seoul - south side

before this trip, i had only been to korea once around 15 years back. I have some memories of the month I spent there, but Seoul was nothing like I remembered it to be. After parting ways with the tour group, we were free to explore on our own. The first place we went to was a few minutes away from our hotel by taxi, which is a cheap option for transportation w/ the starting fare around 2.50. But sometimes it was pretty scary to be in the backseat. While I find bad drivers in America to be characterized by their egotistical selfishness and ignorance of their surroundings, the drivers here speed around with a recklessness that only shows a disregard for all life, including their own.

But by the grace of god, fresh bread, and everything else holy in the world, we arrived at the Kim Young Mo Bakery, the first organic bakery in Korea.

plenty of free samples to try. lots of european and korean goodies on display.

for myself, i picked up a strawberry ice cream sandwich. the outer layers were more of a cake than cookie, and the inside was more of a sorbet.

there are so many businesses here, stacked upon one another. i wondered how they all survived. (the minimum wage here is 2500 won, a little under $2.50).

minsokchon was a traditional folk village park that showcased the old ways of life. it's also a place to drink soju in sd.

all that walking around was definitely tiring.

we also visited gyeongbok palace and changgyeong palace. one thing i loved about seoul was that the modern coexisted with the old, something you don't really see in the U.S. since it is relatively new (with the exception to the indigenous).

also loved that you were free to drink outside. here's the classic combo that will have your head spinnin. have a happy 4th everyone!

an indian secret garden

after a night of tequilla shots and rock band, I took a mandatory trip top dog the next morning, but I've already done a post on it and don't want to bore you. (I tried the garlic for anyone wondering and found it pretty darn tasty). and for anyone in socal who wondered about top dog, i read in oc weekly's stickaforkinit (i always read it as stick for a knit) that Berkeley Dog opened in orange county (mission viejo which is pretty damn south but a brea one to open soon) and is being supplied by top dog.

for lunch, I wanted to try something new, so my sister took me to vik's. as you walk through the colorful eye pleasing entrance, you go past the bored looking cashier and down the aisles filled with wonderful aromas of spices and other things i know nothing of then you make a left, another left, a right, and then spin 3 times in place and a robin will come and help you find the key to the locked gate, and through it...

you are greeted by utter chaos and madness. we were herded like sheep into the line, goaded into taking our order quickly before we were trampled to death by the moving crowd.

Panicking, I tried to scan the menu (this shot is for Dennis, the most meticulous food blogger I ever did meet), hoping to find anything familiar or appealing, but it was no bloody help at all! Click on the menu for full size and you'll see why.

So just like on a multiple test exam, I picked blindly and desperately prayed for the best, going for the chicken biryani. Underneath the rice were three small chicken pieces, some with bone. And along with it some yogurt sauce w/ cucumbers in it. The dish was sneakily spicy and really good...but I have no idea what it was made with.

My sister got the dosa(think thin crepe) with masala filling. Filled with potatoes and peas. Should have taken a cross section pic. I'm not quite sure what the other stuff along with it is.

to drink I got both the mango lassi

and some cold refreshing coconut juice. What I also liked about this place was that there were three cans for waste: one for trash, one for recycling, and one for compost. Respect mother earth!

there were a bunch of desserts on display, and I wish I had tried one.

I have no idea what any of them were though, which made it all the more appealing! I felt like a kid in a candy store. Overall, a pretty interesting and good place (i hear norcal has better indian than socal), one that I would go to again, but not without doing some research beforehand so I wouldn't have to feel rushed.

Stuffed, we headed back for me to get my things and head back down. But not before I tried an It's-It, generously (albeit drunkenly) bought for us by my sister's friend, who mysteriously disappeared for the weekend after a night of beer and soju shots (forgot my camera to do a post on that joint though)

The makeup.

And an ugly inside look. The chocolate overpowered the cookie for me, but the ice cream was pretty good. It's inspired me to bake some cookies at home and create my own ice cream sandwich. After a short nap and armed with an audiobook (into the wild, which I only got through the first disc haha), I got my nicely shaped rump (i've been doin those squats and yoga mang) back on the road and drove home.

www.ilovethischicken.com

is the amusing name of El Pollo Rico's website (dun't work mang) painted outside their door, and let me tell ya, the colonel's got nothing on this joint, so good you'll be suckin to get every last bit of that marinade on dem bones even though you just visited the doctor's and she told that if you kept up those high cholesterol levels, it would kill ya. All right, perhaps I'm stretching the truth a bit as this was my first time trying peruvian rotisserie style chicken at El Pollo Rico in Maryland, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was pretty tasty, especially slathered with some aji and mayo(?) sauce. Fine dining? Rip apart the meat with your hands because civility has no place here when there's a tasty bird waiting to be devoured. Respect the meat mang!

A cheap and filling dinner was washed down with some Chicha Limena, a purple corn drink that tasted a bit medicinal due to the cloves in it. (eugenol extraction in ochem lab anyone?)

For dessert, we stopped by an ice cream joint run by a Jamaican woman. I tried a scoop of coconut pineapple and rum raisin. While the former wasn't anything special, the rum raisin was absolutely delicious, and I don't really consider myself a lover of rum (although my experience with it is laughable having only had, you guessed it, captain morgan's during college). The maker used a heavy hand, and the ice cream was potent, so much in fact that despite it being in the freezer, the plump, soft raisins burst with rum and started to sing yo ho yo ho in my mouth. Another noteable mention was the Guinness ice cream, a chocolate malty start with a smooth Guinness finish. An absolute delight.

I challenge you to try that on for size, Yogurtland, and I don't want your Red Velvet either. But I'll save that rant for another day my friends.