Tag Archives: Uijeongbu

VIPS

After a pretty eventful and exhausting weekend of scuba diving lessons we find ourselves already well into Sunday evening. Really, where does the time go?? Do all of you feel that the weekends come and go in the blink of an eye? Hopefully you do get to take some time to yourself and think about all of the blessings that you have in your life.

Today’s Mrs. B’s birthday! To celebrate we decided to try out a more “westernized” restaurant called VIPS. VIPS comes highly recommended from a close “foodie” friend so naturally we are eager to try it out and possibly score some comfort foods reminding us of home. The restaurant is located right on highway 3 in downtown Uijeongbu. VIPs is known for pretty tasty steaks and a HUGE delicious saladbar! After enjoying our dinner there we have to agree.

If you can’t find something at this place to eat…I’m not sure you will find anything, anywhere, in South Korea. They offer just about everything on the saladbar! We are talking pizza, cook to ordered pasta, fruits, soups, various veggie dishes, various salads, make your own tacos, make your own bibimbap, frozen green tea and vanilla yogurt, an espresso bar, an assortment of seafood, and so much more!

Right off the bat this place is a bit pricier, however you can opt to just get the salad bar buffet and truly you will leave just as fat and happy. The steak prices range depending on your preference and cut. The saladbar price might seem a bit steep but like we said, they offer just about everything on it!

We really enjoyed the family atmosphere of the restaurant. There were so many families dinning together and it made us think of home and our families. We miss you guys and wish you could all be here to enjoy all of our special moments in South Korea. Part of the way through the meal a younger Korean family was sat next to us with the sweetest little girls that entertained us with their VIPS balloons. They also were incredibly generous and snapped a quick picture of our group for our blog.

Here is to another great dinner down in the blog!

Interested in checking out VIPS? Feel free to check out the website: http://www.ivips.co.kr/

The German Haus in Uijeongbu

We have been hearing mixed reviews about the German Haus restaurant located in Uijeongbu. Everything from people love it and raved about what we were missing to others saying they were not impressed. Well finally we decided that we needed to give this place a chance and see what our take was on it.

The restaurant is very easy to find in downtown Uijeongbu. You won’t miss the place because it really stands out among all the taller hotels and other businesses. (Feel free to out the pictures to see what we mean).

Immediately entering the first floor of the restaurant we were greeted and welcomed by a Korean woman that was fluent in English. She said we had our pick of sitting downstairs or upstairs. Of course we were totally nosey and headed upstairs.

Upstairs a Korean man that spoke broken English greeted us. He took us to our table and gave us menus. A few seconds went by and our waiter a young Korean boy appeared to take our drink orders. You could tell he was a bit uneasy about the language difference but tried his hardest to communicate and get the order correct. We asked what the popular items or more desired items were on the menu and he struggled to understand. He went to get our drinks and then came back with the women from downstairs that originally greeted us.

We were told right off the bat that the restaurant was more so known for the German brewed beers on site as well as bottled. This really made sense after looking over the menu. Typically you do not see items like honey pizza on a German menu. Nevertheless, we were told the German sampler was a great choice to try a bit of everything.

The German sampler was tasty! It wasn’t absolute German foods but it was still really good. We enjoyed the wings a lot so we ordered more to munch on while we listened to the live Korean karaoke entertainment on stage.

We didn’t know the songs but that didn’t keep our group from enjoying the music and bobbing our heads

We had a blast! We all agreed we would go back again knowing that it wasn’t a real “German food” place.

We suggest that you go with an open mind and try it out for yourself! The phone number and address is as follows:

Telephone: 033-855-1000

Uijeongbu Si, Uijeongbu-Dong, 500-2

Uijeongbu for some Budae-chigae

Today I got invited with a group of friends to check out Uijeongbu and experience Budae-chigae. Okay, ha-ha have I lost you yet? Uijeongbu is a city that is located south of Dongducheon (On the train it took about 15 minutes or less to get there) and Budae-chigae is a Korean spicy stew that the area is famous for.

Budae-chigae, (pronounced boo-day chee-gay) can be translated into army or military stew. This stew is typically cooked right at your table in a large pan that has the resemblance to a large hubcap (please see the pictures). This stew is shared among people and in this case we ordered three orders and still had leftovers when everything was said and done. I was told if you showed up alone and tried to order this stew they would refuse to serve you because it’s a dish meant to be shared. I’m not sure if anyone else out there finds this comical when doing a comparison to the US or not… when would a US business ever turn away a paying customer??

Traditionally this soup is spicy in taste because it is made with red pepper paste much like other traditional Korean dishes. However, we ordered two of the dishes to be toned down due to some of children and ladies preferring it that way. I personally had to try both out to see what one I favored. My choice would definitely be the traditional Korean spicy way…but I enjoy spicy foods. I wasn’t too sure to expect with the Spam. Spam really isn’t a meat of choice where I grew up, however, the spam in this soup never tasted so good!

Some of the ladies in the group showed us the restaurant of the women who first cooked up Budae-chigae. We didn’t eat there because it was much smaller than the other place that we were going to. At first we were a bit concerned because we had such a large group and it was right at lunch time. When we got to the restaurant we almost turned around because the entire first floor was packed. Two ladies came running out and called for us to come back in that we could go upstairs and the kids could run around. We were thrilled! The waitress was very prompt and threw in extra rice cakes for the road.

The history of the Budae-chigae dish is really what I found to be the most interesting. During the Korean War, the Korean soldiers did not have much to eat other than kimchi, rice and some other veggies. Meat was a rarity because of how scarce it was. Korean soldiers known as KATUSA’S (Korean Augmentation To the United States Army) found meats such as hot dogs and spam from the American soldiers and would make a meat stew out of it with the other things they had like them kimchi, veggies, and noodles.

Now how is Budae-chigae relevant to the Uijeongbu area? Uijeongbu is known as the “birthplace” of this stew because of its location during the Korean War. Today Uijongbu is home to Camp Red Cloud where the US second Infantry Division is located. When walking the streets of this town you can find tons and tons of restaurants dedicated to serving up this spicy piping hot dish.

Overall we had an awesome day! Made some more great new friends, got to try another traditional Korean dish, and got to sight see. It will be exciting to go back and explore some more!

Feel free to check out the restaurant’s Website: http://www.boyoung1129.co.kr/