Seoul, Korea

Five months and a stressful grad semester later, I'm finally getting around to posting the rest of the pictures from my summer trip.  These next few from Seoul are just a couple of the ones we went to.  I swear all I ever do when I travel is eat!  So enjoy in my gorge-fest:

1.  Homemade Gabli Tang
My aunt is an amazing chef and always makes Galbi Tang (beef and noodle soup) for breakfast.. with a side of rice and kimchi...  Koreans don't seem to have traditional sweet breakfast foods like us Americans (probably why we're so fat)

Galbi Tang.

Rice & Kimchi.

2.  Street Food
Korea has some of the best and most interesting street food.  Every time we go, I insist on getting these fish-shaped red bean cakes (bungeopppang).  It's a must have!

Typical street vendor.

Red Bean Pancakes.

Fish Pancake!

Cocktails to go. My fav!

These are their ice cream cones...

3.  Du Rae Bak Restaurant.
Some of the most amazing pork and seafood pancakes I have ever had!

Seaweed soup.

Pork and mounds of Kimchi.

Seafood Pancake.

4.  Chinese Food in Korea
Suprisingly, the Chinese food in Korea is equally as amazing.  I, naturally, got the typical black bean and noodle dish (jajangmyeon) and my brother had this delicious spicy tofu dish (Mapo Tofu).

Sweet & Sour Chicken.

Mapo Tofu. 

Jajangmyeon.

Cold noodle soup. 

5.  Sangeum (Heyri)
My mom's old friend Bruce took my brother and I to Heyri, an art town next to the North Korean border.  He took us to this amazing little restaurant witha  billion little dishes all made from natural roots and plants grown right in that area.  This picture below does not do it justice because I couldn't fit the whole table in one shot!

6.  More Korean BBQ
Of course for our last meal in Korea, we had even more Korean BBQ.  I can never get sick of eating all this delicious juicy marinated meat!

Charcoal grilled meat.

Sweet white fish.

Seafood Pancake.

Sundubu (Spicy Tofu Soup)

Busan, South Korea

Finally getting around to posting all the pictures from the Asia trip.  Since I've been to Korea, specifically Seoul, so many times, my family decided to take a road trip down to Busan.  For some reason when my mom told me we were driving to southern Korea, I thought, alright we're going to the country where the food is probably super fresh and amazing but I'll be peeing in some hole in the ground.  Boy was I naive.  Busan is the second largest city in South Korea, not too much different from Seoul.  The upside to the trip was Busan is right on the coast so the drive down was beautiful.

Like myself, my emobu (uncle) is a food enthusiast and wanted to take us to as many different kinds of restaurants possible.  Here are a couple of the places we went to:


1. Haeundae Rib Barbecue Restaurant
If you're looking for the best barbecue in Busan, I highly recommend Haeundae.  It's typical Korean barbecue, different kinds of raw meat cooked over a charcoal grill.  One of their specialties and one of my dad's favorite dishes is Bulgogi cooked with noodles.  After you finish cooking the meat, you add beef broth straight to the grill and then cook the noodles in the juice.  It was heavenly (sorry you couldn't be there Dad) and a must have if you ever visit this restaurant!

Typical banchan.

Soju bomb glass.

Bulgogi.

Bulgogi and noodles.

2. Seafood

I couldn't remember the name of this restaurant but I'm told that all the seafood along the harbor in Busan is equally amazing.  I'm a huge fan of seafood and this particular place was known for their crab.  Let me just say, they did NOT waste any part of the crab, which you will see in the pictures below.  Also, if anyone does decide to visit one of these restaurants, come with an appetite!  When they first brought out a few dishes, I thought to myself "aren't we having crab, what's with all the sushi and fish?"  Oh that was just the appetizers.  And the main course: endless mounds of crab meat....and crab fried rice...and crab ramen noodles.  Needless to say, I slept the rest of the car ride home.

Massive crabs!

Abalone with onions.

Baked fish with aioli sauce and cabbage salad.
This dish was my all time favorite (next to the crab).

Spicy raw squid and carrots.

Pan-fried white fish.

Baked jumbo shrimp with veggies.

All the appetizers including the salad and sushi.

First round of crab!

Crab fried rice served in the actual crab head.

Ramen noodles with tofu and crab.

With summer almost half over and my Korea/Japan trip quickly approaching, I thought it would be a good time to take a stab at my first blog, centered around things that I love (food & travel). 

I am second year Master of Architecture student, so bare with me if my writing sucks.  We were taught how to draw not how to write. 

I currently live in Chicago, but am spending my summer at home in Los Angeles.  I attend the School of the Art Institute and hopefully in a year will be working for some kick ass architecture firm and traveling the world for work!

I’ve been lucky in my life thus far to have traveled to some amazing places and eaten amazing food.  And I hope to continue this lucky and share my experiences with all of you!

In the words of Erma Bombeck: “Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.”