Spring in Korea 2015 (Part 2) ~ Roaming about in Myeongdong in 2D1N



Arrived at Incheon Airport on-time at 3.30pm, the easiest way to head to Myeongdong is probably by the Airport Bus 6015.  The bus-fare hasn't changed for the past years.  For as far as I can remember, it has always been 10,000 won.  Of course, there are other options such as taking the AREX (Airport Express) or taxi.  Whenever I stay in Myeongdong, my preferred option have always been to take the Airport bus because:

1.  It has luggage storage compartment where the luggage can be safely kept and you need not lug it up the bus.

2.  The bus brings passengers directly to downtown Myeongdong, where the subway station exits are.  From there, it is easy to navigate to the hotels.

3.  The buses are rather frequent, approximately once every 20 mins.

4.  Avoid the hassle of transfer from 1 (subway) train to another and fighting the crowd in the populated city, which would be unavoidable if you take the AREX.

 

For more info on airport bus, check out this link.

 

Here I was, arrived at SkyPark III Hotel, conveniently located about 50m away from the Airport Bus-stop.

 

The hotel is especially catered to female tourists, especially if you're a fan of Etude House products.  There are also a few limited "pink and princessy" rooms which makes fans of pink go ga-ga.  Price for a twin room is quite reasonable at ~ S$110 - S$120 inclusive of tax.

I didn't manage to get a pink room.  But a regular room work just fine for me.  The basic facilities are complete.

 

The toiletries, as expected, are products from Etude House.

Myeongdong is one of the very popular "integrated downtown hubs", for shopping (duty-free shops, cosmetics, food, fashion etc etc).  This is also the place for checking out the latest Korean Streetfood.

Deli Manjoo, a small store located in the Myeongdong underground shopping mall, has been around for quite some time.  The corn-shaped warm custard puffs still taste as delicious as before.

Strawberry is seasonal fruit and it is commonly found during the winter season in Korea.  During this time, lots of cafes and bakeries uses strawberry as their key ingredient.  This street-food stall was selling strawberry mochi.

This stylish-looking guy moves in a groovy beat while making the banana-nutella crepes.

And look at these colourful cotton candies in pastel shades.  They are about 30cm in height and 20cm in width.

The thing about living in a country with 4 seasons is that you get an abundance of seasonal fruits.  This stall is selling freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice !

Fish-shape redbean waffle might be a passé by now.  The trend now is croissant fish.  Also filled with redbean.


What is popular for breakfast in Korea? 
One, rice with kimchi and soup, or two, toasts.  Isaac Toast is a popular breakfast stall, a stone-throw away from Myeongdong station exit 5.

With more than 20 types of toast, including basic ham & cheese to bulgogi to potato & cheese, deciding what to order might be a chore. 

For me, it was simple.  I decide to go for a non-meat option and I only needed to decide between cheese & potato or cheese & vegetable or vegetable.  Simple!

Estimated queuing and waiting time ... about 15 minutes.

How to get to Isaac Toast?




What about Dinner?
A question that may make some local Koreans scratch their heads would be "Where can I find vegetarian food?".  A common response that I get is "Koreans love to eat meat!"  There is hardly any dish that is without meat except for vegetable salad and bread.

A friend who arrived in Seoul before me checked out this interesting Tteokbokki restaurant, Kang Ho Dong Cheon Ha, a new celebrity restaurant specially in hotpot rice cakes.  What caught our eyes from the menu was "Yachae tteokbokki" which means vegetable tteokbokki.  We decided to just go for it, although sliced fish cakes is one of the ingredients. 

There are tips plastered on the table for cooking the rice cakes and the ingredients.  We had to adjust the heat level along the way.

Here how the hotpot rice cakes (tteokbokki) looks like when served.  Besides rice cakes and fish cakes, the other ingredients included glass noodles, ramyeon, lots of vegetables and some dumplings.  The serving portion is just nice for 2 to 3 persons.  We opted for the set meal which comes with a portion of fried chicken.  There are other side dishes on the menu such as cheese fries.  Total damage is below 25,000won.  Overall, the food and ambience were good.  Because this place was very new, overall cleanliness was very good.

How to get to Kang Ho Dong Cheon Ha?

[Korean Food] First Specialty Store in Kimbap and Tteokbokki : Rolling Rice

Are you a fan of Korean Street Food such as mini kimbap (rice rolls), tteokbokki (rice cakes) and summer dessert patbingsu (shaved ice)?  Most Korean restaurants in Singapore serve main course dishes such as jjigae (stew), rice or noodles dishes and Rolling Rice is probably first to specialise in serving Korean street food in Singapore.  They are perfect for a light meal or something easy to take out, including their patbingsu.

Rolling Rice has more than 10 outlets in Korea and a few store globally including in Japan and Philippines.  I am really glad that they had chosen Singapore as part of their global expansion.

 

The outlet is conveniently located at the basement level of The Central.  It is the first stall that you see when you take the escalator from the street level.

Check out the menu!  There is a great variety of mini kimbap as well as tteokbokki in addition to popular Korean rice or noodle selection.  What I really like is that there is a selection of tteokbokki cooked using the Korean-traditional gochujang or the western-type cream sauce.  For those of us who have tried School Food (in Korea), Rolling Rice's concept is very similar to School Food's!

 

On my first visit to Rolling Rice, I was on vegetarian diet, and the silken tofu salad was perfect for me!

A wide selection of Korean drinks is available to go with your meal... The can on the left is Orange, center can is sujeonggwa, a traditional fruit punch made from dried persimmon, cinnamon and ginger, and the can on the right is shikhye, a traditional Korean sweeten rice punch.

Main course 1: Cream sauce tteokbokki.  This is similar to having pasta, just that tteokbokki replaces pasta as the staple ingredient.  The cream sauce is pretty light.

Main course 2: Spam (or luncheon meat in our local terms) kimbap.  It is basically rice roll with spam and pickled radish.  It comes with soy sauce to dip the kimbap, if you prefer a little savoury taste.

Main Course 3: Rice cake and dumpling ramyeon.  This is cooked using Korean instant noodles with pork or kimchi dumpling and sliced rice cakes.

Dessert: That's the main reason I was there for dinner - the patbingsu.  It is quite difficult to get patbingsu in Singapore.  Other than Paris Baguette (PB) and Seoul Yummy (SY), I do not know if any other restaurants that serve patbingsu.  Personally, I find the patbingsu to be the most authentic compare to PB or SY, even though it does not taste exactly like what you can get in Korea itself.  Good thing about the patbingsu at RR is the choice of regular ones with red bean or milk-flavoured / nut-flavoured patbingsu.

Take-away is also available for patbingsu.  The dessert will be packed in a container as well as in chiller bag!  The service stall are very friendly and easy going.  Do check it out!

Rolling Rice
The Central, Eu Tong Sen Street, #B1-49
Tel: 6222 0801
Opening Hour: Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm.  Last Order is 8.30pm.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RollingRiceSingapore
Website: http://www.rollingrice.co.kr/

Getting there: Take MRT to Clarke Quay Station and take the connected exit to basement 1.  It is located near Crystal Jade Bakery. 



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[Seoul, Korea] Food Series: Tteokbokki



Tteokbokki, Korean rice cakes with fish cakes in spicy pepper sauce, is known to be a quick take-out snacks which you can buy from street stalls in Korea.  Have you tried eating Tteokbokki from a big pan like that?  It is delicious and you have to try this!

Years ago dated as far back as Joseon Dynasty, Tteokbokki was a royal court cuisine instead of a daily dish.  Soy sauce was used instead of gochujang and main ingredients included kelp, dried mushrooms, onions, vegetables and meat.  It was a stir-fry savoury dish then.  

The modern tteokbokki dish is a popular dish which can be taken as a full-meal instead of having it as a snack.  There is even a tteokbokki street at Sindang-dong area with several restaurants serving this dish side by side.  These are just a few of the restaurants.

The full-meal tteokbokki is cooked in a pan with rice cakes, ramyeon and sweet potato noodles piled beneath the other ingredients including fish cakes, eggs, quail eggs, fried fritters (in seafood or vegetables), mandu (dumplings), sausages and onion.

Since those served in the restaurants are more elaborate and sumptuous, the price is also slightly highly, approximate 5,000 to 7,000 per pax depending on the number of persons sharing a pot.  Serving portion for 2 persons could costs approximately 12,000 won.  Additional ingredients can be requested and the price will be charged accordingly.

Getting to Tteokbokki Town:  Take the subway to either Sindang station (Line 2 and 6, Exit 6 or 7) or Cheonggu Station (Line 5 and 6, Exit 1 or 2).  Walk along Dasan-ro until you see the big Tteokbokki Town arch signage.


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Korean Grilled Cuttlefish at Chinatown

If you've been to Seoul and tried the street food in Myeong-dong, you'd probably have seen a roadside stall selling buttered cuttlefish.  To my pleasant surprise, there is a stall outside People's Park Complex selling this delicious Korean streetfood.

In case you're not familiar or confused with the building names at Chinatown, People's Park Complex (PPC) is the building next to OG departmental store and accessible from Chinatown MRT exit.  Occassionally, there are some buskers performing outside this MRT station.

The flattened cuttlefish was first cooked in the machine on the left side for about 2 minutes. Thereafter, the cooked cuttlefish was cut using the orange-coloured machine on the right side. For this $5 portion, you get one and a half piece of cuttlefish.

Tada!  Fresh, juicy and chewy cuttlefish that is almost as good as what you can get in Korea!