Baobab • 바오밥

After we finished our photowalk (see my previous post here), we went to Baobab (바오밥) in Sinchon (신촌) to get dinner. The place is fairly new, I think, cos last time I was here, they just had their grand opening. Never been to this place before but the menu looks good, the food looks good, so I thought I should give it a try (and dragged Yais with me too this time). Their menu is not particularly extensive, which is usually a good sign for a Korean restaurant since they have to cook those few menus real good, otherwise people won't come back after their first visit. There are 4 main menus to choose from and some sides too if you feel like you need to order more food to add to your mains.

When it comes to food, I'm a fairly easy eater. Doesn't matter if the food is simple, as long as it tastes good, I'm a happy camper. Simple delicious foods are the best sometimes and that was exactly what I got from this meal. We ordered one pan of the galbi (소갈비한판)—which comes with rice and banchan—and the steamed egg with cheese and shrimp (치즈새우계란찜). Everything tasted good, seasoned well, and the portion was just right for two people to share. It was a solid meal, especially after all those walking around we did earlier that day.

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After dinner, we decided to go to Homilbat (호밀밭) to get some bingsu (빙수). This is probably one of my fav milky bingsu spots up to date, so I thought it'd be a good idea for Yais to try it too before he leaves. We ordered the summer special—the watermelon bingsu (수박빙수)—and it was really good. Ending a hot summer day with bingsu is never a bad idea, really. So that was my Saturday. And oh, I did a post before about Homilbat which you can check out here. That's it for now.

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Homilbat (호밀밭)

First time I visited this place was last year when I came to Seoul for traveling. It's supposed to be one of the best bingsu places in Seoul, so I thought it's worth a visit since I was visiting Ehwa University area anyway. Little did I know that even during lunch time on a weekday, the place was packed. There were quite a long line when I got there and since I was pressed on time, I ended up not going to the place. So now, a year later, after I moved here I got plenty of opportunities to go back and try this place. This is one of my favorite bingsu places so far. I like the milky type of bingsu so eating their milk bingsu with fresh fruit is just perfect. Their home-made rice cake and red bean are good too. I noticed here some people ordered one for each person, but I think ordering one to share between two people is enough :)

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Thanks Nature Cafe

Accidentally found this cafe when I was walking around Hongdae Area. I've read about the place online, so when I walk passed it, I decided to give it a try. One of the main unique thing about this place is they have sheep in their outdoor seating area. So if you want to enjoy a cup of coffee with sheep's company, you can definitely do that here. Although I just found out recently that the sheep is not going to be around in the summer. They'll be back around September when the weather is cooler. The indoor seating area itself is pretty spacious and fairly quite—at least during the time I was there. Ordered their Green Tea Bingsu, Waffle and their orange drink (I forgot what the exact name was) and they were all good. 

Thanks Nature Cafe
마포구 서교동 486 서교푸르지오상가 B121
Seoul, Korea 121-842

486 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea 

Line 2 - Hongdae Station Exit#9. Take a left up the hill at the first intersection you come to. Keep walking up the hill towards Hongik University’s main gate. Thanks Nature Cafe is located in the basement on the left side of the street.

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Seoul Day 5: Shopping at Hongdae

After the Trickeye Museum, we stopped by the Hello Kitty Cafe since it’s nearby. I have to say that the place has a little too much pink for me. But it was still fun visiting the place. When we got there, it was still pretty early so the place wasn’t crowded. We took our seats on the second floor where we noticed there’re two guys sitting at two tables away from us (I didn’t know that guys like this kinda place). We ordered a couple of different thing that were hello-kitty decorated. The food was just okay, nothing too special.

Afterwards, we pretty much just walked around the area and did some shopping. 

We encountered the information guys—guys who wear read attire carrying maps and helped tourists to find their way. They’re pretty helpful actually on pointing where we should go in English. We got a map of the area from them, and interestingly, you would think that the map will be in English, right? Nope. It’s in Chinese. We couldn’t read it, but at least they have the buildings and landmarks in there. So it was useful.

Stopped for another coffee break, or I should say mainly we just wanna get away from the sun for a little while. We were gonna try this one patbingsu place that I heard is pretty good, but the line was so long. So we opted for the Twosome Place again instead.

We stopped by Ehwa’s Univeristy Campus in the afternoon. Their building is very cool. I’m impressed by the architecture.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner in a restaurant in the area that I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was.

After dinner we shopped a little bit more and decided to call it a night. When we were trying to make our way back to the subway, the area was filled-packed with people. I heard that Hongdae is pretty lively at night, but I didn’t think it would be that packed. There was literally no space between me and the person around me—that’s in front, behind, and besides me. We were walking practically side by side with people around us. I would’ve taken a picture of this but, as I said, there’s barely any room to move, let alone for me to open my camera bag. One interesting thing though, even though it was super packed, nobody was pushing. People were just lining up in a very orderly fashion, which impressed me. Later, I found out that apparently there was some kind of a festival going on at the time, celebrating Buddha’s birthday. No wonder it’s super packed.

Anywho, we made it back to our hotel. Packed (or maybe I should say forced) our stuff (some of us did some damage with the shopping) into our luggages and decided to took a night stroll to the Seoul gate again since Bella & Melissa didn’t get to go with us on the first night. We stopped by the convenient store on our back to pick up some snacks and drinks. And that’s day 5. Can’t believe that our trip is coming to an end already.

Seoul Day 1: First Morning

“I love the feeling of being anonymous in a city I’ve never been before”—Unknown

That probably sums up what I felt on my first morning in Seoul. Since this is my first time exploring the city, I’m pretty excited about it.

We left the hotel around 9 and headed to Tosokchon (토속촌) for breakfast. Tosokchon is known for its signature Samgyetang 삼계탕 (chicken ginseng soup) made with glutinous rice, gingko nuts, ginseng, garlic and jujube, medicinal herbs and grains. From what I read, since the place is very popular, especially among tourists, the line could get pretty crazy. So we’re trying to get there right when they open—which is 10 am—before they got busy with the lunch hour.

The ahjumma who sitted us at the table quickly asked what we want to order, even before we sat down and look at the menu. From what I heard, this is pretty common in Korea. Nevertheless, we took our time and ask for the menu. There are only 3 items on the menu and we decided to try one each and just share them since it’s still morning and we don’t want to get too full on our first meal.

All in all, the Samgyetang were delicious and tasty.

On our way back to the subway station, we passed by this cute little coffee shop—Café Mr. Minsuk (카페 민석씨)—and decided to stopped by for a bit just because the cafe seems to be really nice and cozy. There seems to be a couple of interesting places around this area. Check out this article to find out more.

Next, we passed by a Twosome Place (투썸플레이스) after we got off the subway and decided to make another pit stop. The sun was up and the weather is getting hotter by the hour. We saw the sign for Patbingsu (팥빙수), a popular shaved ice dessert in Korea, and it sounds like a really good at the time to stop by and get something cold to cool us down.