Zi Char @ Telok Blangah Crescent

The family just love to eat Zi Char. A nice place which we have been to a couple of times. Just below one of the HDB flats near the market.

Seoul Accommodation - PJ Seoul Hotel

A really nice hotel, away from the bustling shopping area of Myeong dong at Jung-go. Best thing about this hotel, it provides shuttle bus service. 

The triple room was quite comfortable and there are walking space after we left our luggages lying on the floor. With a table to condor off the sleeping area and the wardrobes - Visually, it makes the room looks bigger. Furthermore, there is a relatively big balcony which we can see the Seoul tower. Unfortunately, the weather was a little cold for us to enjoy the balcony to the fullest. 

While hotel normally gives toothbrush, combs as toilet necessity, this hotel also gives free masks (but well for the first night). Not too bad and maybe if they have given more, we could have tried the different type of masks and could have bought back as souvenirs. 

PJ Seoul Hotel - Triple Room

Direction:

1. Bus 6015 from airport / Chongmuro station (Exit Gate 8)

2. Turn left at first street (in between Kia Motor and Paris baguette) and continue walking straight for about 150m. You will see the hotel on the left. 

Shuttle Bus Service:

Course A (from 0815hr to 1800hr): Chungmuro Station > Myeongdong Station > Namdaemun Market > Lotte Department Store

Course B (from 1900hr - 0200hr) : Chungmuro Station > Sejong Hotel Entrance > Myeongdong Entrance > Jongro-2ga > Jongro-5ga > Dongdaemun Market

Address:
71, Mareunnae-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-282, 

South Korea

Switch by Timbre

The birthday girl has the final say to where to head to for dinner. As the Singapore Night Festival is on and she has cravings for duck pizza,  there we went - Switch by Timbre group at NTUC Income building. Switch does take in reservations, but only for 50% of the tables. The remaining 50% is for walk-in. I thought this was a great idea so that walk-in customers do have the chance to head in.

Okay, we did not make a reservation and luckily, one of us made the effort to be early to join the queue. 'A mad rush' for the queue when the door was opened was her comment. Actually, this was only a dining place with music, what's the great deal about it? Why the rush? 

Well, okay, enough said. Time for the food. Duck pizza was up on the table together with the truffle fries and Kirin Frozen Foam beer (Elder Flower). The duck pizza was not too bad. It was special as it was a fusion to me. The portion was well enough for 3 persons who were early. When the fourth person joined, we ordered the truffle fries, a salad and another pizza (not captured in photo). It was a simply relaxing meal with of course the beer to match it. My first try at the Frozen Foam beer - not too bad, will be back to try the other flavours!

Switch by Timbre - Duck Pizza, Kirin Frozen Foam (elder flower), Truffle Fries

We did not stay for the music that starts at 9pm. We went off to 'participate' in the night festival. It would have been great if the music could actually start early. If not, dinning customers might not leave before 9pm and waiting customers could not have their dinner.

73 Bras Basah Road #01-01/02

Singapore 189556

Hoshino Coffee 星乃珈琲屋

Not the first time to Hoshino Coffee 星乃珈琲屋 at Plaza Singapura and the queue was normally long. I reckon is the waiting time for the food to be cooked and served to the table. I always have this mindset that Hoshino would prepare the food only when they received the order. Thus, it will always take more than 15 minutes for the food to be served. Thus, let's do some maths. If we took 5-10 minutes to decide what to order, than another 15 minutes for the food to be prepared, it will be 20-25 minutes before we started to eat. With another 15-20 minutes of eating and maybe another 10 minutes to dilly-dally a bit, it will be 35-45 minutes before the table can be freed up for the next diner. Woooow... 

Anyway, I always forget that the curry base served in Hoshino is cooked with beef. Thus, if you do not eat beef, then skip the rice section. I like the fact that the serving crew makes the effort (without fail) to remind diner of this clause - very responsible!

So in the end, the curry rice order became void and I ordered the Lobster Bisque Soup Spaghetti. So basically, drink the soup and eat the spaghetti. It's 2-in-1 dish, worth the $16. The spaghetti was simply al dente and went well with the bisque soup. With ingredients like tofu and prawns, this pasta simply makes it to one of the top place in my Japaneses pasta list. 

Desserts is simply a love-hate dish in this world. Chocolate Fondant cake with softee - a heavenly combination of the chocolate lava cake with ice cream! This lava cake took real long to be served - more than 15 minutes since we ordered it. I wondered if they actually started preparing only after the main course is being served or when we were half way through the meal. 

Cut the cake into half and see the chocolate flows out. Eat together with the soffee and it was marvelous. The portion was not that big, but was well enough for us to indulge in it. A nice way to end the meal. 

Top:  Lobster Bisque Soup Spaghetti
Bottom: Chocolate Fondant cake with softee

I simply love the service received at Hoshino Coffee - the crews were attentive. Will be back if the queue is short! 

Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road #03-84

Seoul 2014 - Day 7 - Hongdae Free Market, Ewha Women’s University

Today was spent at doing last minute shopping at Hongdae  and Ewha Women's University. Nothing much to emphasize but well, enjoy the walking and buying!

But before that, time for our early lunch at Gogung. This place is famous for its Jeonju bibimbap. Really had a great meal here and it's our very first and only authentic bibimbap in Seoul this time round. Had the seafood pancake too.. Loved it! 

I would definitely recommend this place and well, will be back when I'm back in Seoul!

Address:
37, Myeongdong 8ga-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 중구 명동8가길 37 (충무로2가)

Direction:
Myeongdong Station(Subway Line 4), Exit 10.
Go straight for 30m towards Migliore.
The restaurant is located behind Sejong Hotel.

Gogung, Jeonju bibimbap

After the heavy brunch, we headed to some shopping at Myeongdong before heading to Hondae.

Well, time for a late lunch now. Did a last minute google search and found this place:

(심슨탕) Sim Seun Tang for its Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Base Stew). Not a very big place to start off with but it's definitely cozy. The service crew did not speak much English and the menu is totally in Korean. Well, some pointing, some nodding and some simple English and that's it - we ordered our lunch .

If you are a kpop fan, maybe you can spot your idol's signature hidden somewhere!

Address:
Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. 355-210

(심슨탕) Sim Seun Tang -Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Base Stew)

A long day of shopping and we ended up eating Korean BBQ near our hotel - 

Ssamsarang. Why here? Because we always saw it when we visited the convenience stall but we did not have the time to visit it. Well, lucky us that we managed to step in and had our dinner. Simply loved it there. It is a very nice traditional Korean BBQ restaurant. The owner is very nice and even cooked for us and taught us the correct way to have our food. Simply loved their service and well, the food too!

Direction:
Chungmuro Station exit 8. look out for the 7-Eleven convenience store. This restaurant is just a couple of shops away.

Ssamsarang Korean BBQ near Chungmuro Station

BiBiGo @ Raffles City

Dinner at Bibigo for a Korean meal. It was a gathering to meet friends whom I have not really mingle with for the past year. 

As usual, korean pancake is something that will definitely be on the table if it is found in the menu. I can never resist not ordering one. But there aren't many restaurants in Singapore that really serve great pancakes. I think the best I had was at Big Mama. 

Alright, a seafood pancake to start off the dinner. It was not too bad. The base was thin and crispy. But into the night, it turned soggy. So eat it while it's hot. The sauce that went with the pancake was a little salty for me. So be mindful when you dip your pancake in. Otherwise, this dish is not that bad. 

Next up was my main course - Kimchi chicken fried rice served with an egg and of course, some banchan (side dish) which was not refillable.  The fried rice was quite good, not that spicy. I have to say, please be more generous with the chicken. I doubtfully thought that I ordered plain fried rice. 

I have not tried eating fried rice in korean style. So I simply 'mashed' up the egg and eat in 'bimbimbap' style. In my opinion, not too bad than to eat the egg as a whole. 

A simple meal - to start theeeeeeee weekend!

Left: Seafood Pancake
Right: Kimchi fried rice

Raffles City Shopping Centre,
252 North Bridge Road, #B1-74

Seoul 2014 - Day 6 - COEX Aquarium, Noryangjin fish market, Hangang River Park

Breakfast first before we split up for our morning activities. After some research on where we can have breakfast at 9am, we stumbled upon O’sulloc Tea House which opens at 9am. Cool, and we were the first customers of that day. This cafe is situated in Myeongdong and is very accessible. It has three-storey seating space and it feels very peaceful inside. Free wifi, if you are looking for a cafe to relax and surf the internet. 

If you love green tea, this is a place you should visit. Most of the food and drinks item revolves around green tea. The green matcha latte was really good, I love it. The food was not too bad. Do give it a try if you are around the corner. 

O’sulloc Tea House

Address:
Seoul-si Jung-gu Myeongdong-gil 48
(Myeongdong2-ga)

Direction:
Myeongdong Station, Exit 6, turn left onto Myeongdong 8-gil.
Go straight about 400m, and you will see O´sulloc Tea House on the right.

After breakfast, we headed to COEX Aquarium which is at COEX Mall. Unfortunately for us, the mall was under some major renovation and the shops were not fully opened. It was quite confusing to pass through the constructions to get to the Aquarium but we made our way there. Not posting the fishes photos here as I really took quite a fair bit. But here's the transport direction:

Myeongdong Station (Line 4) -> Transfer at Seoul Natl Univ of Education (Line 2) -> Samseong (line 2)

So what's next after the fishes was of course Lunch. Today, we made our way to Noryangjin fish market. This fish market is really full of fresh seafood. It is really huge but we did not bother to roam the whole place as we soon realised that each stall sells similar stuff. We finally decided on the stall with a friendly Chinese lady who was able to communicate with us in Mandarin. I guess communication was important now as we were buying something that has no price tag to it. 

Noryangjin fish market

After some recommendations and negotiations, we bought what we want and the lady brought us to a small restaurant on the second level. We did not bother to ask for the price for helping us to cook the seafood as we reckon it will be almost the same since it is so competitive. So, here's our Fresh seafood lunch from the market.

Left: Raw octopus
Top right: Abalone
Bottom Right: Scallop

The food is really fresh. This is my first time eating raw octopus. The feeling was not that fantastic. Though it was not the whole octopus, the tentacles were still moving. Well, it was pretty tough to chew. Not the best dish on the table, in my opinion. 

The abalone was really tender and nice. And the scallops was stirred fried and it was flavourful. 

Direction:
Subway Noryangjin Station (Exit 1) and walk across the overhead bridge to the market. Please remember it is EXIT 1 instead of exit 9. There are 2 exit points at the station. Though Exit 9 can still bring you to the fish market, it will take a walk at the street. Exit 1 is nearer!

Next up, we went to the Hangang River Park, in hope to see Cherry blossom trees. Luck was a little on us and we managed to catch a few trees with blooming. Nice view, how I wish I could see the full blossom. 

Hangang Rive Park - blooming trees

We saw a cart selling strawberries, and decided to get a box - Sat at the park, admiring the scenery and well, enjoy the strawberries. 

Our main aim was actually to catch the sunset cruise at Hangang River. Not sure well, but a cruise was always enjoyable. Relaxing and nice way to end the day. 

Hangang River Cruise

Headed back to Myeongdong for dinner and we settled at two-two chicken shop. Fried chicken was in trend and well, we cannot miss it, right? We had the original and spicy. The meat was a little dry for the original but the marinated ones was great. But for the price, we thought there were more chicken servings. 

Two Two chicken

So when the night was still young, we went for mid night shopping at Dong dae mon using the shuttle bus service provided by the hotel! Loving this service!

Seoul 2014 - Day 5 - DMZ Day trip, Lotte Supermarket

Today, we woke up pretty early to start the Day at DMZ. So here's the breakfast for us.

Breakfast at Hotel as it was too early

We booked the tour through Koridoor Tours and we had to make our way to Camp Kim by 7.30 am for the tour. Really early but really excited over it. The price was rather steep at USD 92 and it included lunch with choice of bimbimbap or bulgogi. 

Well, photos time for the DMZ - not doing a write up on the tour, you've got to do it on your own! So enjoy the photos. 

DMZ

North Korea, where are you?

Looking forward to the day where we can take the train from here to the North

Lunch

Well, that pretty summed up the DMZ trip. So time to head for a tea break before the supermaket shopping commenced.

Found this cafe "Angel-in-us Coffee" near to Seoul Lotte Supermarket. Pretty nice beverage. 

Tea-break before hitting the supermarket

After the supermarket, we lugged back our goodies via the train again. We did not even consider taking a cab despite our heavy boxes. So we popped into the Korean BBQ restaurant that is just beside the Chumgmuro Station which we passed by everytime we visited the convenience stall. Pretty authentic food and nice! The service was great and the service crew would help to do the bbq-ing, so we just sat back and enjoyed the meal. 

Korean BBQ

So what's next? We headed to Dongdaemon for midnight shopping using the hotel's shuttle bus. I have to say... THIS shuttle bus service is really good!!!!!!