One Piece and Hello Kitty may have been slight letdowns, but we didn't completely give up on themed restaurants. Our next stop was to eat amongst Totoro and friends in Edae.
The particular restaurant didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary on the outside. Signs with menu photos and waxed foods were a pretty typical sighting in Seoul.
What set Botong Saram 보통 사람 or Average Person apart was it's interior. Seating and tables were designed to look like tree trucks and leafy vines looped all around the walls. Totoro stuffed animals, figurines, and posters were placed everywhere. Compared to the previous two themed restaurants we visited, Botong Saram seemed have put more effort into decorating.
It was always a treat when spicy rice cakes or ddeokbokki was given as a side dish at restaurants. This was also, I think, the first restaurant we had steamed egg or gyeranjim for banchan.
An interesting food that we ordered was the egg wrapped mini kimbap 겨란말이밥.
Botong Saram's menu had a variety of classic Korea dishes: bibimbap, donkatsu, soups, etc. Something I wanted to try after seeing it on the menu was jjol myeon 쭐면.
I've had it once or twice before at the Food Gallery 32 in Koreatown. I really liked how refreshing it was. The dish is similar to bibimbap but with very chewing cold noodles instead of piping hot rice. While there is a another dish called bibimmyeon 비빔면 or mixed noodles, the type of noodle used is completely different from jjol myeon's and there aren't as many vegetable accompaniments.
I was glad that Totoro didn't end up letting us down. Food was inexpensive and atmosphere was nice, what more is there to ask for?
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!
Class field trip no. 2 brought us to Changdeokgung 창덕궁. Prior to visiting Seoul, I had no idea there were multiple palaces in the city. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there were 5 in total? Each one has something a little different to them so it wouldn't be extremely redundant to want to visit multiple ones. Changdeokgung in particular is known for it's Secret Garden. We didn't get to visit the garden space at the time since I think it required either a separate admission fee and/or reservations.
For lunch we ate at a place in Edae called Sodam Mandoo 소담만두. With dumplings in it's name, how could I not order something mandoo related? Plus you know me and my love for rice cakes! Mandoogook 만두국 was the perfect dish which combined both.
Bestie C had a comedy/musical show called NANTA on her To-Do list. The story was suppose to revolve around a food theme while incorporating various sing-song and viewer participation elements.
After some of our friends came back with rave reviews, we had to book our own tickets as well. The show actually does a number of shows in various parts of Seoul: Hongdae, Myeongdong, and Chungjeongro 충정로.
Despite already having already completed our night time activity, there was more planned for the night. I did say we were well settled into our routines didn't I?
To make the most of our time, we chose to eat nearby the theater before heading back to the dorms. I believe the place we grabbed dinner at was called Noodles Tree. It was conveniently located in (or was it near?) the NANTA Theater building. Bestie had the Hamburg Omurice 함박오므라이스 and I the Wang Donkatsu 왕돈까스. It was very hard to resist fried foods.
Onward with the late late night plans! Drum roll, my first clubbing experience. It was actually the first time for a majority of the group of friends that I tagged along with.
Seoul is known for its nightlife, drinking, and clubbing culture. So why the heck not? If it was just Bestie and I, clubbing wouldn't even have come out of my mouth. Both of us are just not into it.
One of our friends found that Octagon in Gangnam was supposed to be the place to go. Getting there was an ease via taxi. Just tell the driver you're headed to New Hilltop Hotel or Hilltop Hotel. None of us were looking to get drunk at the club so we arrived on the early side to pre-game at the nearby convenience stores. Our pre-gaming consisted of "weak sauce" alcohols, which I think was beer and/or makgeolli & cider mix.
Our group arrived to the club way early and nothing was really happening inside yet. The crowds hadn't really filled the place until sometime past midnight. Even then I don't have any interesting club stories to share. Most people tended to keep to themselves or their crowd of friends. To me it felt kind of like a prom or school dance but with much better music. What an experience, heh?
