Bulgogi with Kevin Chae

Seoul - After our meeting, we adjourned to find some good Korean food.  Korean Bulgogi is the best...

Bulgogi

This is Bulgogi Korean style and the blur image is the waitress helping to cut the beef with a pair of scissors.

Kimchi Beef Rib Soup

This is my first time trying this Korean dish and I love it.  The beef ribs is so tender and the soup is not so spicy even though it looks so red and fiery.

The Beef ribs being diced 

The waitress cut the huge chuck of beef ribs into bite pieces.

Dinner with my Korean customers

Kevin and his T-Rex bone

My 9 Strange Korean Food

Seoul - I have tried 9 Strange Korean food that if you happen to be in Korea you must try it.

# 1 - Intestine Blood Sausage with Vermicelli -Soondae
# 2 - Fried Silkworm Larve - Beondaeggi - on my 63rd trip to Seoul I tried this Korean delicacy
# 3 - Eating live Octopus 
# 4 - Fermented Tuna 
# 5 - Sulphuric Duck - Yuhwang Ori 
# 6 - Puffer Fish for dinner
# 7 - Fermented Sting Ray - Heong Eo 
# 8 - Raw Beef with Eggs 
# 9 - Ground Mud Fish Soup - Chuotang

# 9 - Strange Korean food - Ground Mud Fish Soup - MUST TRY!

Seoul - This is my number 9 strange food that I have had in Korea.   Kevin Chae brought us to a Mud Fish restaurant to taste the ground mud fish soup (Chuotang)

Name of the famous mud dish restaurant

Mud Fish

Mud Fish and Loach are synonyms.  In fact it is a Chinese Muddy Loach which is a small elongated bottom-dwelling freshwater fish with several barbels near the mouth.

Deep fried mud fish

The mud fish is wrapped inside green chilli (seedless) with tempura flour and deep fried.   I tasted more of the green chilli and it was good.

Grounded mud fish soup

You add bowl of rice into the grounded mud fish soup, add garlic and spring onions to taste.  Stirred and slurp up the dark tasty soup.   To some it might be an acquired taste but I finish my bowl.

Steam pork and kimchi bean sprouts

Kimchi

This steam pork and kimchi bean sprouts, Kimchi are an appetiser dish.

Kevin, Kyoungho and Youngjin

It was good to meet up with Kevin after 6 years and hasn't age at all...must be the eating of mud fish and kimchi. 

Grilled Eel restaurant

Seoul - After our meeting, we were figuring out what to eat for lunch and I suggested Chang-Or (grilled eel) and told them that I know this restaurant.   They were all surprised.  So, I led the way to this grilled eel restaurant quite near to my hotel.

3 fresh Eels

2 Eels on the grill stove

Some Korean Eel restaurants grilled them over charcoal but this was over a gas stove and still tasted really good.

Almost ready to be eaten

Ready to eat!

I love grilled Eel and it tasted really good with the sauce and ginger, wrapped with lettuce and into my mouth.   Bashita....delicious..

Side dishes

The 2 steaming hot side dishes of steam egg and Eel soup.   The Eel is mashed up into a paste for this soup and it tasted good.  The Eel cost KW15,000 each and this restaurant serves an Eel buffet for KW29,500 for all you can eat per person.  

# 8 Strange Korean Food - Raw Beef with Eggs - Must Try!

Seoul - We met Kiwon @ Kwang Jang Market and this is one of the most popular market in Seoul.    I like market because it's the heart of the city and generally the best food are here.   Kiwon told me that we will do a food trail of 4 famous food stalls here - cool!

A 100 years old market

Food stalls everywhere

stuff squid and sausages 

more food stalls

Our # 1 food stall trail...

Korean pancake

 This is the most famous Korean pancake @ Kwang Jang Market....

2 different types of pancakes

# 2 on our Food Trail....

Famous raw beef seasoned with 2 egg

The beef was so tender and delicious - so far my favourite dish but high in cholesterol..

Raw beef Bibimbap

# 3 food trail....

Korean sushi

Kiwon, Youngjin with me on the food trail

# 4 and last of our food trail....

raw seafood with urchins

I was very full and satisfied with this market food trail and really love it.

After which, we went for a electronic baseball game....

Baseball screen

Kiwon taking a swing

Final score after 9 innings : Kiwon 12, Youngjin 6 and me 4

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.

Korean soup

Seoul - Many cultures always have sayings about soup being good for your health and soul.   Koreans are no different and this is a Korean beef soup restaurant.  Actually it is just a few blocks from my hotel.

Kimchi

The kimchi here is super good and fresh - there are 2 types of Kimchi in this container cabbage and spring onion kimchi.   Both tasted excellent and delicious.

steam beef

The lean beef meat and tendon (soft bones) are steam - tasted bland but added with Kimchi is palatable to me.   A healthy way to eat red meat I suppose - all the nasty fats have been drained off.  This plate cost W22,000

My beef soup 

Lots of shallots and a few dashes of pepper were added to taste for my bowl of beef soup.   This bowl of hearty soup cost W8,000.  Add my bowl rice and had a sumptuous meal.   Feeling happy for the last meal in Seoul for 2015 and also heading back to Singapore in a few hours time.

Onward to Daegu via KTX

Seoul - We departed on time from the Hotel to the KTX station.   I was feeling under the weather because of residual smoke from inconsiderate smokers in the hotel.  Unfortunately, the hotel I was staying in Best Western Guro Hotel allowed smoking in the rooms.   I need to find a better hotel around that area.

For breakfast, I had raw beef Bibimbap on a hot stone bowl.   It was a good breakfast meal for me.

Bibimbap raw beef

After our meeting, we had lunch at a Shabubu Vietnamese Fusion restaurant which I was quite skeptical but was surprise with the good spread of food and it was delicious.  There was a buffet spread of vegetables except for the slice beef.

Shabu shabu slices of beef

Generous portions of vegetables

Spring is round the corner and a nice stroll in the nearby park was strewn with fallen cherry blossom flowers.  The trees were in full bloom displaying the magnificent colour of the flowers and was a sight to behold.

Bulgogi with good friends

Seoul - Met up with Kiwon and together we went for a good traditional Bulgogi meal over hot coals.   The taste of the beef is much delicious over hot coals than over gas stove.  The first course was tender beef over hot coals.  I simply love the generous fresh leafy vegetables that goes with this meal.   I just wrapped the cooked beef with the leafy lettuce and stuffed into my mouth.  Delicious....

Beef over hot coals

preparation for the Bulgogi

Kiwon

Kiwon having a good time.....

Best Bulgogi 

Young Jin and Kiwon

DropTop and Eel

Seoul - It was not difficult to find a coffee shop in Seoul.   There are so many of them in just a short stretch of road.   For our breakfast meeting, I chose Droptop much quieter and cheaper than Starbucks.

nice cheesy bread @ Droptop Coffee

Eel and Rice

A new office tower was just completed near my hotel and we decided to go there for lunch.   Young Jin recommended this Eel restaurant which he went before and like it.   The price is reasonable for standard price of W10,000 Eel and rice, free flow of soup, vegetables and of course Kimchi.

A special dish is putting some Eel and rice into the empty bowl and pour hot water to make it into Eel porridge.   This is like DIY Eel porridge but surprising very delicious.

Yummy Eel

Eel Porridge

It was a good choice as I love eel....