➹ cute and sweet korean treats ^^

I still have a few unopened treats from my trip last month hahaha! These snacks in particular are kinda hard to finish because they are just tooooo cute! We bought them from Olive Young which is much like Watsons in HK and SG. There was an Olive Young near our hotel in Myeongdong but we opted to buy from the one in Times Square just before we headed off to the airport. There are 2 Olive Young stores in Times Square!




I love these bungeobbang because they are very Korean! We tried the street food version of this when we were in Seoul last autumn.

These brownies aren't exactly traditional but they are delicious! And they make for nice gifts for friends and family too because of the cute packaging. Market-O is a popular brand in Korea. We also bought some Market-O chocolates but those were finished too soon so I don't have pictures haha!




Here are some Korean erasers I got for my nephew and nieces. They are just tooooo cute! And they come really cheap too. The kids had a blast marveling over them!




Will post more shopping finds as I start to re-organize my things for the new year ^^. Korean stuff are just pure <3.
Happy 2012!!!

➹ tv watchlist: deep rooted tree 뿌리깊은나무

진심으로 대단이다.
정말이다.

I once again am unable to find the right words to explain my thoughts on this drama because I just like it soooo much! It's surprising though because I don't usually favor crime/suspense stories as I am naturally more drawn to light-hearted love-line plots. So indeed it felt strange when I found myself patiently and excitedly waiting for English subs on this drama every Monday for the past weeks. And now that it's over, I just keep on replaying my favorite scenes, being re-amazed at the dramatic revelations and of course re-crying my tears ㅋㅋㅋ ... Addicted, much?

I admit that my initial interest on the drama was all because of Song Joongki's role. One of my first favorite scenes was definitely this part in Episode 2 when young Lee Do commands Moo Hyul to slash his assassin even if that is his own Father.




So I thought that perhaps when Joongki's part ends, I wouldn't follow it as passionately as before. However, my interest just grew stronger because the plot got more and more exciting. I was already hooked and I just couldn't stop watching the story unfold.

Jang Hyuk's character definitely grew on me afterwards. I like that he can be this cunning and sarcastic assassin who regresses to a snotty little crying brat when faced with the world's injustice. I like the warriors' face-off's and find them beautiful ~ well perhaps because they chose warriors whose faces are to be reckoned with. In the end, I didn't want any of them to perish but yeah, well ...







I enjoyed getting played by the plot twists and revelations. I don't like guessing that's why. I want to fully enjoy the creativity of the writers so I just take it all in. I was hoping for a final twist with Gaepayi's and Yeondoo's loyalty but I suppose that will make the story too predictable. So instead we got an elaborate scheme to salvage the circulation mission. Haha, brilliant! I like this better than the secret passage to the palace piece.



So the ending was at best, bloody bittersweet. It must be awfully hard to wrap up an amazing story such as this. I applaud the writers for planting seeds of uncertainty and hinting on greater peril to come ~ instead of just letting things settle completely. History goes on, that's why.

I have to add that because of 뿌리깊은나무 I was specially psyched to revisit Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul! Even though the drama's plot is fictitious, it still inspires interest on Korea's elaborate history. And I was more than happy to share this enthusiasm by bringing my friend around King Sejong's Story underneath his majestic statue.







끝! ㅠ-ㅠ

➹ no holds barred pinkness

I was pretty excited to visit the Hello Kitty Café in Hongdae because I grew up mildly addicted to Gift Gate stores and Sanrio shops in the malls. After seeing pictures from so many blogs, I longed to experience an afternoon leisurely drinking coffee amidst all that cuteness. I prepared myself to marvel at the explosion of Hello Kitty stuff much like a mini Sanrio-land (minus my Kerokero and Badtz Maru).

The problem with too much excitement is that I tend to overlook important details. Things like where exactly in Hongdae is the Hello Kitty Café? ㅋㅋㅋ I just knew that I had to find the Tony Moly shop and walk into that street. I guess I didn't realize there was a street to both the left and right of Tony Moly. So we got lost at first and ended up walking aimlessly for at least 30minutes. We found the Charlie Brown Café and I was tempted to just go into there but then there is already a Charlie Brown franchise in Singapore. We also came upon the Coffee Prince franchise store (not the original set of the drama) and I was once again drawn to stop there but then we suddenly saw the pink bow further down the inclined street. Hello Kitty!!!

So it was as cute and as pink in person as it is in the pictures. It's like a little princess doll house and I can't NOT imagine how girls can pass up a chance to at least take a selca with the café as background. The façade is really nice and I envision how refreshing it would be to sit on the veranda on warmer days. But it was late Autumn and our hands were freezing so we had to go in.



I thought the place would be full so we settled on the first set of available seats we found on the mezzanine. The lighting was pretty low though and so our pictures came out very yellowish without flash. Later on, we wondered if that area was meant for dates haha, since the other folks in our area seem to pair off. Anyway, I'll make sure to check out the 2nd floor next time.





They had a pretty extensive menu with many items UNavailable (boo) at that moment so it took us a while to decide on what to order. Here's what my friend got:



I wanted to get as much Hello Kitty in my food as possible so I got this cake with the Kitty cookie and DANHOBAK latte (sweet pumpkin latte).



I made 2 mistakes. 1st, I probably ordered a cake SET since the cake came with plain black coffee as well. So in the end I had 2 drinks. But I wasn't a plain coffee fan so I was fine with skipping this one and going for the danhobak latte. But here comes my 2nd mistake~ the danhobak latte tasted pretty bad for me :(. I didn't really know what I expected sweet pumpkin latte to taste and perhaps this is an acquired taste ... In the end, I wasn't able to drink more than 2 sips. Ironically, I had to drink water instead! The cake was ok though but nothing really special. The core was a mildly sweet choco mousse and that one is delish.

In any case, we didn't really come for the food. We went in to soak in all the Hello Kitty goodness of the place! And it didn't disappoint. Being in so much PINKness has such a strong psychological effect hahaha. I think it's supposed to make you relaxed and/or bring out the nurturing side of you. Plausible ~ and that's probably why I ended up paying for dinner for my younger friends later that night... 왕 언니 때문에 ^^.

For me, these are the best Hello Kitty things from the Hongdae café:
1. Hello Kitty sofa seats!


2. Hello Kitty mirror on the ladies restroom ㅋㅋㅋ


3. Hello Kitty streetlamp~



By the way, later on we figured out the very simple error which got us lost on the first place! If you're coming from the direction of the Hongdae subway stop (and most folks probably are), you should turn right AFTER Tony Moly and not before it ^^.

➹ autumn finds at insadong

It was my second time exploring the bustling streets of Insadong last Autumn. The light morning rain has just ended as we walked through the twisting alleys from Bosingak tower and into the main street of Insadong. Our first landmark was the Starbucks shop with the 한글 signage. This has always been and still is a fascinating sight (curiously so).


The streets were full of shoppers and office folks heading for or from lunch. The shops lining the streets had everything from Korean souvenirs to fall/ winter gear. We ourselves were on the lookout for cute scarves, gloves and bonnets and there were infinite options! But we weren't really planning on shopping at Insadong. I had this preconceived notion that souvenir shopping is best done at Namdaemun and then clothes+cosmetic shopping is best done at Myeongdong or Dongdaemun. Insadong for me was more for cultural immersion and finding those quirky uniquely Korean stuff... and I suppose I got this from reading so many write-ups on Seoul travels! In any case, I may have had a shift in perspective after this trip cos I did find lots of great regular stuff at Insadong which I regret not buying later ...

So anyway, because we weren't on our serious shopping-mode, we had our cameras busy clicking away but it was a bit challenging since there's soooo much to look at while at the same time, we had to be cautious not to bump into other pedestrians along the way ^^.




We headed to Ssamziegil and I was kind of sad that there were no Christmas suspensions yet on the middle of the courtyard.



Nevertheless, there were endless picture options!




I love this corner so much!!!


Autumn has created a charming aura on the rooftop garden ...


We ended our tour with a coffee break at this cafe. The cream cheese pretzel was soooo good ^^.




I wish we stayed longer at Insadong but we wanted to catch the changing of guards at Deoksugung so we had to hurry off. There were definitely a LOT more stuff to see than we had time for. I think I can even spend the entire afternoon browsing around the shops there! But yeah, that will be a plan for next time~

➹ dosirak cravings

I'm now back at work from my November Seoul vacation. Aside from struggling to settle back into work-mode, I'm also nurturing a serious craving for savory Korean dishes during lunch hours! Ahh, how sinfully amazing it would be to have some dosirak for lunch ...

The dosirak version we had on this last trip was composed of flavorful and tangy kimchi and fried spam on warm white rice topped with fried egg and dried seaweed (gim). It looks pretty appetizing when neatly arranged like this:



You're supposed to shake the metallic box to mix everything up before eating. We watched how some locals on the next table shook their boxes rigorously before digging in. But we were a bit cautious that the kimchi sauce might spill so we didn't really shake our boxes so much. So ofcourse, the contents weren't mixed as it was supposed to but we were fine with that.

As for the taste, I thoroughly enjoyed how the spicy kimchi matched so well with the salty egg, spam and gim. It was absolutely YUMMY for a school meal I must say! Ahh, I would be so spoiled if I can pack a set like this for myself every day.

I thought the serving was a bit large since I couldn't imagine carrying this size of lunch box out of the house ... but in end, me and my friend were able to finish almost the entire thing! My friend is not too fond of spicy food so she had a good portion of her kimchi left. Me, I wasn't too fond of rice so everything else was cleaned out except for that. We ordered some coffee with our meals (ahh, yes not exactly traditional and it took a while for the staff to complete our orders because of that), and they gave some complimentary soup which was also amazing.

We had our dosirak fix on the famous 별다방 미스리 Miss Lee Café. The place is just too adorable! The colorful tables and chairs fit perfectly into the whimsical décor of the place. My own school memories were most certainly not as charmingly cute as the setting here.




There were messages left everywhere which is most definitely very Korean.




There were also pictures of WGM couple Yonghwa and Seohyun on the walls which added to the cuteness of the ambience. In addition there is Miss Lee herself (i think) sitting alone invitingly on the store front and ready for a photo op!

I'd say this is a must try in Seoul just for the novelty of it. And for me, I would want to have it again because the taste just grew on me! Would be utterly awesome if I can prepare one on my own though ... so yeah, that will be on my 2012 to-do list!

Where to Try: 별다방 미스리 Miss Lee Cafe along Olive Young Myeongdong near Euljiro 1-ga Exit 5-6.