Snippets of Everyday Life, Ep. 3: Food, Dessert, and Cute Signs

Mealtop Bingsu:
While almost every café offers some sort of bingsoo (shaved ice) in the summer, most Koreans seem to agree that Mealtop is by far the best! Apparently sometimes people have to wait up to an hour!


7,000W for a small size. A little pricey! However, the ice was very finely shaved and uniformly milky. Milky is good because flavorless ice can get very boring. And if the bingsoo is not finely shaved, the hard pieces can make it difficult to chew and noisy to eat. But for the price, I’ll stick with Café Benne—just 3,000W more for a GINORMOUS portion, and still quite yummy!



Accessorize:
We stopped by an outlet location in Sinsa for Accessorize, an accessory chain. I loved the flowers and the pink neon sign that greeted us in!




Shy Bana:
Shy Bana is a Southern American style restaurant in Sinsa. All the utensils and napkins were tucked inside the bucket on the right!


(my friend)

Seafood Gumbo (~16,000W)


Sour Cream Fried Rice (~13,000W)

I can’t say it was authentic Southern cuisine—I wouldn’t know myself—but t’was tasty enough!



--Subway Sightings--

A little tip for navigating the subway:
Here’s a little tip. If you’re transferring between subway lines, look for maps like this at the boarding platform:


They indicate the “Quickest Transfer Points.” They tell you which is the best subway car to board—that is, which car will be closest to the appropriate stairway. It’ll save you lots of time and energy!


Caution sign:
A man with his manbag stuck in the door, shouting “Acha!” How cute!




Subway ads:
This was an ad at the boarding platform. Look at his furry little head~~ >3<



I also really like this ad, which was for a game I think:


I guess I'm quite partial to anime; reality always seems to freeze whenever I look at it! Take this poster for example. So bright, so carefree, so joyous~ I feel so free just looking at it!


----

Waffle from Beans & Coffee:
Taking a break from shopping, my sister and I decided to stop by a café to recuperate.


We each ordered a coffee, as well as a waffle to share. It came on a little tray:


Almost all cafes offer a waffle of some sort, and they all kinda look like this! A thick chunk of bread, topped with a mountain of cream:


This one was chocolate, though in hindsight caramel would have been wiser. I must say that this café’s waffle was lackluster...they didn’t even precut the bread! ☹


Episode 4 to follow soon!

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Diaries of Korea: Melon Bingsu with Bory and Joanne

Yesterday I hung out with my friends Bory and Joanne. Now, I promised I would avoid posting crappy phone photos on my blog at all cost, but I have to make an exception! I always have so much fun with these two，and I ended up taking way too many photos to not write about it in my diary!


순대 for Dinner:
We met up in Shillim and ate 순대 (sundae) for dinner. They’ve taught me that Guri is famous for 곱창 (gopchang) and Shillim is the place for sundae!

The restaurant had a large, open, cafeteria-style interior. The ajummas that worked there were very attentive and friendly…and almost auntie-like! For example, they put their hands on our backs as they somewhat forcefully—but still kindly—ushered us to our seats. My friends even called out “Aunt” instead of “ajumma” whenever we needed something!

They also said I looked like a doll/barbie, so that made me happy~~


Sticker Photos:
After a fulfilling meal, we took sticker photos! We went to a place called Ulzzang (because it was 1+1, kkkkk). But sadly, our sticker booth didn’t ulzzangify us at all. I’ve yet to find a sticker booth that bulges eyes; none of the ones I've been to did... :<



My friends are so animated and comical when it comes to sticker photos! I couldn’t keep up >.<


Curious about how the ulzzang craze in the west compares to Korea, I asked my friends how most Koreans feel about ulzzang. They replied that some middle and high schoolers may be obsessed about it, but most everyone else doesn’t pay that much mind. It’s mostly the work of photoshop, anyways! (And I don't mean that in a criticizing way, just as a matter of factly!)



Melon Bingsu:

After playing rock, paper, scissors to decide how to split the photos, we headed over to Lga Coffee for melon bingsu! I hear Lga is famous for their unique melon bingsu.

[Warning: If you are easily disturbed by cramped circles, beware of the following pictures! It’s not too terrible, but I myself was even disturbed when I saw photos of the bingsu for the first time.]

Presenting…the infamous melon bingsu!


Topped with vanilla ice cream, the shaved ice is covered with round carve-outs of melon. The whole thing rests inside the carved melon itself! Those colored pieces are tiny bits of chocolate, similar to M&Ms! It also came with a side of red bean sauce.



It is customary to take pictures of and with your food and friends:


(left to right: Joanne, me, Bory)




After watching me take the following “unique” selca shot, my friends were inspired and both chimed, “Oh, I want to too~!” and they followed with the same pose.

Needless to say…I am particularly proud of this picture for that reason… Heehee~ We actually looked hilarious taking those selcas though, if you can imagine it...


After about 5 minutes of selcas and pictures, we *finally* dug in! Upon devouring most of it, we were left with a milky slush. Sipping it with spoons was terribly messy and sticky…but then we decided to use straws! +_+ Smart, smart, we are kkkkkkk





There ended up being a super long wait after we arrived. Imagine that! A 30 minute wait for bingsu! Having sat right at the entrance, we felt a little faceless when we lingered afterwards to chat ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ But thankfully I was back-faced towards the queue, but Bory not so much!


Behind us you can see one of the many who were waiting~



All in all, I actually wouldn’t say the bingsu was SUPER delicious, only because the melon wasn’t that sweet! But it was fun and worth trying anyhow!


It’s always a treat to hang out with Bory and Joanne. Fun girls! Also, my sister is arriving in Seoul today! I’ll be off to pick her up later this afternoon. Other than that, a review and some café posts to come soon! (This time with HQ pictures!)

Tomorrow is Monday already? Oh, sad revelation! The weekend is just too short! Off I go! Enjoy the rest of your weekend; toodle-doos!

Korean Snackies: Chocolate and Chiffon Cake!

It's a Sunday afternoon and I'm feeling pretty chocolatey. So what do I do? Head down to the convenience store and pick up some yummies, of course!

I went in looking for a chocolate bar but I spotted some “Chiffon Cakes” that had me curious. They looked like dense, fudgy brownies! I ended up getting both!



To You chocolate bar:
I was drawn to the retro packaging~




The chocolate had words on it! I thought that was cute ^^



Taste: The first few bites were a little bitter—but I see now that it is 28% cocoa, after all! After that though, it tasted mostly like Hersheys~ Except a wee bit less sweet and less rich! My conclusion: Mm~ It’s a decent chocolate bar! Nothing spectacular though!



Chiffon Cake:
The packaging is so cute! I love the cats~! Happy cats!


Like many snack packages in Korea, it opens like this:

The individual packages had fun doodles on them too ^^




Taste: Mm…the cake is not rich at all! I thought it’d be dense and rich, but it’s quite fluffy and a little tasteless.
My conclusion: Mahhh, I don’t like it...I couldn’t even finish one! T_T I would not feed my sister this when she visits next week!

[Edit: Okay, I guess it's not thaaaattt bad, so much as I was just sick of sweets when I tried it. I still wouldn't recommend bothering with it though. If anything, it's even a little bitter!]

About this new teeny-weeny series: Before I leave Korea, I’d like to have tried most of the commonly-sold snacks in Korea! I had wanted to make a video trying out a bunch of Korean snacks, but the thought of eating all those snacks at once…well, makes me sick to my stomach...literally!

Instead, I thought it'd be more fun to share my experiences of new snacks as I went along, rather than all at once! Unfortunately, this will have to be a teeny-weeny series, since I don’t snack all that much. But nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this post!

Snippets of Everyday Life, Episode 2: Our last weekend together

May 7th marks the beginning of a long trek: his mandatory military service. It begins with 6 weeks of training, after which he will be stationed in the northernmost part of Korea to remove landmines in the DMZ. In total, it lasts 21 months.

During this time we will be reduced to letters, phone calls, and of course, occasional visits. It almost sounds like a drama, right? ...Well it’s not! Let’s be real here! Our last weekend wasn’t romantic and tearfully dramatic, he had errands to run! Hair to cut and medical notes to get! (Although we did also go to Lotte World, but that’s another post~)



Eye hospital in Gangnam
Now again! This might seem mundane for some, but I do think hospitals in Asia carry a different ambiance than the ones I’m used to back home~

This particular eye hospital was housed in a ginormous black building right outside Gangnam station. Supposedly it’s very good for Lasik surgery, but it’s how you check in is what awes me!

Take the elevator down to the B2 level and walk through this *fancy* wavy hallway:


Then you head straight over to these *touch-screen computers* and punch in your ID number:


...Fascinating!!!

Across from those monitors is this counter:


(Don’t judge me for the trivialness of this! Again, I just want to take pictures
of everyday sights that are different from what I'm used to >.<)

The uniforms here reminded me a bit of airline stewardesses! Some of them actually had a mini scarf tie around their necks.


Down below was the waiting area where they had a café and glossy computers:


The suburban hospitals I went to at home didn’t
offer computers, much less glossy ones…


And just beyond this area was a large room showcasing their equipment and achievements. The entire back wall was a big mural composed of autographs from celebrities they had performed LASIK on:


I spy SNSD, 2pm, DBSK, Kangta, and EXO!


Konkuk University Area
On our way to the hair salon to get his hair cut military-style, we walked along this very spacious sidewalk near Konkuk Station. With the sun out and the flowers in bloom, it was all so beautiful!



Passing by a Konkuk University building~ The sky was sooo clear!



Eventually, I got fed up with the sunshine beating on me and I marched over to the shadier side. No pretty flowers here, but we did pass by Pinkage! Oh yeah~






Sunday Evening: Children’s Grand Park
May 5th was Children’s Day in Korea. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra performed at the Children’s Grand Park, and we stopped by in the evening to check it out:


Quite the turnout! Could it be because the conductor is really famous?

A view of the stage (and shoulders of two messenger bag wielding men):


Can you see the screens on each side of the stage?

And here is a fountain in Children’s Grand Park!


Sometimes there are colored lights and the water sprays around in synch to the music playing, which is really neat! (Though truth be told, I could hardly tell it was in synch...)



Store Sightings
Check out these humongous-headed mannequins at Lotte World!


I'm truly curious how the workers managed to balance all that weight on those teeny tiny shoulders. On another note, it looks like B1A4 is photobombing the mannequins!



In Lotte Department store, all the mannequins inside had really awesome floral headpieces!


Omg, I wanted them so badly!

And down below in the food area were these ADORABLE cakes!


My favorite is the mushroom one!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any more pictures before the lady stopped me....sad face.



Gangnam
Our quest for his mom’s birthday gift led us to Gangnam, where my jaw dropped over these two gigantic screens, on two consecutive buildings:


If they don’t look big to you in the picture, look again! See how tiny the people across the street are? Okay, so now realize how big the building is. Now go back and realize exactly how big the screens are. See it now? But wait! Remember that there are two of these screens. Oh, the technology~~



View from my new apartment
If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been bending over backwards to clean my new apartment. Well, here’s the view from said apartment!


It’s not a very pretty view...Actually, my immediate surroundings are…metal shops. But that’s okay; not all of Korea is glitz and glam! It is a real country, after all~




To all my readers (and sponsors) who are eagerly awaiting for a review, I wholeheartedly apologize! I truly meant for this post to be a review. I have just a few more pictures to finalize but unfortunately, I won't be able to do that until this Sunday. I soooorta left the product in my new apartment in Seoul.... But in the mean time, I hope you enjoyed this Snippets post full of lovely mundanesies! (Yes, I just made that word up. It's like daisies, except...mundanesies!)