Author Archives: sarahbee

Our Weekend Buzzing Around Seoul

Of course we had to check out Itaewon while we were spending our weekend in Seoul. Yes, yes, we know that Itaewon is a major tourist section of the city catering directly to foreigners. We do respect this section of the city for that purpose and know that it is not a true representation of Korea. However it was close to our hotel and we wanted to go see what it was really all about.

Itaewon’s shopping area is 1.4 km in length, it stretches from the U.S. 8th Army Base eastwards towards Hannam-dong and has over 1,000 different little stores. The area is known for its night life scene with many bars and nightclubs to choose from. We noticed there are many street vendors selling shirts, jackets, and caps, scarfs, food, etc. trying to capture the late night buyer’s fancy.

While in Itaewon we checked out a few Irish pubs, grabbed a bite to eat, and strolled along the main street as well as some tucked away alleys, checked out various street vendors and little shops. We snapped a few pictures of the places that we were near or checked out and though we would share with all of you.

First stop Buddha’s Belly for dinner. It was Friday night and we were starving! We started out trying to find a restaurant called the Maple Leaf restaurant that was said to serve traditional Korean food (we are sure more Americanized) but after walking around and around for 20 minutes we figured it must have went out of business. Our bellies finally did the talking and screamed feed me when we were standing out in front of a place called Buddha’s Belly. Buddha’s Belly is located just above Ushmania restaurant (2nd floor) 673 Itaewon 2 Dong, Seoul, Korea; it’s located in the Hamilton Hotel Alley. In this area you can also find Indian, Italian, Korean, American, French, Greek and other nice ethnic foods.

The menu is Thai and the chef is actually from Thailand. We still noted a bit of Korean flair in the dishes we ordered but were really impressed with the overall meal.

We didn’t capture any pictures to share as the atmosphere consists of a smaller private sized dimly lit room. The décor had a sexy-sleek appeal to it.  The entrees are rather reasonably priced and cost on average 12,000-18,000 won. The service was really speedy and we enjoyed that because we were both starving!

We started off with some chicken skewers that had a peanut dipping sauce. We both ordered dishes of Pad-See-Ew and a glass of wine. Each dish at Buddha’s Belly Thai restaurant is accompanied by pots of wet and dry hot chilies and Thai fish sauce so you can season your food to taste.

Overall we both agreed that we would go back to this place if we had to.

After dinner we went grabbed a coffee at Paris Baguette (The Korean comparison to Starbucks – well if Starbucks served up tons of delicious baked goods) due to the fact that Buddha’s Belly doesn’t serve coffee on the menu. We then continued to Stoll the alley’s and found ourselves in front of the Wolfhound Irish Pub.

The Wolfhound Irish Pub is located in another small alley down from the Gecko’s Terrace. Sorry bloggers we don’t have the address to provide on this one. We will continue to research for a more direct location. We were able to capture a few pictures of the place for others reference.

We enjoyed the Irish Pub atmosphere. It didn’t feel like we were still in South Korea while inside. The crowd consisted of military, teachers, and tourist in the area. The bar has two levels and features a selection of draft beer as well as mixed drinks and foods.

We enjoyed ourselves, had some drinks and decided to continue checking out what else Itaewon had to offer.

We found ourselves at Baby Guinness and Sam Ryan’s Sports Bar and a hot dog vendor (mmmmm…that tasted more like Kielbasa) before we decided to call it a night.

The next day we headed to Gyeongbok Palace. The palace was one of the first places that Larry got to check out when he first moved to Korea. He was really eager to share the experience with me so we thought with the beautiful weather this weekend we should take a tour and snap some pictures along the way. The address to go see the Palace for yourself is Seoul-si Jongno-gu Sejong-ro 1-1.

The term “Gyeongbokgung” means palace greatly blessed by Heaven. We took an English speaking tour lead by a Korean college student. We captured the beginning intro of the tour for you to try to hear some of the facts she provided us with.

The palace was actually constructed in 1395, but was destroyed in the 1500’s during the Japanese invasion. However in the late 1800’s into the 1900’s the palace was completely restored. We couldn’t even imagine living here as a King and Queen the grounds are absolutely massive! Consisting of more than 300 buildings, 6000 rooms, and more than 4 million square feet and sits in one of the busiest sections of Seoul.

When we arrived to Gyeongbok Palace we entered in the gate (Kwangha-mun) protecting the palace from Seoul. We were able to get a picture with the guards that stand there.

Another interesting fact that we learned was that Sejong the Great was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, and ruled from 1418 – 1450 during this time he created the 28 letter system of the Korean Hangul alphabet. Today however the Korean alphabet consists of 24 letters.

Overall we had an amazing time with a very good tour of the palace.

After walking the palace we decided to needed to hail a cab and head to N Seoul Tower. N Seoul Tower is also known as Namsan Tower because it’s located on Namsan Mountain at Seoul-si Yongsan-gu Yongsandong 2-ga San 1-3. Private automobiles have been stopped from entering the mountain since the year 2005 so that they could more easily preserve the area. You really have three ways to get up to the tower and each does involve some form of walking. One, take a cab or bus but note that you can only go up so far with the cab or bus and then you will get dropped off and have to walk up a pretty steep paved road. Two, take the cable car up from the bottom of the mountain. Please note you will have to climb steps up from the cable car drop off point to get to the tower. Whatever you decide we think it’s worth it while you are visiting or living in Seoul.

N Seoul Tower stands 237 meters high, standing atop 243-meter Mt Namsan. It was remodeled in 2005, and has a rotating Western-style restaurant on top that we plan to possibly check out at night next time we visit.

Below is what each floor consists of:

1st Floor

– Olive Young (supermarket / convenience store)

– Coffee Shop

– Eatery with indoor and outdoor seating

– Food Court

– Gift Shop

– Ticket Counter

 

2nd Floor

– Viewing Platform

– Restaurant (relatively inexpensive with great view)

Basement

– Elevator Entrance

– Tous Les Jour (bakery)

– Ticket Counter

– Exhibition Area

 

Observatory Gallery

(360m altitude, reached by express elevator)

1/F : Hancook Restaurant

2/F : Sky Cafe

3/F : Observatory platform

4/F : Observatory platform

5/F : N Grill by Vips (revolving restaurant)

Tickets to get inside of Seoul tower observatory for two adults cost us 14,000 won.

We snapped pictures of the locks and tiles at N Seoul Tower. The locks are “Locks of love” and can be found on the fence outside of the tower. They symbolize lovers’ promise that they will never separate. The message tiles of love inside are something you could purchase to write a little love note on and then it is displayed on a wall within the tower.

The last day we were there we checked out Myeongdong still located within seoul for some shopping.

Myungdong is a selection of shops, like Zara, UniQlo, Forever21, ABC Mart but also features all sorts of street vendors selling shoes, scarfs, jewelry, food, etc.

We enjoyed some green tea ice cream and found a vendor who sells King’s Beard Candy. We were able to quick capture the vendor making the candy and bought some to try after we had heard great things about it. Final consensus….we LOVED it!

We can only describe King’s beard candy as a small fuzzy white sweet treat with a chewy inside and a crispy outer layer that just melts in your mouth. It’s so fun to watch the vendor create 16.000 honey strings in two minutes! They act as they are doing it too counting in English as well as Korean. Next time we see this vendor we will try to capture better video because it is really entertaining!

The last night we were there we decided to go back to Itaewon and check out Zelen’s for dinner. Zelen’s is a Bulgarian restaurant owned and operated by Bulgarians. The location yet another strange place – the same alley we were in when at Buddha’s Belly. It’s the alley right behind the Hamilton Hotel.  The address is the second floor, 116-14 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan District.

Talk about amazing food! We had no idea this place was going to be this fantastic! Get ready…you know we are going to rave about it in our blog now. In the land of red pepper paste and kimchi it’s nice to experience something different once and awhile.

Once you take the steps up to Zelen’s from the alley you open the door into the second floor restaurant where you quickly see a garden-esque room that is candlelit and features an open kitchen where you can see the chefs preparing the delish dishes.

The menu is quite extensive and it’s great because the meals are detailed and named in both English and Korean. We had a chance to grab the owner Mikhal Ashminov and ask him what he recommended. We were so pleased that we had done so because he turned our decisions to the stuffed peppers that were amazing.

We ordered stuffed mushrooms and the stuffed peppers for appetizers to our meals. (You can view all of our meal and pictures of the restaurant within this blog)

Larry’s main course was pork tenderloin stuffed with smoked Gouda, green onions, bacon and tangy pickles. The dish was plenty big and we think next time we will order this dish and another and split it up to try something new.

Sarah’s main course was the vegetarian moussaka. The dish was oven-baked layers of vegetables and cheese topped with homemade yogurt. The dish really reminded us of almost a shepherd’s pie but meatless. The dish was served alongside a small rustic salad, for 14,000 won.

We were so pleased with both of our dishes that we both agreed that we will be taking friends back there for dinner.

After we ate dinner at Zelen’s we headed to the Cheonggyecheon River Walk . We learned that this river walk is fairly new to the city. It was constructed in 2005 where previously it was just concrete roadways running through the center of Seoul. The address for the river walk is, 31, Taepyeongno 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul

One word for this place…calming! Once you are on the river walk path you slowly forget that you are located in the center of a huge bustling city. The walk features small waterfalls, various colors of lighting, stepping stones to cross from one side of the walk to the other, and amply amounts of greenery. We loved that we got to check this place out at night because the last time Larry visited he said it was during the day and people were everywhere!

We met three young Korean adults that were trying to snap a picture together but were not achieving the shot they wanted. We took notice of this and asked if they wanted us to get a shot of them so that they could all be in the picture together. They graciously accepted and kept thanking us! We asked if they would mind returning the favor so that we could also have a shot of the two of us. Of course they replied they were glad to do so. (Feel free to check out our various pictures of experiencing the Cheonggyecheon River Walk).

Once we got back home we looked through all the pictures we snapped and kept talking about how much fun we had on our weekend adventures.

If anyone else has suggestions on places to see or eat at please feel free to share with us!

What the Ho-ddeok (호떡)!

Today is the 15th so it happens to be a day when the big market occurs in Dongducheon. We wrote about the marketplace a few blogs back however when we went it wasn’t on the 5th day of the month so it was much easier to move around and take our time checking everything out.

Sarah decided today that she wanted to walk down to the market and see if any of the street vendors that had Ho-ddeok for sale. HA-HA that’s the understatement of the year! Korea ALWAYS has street food. It’s everywhere! In the video you can see that she was able to obtain some footage of the street that most of the market takes place on.

Ho-ddeok? What in the world is that? Ho-ddeok or ho-tteok is a delightful variety of filled Korean pancakes. Typically it is eaten during the winter season, however, it’s been sticking around all year due to the popularity. Normally ho-ddeok sells for around 500 won that’s about $0.50 in the states. How to describe what ho-ddeok taste like…..hmmmm….well, the taste is similar to that of a sticky bun. SO YUMMY!! If you visit Korea you have to stop by a street vendor and try it out for yourself. Don’t say that we didn’t warn you on how delicious and how addicting they can become!

The dough for ho-ddeok is made from wheat flour, milk, water, sugar, and of course yeast. The special part about this street vendor’s hoddeok is that there is green tea incorporated into the dough. The picture is hard to see but there are little green flakes in it. The hoddeok dough is rises for several hours. You can see in the video that handful-sized balls of the thick dough are filled with a delicious sweet mixture that can contain brown sugar, cinnamon, honey, sometimes chopped peanuts. Once the dough is filled it is then placed on a greased griddle, and then pressed flat into circles with a tool that consist of a stainless steel circle and wooden handle. I was able to capture ajumma (Pronounced a-jum-ma, meaning a married women or old enough to get married) making ho-ddeok at the market on my little camera to share with all of you.

Sarah Ventures to Children’s Grand Park

I have been so blessed and thankful to have been meeting so many fantastic new friends while we are living in South Korea! I was invited to spend the day at the Children’s Grand Park located in Seoul. We took the train line 1 from Dongducheon to the Children’s Grand Park. The trip was rather easy and we only had to deal with one line transfer station on line 7.

Children’s Grand Park was originally opened on May 5th, 1973, and covers over 138 acres all geared towards children. Right when we got inside of the main entrance a park attendant approached us and provided us with a nice park guide and tried his best to tell us a little about the park.

The original area was the grave of the wife of King Sunjong, the very last emperor to the Joseon Dynasty. The tomb was relocated in 1926 and then later used as a golf field before being sold off to the city of Seoul Government to be renovated into what we know as the Children’s Grand Park.

The park offers tons of green grass and paved areas for a child to run free and burn off energy! There is a zoo, some vendors and eateries, a music fountain, outdoor concert center, fairyland, roots garden, an environmental pond, animal school, adventure land, design Seoul gallery, a botanical garden, a kids auto park, marine animal house, parrot village (where you can hand feed the birds), a small animal village, the world of ferocious animals, a water playground, an animal show theater, amusement park, and tons more! Curious to know the cost? Get ready for this…. FREE! This place is absolutely FREE! The only thing that you would have to pay for is if you purchase food to feed the animals, yourself, or souvenirs. The Park opens at 5:00AM daily all year and closes at 10:00PM. Just another reason why I absolutely love this place!!

The group all snapped tons of pictures and I wanted to get mine posted so that they could take whatever ones they liked as well. In some of the pictures you will see get to see “flat Stanley”. Today was my first day learning about Stanley from Stephanie and I thought I’d share what I learned on here too.

The flat Stanley project was created in 1994, by Mr. Hubert, a third grade teacher. The flat Stanley project supports the international literacy and community building activity for students of all ages, teachers and families.

The Project allows opportunity for students to make connections with students from other schools who’ve signed up with the project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming acquainted with the story. Then they make paper “Flat Stanley” and keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. The Flat Stanley and the journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a period of time.

If you want to know more or want to get your class or child involved check out the website http://flatterworld.com/?nav=home – While you are there view the live map of where Flat Stanley is located.

Sarah Buzzes by Time Square Mall

 

Today I was invited to go to Time Square Mall located in Seoul’s Youngdeungpo neighborhood. It was the first time I have used the train in South Korea. Luckily I met a wonderful sweet friend from church that showed me where to go once inside the train station, and where to purchase and load my T-Money (a rechargeable “smart” card for paying public transportation fares in cabs, trains, and busses instead of having to use money or credit cards).

The trip was about an hour and a half and all we did was stay on line 1 until reaching the Yeongdeungpo Station that connects an underground shopping market to the mall. It’s wonderful because once we got on the train in Dongducheon we never had to go back outside until we arrived back in Dongducheon to get back off the train.

The Time Square Mall features five main level shopping floors as well as one basement level with an E-Mart and a few restaurants. I was super excited to see that there is such a variety of stores available all within the mall. Plus if you are longing for something sweet from back home without a Korean influence there is, Annie Annes Pretzels, Smoothie King, Krispy Kreme, Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, Quiznos, and Dunkin Doughnuts this place has it all!

For lunch we ate at a mexican chain restaurant called On The Border- Pretty delish! The chips and salsa is awesome and is endless!

Some other things I pulled from the brochure that the mall offers:

* Shinsegae department store: Louis Vuitton, BVLGARI, Cartier, Gucci and other luxury goods and high-end local products

* CGV: 12 multiplex movie theaters, STARIUM with the world’s largest screen, multiple performance centers and Beerhouse

* Kyobo Bookstore: 4,000 ㎡ (Don’t fear – they feature an english section)

* Courtyard by Marriott Hotel

* AMORIS, Wedding Hall

* E-Mart, Kolonsporex, I Like Dalki, Modern House

* Restaurants: Hanilgwan (70 year-old bulgogi restaurant), Jien (Japanese Restuarant), Star China (Traditional Chinese Restaurant)

What’s the verdict? I had a blast! Loved getting to meet new people, and cannot wait to take Larry back to check it out!

Changwon Cherry Blossom Festival

This weekend one backpack bee packed up and headed to the Changwon’s Jinhae Gunhang Je (known as the Cherry Blossom Festival) with friends (Mr. B was under the weather). We took a private bus trip departing in Dongducheon at 6AM to Changwon. Our guide joking stated the best comparison she could provide distance wise is like when you are in the states heading through the four southern states to get to Miami Florida. The trip down was about 5 ½ hours South including three rest/ stretch stops along the way.

We enjoyed the bus ride and traffic was fantastic right up until we were nearing the festival location. Our friends packed food for an army so of course we munched on snacks, talked, relaxed to tunes, and munched more. We celebrated Hectors birthday with a cake, candle blowing, and song, along with an anniversary.

Changwon’s cherry blossom festival is the oldest known festival beginning in the year 1952 and is held annually April 1st to April 10th. This year marked the 49th year of the festival celebration! The town is best known as the world’s largest number of flowering beotkkot namu (cherry trees). The festival commemorates Korea’s famous naval hero, Admiral Yi Sun Shin. Closer smaller celebrations near Dongducheon will take place around Seoul later in the month when the blossoms start to open.

Last year over 2 million tourists came from all over the world to attend and walk along the beautifully tree-lined streets and take in the picturesque mountain views. At some points when the wind would blow it would look as if it was raining pink petals. Words really cannot express just how beautiful the sights were.

I snapped as many pictures to try to capture what the town and festival looked like to share with all of our bloggers. In the pictures you will notice that a new friend Mary and I tried beondaegi, or known as boiled silkworm larve. Yes, ewww! Ha-ha! It was something I said I was going to try and blog about once I had done so. The taste I can’t even put in words. It is definitely something that I have gotten out of my system and do not feel the need to try again….well until I make my way to Taiwan where I hear they are actually pretty tasty.

I snapped a few pictures of the various food vendors to include the little beans that one vendor was selling. Suk grabbed the sampling plate and told our group to try them out that they were very good. Surprisingly I really thought they were good! Suke went on to tell us that these beans were a local thing that the area prided themselves on. The beans are said to provide your body with a cancer fighting preventative factor. Next year if we go back I will definitely purchase a box or so because they were so yummy!

Okay, enough rambling! Go check out the pictures!

Special Korean Treats

We picked up some fun little treats from a local Korean grocery and market to send to class Mrs. Sylar’s class. The package includes (as shown left to right in photo) Korean traditional pan-fried cake (peanut flavored) but you also can get it in sea laver (seaweed), or ginger flavor, Roasted seaweed, a big bag of assorted candy, two bags of assorted cakes including monaka, Glutinous rice monaka, Chestnut monaka, Green tea monaka, pancakes, manjoo cookies, filled cookies, and three packs of almond pepero sticks (not shown).

Our favorites from the package are the almond pepero sticks, the peanut flavored pan-fried cake, some of the assorted candy flavors to include coffee and pineapple, and the round little manjoo cookies.

Of course Bean had to check out what we were sending and wanted to try to chew on the plastic packaging. After telling her no a million times she headed off to her kitty bed to sulk.

Walking Around Dongducheon & New City Area

We have had many request from Mrs. Sylar’s class and friends to show them pictures of various things such as, what local schools look like, Korean houses/ apartment buildings, the local markets on a busy day, Miss Bean, what the area looks like, etc. Enjoy the various snapshots and feel free to request somethings that you might like us to capture.

Ohhhhh and I almost forgot – We found a pretty neat little coffee and tea spot in downtown Dongducheon too! At first I am thinking hmmm coffee and hotdogs(look at the sign)?? However, Koreans really love their hotdogs and we thought we would just try the place out. 

Check out the Cafe. at pictures located in the 04-05-2011 “Walk through Market and Dongducheon”. They have a really nice coffee bean roaster located in the front window of the cafe, seating inside and out, and just a  really neat and inviting  atmosphere! Everything offered on the little menu above the cash register was really reasonably priced. What’s the verdict on the place and most importantly how’s the coffee? Mr. B really liked his coffee and I enjoyed a green tea latte. We Bee’s will be definitely making this one of our regular stops on our walks.

You Sure We Are In S. Korea Still?!

Tonight we celebrated a good friends birthday at Beaver’s Barbeque Restaurant located north of Dongducheon in Toekgo-ri. Toekgo-ri is about 20 kilometers south of the DMZ line. We all laughed after making the drive because it feels like you are really traveling into North Korea on the tiny unpaved curvy back roads. Beavers posted little Beaver logoed signs in various places on the road as well as signs that read, “sansok,” meaning deep in the mountains. If you ever get the chance to make the trip we Bee’s think that you will be pleased!

Beavers is located deep in the hillside outside of Camp Hovey one of the US military bases in this region. The owner, Mr. Lee, started his business out by catering to the local Korean community. Eventually business grew and the Soldiers stationed at the surrounding bases found this unique place nestled in the Korean hillside much like being back at home.

You notice we use the word unique for this barbeque joint. Ah yes, this brings us to the décor. At first glance this place looks very homey with a nice big woodstove in the center of the room. Wooden tables and chairs, pool tables dart boards, American music playing in the background, stacks of biker magazines on the shelves, along with other biker type memorabilia, outside decks, etc. Basically the overall feel is a typical American “tavern” feel. However, as your eyes start to adjust and you are looking around a bit more you notice there are a few adult pictures hanging on the walls as well as some interesting coat hangers. We will not go into detail as we have a third grade class reviewing most of our blog posts and pictures. Use your imagination or better yet… take a trip there!

So how is the food?! It is delicious! The menu is rather simple with the choices of seasoned mud snail or charcoal-grilled pork barbeque with hotdogs. Our group opted for the grilled pork barbeque with hotdogs. The sides that come with the meal are corn, potatoes, beans, coleslaw, macaroni salad, and more of Beavers BBQ sauce to dip in. Our friends said that you could also request a special rice dish as well if you wanted to throw in some Korean taste to the meal. So how much does the meal set you back? 15,000 won. 

Everything was delicious and really made us feel like we were back in the states!

Please enjoy the pictures!

We Ate What??

 

Tonight we had the pleasure of accompanying another great set of friends at a local spicy octopus restaurant called Kim Myongja Seafood. Yes, (Dad) you heard that right… we ate octopus and we really enjoyed it! I really enjoy spicy foods and this newly found love has been added to the list! 

The dish we ate tonight is called nak ji bok gum. Nak ji bok gum is an octopus stir-fried with vegetables and noodles in a moderately fiery sauce. Bok-gum dishes are typically stir-fried or sautéed, and served in heaping platters to be eaten with rice. The portion was large, large enough that we ended up taking some home. The fiery spice really starts to build so traditionally the Koreans serve spicy dishes with some sort of water kimchi or a plum juice called Eun Jin. At this restaurant we were served water kimchi, rice, and a boiled scrambled egg. Feel free to check out the pictures of the whole experience!

After dinner we took a stroll across the street to a local fresh market where we picked up Korean strawberries and a small Eun Jin to show you what it looks like.

Last night we walked about 4 or 5 miles around New City exploring. We went into a few stores and shops checking out everything they had to offer. We included a picture of my ice-cream treat too. The outside is a waffle much like an american ice-cream treat. The inside however has strawberry, red bean paste and wrapped in green tea.

Our Korean Front Door

We have been answering many questions from friends, family, and my one best friends grade school class. One thing that continues to come up is the interest in our apartment. People are very intrigued to know what the place looks like and what unique features the apartment has in comparison to those located in the states.

We decided to showcase our front door. I know what you are thinking “WOW” a door! Well, we were pretty impressed with the technology behind these doors! One, no more having to carry around a million and one keys, you can carry a simple lightweight key fob. Two, if you completely forget your key fob inside and the door shuts behind you… no need to fret… you simply enter in your personal code to get back in!

At the end of the short clip you see that we show the little camera that is off to the right hand side of the door. This camera is used for if you have a visitor or take out delivery person “ring your doorbell”. They press the button the camera comes on and we can view from inside the apartment who it is before even going to the door. If we know who it is and we just want to let them right in we also have the option of just pressing a button and it unlocks the door without making you have to go over to the door and open it for them.

Again, what a NEAT concept!