Rice puff colony

A National Geographic moment. This young worker ant is carrying a rice puff back to his lair. This rice puff will be proudly deposited into an underground chamber as food storage (perhaps next to the kimchee pots?). Well done worker ant.

Socks!

Fancy a pair of Starbucks socks? I think not. But I'll take a pair with the purple-flower monkey. Cuteness is definitely a prominent aspect of Korean fashion culture and it's not exclusive to kids - I've seen busy business men wearing cutesy ties and many fashion girls with cutesy hair bobbles. I'm guessing there are lots of funny socks hiding in people's shoes here.

It's common to find random sock trucks parked in different neighbourhoods. The sign on this truck advertises socks for 500Won - that's only 50 cents! No more excuses for ugly, smelly or holey socks.

Sock truck vid.

On the same street corner you can buy socks, organic milk and slushies.

Perhaps a bit odd but definitely convenient.

Paris Baguette in Seoul

So chic and delightful. This Paris Baguette chain is very popular in Seoul and rightfully so. You can browse through hundreds of baked goods, cakes and pastries, sit and have a coffee with friends, or just pop in for a simple baguette.

Here are my choices. One cream-filled walnut baguette, one garlic baguette, and one hat.

The garlic baguette was most delicious with a sweet-salty-garlicky spread baked into the crust. The walnut baguette would've been yummier had they filled it with real cream but it tasted a bit too fakey. And the funny blomp hat tastes how it looks - a pancakey shell filled with a mildly sweet custard. It wasn't the best but it did prove to be a fashionable chapeau for the baguettes.

Once you select your treats, a small assembly line awaits at the cash to pack-up each purchase into nifty little plastic bundles. I have to say that despite the world's on-going efforts to reduce waste & packaging, the Koreans looove to individually pack every single little item and for some reason I love it too. Probably because they do it with such skill and it makes everything you purchase that much more fun & exciting.

Parking in Pusan

This is a typical underground parking system in Korea which I find so clever, fun and inventive but for Koreans it's just whatever. I swear, I get more excited by this than free valet.

More spinning. The parking attendants saw me filming so they kept the car rotating for my amusement. It makes you feel like you're driving your car straight out of a showroom or something... but then it's kind of scary getting up the steep slope to street level. And parking is a whole different story above ground.

Makgeolli - Traditional Korean Rice Wine

Makgeolli is a milky alcoholic drink made from fermented rice flour. Traditionally it was known as "farmer's liquor" because the old-timers used to drink it when farming, but now it's become extremely popular with the younger health-conscious generation so it's taken over the soju craze. This isn't the best picture (or cup) to show the consistency of the drink, but normally makgeolli is served from a large wooden bowl and ladled into smaller bowls so you can watch the cloudy white portion settle then stir it up before each sip. It's a very refreshing drink with a rich, sweet flavour, best enjoyed with friends and family. Oh, and it's about 7% alcohol and rich in amino acids so drink, drink awaay.

A happy couple tooting around, enjoying their magkeolli. Gun bae!

Here's a vid of the sampling hand-out in a trendy and fun hood called Myong-dong. All of these makgeolli offerings created quite a happy buzz for many passers-by. Happy happy makgeolliiii!

Octopus Blomps

Delicious ready-to-eat octopus blomps. Inside each one of these doughnut hole type blomps is a piece of grilled octopus. The savoury batter is mixed with some chopped green onion, has a very slight chewiness to it, and comes out of these hot griddle pans soft and perfectly browned.

These snack trucks are found in every neighbourhood across the city so you can always be sure to find a tasty treat when going for a nice evening walk. And really, who wouldn't want to go for a walk when there are so many interesting snacks to be eaten.

A closer view of the octopus blomp snack truck. As you can see, it is a simple and humble snack stop with some charming lanterns lighting your way to the snack. Snack snack snack.

Once ordered, the blomps are drizzled with a sweet & spicy sauce, some mayo, some deep-fried tidbits, a scattering of chopped green onion, then covered with a handful of shaved octopus. Yumm!

Close-up of my last blomp. It was a tasty and unusual treat with a diverse combination of textures which made for a perfect 9pm snack. Next snack stop will be at midnight, he heh.

1st Time Driving in Seoul in a Soul

Zach's 1st time driving in Korea and he was a natural. It's fun tooting around in this little Kia. We got to drive around in the stylin' cream coloured Soul (which btw will be the only colour available in Canada), and it also had one of those excellent reverse parking cameras. Ps: I soon discovered that the coffee bean car snacks were actually an air freshener.

Giant Mandu - Korean Dumplings

Hello outside mandu vendor. I happen to need a snack.

What kind of dumplings do you have on your laundry rack type display?

Red bean or pork & vegetables. Hmm, I will take one of these please.

Ahh yesss, steamed to dumpling perfection.

An excellent snack for 1500 won (about $1.50). Soft and chewy mandu filled with minced pork, green onion, and chapchae noodles (made from sweet potato starch) served with a hot chilly oil dipping sauce. Now time for another snack.

Maple House Restaurant - Traditional Korean BBQ

Kia brought us to this very stylish Korean bbq house for a tasty lunch. Maple Tree is located in Samcheongdong, an area lined with restaurants, small specialty shops and cafés. This place is known for it's pork bbq including pork jowl and pork cheek - yum!

Check out the marbling on these thinly sliced morsels. In just a few minutes they're grilled to tasty perfection while the mushrooms soften and impart their subtle flavours into the natural sweetness of the pork. 

Ready for panchan. Hard not to gobble everything up while the meat is grilling. Here is a tangle of spinach which has been blanched then garnished with sesame oil and some very thinly sliced hot peppers. Simple and delicious.

Whole kimchified garlic cloves provide quick chomps of intense pungent spicyness. Make sure to always carry some extra strength minty gum while travelling in Korea.

Acorn jelly. Like tofu it is enjoyed more for it's texture than it's mild flavour. Garnished with some chilli, soy sauce, green onion and sesame, it's fun to pick up these dense little jelly squares and make them disappear in your mouth.

Sesame leaves or Japanese basil (perilla) are marinated in a mellow soy sauce so as not to overpower their minty-fennel flavour. These are used for making yummy bite-sized wraps. It's more common to serve lettuce leaves but the Maple House uses higher quality ingredients than the average bbq resto.

Here is my little bundle of joy filled with a blomp of rice, spinach and some grilled pork cheek. The parilla adds a pungent pop and soft leafy texture to the mini-wrap experience.

My favourite part of any Korean meal is the metal bowl filled with rice. I always look forward to lifting off the cover, smelling the fresh steamed rice, and pressing my chopsticks in. It just makes everything feel complete.

Musn't forget the piping hot tofu chigae (stew) brimming with cabbage kimchee, mushrooms, sliced Korean pumpkin, onions, garlic and lots of eye-watering spicy smells. 

Un peu de Paris à Seoul

It was hard not to stop at this little macaron shop on our way to lunch in Samcheondong.

I was so very curious to see how Korean macarons compare to Pierre Hermé. Not that you can really compare anything to Pierre Hermé. Ahh, Pierre Hermé.

Everything looked pretty authentique. Nice french-ish packaging, delightful spring-like colors, well behaved rows of rounded shapes, all very Marie-Antoinetty.

Bonjour petit macaron. Here is the cinnamon flavor. It was quite dense, a tad too chewy, and the sweetness overpowered the cinnamon. But this didn't stop me from eating the rose, vanilla and caramel macaron. I predict that in about four years the quality of the Korean macaron will rise to more delicate and subtle levels, and I will document this progress with glee.

MacDonald's Kimchee Burger Myth

I've been hearing rumours about the existence of a kimchee burger at MacDonald's restaurants in Seoul, and I've watched funny commercials on YouTube showcasing the amazing spiciness of these burgers. And I must admit that I really, really want to eat one of these burgers.

So I popped into the Mickey D's in the Coex mall and perused the menu. Alas, no kimchee burger to be found (sigh). But this bugolgi (marinated barbecued beef) burger looked most interesting.

To be expected, it tasted like a normal MacDonald's hamburger except the "meat" patty was covered with a sweet bugolgi type sauce, and the mustard-ketchup-pickle condiments were replaced by shredded-wilty-iceberg lettuce. It was all très so-so.

My favourite part was the wrapper. A sauce sensation - ahahaha! Anyway, I know for a fact that there are kimchee pizzas to be found. Onwards and upwards!

Car Ponkles

Many Koreans are keeping these funny blue ponkles stuck onto their car doors as protection from banging them into other cars. Parking space is an issue allover Seoul so you're forced into very tight spots which means inevitable damage to your brand new vehicle. These ponkles cannot be bought... they're part of the factory packaging when you purchase a new car. Hmm, maybe someone should open a ponkle shop.

KIA Trip - 1st Meal!

Here we are at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul having Korean Kalbi and Bibimpab - two of my favourite traditional dishes. As expected, they had that overdone hotel blandness and everything was a tad too formal for such fun dishes. Looking forward to hitting the night markets where everything is spicy, kooky & delicious.