Caffe Artigiano – Seoul

August 10, 2014August 9, 20142 Comments

Grapefruit and Vanilla Ice Cream Patbingsu

Caffe Artigiano is actually a Vancouver based coffee shop, and I’ve actually been there once for a latte. I expected to see Starbucks in Seoul, but to my surprise, they also had a Caffe Artigiano. I don’t like to go into these international franchises when I’m traveling, but the other girls wanted a quick snack and to recover from all the walking. We ended up ordering some Patbingsu to share. I was surprised to find that they sold this at the coffee shop. I guess their menu is quite different so that it can cater to the Koreans. Patbingsu or Patbingsoo is Korean shaved ice and is often topped with sweet ingredients. My friends chose the Grapefruit Patbingsu, which brought some acidity to the dish. It also came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Quite refreshing after a long day in the heat!

Red Bean, Kinako, Mochi, and Vanilla Ice Cream Patbingsu

K and I shared the Red Bean Patbingsu. It came with some mochi slices, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and lots of kinako. Kinako is roasted soybean flour, which is slightly sweet. A very popular topping for patbingsu and mochi.

Overall, the patbingsu were average. I didn’t find them to be too special. Plus, I found it quite expensive. They were around $9 each, which is quite pricey in Seoul. I’m sure you can get it for a cheaper price.

Food near Ewha Womans University – Seoul

August 9, 2014Leave a comment

Ewha Womans University is a private women’s university in Seoul and is the world’s second largest women’s university. It’s filled with beautiful green gardens and is actually a famous tourist spot. Around the area, it’s known for great shopping for young women fashion with cheap prices. So on day 2, we did some shopping and decided to look for food around the area. Somehow, we managed to go onto this street that reminded me of Chinatown in Vancouver. It was a street filled with elderly and shops selling produce. We were probably in the wrong neighbourhood, but we settled for food anyways.

There were various elderly people sitting in this little shop. It’s run by a Korean man and his wife only. There was no English name, but I thought it would be worth blogging, since they offer some popular and typical Korean dishes. The menu is posted on the walls with colourful pictures and prices. No english at all though, so just look at the pictures and guess what it is. Prices are very affordable too!

It seems that it’s very common for you to serve yourself with appetizers in Korea. There are little stainless steel containers filled with kimchi and other pickled vegetables. You can just go grab some, as well as pour yourself some soup and tea. I think the owner saw that we clearly did not know what we were doing, so he ended up serving us. Super friendly service even though he could not speak a lick of English. Just point and smile, and you can get your way around!

Naengmyeon

For myself, I chose the Naengmyeon. I’ve had this in Vancouver as well, but I wanted to try it in Seoul. To my surprise, I would say the ones in Coquitlam around North Road are quite up to par. When directly translated, Naengmyeon means “cold noodles.” It’s sort of like the Korean equivalent of soba noodles. The noodles are long and thin and are often made from buckwheat. They are very chewy compared to the Japanese soba noodles. Served in a stainless steel bowl, it has a broth that is slightly tangy, some cucumbers, radish, and a boiled egg. It’s also topped with a spicy red sauce. What’s cool about the dish is that it also comes with a bunch of shaved ice so it really keeps the noodles cold. You can then add a spicy mustard sauce, which reminds me of wasabi to bring more flavour and spice to it.

Spicy Octopus on Rice

Some of the girls got the Spicy Octopus on Rice, which I tried some. They are baby octopus, and the spicy sauce used is a little sweet. Super tender and the flavour was definitely very appetizing. Mix it with the rice and seaweed, and you have yourself a delicious meal.

I believe this was the Grilled Pork Belly on Rice that my friend got. Not exactly sure though. Or it was something along the lines of grilled pork. Cut into thin slices and topped with sauce and sesame seeds. She said the meat was very tender and delicious!

Overall, we were all very satisfied with our meal here. Just wish there was an English name, so I could search up the location again to share with everyone. Oh and it’s interesting to note that at most of these restaurants, people just eat and go. They don’t sit around chatting for too long, so the turnover rates are really high.

School Food – Seoul

August 8, 2014Leave a comment

The next couple of posts will take you over the ocean and towards Asia! Just a couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan for some leisure travel, which also meant eating lots! We took United Airlines, which had a stopover in San Francisco, so it felt like forever before we arrived in Seoul. Their plane food was one of the worst I’ve had. Here, we have a salad with wimpy leaves, and something called General Tso’s Chicken… Ugh, it was absolutely disgusting. Sweet and spicy, but the chicken itself tasted so bad. The best part of the meal was that brownie… Plus service was horrid. It felt like the flight attendants hated their jobs and they were screaming half the time. I was woken up multiple times because they would roll their carts quickly and scream “excuse me, excuse me”. Never had such poor service on a long international flight before. I do have to note that this was the only case from San Francisco to Seoul. I took United Airlines from Tokyo back to San Francisco, and then Vancouver, and the service was much better.

And then we arrived! These are the streets of Myeong-dong, which is Seoul’s main shopping and tourist district. You’ll find every Korean cosmetic brand you need as well as international fashion brands such as Zara and Uniqlo. I swear we went here half our trip, since there is always a need to shop here! If you need beauty and skincare products – this is the place to go. Etude House, Innisfree, Tony Moly, Nature Republic, The Faceshop… just to name a few! You’ll also find the same store in almost every street. Each store located on a different street sometimes has different deals and products, so be sure to check them out before buying all at once! Another tip is to print off some coupons before hand by doing a quick Google search. You’ll find coupons for tourists for almost all brands.

We came across M Plaza, and a friend said that School Food is supposed to be quite popular. It’s a plaza with food and shops inside, but there weren’t too many people inside. It’s sort of hidden, and I guess tourists don’t usually find their way into here if they’re overwhelmed by the street shops. Anyways, School Food is a food franchise and is known for their tteokbokki and gimbap. They give you a notepad and pencil, and you just write down what you want off the menu. Good for us, since we probably wouldn’t be able to communicate anyways.

Pineapple Soda

We saw the girls next to us drinking this blue drink, so we decided to order it too. It’s basically just soda that’s coloured blue. On top, there are some pineapples. It was a bit underwhelming, since we expected more flavour and surprise. Just tasted more like regular soda to me.

Soup

The server brought us each a soup which was complimentary. It came with these two bean curd like things, which were really good! The soup is a little salty, and reminds me of miso soup.

Assorted Gimbap

And here is our platter of Assorted Gimbap! Gimbap is what I like to call the “Korean version of sushi.” It’s essentially rice and seaweed with various fillings. Here, we had some fillings of shredded tuna, squid, pickles, Japanese shisho leaves and more. The black ones, were squid ink rice filled with squid. Some were also spicy. The majority of them were filled with some sort of pickled veggie, since Koreans love that sour and spicy taste. Sort of like kimchi. On the side, there was a mayo sauce for dipping. It was definitely an experience to try these different gimbaps! My favourite was the squid filled gimbap! I believe the platter was only around 21,000 won, which comes to around CAN$21!

Potato Croquette

Lastly, we also had a dish of Potato Croquettes. Nothing too special, but the batter was light and not too oily. Potatoes were mashed until they were soft and creamy. It also came with a salad with honey mustard in the middle.

Overall, School Food was a pretty cool place to try the gimbaps. It’s very casual in there, and you find many young diners. I’m guessing that their food is not as traditional, so it’s the perfect place to try modern Korean food.

More info:

http://www.schoolfood.co.kr/

South Korea, Seoul, Jung-gu, Myeongdong 2(i)-ga, 31-1
+82 2-727-3377

Sura (Richmond)

May 27, 2014May 26, 2014Leave a comment

Complimentary Side Dishes

Sura Korean Restaurant has been around for quite a while in their Downtown Robson location. I hear good things about that location, with their lunch menus being quite affordable. Sometime last year, they opened a second store in Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. Sadly, it didn’t seem to meet the same expectations looking at online reviews. I decided to give it a try myself, since J wanted some Korean food. First, we were given some complimentary side dishes. The only dish I liked was the Kimchi. The other was a chili chive, which is too strong for my liking, but J loved. The third was some sort of marinated mushroom, which was alright.

Yukhoe

J introduced me to something that frightened me a bit at first, but I later found delicious. It’s called Yukhoe, and is essentially the Korean version of steak tartar. It’s made from high quality raw ground beef and is seasoned with various sauces and spices. The beef was julienned into thin strips, and surprisingly it was very easy to chew. If you’re not someone into eating raw beef, this is definitely not for you. You mix it with the veggies, like cucumber, carrot, radish, and apple, and these ingredients bring some sweetness to your meat. I believe it normally also comes with a raw egg on top, but J doesn’t eat eggs, so it was removed.

Dolsot Bibim-bap

I found that most of the dishes on the menu were good for sharing, but for the two of us, it was a bit difficult to order. On another visit, we ended up just getting a Dolsot Bibimbap, which is the most original bibimbap. It’s rice topped with lightly sauteed vegetables and beef served in a heated stone pot. The server will mix it for you, and you can add some Korean hot sauce for some extra flavour. You get some crunchy rice at the bottom, which J loves.

Galbi-tang

For both visits, we got the Galbi-tang. It’s a nice hearty beef soup and comes with a bunch of marinated beef short ribs. I found that as usual, the short ribs lacked meat, but it was still very tasty. Korean cuisine is known for their soups and they have many added benefits. I would definitely recommend this soup if you’re looking for a healthy alternative.

For both visits, the service was average. The first visit was the worst, since this server was still in training and she kept messing up our order, which gave us a lot of confusion and extra wait time. All in all, I found the food to be average, but extremely pricey! The environment is quite nice, but I probably wouldn’t pay that much for a typical dinner. Haroo would be a much better choice for an affordable Korean meal.

Toe Dam Korean Fusion BBQ

August 8, 2013August 9, 2013Leave a comment

Toe Dam Korean Fusion BBQ is located in the same mall as the H-Mart on North Road. I think they are popular for their barbeques since each seating area has a ventilation area and grill installed. Most of the items were large dishes, perfect for sharing, but with only myself and J, we felt like it would be too much food. We saw that they had a lunch menu with set lunches, so we asked if we could get those instead. Even though it was clearly dinner time, they allowed us to order from the lunch menu.

Food took way too long to come out. I think it was around 30 minutes before we even got the appetizers. But then all our food shortly appeared. They could’ve at least brought us the appetizers a little earlier so we could have something to nibble on. Appetizers included radish, sweet potatoes, kimchi, and spicy marinated zucchinis. Everything was quite typical.

For my set lunch, I chose Marinated Beef with Spicy Tofu Soup. Portions were quite large, but quality was lacking. The beef was flavourful, but overcooked. It was tough to chew and not even close to being tender. The spicy tofu soup on the other hand, was a bit better. It wasn’t too spicy, and its consistency was a thin broth. Lots of tofu, but not really any other ingredients. The set also came with a bowl of rice.

J got his usual, Naengmyeon, which is a chewy noodle in a cold beef broth. This one was also spicy.

Lastly, he also got some Marinated Short Ribs. He also said these were quite tough and overcooked.

All in all, I was quite disappointed with the food at Tae Dam. Perhaps their hot pot or barbeques would be better, where diners can actually cook the meat themselves. Clearly, the chef just overcooks all the meat. Price points are decent for lunch, but the dinner menu looks quite expensive.

Sushi Itshoni

July 19, 2013Leave a comment

J and I are always in this complex on North Rd, since he has to do his grocery shopping at H-Mart. I guess we are slowly trying out every restaurant in that complex. We decided to give Sushi Itshoni a try. It seems to be Korean operated, and serves a mix of Korean and Japanese cuisine.

The place was quite full during lunch on a weekday. They seem to have pretty good deals, which might be the reason why.

Complementary Appetizers

We were served some complementary appetizers, like any other Korean restaurant would offer. It consisted of Kimchi, Marinated Seaweed, and Boiled Broccoli. Typical stuff.

Friday’s Bento Box

Every day, they have a menu item on special for around $8. For Friday, it consisted of a Bento Box that had Assorted Fried Tempura, Marinated Beef, California Rolls, and a Green Salad. I have to say the food wasn’t that great. It’ll fill you up, but is very average. The tempura batter was extremely thick, and California rolls are pretty bad.

Cold Buckwheat Noodles

J got one of those Cold Buckwheat Noodles. This one was quite simple and didn’t have much in it other than an egg, tomato and some cucumbers. They also had a variety of other ones to choose from.

I probably wouldn’t come back to Sushi Itshoni again. I mean, the prices are decent for lunch, but the quality isn’t that great. Kind of disappointing.

Midam Rice Cake House

July 7, 2013July 9, 2013Leave a comment

Midam Rice Cake House is tucked away in a Korean mall in Coquitlam and you probably wouldn’t notice it at all. If it weren’t for all the instagram pictures, I’m pretty sure I would’ve never came here.

Inside, the place reminds me of bubble tea shops, but with a Korean touch to it. Maybe it’s the wooden furniture and decor. Oh and I guess pretty much all the diners were Korean too…

Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream

Midam is famous for their rice cakes of course, and especially for their rice cake desserts. Green tea, mochi, and ice cream are three of my favourite things, so of course I had to get the Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream! This was so delicious. The rice cake was chewy and the ice cream was hard so it melted in your mouth slowly. And of course, it was presented nicely too. A must get!

Green Tea Shaved Ice

And then there’s the Green Tea Shaved Ice. I’m not usually a big fan of shaved ice because after I few spoons, I usually get a brain freeze and start shivering. However, Midam seems to be famous for these, so I had to give it a try. It was bowl of shaved ice topped with red bean, almonds, green tea covered rice cakes, and a spoonful of green tea ice cream. We found it extremely bland, and the girl brought us something that tasted like condensed milk. Immediately after pouring it, it tasted much better. Still, I’m actually not a huge fan of red beans, unless it’s red bean paste, so this wasn’t exactly my favourite. I wish it was just all green tea rice cakes and ice cream! The rice cakes were decent, although I found the green tea to be a little bitter. A hint of sweetness would’ve made it better. It was still chewy and soft and I loved the texture of it. I also found the shaved ice to be pretty big chunks of ice. If it were finely ground, it would’ve been better. Overall, it was just okay.

Lastly, J got the dinner set, which I can’t remember the name of and I can’t find it on their website. We came during dinner time, but silly me decided to have desserts for dinner. J, on the other hand, wanted an actual meal. The lunch set included some appetizers, like salad, beans, kimchi, and miso soup. It also came with black rice and I think his main dish was squid with rice cakes. On the side, it also came with a bowl of steamed eggs.

Midam Rice Cake House seems to be quite popular for the Koreans. You could find different ages eating during dinner time, and many would order desserts too. I guess it’s similar to a Taiwanese bubble tea house, but this one is filled with Korean rice cake desserts. The rice cakes itself are delicious, but some items seem to be a hit or miss. I think I came in with high expectations for the shaved ice, so I left quite disappointed.

Dae Ji Pork Cutlet House

June 20, 2013Leave a comment

Dae Ji Pork Cutlet House opened just last month a few minutes away from J’s house. It’s near Coquitlam Centre, so it’s very convenient. We decided to go check it out, and I believe they literally just opened that day. They also have other locations, including one in Downtown.

The place reminds me of a cafeteria and is a very chill place to eat. However, you don’t need to order at the counter, since the man will come over to serve you. So it’s a bit fancier than a serve-yourself shop.

Pork Cutlet with Spicy Sauce

J got the Pork Cutlet with Spicy Sauce. It came with two large pieces of pork cutlet and an abundance of sauce. I found the sauce a little spicy, but J thought it was fine. Each of our dishes also came with a side of salad with thousand island dressing, corn, macaroni salad, daikon, and rice. J’s dish actually had less rice than mine, since he ordered it off the pork cutlet menu, and not the rice menu… confusing.

Pork Cutlet Curry Rice (comes with miso soup)

For myself, I was craving some curry, and got the Pork Cutlet Curry Rice. It was a large piece of pork cutlet, topped with curry and vegetables, all on top of a large scoop of rice. On the side, I also had the same sides as J. I actually found the curry really spicy! I thought it would be similar to Japanese curry and be sweet, but it also had tons of spice in it! Even J thought it was spicy, so it wasn’t just me…Pork Cutlet was extremely crispy and the batter was light. Delicious!

Miso Soup, Kimchi Soup

My meal also came with a miso soup, which was nothing special, and J’s came with a kimchi soup. Since it was the opening day, the man also gave us free pop.

The pork cutlets are definitely up to par, and for the price and quantity, I can see it being successful. On opening day, it wasn’t packed, but there was a consistent number of people going in and out. Not bad!