After mostly staying nearby Sogang University on Monday and Tuesday night due to quizzes and cleaning checks at the dorm, I was raring to get outta this place by Wednesday. We had taken our quizzes in class, so we didn't have any new material to learn, therefore the night was all mine.
I went with Michelle, a girl in my class from Hong Kong, but she goes to college in the States. We decided we needed grilled meat, and I had heard of this great place called the Outdoor Factory in Hongdae from the Canadian blogger couple, and we actually found it!
It is basically a Korean BBQ restaurant with the theme of outdoors/camping, so a lot of the tables are on a patio under an awning, you sit in camping chairs around a grill with real coals. The side dishes, lettuce, etc. comes on a metal tray, you drink out of camping cups, so it's just so fun.
Michelle waiting for our meat!
The waiters didn't speak much English, so they started speaking Korean to Michelle, we think because she's Asian. She is one of the best students in our class, but we're all beginners, and I think she gets flustered to use Korean in real situations, because she looked at them, and said, "Wait, what?" in English. The waiter then got nervous and started to run away, but by then I got the gist of what they were telling us (that the banchan, or side dishes, were self-serve, and where it was located), so I called out to him and said I understood in Korean. The look on his face was priceless, as he heard more Korean from the Western girl than from the Asian girl. What can I say, I just really know my food terminology. After that, they spoke to me.
I've noticed that a lot, especially when I'm with Asian people, no matter their ethnicity, people will automatically talk to them in Korean on the off-chance they're Korean, and talk to me in English. However, I always try to respond in Korean if I can. After all, what else am I here for?
Before
We got samgyupsal and moksal, both pork, both delicious. Those white stick-looking things are mushroom slices, and we also grilled some garlic. When the meat is starting to get done, you cut it with scissors into smaller pieces and move it away from the center. When it's done, you get a piece, dip it in seasoned soybean paste sauce, put it in a leaf of lettuce with garlic, mushrooms, kimchi, etc., wrap it up, shove it all in your mouth, and enter meat paradise. It was sooo yummy!
Then we walked around the alleyways in Hongdae, which are filled with cute cafes, vintage shops, and cool buildings like this one:
We were craving some good patbingsoo, or red bean shaved ice/ice cream dessert. We found the most perfect one.
Patbingsoo is made to share!
There's a layer of shaved ice, sweet red bean sauce, ice cream, chocolate drizzle, ddeok (chewy rice cake) with more red bean, and frosted flakes (we think) to top it all off. Lest you think the cereal was weird, let me tell you, it was delicious. It had a good crunch when we stirred it all up, and I might be adding it to all my ice cream from now on. And this ddeok was absolutely wonderful, which is what Alejandra and I were looking for when we got the ddeok from the devil the other night.
Here's the cafe we got it in:
Once we had that good ddeok, we wanted more, so we googled a good ddeok shop in Seoul. Let me reiterate not to trust internet directions for places in Seoul, because it led us on a wild goose chase around Insadong, which was not fun. We found a place with some ddeok, but settled for whatever was left by the time we got there:
Cute chocolate steamed bun with apricot filling
Ok, I think I'm about as caught up as I can be at the moment. Hope you guys are having a great summer! Happy Pioneers Day!
2 comments:
All those pictures of food makes me hungry--especially the desserts!! Was the meat in the lettuce leaves like we would see them eating in the Korean movies? Sounds like it. Congratulations on being able to communicate in Korean! Glad you have so many friends to do things with.
That food on the bbq looks and sounds so good. Those shops and restaraunts really look cool. That is weird that that guy parked right next to you-I'm a big advocate of personal space and that was not it. I'm so glad you are having so much fun!
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