Korea Diary | Recovery Day, Campus Exploring, & Sindang Eats (Day 8-9)
The day after a (mild) night out meant all of us craved rest and staying in to recuperate. Day 8 in Korea for me involved sleeping until the afternoon and lounging around the dorms. Seems like a pretty relaxing and familiar Sunday routine.
All floor lounges are at the corner of the dorm building. Since my dorm room was on the top floor, we had a really nice panoramic view of the Yonsei campus, Sinchon, and Edae area.
If you travel abroad and see familiar chain stores, don't hesitate to go in! Even though Dunkin' Donuts is such a common sight in New York, the selection in Korea was completely different than what America has to offer. Some donuts may be similar, yeast donuts with icing coating. But the stars are definitely the glutinous rice ring donuts. They're so light and chewy. One of the things I miss after coming back home was definitely these donuts.
There is another chain called Mister Donuts that also sells something similar but they call it the "Pon De Ring". It is supposedly more famous but unfortunately we didn't spot any of their stores during our stay in Korea...perhaps next time.
What's a living in Korea experience without Chinese delivery? Since everyone was already in the staying in mood, we all happily agreed to ordering food. Luckily there are stacks of different menus available in the lobby of the dorms for students to choose from. I don't remember the menus having very much English on them but most had images of the most popular/promoted items. The perk of being in the international students' dorms meant the security guards and students at the front desk know enough English to help place delivery orders. If not, try to brave the call yourselves.
Big bowl of saucy noodles (jajangmyun 자장면), big platter of fried pork (tangsuyuk 탕수육), and free "service" fried dumplings (gunmanu 군만두). This might not have been the best Korean-style Chinese food meal there is but hey, it is comfort food! Just the thought of sitting around a table with our friends, mixing our noodles, dipping the pork into the sauce, and engulfing all the food while chatting and watching TV makes me all excited.
Day 9 signaled the preparations of school life for the next month. After 3-day weekend of fun and relaxation, we all had to face the fact that classes started the next day. It would have been trouble to be late the first day just because we got lost on the massive campus right?
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After our brunch, we all headed off into the heart of the Yonsei campus to familiarize ourselves with all the buildings and roads amidst all the trees. Being a commuter student in New York City, Yonsei University's campus was a complete shock to me. So much greenery, everything is so spread out, and so many buildings for all the different departments too. The school I went to back home only had 2 buildings for classes that were just a city block away from each other. Talk about night and day!
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Our dinner destination: Tteokbokki Town. This food area was not under my radar before coming to Korea. If it weren't for the friends we met, I could have probably missed out on this place. Who knew there was a whole area just to eat tteokbokki?
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292-112 Sindang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
The restaurant our friends had in mind was Mabokrim. It is hard to miss this particular place since it is right at the start of the Sindang Tteokbokki Town. Unlike the spicy rice cakes that you may have seen in Korean dramas that are sold on food carts on the streets, the one at Mabokrim was loaded with all kinds of goodies. It isn't just rice cakes, fish cake, and veggies in a spicy sauce.
Nope! This sit-down restaurant adds ramen, spaghetti noodles, boiled eggs, and fried dumplings to the concoction. They bring it out to you in a big shallow pan and all you have to do is wait for it to bubble away until you think it is ready to eat. All the ingredients cook pretty fast anyways so the staring time isn't too long, don't you worry.
The prices here are pretty cheap and will leave you stuffed by the end of the meal. It starts at 2 serving size for ₩11,000. 3 serving size is ₩14,000. 4 serving size is ₩20,000. 5 serving size is ₩24,000.
This particular restaurant must be pretty famous. There were many photos of what I assumed were celebrities who visited or television segments who filmed there. Even when we were leaving the restaurant, our group was stopped by a Chinese television crew from NTD TV who wanted to interview us. What an experience!
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We spotted yet another familiar name in Korea: Red Mango. I think this was the first and only time we had Red Mango whilst on our trip. Our dessert of choice was of course shaved ice (patbingsoo 팥빙수). Since we were at a froyo place, their version of patbingsoo came with frozen yogurt, fruits, and various froyo toppings. Even though it was really refreshing after a spicy meal, let's just say Red Mango isn't one of my top places to go to for patbingsoo in Korea.
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