Monthly Archives: November 2014

Friendsgiving

Isn’t this the best time of the year? Ah, yes! The time when you get to sit around the table breaking bread, sharing good stories and memories, joy, love and indulging in wayyyyyy too much pumpkin pie with loved ones (wait, maybe the pie part just applies me?).

Before I really get into this post, I’m sure you are a tad confused as to what holiday I am referring to with the Christmas tree photos and then the pumpkin pie comment. Just to be clear it’s Thanksgiving, or Friendsgiving as we’ve been calling it. Mr. B decided he wanted to be festive extra early this year and put the tree up to enjoy during our Friensdgiving too (What a softy).

When we moved into our new place we made a deal with one another that we’d host more friends and share our space with them as much as possible. We love whipping up fun and exciting things for our friends to try, so Thanksgiving certainly wasn’t any exception to the rule! While most celebrated on the actual Thanksgiving day, we moved our dinner to the weekend so that we could share and prepare it with our dear friends from all over Korea.

Whew…. What an outstanding spread! I’m pretty sure the pilgrims would have been pleased.

Think: Deep fried turkey (can you believe my very first experience? So very un-American of me), ham, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry relish, stuffing, homemade macaroni and cheese, broccoli casserole, baked corn, roasted carrots, homemade spicy pumpkin soup, a cheese platter, pesto bread, homemade honey crisp vanilla bean applesauce, pumpkin pie, freshly baked carrot cake and a pear tart. Ohh and of course a plethora of adult beverages to sip on. (You are now having a food coma)!

We celebrated our dear friend Mandy’s birthday too, what a good sport she was about the cake!

The next morning we continued with a farewell Friendsgiving breakfast. A little bacon, eggs, croissants, sweet-potato hash browns and fresh fruit before our friends hit the road.

I hope you and yours had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday feast as well!

Backpackbees

Namae Beach, South Korea: Colors on the coast

The other weekend we skipped town and hopped down to Seoul and on over to the beach! It was so relaxing! Absolute. Best. Decision. Ever. (Thanks for the invite Mr. B)

There were so many fun fall colors to soak up, the gorgeous fall sun rising while I strolled along the beach in the morning, spicy seafood soup (jjambbong) to slurp up, and scuba diving to be done!

I travel the world and the seven seas.
Everybody is looking for something.
– Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics

^I love how the persimmon tree matches the rooftop of a Korean home.

Views in Ilsan, South Korea

Recently I took my very first public trans bus adventure from Uijeongbu Station to Ilsan to spend the day with a good friend of ours. Thankfully the journey was quite uneventful and I made it there with no hiccup (THANK YOU KATYA AND THE SEOUL BUS APP).

Ilsan is a beautiful city located just northwest of Seoul in Goyang city. I visited Ilsan twice prior when I first got to South Korea. Once was to visit the gigantic convention center called the Kintex, and the other time was to go to Costco before one was built much closer to us. Both trips never really awarded the opportunity to get out and see the city and explore a bit.

When I stepped off the bus I immediately took notice of a beautiful lake surrounded by walking paths and park. I lucked out too because Katya was just as eager to get out for a walk around the park as I was. Katya explained to me that the lake park is a very popular spot in the city and is known as the garden city. There were so many people out being active walking, jogging, spending time with their families, biking, skateboarding, snapping photos for blogs and magazines and yet it didn’t feel crowded one bit. It was a feeling you’ll seldom get to experience in Asia.

It was a wonderful fall day spent strolling around the lake park admiring the views, checking out the local Cafés, mall, restaurants and indulging in some frozen yogurt. I highly recommend a day trip to the area if you ever are looking for a new place to explore while in South Korea.

Thank you for hosting me this weekend Katya you are such a dear friend!

Seoul: Jacoby’s Burger

(A bit delayed on posting this one Ooops…)

This weekend, THIS WEEKEND!! OoOoOhhh, it was soooo good! So so very good. It started off with a meet up with our good friends, making the aquaintance of a new friend visiting from Hong-Kong, taking in those beautifully fall colored leaves, and food…food…and more food (come to think about it, I think I strolled rolled around Seoul).

The weather was PERFECT! Just the right amount of fall crispiness to help cross off this white girls fall to do list. ha-ha! (Come onnn how true is this list??)

Anyways, our good friends recently raved about a burger joint in Seoul that we needed to check out. The reviews were a bit dodgy online, however they were mostly about the staff ignoring them, attitude etc. So what the heck, why not give it a try? We ended up in the area with a hefty appetite after taking in all those beautiful fall leaves.

The restaurant is Jacoby’s Burgers located just north of Noksapyung Station in Seoul. Don’t be fooled by the typical restaurant look from the outside, Jacoby’s has quite a unique menu that serves juicy burgers a la carte, pasta, vegetarian burgers, onion rings, freshly cut french fries, salsa and beer. YUM-YUM-YUMMM! Plus they so kindly held the side of attitude when we went, so the overall experience was pretty freggin fantastically delicious.

Usually I’m the kind of gal that would order a big ‘ol burger, but my friend Mandy told me that Jacoby’s makes a pretty mean veggie burger made with red-beans. It sparked my interest and I decided to give it a whirl. Now I was left with the harder decisions, to add bacon or not? decisions, decisions…. I know all the vegetarians are cringing out there. Sorry.

WOW! The red-bean burger was surprisingly flavorful with a nice little spicy kick. I’d absolutely order it again, but my eye is also on the gut buster burger. Speaking of the gut buster, our table was right up front where we could watch all the burger creations come out of the kitchen. Watching people’s eyes and mouth’s drop open as the gut buster burger landed on their table was priceless! Lordy! Look at that thing!

Across the street from Jacoby’s we giggled as we checked out the Camping Company Restaurant. This is urban camping at its finest! We’ve got to go back just go giggle as we grill…totally worth it!

Eventually we made our way to Insadong that afternoon and we found out that it just so happened to be Makgeolli (Korean rice wine) day. We cheers the occasion and ordered a roadie, the adios mother. Whew! Quickly found out why it was named that…talk about a nice adult beverage concoction.

Another fun-filled adventure in Seoul for the books!

DIRECTIONS: Out Noksapyung Station exit #2, walk straight down to the Kimchi pots. At the pots, take the road up to the left. Jacoby’s Burger is just up the road on your left.

45-6 Yongsan-dong 2-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea