Seoul November 2016 - Day 4 Gwanghawmun Square / King Sejong Statue, Jihwaja, Insadong, Cheongyecheon

Continued from
Day 1 Nine Tree Hotel Myeongdong, Gwangjang/Bangsan/Chungbu Markets, N Seoul Tower
Day 2 Hanbok, Gyeongbokgung, Tosokchon, Samcheongdong, Bukchon Hanok Village, Myeong-dong
Day 3 Namdaemun Market, Ewha Women's University, Hongdae Free Market / Hongik University Street

Day 4 - Gwanghawmun Square / King Sejong Statue > Jihwaja Royal Cuisine Restaurant (lunch) > Insadong / Traditional tea house > Cheonggyecheon Stream (Seoul lantern festival) > Myeong-dong (dinner)

We had an easy morning on Day 4 waking up late and relaxing till 11+am before heading out for the planned itinerary for the day.

First stop, King Sejong Statue (세종대왕 동상) located in the centre of Gwanghwamun Square (광화문광장)

King Sejong was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea and is best remembered as the inventor of Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Before the invention of Hangul, Korean people used Hanja (Chinese characters) but Hanja was much more complex and took years of study to learn and average citizens didn't have the means or resources to learn. To establish a cultural identity through script for his people, he published the 28 letter alphabet Hangul in 1466 which could be easily picked after few hours of study.
 
During his reign, he consolidated the basis for ruling the Joseon Dynasty by incorporating Confucian philosophy of politics. Furthermore, he led the nation's great strides in agriculture, literature, science and technology.

We didn't have much time to visit the nearby museum; so merely took a few photos before hailing a cab for our next destination as I made a reservation at 12 noon.

Jihwaja 지화자 (http://jihwajafood.co.kr/) is one of the 7 restaurants certified by the Korean Tourism Organization to experience Korean Royal Cuisine, it's located towards the northwest of Gyeongbokgung and about 10 mins' cab ride away (from Gwanghwamun Square).

Prior to the trip, I thought about trying Korean Royal Cuisine because I've watched a few kdrama showing royal cuisine and very intrigued by it. After going through the restaurants' websites, Jihwaja appeals the most to me because the website is very comprehensive with detailed menu and appealing photos; moreover it's location is fairly accessible. The restaurant also has several accolades like Michelin Guide 2017 Seoul, Blue Ribbon Restaurants of Seoul 2017 etc.

There are several menus to select, from the Full Course (4 options), to a smaller Set Meal (6 options, only available for lunch) or Ala-Carte. While I was very attracted to the Full Course for better appreciation of Korean royal cuisine, it seems way too much food for both of us. In the end, we settled for the "Braised Abalones in Soy Sauce" Set Meal which would be more manageable.

Top - First course, Pumpkin Porridge and Special Soup with Watery Kimchi
Bottom - Second course, Seasonal Vegetable Delight

The pumpkin porridge was very soothing to the palate; creamy and slightly thickened with subtle flavours of sweet pumpkin and sweet rice.

The Watery Kimchi on the other hand was served cold and very appetising with slightly tangy and sweet flavours. The white kimchi was so crunchy and just a little tangy and sweet. Love it.

The Seasonal Vegetable Delight was something like a salad, a mix of six vegetables/herbs tossed with a slightly tangy and sweet sauce. Very refreshing as well, with different textures and tastes.

Left - Third course, Sauteed vegetables wrapped in pancakes
Right - Seasonal Vegetable Delight (described above)

The pancake wraps were soft and actually not much flavour, therefore a flavourful sauce which was slightly tangy, salty and sweet was accompanied. The vegetables wrapped inside the pancakes offered varied textures and tastes and overall a delightful dish both pretty to look at and nice to eat.

Left - Fourth course, Assorted Pan-fried Delicacies
Right - Fifth course, Glass Noodles with Sauteed Vegetables

The pan-fried dish was interesting, the first piece with black sesame seeds was actually cabbage, the second piece was shrimp and the third felt like Haemul Pajeon or seafood pancake with some green onion and small bits of squid.

I love the glass noodle which was super flavourful, lots of onions, mushroom, black fungus and vegetables, and most surprisingly the julienne Korean pear added offered a refreshing contrast and balance to dish. Once in a while, I will cook japchae too, so next time I'm also going to add some julienne pear!

Left - Sixth course, the HIGHLIGHT of this meal, Braised Abalone in Soy Sauce
Right - Seventh course, Roast Pork with ginseng, and Vegetable Salad

I super love the abalone!! Who doesn't right? The abalone had just the right texture, slightly chewy but not tough; sweet and juicy with the slightly salty seafood sauce. The accompanied chestnut, ginkgo nut, wild yam and mushroom went very well with sauce too!

Top - Eighth course, Seasonal Delicacies and Rice with Soybean Paste Stew
Bottom - Ninth course, Dessert and Ginseng Tea

And lastly the rice with side dishes, my favourite Korean soup, Doenjang Jjigae, as well as dessert, persimmon fruit which was in season and a energising cup of sweet ginseng tea.

Overall, the meal was exquisite and well-presented, giving us a glimpse of what Korean royal cuisine looks like. Next time when we have the chance and more people joining us, perhaps we could go for the Full Royal Cuisine Course :)

We were quite full after the meal, so decided to take a slow walk towards Gyeongbukgung station to take a train to Insadong.

On the way, we passed by this Tongin Market 통인시장 (http://tonginmarket.co.kr/mall/image/tourmap.jpg, http://tonginmarket.co.kr/mall/index.php). It looks like a food street with a number of grocery sand vegetable stalls.

We saw a small crowd gathered at the entrance to the market, and a guy giving out empty food trays and a bunch of traditional brass coins. I only found out after coming back that this market runs a Dosirak (도시락) “Cafe” concept, where people pay 5000 won in exchange for an empty lunchbox tray and 10 brass coins. Then using the brass coins, go into the Tong-in Market to buy different types of food to fill up the tray. Thereafter, can go to the community centre nearby to purchase rice (stalls don't sell rice) and enjoy the food there.

Very interesting and food here looks tantalising.

But not all the stalls participate in this concept, only stalls with the signage “通 도시락 cafe. Here's one participating store, and the food items cost 2-3 coins.

Some traditional Korean snack and dessert.

Interesting shop selling dried herbs. Notice the signage is still using partial hanja (chinese characters).

Another stall with different types of grains and beans.

Next stop, Insa-dong (인사동) http://www.insainfo.or.kr/

Insadong is another popular attraction in Seoul, which represents the traditional culture and crafts of Korean. Here, we can see many traditional shops selling Korean folk craft, hanji (traditional paper), pottery, as well as art galleries and traditional restaurants and tea houses. There are also many hanbok rental shops here, and many tourists dressed up in hanbok walking around the streets.

One of the few Starbucks in Korea with hangul signboard.

One of the must visit place at Insadong, Ssamziegil (쌈지길) http://www.ssamzigil.com/

It's an unique shopping mall, with spiraling pathway from ground level to the open-air rooftop and shops selling unique home ware, fashion, accessories, ornaments, stationery, craft, jewelery etc etc. The rooftop has a restaurant and cafe.

The Koreans really like the concept of hanging wishes and blessings.

After shopping at Ssamziegil, I tried to find a traditional tea house and very lucky to chance upon one in a lovely garden setting.

HB ordered Yujacha (citrus tea) again, whereas I tried a hot Gamip-cha (Persimmon Leaf tea). Also tried the Yugwa (유과) (Honey rice cookie/Deep fried sweet rice cake), which is a traditional Korean confectionery made from kneading rice, fried and then dusted with bean flour. The Yugwa was surprisingly very light and slightly crispy and sweet. Very nice snack to go with tea :)

After the short re-fueling at Dawon, we proceed to Cheongyecheon Stream which is a short walk from Insadong.

Cheongyecheon Stream 청계천 (http://www.sisul.or.kr/grobal/cheonggye/eng/WebContent/index.html)

And we were lucky that the Seoul Lantern Festival 서울빛초롱축제  (http://www.seoullantern.com/html/) was held during this period.

Lovely lanterns, some traditional, some modern, lined up Cheongyecheon. The cold weather and illumination made the ambience so romantic and serene.

 

During this period, each side of the stream was one walking direction only, so that visitors could enjoy the lantern display in an orderly and safe manner.

Visitors could purchase Floating Wishing Lanterns, write blessings or wishes on the lantern and release the lanterns onto the stream.

Alternatively, purchase Wishing lantern that would be hung on the underside of Gwanggyo Bridge throughout the Seoul Lantern Festival.

After admiring the lantern displays, we walked back to Myeongdong, which is not too far away.

Dinner was at Myeongdong Kyoja (명동교자) (http://www.mdkj.co.kr/en/) which is highly recommended by friends as well as many bloggers. So try we must!

There are only four items on the menu which are three types of noodles served in chicken broth, hot sauce and cold soup, and Mandu (dumpling).

We ordered one Kalguksu which is soft noodle served in a thick chicken broth with some small mandu and garnish, and one serving of Mandu made using pork, vegetables, leek and sesame oil wrapped in a thin dumpling skin.

The noodle and dumpling were very delicious indeed! I was afraid that the Mandu might be too meaty and heavy on the palate but surprisingly, it didn't taste too overwhelming, and the flavour was just nice. The noodle was slightly chewy and soft, and the broth was soothing. We approve this restaurant!

After dinner, we strolled around Myeongdong Shopping Street once again, and this ice-cream parlor Milky Bee caught my attention. They sell Gelato Rose Ice Cream, how pretty they look!

I got the Strawberry and Yogurt flavour which was on promo at 3800 won (usual price 5500 won). The ice cream was not too sweet and very yummy, and oh-so-pretty! Yum yum! Highly recommended!

With that, we went back to the hotel for a good night's rest as we had to wake up very early to catch a train to Gapyeong for Nami Island!

Stay tuned for the next post on Nami Island and Noryangjin Fisheries Whole Sale Market.

Launch of 'Bake & Celebrate : Cookies & Treats' Recipe Book

Wooohoooooo, I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new recipe book 'Bake & Celebrate : Cookies & Treats' published by Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd, and I'm one of the contributors \(^o^)/  \(^o^)/  \(^o^)/

Although I'm just a small small contributor of one recipe, I'm very grateful to be invited and given the opportunity to share my love for baking :) 

The recipe book will be launched during December and available for sale at major bookstores in Singapore at $14.90 (with GST). Good news, from now till 9 December, there's a special pre-order discount of 20% and the book is for sale at $11.95 (with GST) during this limited period only.

Since this is a collection of cookies and treats for the festive season, it will certainly come in handy for the upcoming Christmas and Chinese New Year celebrations; and it also makes a lovely Christmas gift for family and friends :)

For those of you keen in placing an order, please drop me an email at megtan@singnet.com.sg, with your name, contact number and number of copies, latest by 6 November 2016 12nn.

Happy Baking, everyone!!

Seoul November 2016 - Day 3 Namdaemun Market, Ewha Womans University, Hongdae Free Market, Hongik University Street

Continued from
Day 1 Nine Tree Hotel Myeongdong, Gwangjang/Bangsan/Chungbu Markets, N Seoul Tower
Day 2 Hanbok, Gyeongbokgung, Tosokchon, Samcheongdong, Bukchon Hanok Village, Myeong-dong



Day 3 - Namdaemun (Lunch) > Ewha Women's University > Hongdae Free Market / Hongik University Street (dinner) > Lotte Mart

Another full day of activities, and hence we made it to Namdaemun Market in the morning.

Namdaemun Market (남대문시장)
www.namdaemunmarket.co.kr

Namdaemun Market is the largest traditional market in Korea and upon reaching the area and getting an area map (from the travel guides stationed around the street), I realised the whole place is huge indeed! Besides the retailers lined along the streets, there are several wholesale buildings each around four to five stories.

The retail streets are divided into several categories like Children's Clothes Street, Watch/Jewelry Street, Fashion Street, Military Uniform Street, Bedding Street, Mountain Climbing Equipment Street, Camera Street, Stationery/Toy Street, Food Material Street. Food streets include Chopped Noodles Street and Fish/Stew Street.

Even at 9am, the streets were already busting with tourists and locals. As we only had limited, couldn't cover all the areas.

Ventured into one of the wholesale buildings and if one doesn't have an objective in mind and just browsing only, you could totally get overwhelming by the sheer vastness and variety of goods sold here.

I believe I could get lost in all the kitchen and serve ware here. Felt so tempted to buy stuff but first of all, limited luggage space, secondly it's quite time consuming to ask for prices from store to store for comparison. Was interested in some cutlery and tried asking a few shops and prices could differ by a fair bit, probably I was asking for per piece price, if purchase in bulk prices could easily be slashed by half or more. In the end I just gave up.

Other levels in the building such as flower/garderning, pottery.

Handicraft, ornaments, folkcraft.

Accessory, jewelry making. Each floor is huge and consists of several aisles and alley. Can totally get lost inside. Think MBK in Bangkok, but several times bigger and wider variety of goods.

This is definitely the place to go for sourcing goods, if you are conducting a business!

Since I was looking only for a few pieces of kitchenware, decided to just buy from one of the retailers along the streets. Prices are a couple of dollars higher than that quoted in the wholesale building (I mean per piece price, if bulk purchase definitely much cheaper).

Several makeshift stalls selling very affordable clothes here. But I'm sure the prices would be even cheaper inside the clothing wholesale centre (if buying in bulk).

There's a whole street of stationery/toys/packaging/partyware shops as well, similar to what I saw at Bangsan Wholesale Market on the first day. If there's no time to venture there, Namdaemun Market is definitely a good place to hunt for packaging stuff as well.

And now we come to food! Street food stalls here are more spread out than those found in Myeongdong.

Hotteok calling out to me! What better snack to eat during cold weather than a hot pancake stuffed with brown sugary syrup and chopped nuts? Hotteok is one of my favourite Korean Street Snack.

Apparently there's another staff at another entrance to the Market which is very famous for Hotteok. I only found it when leaving the market. The queue was super long though, which means it must be really yummy. Well, didn't matter, any hotteok was good for me!

Now for proper meal. We went into one of the food alley and most of the eateries have displays like this to attract customers. And most of the ahjummas here speak some mandarin, kept beckoning us into their shops.

We selected a shop randomly. HB ordered a pan-fried fish (cannot remember what fish is that already) and udon, whereas I ordered a beef rib and radish soup. HB's udon never arrived, but we were actually quite full after finishing these. Food quality was so-so only though.

And this is Sungnyemun Gate (숭례문), also known as Namdaemun Gate, currently Korea’s National Treasure No. 1.

After Namdaemun Market, we made our way to Ewha Womans University (이화여자대학교). Don't ask me why I went there :p Well, it seemed to be a popular tourist destination, judging by the number of blogs I read which recommended it as the campus is very lovely. The surrounding area is also one of the most popular shopping districts in Seoul with many fashion, accessory, shoes, beauty salons and cafes.

Main street leading to the University. I will certainly look forward to going to school if the street leading to my school looked like this.

Already a common sight in Seoul, several street food stalls lined the streets leading to the University.

And here, Ewha Womans University.

And this is the supposedly most iconic complex of the University? Called the Ewha Campus Complex, it's Korea's largest underground campus, which houses library, bookstore, gym, movie theater, cafes, lecture rooms and an eco-park. Wow!

We were here on a Saturday and the whole place was crowded! But I guess mostly tourists like us, who were curious about the place. I wonder how do the students here feel? Proud that their campus became an attraction or disturbed by over-enthusiastic tourists taking countless photos all over the campus and being rowdy and noisy?

Personally I was more attracted to the flora and fauna and the older colonial buildings.

Autumn foliage and cool weather made the campus look so scenic and romantic.

Now I wish to study here! I heard they run short-term Korean language courses =D Maybe one day, I will.

Next stop,  Hongdae Free Market 홍대 프리마켓 (www.freemarket.or.kr), a weekend art and creative market selling handmade items. The market only operates on Saturdays from March to November, at a park within the Hongdae (Hongik University Street) (홍대).

Hongik University Street is even bigger than Ewha University Street with many more shops, and therefore much more crowded. Reminds me of Shibuya and Harajuku in Tokyo.

Anyways, the free market area is about 10 mins' walk from the subway.

Most of the stalls sell handmade jewelry, ornaments and stationery.

There are also ten stalls or so, drawing caricature / painting portrait for a fee. We eyed one of the stalls doing water-colour portrait but the queue was so long we gave up waiting.

There were also performances at a corner of the market.

Overall, a lovely creative market with nice ambience.

We walked around Hongik University Street for a while and came across a few UFO catcha shops and there were pokemons plush :) The HB did manage to catch one Squirtle for 2000 won at another shop. The retail price was 4000 won, lucky!

Chanced upon this fried chicken shop and feeling a little peckish, decided to feast on fried chicken for dinner.

Actually after eating here, I recalled there's a Kyochon Fried Chicken shop in Hongdae area and I had wanted to eat Kyochon's fried chicken for this trip! My goldfish memory!!!!! Boohoooooooo....

Shocked that the portion was so big, we didn't realise the food portion here was exactly what that was shown at the entrance.

Now, no way the two of us could finish all these, it was more for 3-4 people? Anyways, the fried chicken was yummy, super crispy on the outside and juicy inside. We selected garlic soy flavour and the sauce coated on the chicken was finger licking good. But then, still cannot finish lah.

After the super heavy meal, we strolled around the area a bit and this caught my attention.

Haha. I'm always attracted to novelty stuff. It's a drink served in a "light-bulb" shaped plastic bottle. You can order beer, liquor or fruit juices. I opted for jeju orange juice :p Yes I brought the bottle home. It's cute!

After walking around for a while more, we felt tired and wanted to head back to the hotel. Took a cab and when we reached the Seoul Station area, the cab driver told us that some roads were blocked due to ongoing protest and the jam would take us much longer to get to Myeongdong, whereas taking the subway would be faster. 

Lotte Mart - Seoul Station Branch (롯데마트-서울역점)

So we alighted. I had planned to visit Lotte Market on Monday night, but since we were here, might as well shop here. Spent a couple of hours shopping for snacks and grocery at the huge Lotte Mart which was packed with tourists, before finally heading back to the hotel.

Stay tuned for day 4, where we dined at one of Korea Tourism Board's certified Royal Cuisine Restaurant, visited Insadong and Cheongyecheon Stream for Seoul's Lantern Festival.