper justice, so you must try it for yourself. Jung said that this was one of his favorite foods of all time.

You get five pieces for 3,000 won. We came in and moaned about how full we were from lunch and how we could only eat one piece each. After we finished off the plate, we ended up ordering another one. Then thirty minutes later, my mom called and asked us to bring some home for the parents. So clearly the whole family is a fan.

Street Food in Korea

The best part of walking down Myeongdong is trying all the street food vendors that set up camp there everyday. During the summer, it's the vendors that sell skewers of fruit, soft serve ice cream or fruit smoothies that do really well. During the winter, it's the hoduk (a Korean flat donut filled with brown sugar and nuts), bungeoppang (a fish shaped bread filled with red bean) or egg bread vendors that are popular.

My cousin Jung hasn't been to Korea in over 10 years so he is intrigued by the plethora of street food in Korea and is on a mission to try each thing once. One day, my cousin Ahjin and I were walking briskly to take cover inside a store and we turned around to ask Jung something and we saw him munching on this.

He was behind us the whole time, so we have no idea how he managed to get a corn dog so fast. haha. He's quick. BTW, they call corn dogs, hot dogs in Korea. This one is fried in batter and they stick french fries to it. Jung thinks it's genius. I think it's pretty funny. I guess it's great for those in a rush, you can get a corn dog and french fries all on one stick.

Waffles are sold everywhere in Korea too so Jung wanted to try a waffle as well. The waffles are really crispy, not very doughy at all. They put apple jam in the middle and you get a choice of vanilla, strawberry or chocolate whipped cream. Vanilla seemed like the least weird option to pair with apple jam so we went with that one.
They fold it in half and you eat it out of your hand.
Here's a hoduk vendor. The dough was almost deep fried. No wonder it was so good.
Here is a picture of egg bread. It tastes like pound cake and in the center they crack an egg in the batter, which cooks with the batter in the little mold. It's 1,000 won for one.

This is how bungeoppang is made. They fill the cast with batter, put the red bean inside, and close the mold and wait till it's cooked.

Jung has also undertaken the soju/makgeolli (Korean traditional rice wine)/Korean beer challenge as well, trying every single one in the supermarket. We keep telling him we think he has a drinking problem, but he's in denial. =)

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2010! I'm still in Seoul. It's nice and chilly here. It's been about -8 to -13 Celsius in Seoul, which is mucho frio for a girl from Cali. We got about 9 inches of snow yesterday, which didn't seem like all that much to me, but they say is the most they've had in Seoul in 103 years. Since Seoul is composed of so many narrow streets, they can't really plow the snow with huge trucks and they don't really salt the roads here, so everyone has to shovel the roads themselves to get out. But it was snowing pretty much all day yesterday, so most people left their cars at home and those that dared to drive got stuck. I saw a lot of abandoned cars on the side of the street yesterday. It made for pretty clear streets though, I've never seen the streets so empty.

It's pretty though, isn't it?

A cute little snowman someone made on top of a car. The arms were hair rollers.

We went ice skating a few days ago in Gwanghwamun and for the little kiddies they had a little sledding area where they sit on these rectangular, wooden planks and parents just pull their kids along. So cute!

새해 복 많이 받으세요! Happy New Year everyone!