Korea Diary | Sinchon Eats (Day 34)

11:26:00 PM mandy 0 Comments

Okay...so maybe this post was mainly Hyundai Department Store eats. But that title wouldn't quite fit all the food photos for this particular day.

The previous night's adventures left a majority of my friends and I pooped. I think I can definitely say we unanimously agreed to sleep in the next morning. By the time everyone gathered, it was already lunchtime.



Somehow we ended up grubbing at the food court at Hyundai Department Store in Sinchon. With many different cuisines available, it was hard to go wrong with a big group of people. There was something for everyone: Korean, Japanese, Thai, fusion, and many others.

My choice for the day was fusion. I think I ordered the Steak Rice from a vendor called Steak Rave. It tasted just like chicken teriyaki from the fast-food hibachi places at American malls/food courts. It wasn't a typical piece of steak but teriyaki sauce, meat, and thinly sliced cabbage will always be a win in my books.



Seeing the Osulloc vendor made us all think back to the soft serve green tea ice cream we had in Jeju. The BOGO Free promotion only helped us, especially Bestie C, decide on our afternoon snack more easily. I don't remember this version being particularly bad but it wasn't the same as what we had before.



Being full didn't stop us from browsing around and buying even more snacks. It was so hard to resist all the different breads at the Vezzly Bakery. We must have food for breakfast right?

This carby delight in particular reminded me of one of my favorite items from the Chinese bakeries. Vezzly called it Angel Bread. It was part cake and part bread with layers of red beans sandwiched in between.


The other wonderful find at Vezzly were these mochi-like mini breads. There were little samples to try and Bestie C and I were amazed by the chewiness of the little breads. To call them mochi bread is a little of a misnomer since mochi is typically made from sweet or glutinous rice flour. The chewy bread we bought, I think, was made by incorporating tapioca flour to attain the texture.

I had also tried a similar bread from the Paris Baguettes in Korea but was a little disheartened to not be able to find it again in the chains here in NYC.


Hara Donuts was something I decided to try on a whim. There weren't any samples to entice me to this one but donuts work their own magic. I can't attest to how the donut tasted fresh but cookie covered donuts was hard to resist regardless.



The weird pizza that my friends had wanted to try was this, egg tart crust. Yes you have read correctly. Egg tart crust that was sweet as expected from egg custard. I can't say I hated it. I didn't love it either, but I wasn't 100% mad at it. It's no New York slice of course.



Proof that we didn't just eat all day. One of our favorite nighttime activities: noraebang! I think that night we went to several different places in Sinchon. Some rooms were super intimidate while others were incredible spacious. While I love to go karaoke, that was one of the biggest groups I have ever gone singing with. Usually it is just me and at most 2 other friends together singing our hearts out. Is that a little sad?



I guess since we had a late start to the day, we ended our night fairly late as well. Our dorms had a curfew of sorts. Students of the opposite sex couldn't be on the sleeping floors past a certain hour. Even if everyone was just hanging out on the floor lounges.

The exception to that was the common kitchen area in the basement of SK Global House. Our group of friends gathered around for hours. At one point we were watching movies, listening to music, eating a late-night meal, studying, and even doing our laundry. (The best time to do laundry at the dorms was late night and early morning!) If I had to imagine what dorm life was like as a kid, this was definitely what I would have wanted it to be like. Good times & good company!