Korea free and easy : sEoul food not to miss!

Koreans love coffee. There are coffee houses everywhere.

Buy a nice cup of coffee or tea in the morning and  you can drink it on your train ride.

Kwang Jang Market

Kwang JAng market, Korean tourism board

Lot of Korean food available.

Is like a market with fresh food, traditional Korean clothes and accesories, clothes, shoes and a lot of korean food.

There are various mochi available at some stalls, bought one to try. They are freshly made so I do not recommend keeping it for more than a day.

I try their Sashimi, is a bit different for japanese kind and they have a few sauces for different sashami. Interesting experience.

I try their dumplings as it looks good (reddish in colour), but I realise is kimichi inside. 

The pumpkin porridge was good.

They are also selling the sondae or sundae, famous korean glutinous rice, pig blood and various ingredients stuffed in pig intestines. 

Korean sushi (Kimbap) tasted good. Like california rolls but the vegetables seems to be

seasoned and the seaweed is the korean seaweed so it taste of seasame oil.

Korean scallion pancake, PAju, are freshly made and sold over there too.

Just grab a seat at any stall that grab your interest and just point out the food that interest you. There are some Chinese working over there so if you are worried about communicating, try looking for a stall who has chinese staff.

Think is worth a visit as it has a lot of interesting korean food.

Jongno 5-ga station (subway Line 1) exit 8

Euljiro 4-ga Station (subway line 2,5) exit 4

HOurs : 0700-2200

Nandaemon

It has a lot of stalls selling food and snacks at day and night time. Take your pick.

Hoddeok (Korean pancake with sweet cinnamon) is good. Fillings may differ at times.

Try out the icecream. 

Love the Hwaseong GRapes

Best place to get snacks, souvenirs and presents: korean supermarket

Stock up on fresh fruits to keep yourself healthy during travelling. Korean fruits taste very good. 

I tried their persimmons, grapes and melons. 

Just take note, they don't provide plastic bags. They provide big boxes and tapes for you to pack your stuff and cart them back. You can bring your own plastic bags too.

Lot of snacks at reasonable price and if you spend a certain amount, there is tax refund.

As i stayed at myeongdong, I usually visit the Lotte Mart at Seoul station which is just a few dollars taxi ride away or a station away. 

Coffee with pearls and red beans.

Myeong-dong has a lot of restaurants and roadside stalls.

The hot dog was recommended by a Tv show, I am not a fan of hot dogs. This is so so to me.

There are stalls selling street food, like those we always see in Korean shows.

I love the sweet biscuits with the rabbit print. It is just brown sugar, liquefied and toasted. I have a sweet tooth.

The muffin with egg, grilled cuttlefish are yummy too.

I love love this.

My favorite dish in Korea.

It is a bit spicy. 

Inside there is chicken, seafood, noodles, potatoes.

It was more than enough for 3 girls although they mention is for 2-3 pax.

There is also a chicken version.

This dish is around s$20+ .

I think there are two branches available at myeong-dong.

they have 2 sizes, small and big. I think small is enough for 3-4 person if everyone is not a big eater and you do want to save your stomach for street food.

Andong Jjim-dalk (안동찜닭)

Andong-jjimdak or zzimak at myeongdong

2-22 Myeong-dong 2(i)-ga

Famous Ginseng chicken and Grilled chicken. I find it good but not fantastic. side dishes are provided free. Long queues outside but waiting time is still reasonable.

Tosokchon restaurant
Address: Seoul-si, Jongno-gu, Chebu-dong 85-1.
About 5 minutes walk from Exit 2, Gyeongbokgung Station, Subway Line 3.

Insadong.
Lot of souvenir shops and shops selling art pieces, accessories and stalls selling snacks.
The only place where starbucks is spelled in a foreign language.
Walked to this nice little cafe for tea and some snacks.
The persimmon ice cream is good.

Directions.
A.nguk Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 6.
Go 100m straight, then turn left.
OR
Jonggak Station (Seoul Subway Line 1), Exit 3.
Go straight 300m, and turn left at the 4-way Intersection.
Go straight 100m, and take the left road towards Insadong-gil Road

My parents loved this. Best food of the trip for my parents.

They put a pot of soup with some ingredients and chicken, no ginseng, and then you can ordered things to add on like vegetables, rice cakes, noodles... for those who dislike spring onions, no worries. The taste of that green thing in the soup is subtle.

You just wait and after 10-15 mins, the soup and chicken is ready.

The authentic restaurant has queue that looks too long, so I tried a popular resturant beside it. yummy too. They have a whole street selling almost the same thing, guess is very popular dish.

This meal will cost around s$10 or less per pax.

We ordered rice cake and some side ingredients to go with the chicken soup.

Jinokhwa Halmae Wonjo Dakhanmari (Jin Ok-hwa Original Chicken Restaurant) (진옥화할매원조닭한마리)
Dongdaemun Station (Subway Line 1, 4), Exit 9.
Go straight 160m and turn left at the Industrial Bank of Korea (기업은행).
Go straight 50m and turn onto the first side street to the right. Continue 100m straight until you see the restaurant.
Jongno 5-ga Station (Subway Line 1), Exit 6.
Turn left onto the first side street and walk 300m.

3 person can order one chicken, rice cake and noodles if they are normal eaters.
and why filled up your stomach when there are so much other food to try.

Ewha female university.

It is a good place to shop.

But there are also a lot of food.

Hoddeok (Korean pancake with sweet cinnamon) has a toasted version, instead of the fried version here.

The grilled chicken stewer is heavenly, can be found at myeongdong too.

I like the cup of snack, with fried chicken, fried potato and rice cakes. Not sure what is it called but is good.
Some of this can be found at myeongdong too.

I miss Korean food. Singapore Korean food just don't taste as good. 

bangkok: TErminal 21

Beautiful place to take photos. Not really sure about the shopping..
Remember to visit the toilets too..

Bangkok Shopping: Yaowarat, supermarket, chatuchak, Pratunum, Platinum, Siam Square, Terminal 21, Asiatque

In bangkok, the key words for cheap shopping is "wholesale"

Especially in places like Yaowarat, Chatuchak, Platinum Mall and Pratunam Market.

They can offer you more than 40% discount if it is wholesale.

Usually they don't offer additional discount after wholesale price. 

However, the number of pieces required differ from shop to shop.

Yaowarat is good for accessories.

Chatuchak is good for clothings.

Pratunam which is opposite platinum is for clothings and some accessories.

Platinum mall is a lot of clothings and shoes.

Yaowarat which is know as chinatown is a shopping paradise in the morning for accessories as seen from the photos below.

The bad thing is there is no train service to the area so the only way is by taxi or tuk tuk. Just tell the taxi driver chinatown shopping. They should be able to lead you to right location.

Go in the late morning or early afternoon. Just follow the human traffic.

In bangkok, sometimes a map is not really useful because there are only a few road signs and they are in thai.

But is much much cheaper than singapore prices. Remember Wholesale.

More on Yaowarat

Chatuchak has a large number of shops selling various stuff clothings, accessories, home decoration and even soaps.

It is only opened during the weekends. 

I will suggest around 10am as the weather gets too hot for comfort in the afternoon.

Only Chatuchak can be reached by train, BTS is MO Chit or Mrt Kamphaeng.

Sometimes the wholesale and single piece does not differ by a lot so I just buy one piece.

More on chatuchak

Only Platinum mall is air-conditioned so is the place to visit in the hot afternoon.

However, you have to take a taxi down and sometimes the traffic is not really good.

The good thing about platinum mall is not because is neatly organised  You can take note of the price and the shop unit number and walk around before you make a decision, there are some pricing discrepancy at times. 

However, the wholesale price differ by the per piece by quite a lot so is usually buy wholesale or just don't buy.

Pratunum is a bit messy and crowded but I think they have the best prices for clothings.

Buy 3 cardigans at 300 bahts.

And 3 dresses at 420 bahts.

It opens in the morning so can visit Pratunum and then cross the overhead bridge to platinum mall.

Chinatown

Chinatown

Chinatown

chatuchak

Chatuchak

Chatuchak

Chatuchak

Pratunam

Pratunum

Platinum fashion mall

There is a market at Siam Square every night, opposite Siam Paragon. Get of at Siam Station and look. You will see the whole street filled with stalls.

They should be operating around 6pm -11pm.

Some shops start earlier and some shops only packed at 12 midnight.

The price is  not as competitive as the above shopping, but is reasonable and bargain. They don't do wholesale here.

However, some of the clothings are not found at places above and there are nice clothings and accessories for sale.

This is a very crowded place, so do take care of belongings.

 

Terminal21 is not really a shopping paradise.

Will recommend it for photo taking. 

Will post some photos of it soon.

Asiatque is the new market by the river.

I was curious about this upcoming market so I visited it. 

However, you have to take the BTS and then transfer to a free ferry.

I don't think is worth the travelling all the way because the things are almost the same as other markets. The place is hot and stuff although I visited it in November.

There are a few interesting restaurants around there.

Will not be visiting it again.

Anyone who read my blog knows I am a fan of supermarket.

I visited the big supermarket at basement of Siam PAragon, is just at Siam Station

 and the Big C supermarket, opposite Isetan Central world. Always go there after going platinum mall, on the way to chit lom bts station.

There are huge variety of snack and even a salad bar.

Lot of interesting snacks and flavours.

The supermarket at MBK seems boring when compared to the other two supermarket.