Travel2Korea: All Those Yummy Foods

Korea is not only a home to k-pop,  but more than that, it is a home to many super yummy delicious food. So I just stuff lots and lots of good food everytime I am in Korea, without ever worrying how much I would gain by the end of journey. 

My all-time favourite food is none other than hot oden, or omuk in Korean, spicy or not. It is always delicious wherever I eat it, whenever. Of course, it is better eaten in cold windy days, but hey, I always travel in April to Korea so oden is never a wrong choice. If I have to choose a great place to eat oden, my choice would be an overcrowded oden stall in Suwon market. Just a 5-minute walk from Suwon market, the oden stall offers both normal and spicy oden broth. It is not common in Korea for a stall to offer both so this stall is special. Sorry if I don't remember the name, but if you really want to go, just find the largest and most overcrowded stall in suwon market. I bet you are in the right place.  

In all honesty, the best food in Suwon market is actually not the oden. It is the famous Korean chicken! Suwon chicken alley in Suwon is a heaven for fried chicken lovers, cause it offers lines of chicken shop ready to serve our hungry stomach. When I went there, my friend decided that we should all went to one of the most favourites - of course full of visitors - called Jangan Tongdak. We ordered half half, BanBan in Korean where we will get one plate of spicy fried chicken and half garlic fried chicken. IT WAS A BOMB!! Soooooo deliciooouuusss.... Four of us finished the first serving in a heartbeat and decided to go with the second one! hahahahaha.. It is that good that I just wanted to eat this chicken forever.

Another food that I always get is the famous One Chicken Soup(닭한마리) in Dongdaemun. The shop is again in the small narrow alley, but the spicy soup is just so so so good with the whole chicken. Yes, you hear me right, they serve us a whole freaking chicken. But don't worry, I once went with only one friend and we finished it completely. We even added rice cake Tteok and noodle inside of the soup. Highly recommend! 

My culinary journey continues as I indulge myself in a sin of eating piles of 'mayak kimbab (마약김밥)'. The kimbab, aka rolled rice, is so addictive that Korean literally calls the food mayak kimbab or drugged rolled rice. Since I want nothing but the best, there is only one place in Seoul to get it, Gwangjang Market. To find the shop that sells the best mayak kimbab in Gwangjang market is not necessarily easy because many shops sell it. But if you are big 'Running Man' fans, just find a shop in the corner with a cute  oppa selling mayak kimbab non-stop just next to pictures to Lee Kwang Soo and Yoo Jae Suk. Find your treasures, detectives!! kekekekeke.... 

I want to write more about food, but I know I should stop before I have to force myself to press order button to the closest Korean restaurant at the moment. That's because my next Korean food I always love and enjoy eating is the famous toppokki with gimmari (김말이) aka Korean deep fried seaweed spring roll on the side. I know that all I need is to dip the crispy gimmari in the spicy toppokki (떡볶이) sauce and I can smile for the rest of the day. 

more posts on Korean food to come!!

Travel2Macau: City of Fantastic Sweets

I only spent two days in Macau yet this place fascinates me. Not only Macau stands beautifully with all it's "east meet west" building, it's culinary culture is amazing. Since I have limitations in terms of eating because of no-pork policy, I indulged myself more on what Macau has to offer in sweet foods department.

If you go to Macau's most crowded puic space, Senado Square, go direction Grand Lisboa hotel and you can find this lovely condensed milk pudding with red bean on top at a shop on your left. The shop is modest yet easy to find because the big cow poster right on the left side. The milk taste amazing! It's watery, not too sweat yet cover your mouth in softness that spoils you a little too much. It is available in hot or cold with different toppings to choose from. My friend happens to chose the hot one and it tasted sweeter than the hot one. So if you like sweet, go with the hot one. 

Coming out of Senado Square, continue your journey toward Grand Lisboa direction again until you find "avenida da praia grande" before you turn to the left after crossing the street. When you find the first intersection with a little park on the middle, turn right and walk less than 50 meters before making another turn to the right. Margaret cafe e nata, one of Macau's most famous egg tart seller is on the left side of the street. It's so easy to spot this amazing place because of the crowd. Crowds are flying around like hungry bee looking for honey there. The reason is simple, the Cafe's egg tart is to die for 

The egg tart is best eaten when its hot. Crunchy on the outside but super soft and sweet on the inside. The egg custard just make my tongue dancing in joy. One serving wont be enough. So the cafe made it easy for its customer to buy not only a single egg tart. They can buy in 6 or 12 for 45 or 90 Macau mops. It's soooooo deliciously alluring. 

My culinary travel didn't end there. Once I was full with 2 egg tarts, I made my way back to Senado square to see what that place has to offer. After a little walk around, I found this little shop of manjoo in front of another Macau's famous seller of its own interpretation of pork burger. The shops sells manjoo in a shape of fish. It comes small in size but eating 6 of them equals to a lunch serving for me ;p 

Filled with custard or chocolate paste, this little fish shaped manjoo is easy to be plopped into my mouth in no time. It's crunchy yet soft. Remind me much of Japanese's taiyaki. Only this time, it comes in much smaller size and no red bean inside. Yet to be perfectly honest, this dish might not entirely Macau but more of South Korean. A little twist than the one in Seoul but it goes more with how Japanese taiyaki tastes like. 

My journey was not over yet. Since I need to make my way back to the post office at the center of Senado square, I walked past by St. Dominic Church, or more precisely what's left from it. That's when I stumbled upon Mc Donald's store that offered two things I love the most in one serving. Sundae ice cream on top of apple pie with chocolate sauce. 

Call me cheap but I'm a big fan of McD's pie. Something that I could not find in Jakarta sadly. It comes in different variety of fillings which fascinatingly different in each country: apple, piennaple, taro, blueberry, corn, etc. In Macau, so glad that it comes only as Apple pie. Hahahaha.. So in hot and humid September Macau, eating ice cream with Apple pie among the crowds in front of post office offers a very delightful experience. At least for me ;) 

With all the sweets in my system, I was a happy camper in Macau. 

Oden after Morning Run

small breakfast after a morning run? Tell that to a bowl of hot boiling yummy oden ^^

If you ever wonder where I got Oden in Indonesia, I found it in one of the new chain of convenient store in Blora. I didn't mean to go there actually. But when I passed it, I remembered my friend saying that I could found onigiri there. I got what I wanted and I got shocked that they also sell oden! I grabbed them at once and walked home half-running. A good breakfast to begin my weekend ^^