Korean Traditional Food - wow so much food !

Seoul - Lunch with channel partners was the first at this restaurant.   I have tried Korean Traditional food but they way it was delivered was very cool and efficient.

The waiter brings in a huge tray on the trolley like the above mentioned with all the food.  The trolley will be at the same height as the table, then she will roll off the huge wooden tray onto the table and push to the end of the table.

I thought that was a lot of food for lunch until the next trolley of food arrive and that too was rolled off the trolley onto the table.

2 huge trays of food

That's a lot of food meant for a King.  Though there were lots of side dishes, each dish was small in portion but you can ask for re-fill for any of the side dishes.    The only meat portions were the sautéed pork, stir-fried octopus, slices of fish head and fermented baby crab.    Fermented baby crab was the only dish I stayed away fearing a 'bad' tummy ache but in fact I have tried it before.

Cheong Guk Jang - fermented bean soup

Seoul - Lunch with Youngjin was at a traditional soup restaurant and it was crowded.   Youngjin asked me many times Cheonggukjang "ok", I said ok not knowing what to expect.  I have tried many weird and smelly good in Seoul, so I was very prepared.   My first time tasting Cheonggukjang and I like it.

CheongGukJang 청국장 is fermented soybean soup aka Stinky soup.  Actually, I like fermented food and the smell does not put me off.   I like fermented food because of the many health benefits and also we have them here in Singapore - tempe, belachan, fermented bean curd (which I love with my porridge), chincaluk, etc..

very hot Cheonggukjang 

I always buy danjang paste and bring home to make soup.  I understand that they are the same but the difference is Cheonggukjang beans are uncrushed and are fermented for a longer period of time.

below zero in Seoul

Seoul - The flight arrived on time and the clearance of the Korean immigration and customs was a breeze.   Picked up my luggage and walked towards the limo bus counter.  As I approached a signed on the counter indicated 'CLOSED'.  

I took a taxi from the Incheon Airport directly to Best Western Garden Mapo Hotel - it was a very smooth ride, no traffic as it was late around 11pm when I boarded the taxi and I arrived around 12 midnight.   The taxi driver was a kind man and tried to make some small talk in his 'minute' spoken English.  "see smog, smog"; he said pointing to the sky; which I knew referring to the air pollution caused by China.  This went on until he probably ran out of English vocabulary to converse with me.

brrr it was freezing cold outside when I had to rolled my luggage to the reception.    I went to a 7-11 just a small walk down to buy some food as I was feeling a bit hungry.

Hyatt Bangalore always a pleasant stay

Bangalore - Breakfast was fuss free with a wide spread of India cuisine from Masala Dosa to Idli and the usual western pastries and bread.   The weather was a cool 17 celcius and a lovely morning to start the day.   After a hearty breakfast, we are off to commence our day of seminar.

I went for a run on a treadmill for 30 minutes and the night was falling so I took a nice and cool stroll around the swimming pool.   It was a nice view of the swimming pool all lighted up under the night skies.

Nice glow of the swimming pool

Dinner was a short stroll from the Hyatt hotel down a dusty road crossing a treacherous traffic light onwards to Oberoi Hotel.   The hotel gates were closed so you might have easily miss the entrance.   I just open the gate and was quickly greeted by the security guard at the entrance.

Oberoi had 4 restaurants - western alfresco dinning, Chinese (Szechuan Court), Thai and cafe style buffet.  We chose the buffet after reviewing the menus of the rest.   It was a good choice as this restaurant had a BBQ Tandori cookhouse outside the restaurant and you had a selection of fish, prawns, chicken, and vegetables.   Unfortunately, the prawns and fish was not fresh.     On the whole, the dinner was really good with great hospitality.

Bangalore on arrival - a nightmare

Bangalore - Upon arriving I was expecting a breeze through the immigration as usual but I was disappointed in being the last passenger out of the terminal.   It all began when I decided to go via e-tourist VISA to avoid the usual hassle of heading down to Little India to get the passport stamped with VISA and return again to collect it.   It was just a waste of time.   The application and approval of the e-VISA was a breeze.  

Upon arrival at Bangalore, there was a counter 'e-Tourist VISA' so I queue up at this location and not knowing whether this was the right location I asked one of the Indian immigration staff and was told to queue at the other end.   The queue was extremely long and by the time I reach the immigration officer, I was told to queue back at 'e-Tourist VISA'.   Very pissed with the whole system, I walked back to my original queue location.   The whole process took slightly more than 1hr and by the time I reach my baggage collection, the baggage collector was carted off my bag.

The taxi to the hotel was also was long, noisy with persistent conning, dusty and stuck in traffic jam at every cross junction.  By the time I reach the Hotel, it took 1hr.  

On the bright side, it was nice to be back at Hyatt Bangalore - the front desk called the manager and was greeted politely with a warm welcome.   The staff of Hyatt Bangalore is one of the best amongst all the travel stays I have made.   They ensure my stay was comfortable and always with a smile on top of the beautifully decorated hotel.

Garlic Nan

We always chose the same dish garlic naan with lamb and chicken curry.   Some habits never change but it remains a good comfort good during our stay.