Korea (Seoul & Jeju) 2013 14-28 Oct (Day 5)

After a day of too much food yesterday, I guess today can't be any worse off... haha

We woke up with no agenda and was invited by a Korean friend for lunch. We were to meet at the restaurant, Sanneri (山內里) located at 146-1 Gye-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Tel: 02-7479700 . If you're going by the train, take to Anguk Station (Line 3) exit 3, after you come out of the stairs, walk straight for about 30m to the intersection, turn left, walk for about 20m and you'll see the restaurant. You can check it out at their website, www.sanneri.com.

This is highly recommended. It was a nice traditional restaurant and we had a room to ourselves.

My apologies for the blurry pic

Had excellent service although we didn't understand a word that was said. Our host ordered a set meal and we dutifully (a.k.a happily) ate everything placed in front of us. 

You will not believe the amount of food served. Each picture shows individual serving unless stated otherwise... here goes...

1st dish...

Blueberry salad

 ... followed by...

kimchi

 ... followed by...

Raw fish

 ... followed by...

Kimchi pancake, can't remember what, fish
(This pic is 2 person portion)

 ... followed by...

Hobakjuk (mung bean noodles)

 ...followed by...

Beef bulgogi
(2 person portion)

 ... followed by...

Stingray

 ... followed by...

Not sure of the name but its some Korean noodle

 ... followed by this wonderful dish with yummy blueberry dressing. The long stick-like things you see on top are ginseng cut into strips and the flavours blended so well... one of my favourite dishes...

... and this is the ultimate... raw beef on a bed of radish topped with pine nuts... I was a little squirmish when told what it was, but I was game to try any Korean food placed in front of me, so I mixed it up and took the first bite... it was... soooo... GOOOODDD!!!! This became my favourite dish of the meal... The beef was so so tender and the sesame oil was so fragrant, and the radish was so sweet, the flavours seemed to just explode in your mouth... you MUST try this.

... followed by...

Fried octopus

... followed by... Korean beef patties with vegetables at the side. The patties were so juicy and flavourful. Eaten with the crunchy vegetables, it was heavenly. The flavours of the beef and vegetables were more than enough and I didn't need to dip it into the sauce.

... followed by... "dunno what" soup... but it was nice, I liked it, although my friends didn't really like it.

Soup

... followed by super soft and tender pork... soo good and its coming from someone (ME!!) who don't normally eat fatty pork.

... tired yet??? Next dish smoked duck... which was oh so tender, juicy and so rich in taste... 

... I think the climax is over... something simple came out... unpolished rice eaten with side dishes...

... just when I thought the next dish would be dessert, out came the next dish... it was some fish that tasted like sardines cooked with radish and it was so yum too.

By now, we were nearly exploding, and then this soup came out. We were wondering when will the food ever stop??? 

Any more dishes and I would've puked out everything that I've swallowed. But being the nice guests that we were, even if they were to bring out more food, we would've eaten it.

Thank goodness we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, or the last dish at the end of the set meal... phew...

After the fruit, we had this tea that tasted like sour plum wash it all down, and hopefully to help us digest the how many course (I lost count?!?!) set lunch.

If you must know, this was the aftermath of the whole lunch. We nearly wiped off everything. I was shocked too at our capacity.

After such a satisfying and filling (more like over filling) lunch, we MUST definitely walk it all off. We decided to stroll across town to visit Gyeongbukgung, since it wasn't opened the other day.

Ah, so this is what HRH King Sejeong looks like in the day.

Walk further down and its the palace. Gyeongbukgung is also known as the "Northern Palace" because its the furthest north when compared to the other nearby palaces.

Upon entering you'll see the main entrance into the palace grounds.

There were free guided tours and you can go find out the timings near the ticketing counters. Its pretty interesting as you'll get to know more about Korean history and culture.

This is one of the halls where HRH conducted his official affairs.

This is actually one of the bedrooms of the royals. It was so interesting to note that all these are raised above ground level and there are mini furnaces beneath heating up the flooring, thereby keeping the bedrooms warm and the royals don't get cold feet.

Grounds were very big. Apparently, the premises were destroyed by fire in the 1500s and the 7,700 rooms were only restored in 1852-1919

As we had such a filling lunch, we didn't really have much in the night. Well, it was good walking exercise after eating so much. We had to pack our luggage as we were checking out tomorrow to move to another hotel. Another one of our travel mates will be arriving tomorrow evening.

Korea (Seoul & Jeju) 2013 14-28 Oct (Day 4)

Rise and shine to a beautiful sunny day. Nice view from the apartment.

Today, we're going to take things easy and have a leisurely sightseeing day. We decided to visit one of the palaces, Deoksugung (德壽宮). Its easily accessible at City Hall Station and do note that its closed every Monday. There is also a daily changing of guard at 11am, 2pm and 3.30pm.

On first arrival at the entrance of the palace, you'll see Daehanmun Gate.

As its located right smack in the city, I felt so surreal. Its like stepping into a time capsule and going back in time, to a different world as it is so peaceful, green and traditional in the palace grounds.

 
What I enjoyed most was seeing modern skyscrapers in the background while admiring the beautiful traditional Korean architecture. Seems like a contradiction between old and new, but this just shows how tradition and culture can be preserved in the face of modernisation, pop culture and economic growth.

Although one of the most technological advanced and wired country in the world, tradition is still very much entrenched in the people. We saw a group of youths dressed in traditional costumes and I thought we stumbled onto the set of a K-drama, but they were actually there taking pictures and having a good time at the historic grounds.

Of course no palace is without a throne, and we got the obligatory tourist shot of the great hall where the King conducted his official affairs and met foreign envoys.

Upon leaving the palace grounds, we saw guards dressed in traditional uniforms take their place at the gates. They were so smart and imposing.

After the palace, we walked to Namdaemun Market. To get there, you can take Line 4 and alight at Hoehyeon Station.

Namdaemun Market is the biggest traditional market in Korea selling a wide array of products ranging from clothings to food and imported goods. It has more than 10,000 shops all located around the main southern gate of the old city wall, hence its name (南大門).

Of course being typical Singaporeans, what attracted us more was the street food. 

After walking around it was time for lunch. And of course in Korea, we must try their Jajangmyeon (雜醬麵), the Korean version of the Chinese black bean sauce noodles. We had to ask around and learnt that its not available everywhere, only at Chinese restaurants. We found a restaurant and the waiter could speak Chinese and ordered it. Sadly, it wasn't delicious.

 After lunch, we went to Hongdae to walk and look around. 

After a short while, we stopped for none other than... afternoon tea & coffee. 

One thing good is that in Korea, there is free wifi everywhere, especially at food establishments. That's the time when everyone of us would check our Whatsapp, emails and Facebook.

On our way back to the apartment, we saw a group of students perform. They were good and there people were around listening to them. The atmosphere of the whole place was really nice. Highly recommended to send a leisurely day there.

After returning to the hotel we rested for a while before heading out for more food... again.

We walked over to the restaurant street for dinner and had Korean BBQ... again.

Apparently from this signboard, this restaurant was in the filming of the hit variety game show, Running Man.

We had a table out in the open and the feeling was so nice. The weather was very cold, but the heat from the BBQ warmed us and of course the aroma of the food... ooh... nice experience.

We had so much food. We had to walk it off. And then, the inevitable and unthinkable happened... again... we saw our new favourite street food, something like our "hum cheem peng" (咸煎餅) and of course we bought it for "supper".

Gosh, we definitely went to bed with a full stomach... good night yummy food... for now.