FIVE: Comfort Foods from my Neighborhood

The best thing about Bundang is I can go on for days without cooking and still survive. No, make that thrive. My neighborhood has a slew of groceries, restaurants, pojangmacha (streetfood stalls), pizza shops and french-inspired bakeries with reasonable prices that there is no excuse for me to go hungry at all.

These are the top five eats from my neighborhood ☺

EGG TARTS from Paris Baguette. Paris Baguette is an ubiquitous Parisian-inspired chain of bakeshop in Korea. They sell French inspired treats –baguettes, choix, beautiful petit cakes plus a slew of Korean-adapted goodies. While all their products are consistently good, this is my absolute favorite treat from Paris Baguette.

Egg Tart: A buttery-salty crust enclosing a soft, wiggly delicious, creamy mound of eggy goodness with a slightly burnt top lending a sort of faint bittersweet burnt sugar counterpoint to the custardy flavor of the filling. Yum-O! In the Philippines, I remember there's a Lord Stowe Bakery, the Macau-based chain specializing in eggtarts, in Market, Market! at the Bonifacio Global City.

TWIGIM from my neighborhood Pojangmacha. Korea, if you do not yet know, is a haven for streetfood. Fried, boiled, barbequed, baked,sweet, salty, spicy and yucky(they sell roasted silkworm larvae by the cupful!). One can get by from soup to desserts just by eating at streetfood stalls (known here as pojangmacha).

My neighborhood pojangmacha sells yummy Twigim:

Twigim is the Korean Streetfood version of the Japanese Tempura. These are batter-dipped goodies made of veggies, mandu, squid, shrimp, sweet potato, sweet pumpkin, kimbap etc. Basically most food can be turned into Twigim! Just dip them in batter then fry! Twigim is to be dipped in light soy sauce (like tempura!).

My favorite twigim are the shrimp, sweet potato and sweet pumpkin variants. A pack of five freshly fried assorted twigims is only about 100 pesos here. Not bad for a cheap snack or even a light dinner fare.

Imagine a thin shell of bittesweet chocolate enrobing a hazelnut flavored milk ganache with a candied hazelnut in the middle. That’s how a GIANDUJA CHOCOLATE COROLLE from Jacquot tastes like. Sweet and small, a perfect and not too guilt-causing indulgence.

A box of these Jacquot Chocolate set is priced regularly at about 800 pesos for 12 Corolles. Too pricey even for good chocolates. But once in a while, the grocery carrying these gems slashes the price in half and places a few Jacquot boxes on the sale counter. I, the inveterate bargain hunter, regularly checks the Sale Bin for these☺

RICE FLOUR DONUTS from Mister Donut Korea.Totally different from the soft, light as air donuts from KK, Dunkin and Doughnut Plant. I want my donut chewy, glutinous, and oh so delicious. Pictured below is the regular Rice Ring Donut.

It is made of rice flour, thus the slightly chewy consistency and that unmistakable, yummy cereal-y flavor. Plain, slightly sweet and very comforting. Think mochi, made into a sweet donut form. This is my donut of choice.

OKONOMIYAKI from the food hall at the neighborhood mall. If you are a takoyaki addict like me, then you will most probably love this. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake filled with veggies, pork strips, squid and seafood bits genererously topped with a sweet brown sauce, bonito flakes, green bits of nori, and mayonnaise.

There is that flavour profile – a starchy yet light pancake feel, the savoury flavours of vegetables, the tang of the seafood and the pork strips, and the salty fish flavours from the bonito flakes all tempered by slashes of creaminess from the mayo. A full order of this from the shop near my flat just about fills me up for dinner.


Sure, these are not the healthiest food on earth, but that is the point of comfort foods, right? Something you eat irregardless of calories because they taste and make you feel good ☺

Savouring Samgyeopsal

A superfriend and colleague, L just got her Schengen visa approved in time for her European tour this coming yuletide season, so we pestered her for a celebratory treat.

Which is how we found ourselves at our favorite Korean Barbeque place for dinner on a Wednesday night. :-)

SamGyeopSal literally means three layered flesh, which describes the interlayer of fat and lean meat in a good slice of samgyeopsal.

There is nothing more comforting, more uncomplicated to eat than Samgyeopsal. It’s a literal grill your own feast.

We order our favorite cut of meat ~ not really samgyeopsal (which is pork), but marinated beef (almost like bulgogi but from the cheaper cuts of beef) and in seconds we are given these:

Lettuce and perilla Leaves to be used as wraps plus green peppers which are actually sweet and without any hint of heat, and onions which we grill with the meat

Kimchi, raw garlic and the two sauces: ssamjang (the red pepper paste mix) and gireumjang (the sesame based sweet and spicy sauce).

A circle of hot flaming coals.

Samgyeopsal is the template for freestyle eating. Most Korean salarymen troop to Samgyeopsal restaurants for a soju (i.e. booze) binge with friends.

The three of us, Pinoy to the bones, eat our samgyeopsal with bap~Korean sticky rice!

How does one eat a samgyeopsal? Let us count the ways: Savour the grilled meat plain or dipped in one of the sauces. Wrap the meat in lettuce with a bit of the ssamjang, a bit of grilled onion and shove it to your mouth. Use the perilla leaf instead.

Us three, we love to grill the accompanying kimchi until it’s soft and smokey-sweet, add a few pieces with the pork, add a bit of grilled onion, and wrap everything in perilla and lettuce leaves. Yum-o!

Our Samgyeopsal dinner stretches into hours. The act of eating what has now become our comfort food in Korea is interspersed with the sound of our laughters and admittedly boisterous conversations. A few Korean diners look at us from time to time, perhaps surprised by the unfamiliar words they hear, or more possibly because sometimes we laugh too hard and shriek a pitch too loud. But they let us be, and we laugh and laugh, savoring perfectly grilled meats with perfectly fine friends.

Additional Info:

Our favorite Samgyeopsal Place is about ten minutes away from Yeoksam Station in Seoul. :-) Our meal for three costs about 30,000 won (about 1,400 pesos).

Cheap Eats in Seoul: Pizza, Korean-style

I admit, Seoul is an expensive city. Almost all things here are 2x – 3x the prices in my home country, the Philippines. I say almost, because there are a few things that are way cheaper here --- like Korean cosmetics and pizza.

Yes, Pizza. Not the western fastfood brands (Papa John’s, Pizza Hut) because they are still pricey here, but homegrown Korean brands such as Pizza School and Borysoo Pizza. For price and quality, they are pretty cheap, much cheaper than the pizzas in Manila.

After shipping the EMS package for the shop's new stocks today, I dropped by the Borysoo Pizza shop near my flat to get a regular (12”) pizza all for me. Bwahaha!

With the sweltering heat and so many tasks to do this weekend, I decided to stay
home today and finish all that needs to be finished so I can go out tomorrow. And pizza, delicious and comforting slices of deliciousness, is for me the perfect food to eat when working on a weekend at home --- cheap, delicious and so easy to eat. (I eat while typing up invoices, ordering stocks etc. which is why my keyboard have crumbs all over haha. )

For 5000 won (about PHP 220.00), I got a 12” Combination Pizza (8 pieces).

Mozza Cheese, ham, olives, onions, red sauce, beef bits and a circle of
Creamy mashed sweet potato on the outer crust!



This is one thing that makes Korean pizzas different. They love mashed sweet potato on their pizzas. Personally I don’t think it adds anything special on the already good pizza, but hey at least the outer crust is flavorful (kamote flavorful!).

The crust is thin but not exactly cracker thin. It’s said to be a New York style crust – much thinner than the normal pan pizza but still is chewy and substantial enough to hold a pretty thick mound of toppings. I like it this way , a nice balance of bread (the crust) and flavors (the toppings). I ate 3 for my lunch, the rest for dinner (glutton!).

I have to say though that the flavors of the pizza is a lot milder than what we usually get at a typical Pizza Hut or Shakey’s. The saltiness is less than what I am used to, so I pepper it up with red pepper flakes, ketchup, and parmesan cheese.

Still, it’s nice to buy something worth 220 PHP and make a whole day’s meal out of it ☺ So there, if you know where to look, there are some things that’s way cheaper in Seoul.

Food Love: Best Roast Chicken in Myeongdong

Most people think of Myeongdong as Seoul’s premier fashion street. And truly, Myeongdong provides miles and miles of shopping therapy. From western brands to Korean high-end stores, beauty stores, souvenir shops, to indie brands, and street vendors, Myeongdong has them all.

I admit, I go there at least once a week. Mostly to pickup my product orders from the stores. Sometimes, to shop or just hangout with a friend. But if there’s one thing that is almost certain when I go to Myeongdong, it is that I almost always end up eating at this restaurant:

YongYang Nutrition Center , established in 1960, is the oldest restaurant in Myeongdong. To say that it is an amazing feat is an understatement. Especially considering the fact that it only offers two dishes --- Roast Chicken and Samgyetang (Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup).

This is my favorite eatery in Seoul. It’s cheap, consistently yummy, and the place is clean. (This was such a grotty place when I first ate here in 2006, but they’ve renovated and cleaned it up).

The Menu

( TIP: They offer a great, value-for-money lunch set from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. As pictured on the menu above-- it has salad, 1/4 roasted chicken, soup, dinner roll and butter. Perfect for hungry tourists!)

The free refillable appetizers (Banchans)

White and Kimchi’d Radishes

Our order of Roast Chicken

This is a chicken with a delicious identity crisis. Because while it is roasted, it tastes like Fried Chicken! Think Max Fried Chicken, only 100x better.

The roast chicken comes in 3 sizes: Large, medium, and spring. The one above is the large one. Good enough to be shared by two people.

Rice is provided upon request only! ☺ Do not be surprised if your chicken does not come with rice ☺ You have to ask them sweetly for bap (rice) ☺

Prices are pretty affordable by Korean standards. Dinner costs an average of PHP 400.00 per person.


When you’re in Myeongdong, do try eating here ☺

YONGYANG NUTRITION CENTER
Myeongdong, Seoul, South Korea
(Near SPAO and Uniqlo)

The Coconut Cookie Post

Just like the first time, the delight begins with breaking wide the aluminum package encasing these precious nibbles. There's a hit of something familiar, something of home. If I close my eyes, I could picture my late lola at the stove top, turning cocomilk into oil and those brown, nubby bits of deliciousness I so loved as a kid.

The smell is the essence of coconut. The kind of aroma one gets by reducing pure unadulterated coconut cream into coconut oil and latik.

Last week, I saw this cookie pack at the grocery, but I stopped myself from buying one. See, all the stuff I've tried from this brand (DARE) have been fantastic. I even dared to declare one variant as the Best Cookies Ever! But this other variant of what is supposedly the ultimate cookie line, this one's different. It was coconut flavored, and I hesitated because, hell, this is a flavor Dare can easily screw up. I have never tasted coconut biscuits worthy of their label. That and because I am from the Philippines, where the flavor of coconut is so familiar, so ingrained.

Coconut is our country's version of the giving tree--each part is used for something --for firewood, for baskets, for soap, for food. So for a Canadian based company to offer a coconut flavored cookie, well, it's almost blasphemous, something I viewed with suspicion. How can a country where there are no coconuts produce something deliciously coconutty?

But last Monday, on the grocery aisle, these coconut cookies were on sale. The prices were slashed by half! A box of cookies for merely 50 pesos! I could not fight the urge and got myself a box.

Describing the texture which is a lovely in-between state of crumbly, buttery yet chewy, and the pleasure of inhaling the scent of pure coco essence are not enough to do justice to this cookie's beauty.

One bite and the first thing that popped in my mind was, OMG, it's like eating Macapuno in cookie form! I don't know how they distilled the flavor of full-on natural coconut, how they blended it with cream and milk to get that almost macapuno pastillas-like flavor of the creme filling, I just know that these cookies are amazing. Truly, deliriously delicious.

If you ask me now which one I'll choose -- the Maple Creme or the Coconut Creme, I'll get the latter. Because while the Maple Creme is exquisite. It is still sweet. Whereas my Coconut Cremes are a touch shy of being considered sweet as per my tastebuds. Instead of sugar, what dominates is a creamy, coconut flavor.

I could never have imagined myself singing praises for a Coconut Cookie made by a manufacturer in Canada (where there are no coconuts!) but maybe because back then, I have yet to try these Dare Ultimate Cookies.

Now, all I want is to try the other Ultimate Cookies! Only question is, will the Chocolate, Blueberry, or Raspberry flavors of the Dare Ultimate Cookie line ever reach Seoul? :-(


P.S. A confession: the box you're seeing, the one in the photo above. Well, this was not the box I bought last Monday. When I opened and tasted the cookie, the monster in me growled. And I finished the box of eight coconut creme cookies in one sitting. *glutton*

It helped though because now I know that my delirious joy caused by eating this coconut cookies was not a fluke: Last night, I bought two more boxes of these Coconut cookies, opened one and wham! It is still, to my mind, like eating a luscious macapuno pastillas, in cookie form.

DARE: Best Cookies Ever

Screw Oreos and Choco Chip cookies. At least for me, these are the best cookies ever:

The experience begins when you open the package. That scent – sweet, musky, slightly buttery hits you head on. It is the unmistakable sweet essence of real Canadian maple. I pick a cookie:

A beautiful, ornate, lightly yellow maple leaf shaped cookie.

The cookie itself is a bit of a paradox: Its texture is similar to a shortbread, buttery and crumbly, and yet it is not grainy and is moist enough that it’s softer than normal cream cookies such as Oreos. And yep, the maple flavor is baked in the cookie –soft, lingering and not too sweet.

And just like Oreos, the best part is in the middle. The filling:

The maple flavored, golden brown crème is sweet but not sickeningly so. How do I describe the deliciousness of eating this? It’s just, well, maple love. I used to associate maple with nothing but pancakes (maple syrup,yes?) but a bite of this cookie has made me a convert. Maple is best in cookies, Dare Cookies to be exact.

These Ultimate Maple Creme Cookies are made by a company in Canada called Dare. It does make sense, since Maple is Canada’s most famous embelm and symbol, so they ought to know how to make amazing goodies from one of their famous products, aight?

I’ll say it again, Screw Chips Ahoy, Famous Amos, or even Pepperidge Farm. There's nothing like Dare Maple Cremes. Even though they are pretty expensive in Seoul and are pretty hard to get outside of Canada. A seven piece cookie pack here normally sells for about 2,200 KRW (100 pesos). But last week, Kim’s Club, a grocery near my flat held a sale of Dare Cookies at 50% off! The catch is that the cookies are expiring by mid-August. But I don’t care haha. I know that the four boxes of cookies I bought will barely last me until next week. I just ate the one whole box at the office yesterday, nibbling my precious maple cookies during my mini-breaks from work.

Dare makes a variety of Ultimate Crème cookies but the only variants I’ve seen aside from the Maple ones are Coconut and Lemon. I also bought the Lemon Cremes which were on sale too and just like the Maple ones, these are brimming with bright lemon flavor --- tart and sweet and deliciously citrusy.

If you ever come across these cookies, grab them. I dare say, you’ll love them too!

Going Semi-Nude at Kraze

No. This is not a risque entry.


When I say Semi-Nude, I mean this:

Semi-Nude in my foodie world means no bread, just meat and veggies. *wink*

Two all-beef burger patties grilled medium well, 3 bacon rashers, a portion of sweet grilled onions, a juicy tomato slice, melted cheese and, a perfect egg over easy. Oh, and almost as if an afterthought, a side of salad greens with a light dressing of honey mustard and a sweet vinaigrette.

Is it any wonder that this is my favorite burger in Seoul? I get my fix at Kraze Burger, a homegrown burger chain in Seoul which is slowly making its way to the rest of Asia (I think there are branches of this in HK and Macau). This chain has the tagline, "The Healthy Burger" because they supposedly use only good oils and well, they grill their burgers. Hmmm, not actually enough to tag their burgers healthy.

But I don't care haha. In a country where burgers are limited to Lotteria and McDo and a few mom-and-pop burger places, Kraze is the one consistently good burger chain with reasonable prices in Seoul.

And yes, this is not fastfood. They cook your food upon order in the open kitchen, a trademark of Kraze Burger joints here ( I don'r know though if the open Kitchen concept is also applied to their overseas branches). The prices are reasonable by Korean standards but not something I can afford everyday. The Semi-nude is 9900 won (about 450 pesos) without fries. Which is sad,
because their Idaho Country Fries are seriously good: Thick potato wedges with crispy skins surrounding soft, almost mushy innards.

They claim that their potatoes are freshly made~ i.e. they cut and fry their wedges themselves, unlike most fastfood joints that buy them in ready-to-fry bags.

What I like about Kraze Burger, aside from their burgers, is that they will let you order any item to share. It is not uncommon to see diners share one burger and an order of fries.

And how about the drinks? Well, they have their Ades, even Heinekens, but like most Korean eateries you don't actually need to buy a drink here as they provide water for free. In fact, the water at Kraze Burger is lovely. Slices of lemon swirl around a pitcher of water, giving tha hint of subtle but delightful lemon tang to the H20. And you get that for free! (Now where in Manila can we have unlimited Lemon Water free of charge? :-( )


There are no desserts at Kraze Burger though, so for something sweet, most diners would transfer to a coffee shop, or, if you're like me and my friend, we go here:

Go to Krispy Kreme for a bit of Bunny Donuts and other sweet, pillowy, airy doughs of deliciousness!

Dr. Robbin: A Diet Food Bistro in Seoul

Last Weekend, after watching X-Men : First Class in Myeongdong, a friend and I went hunting for a new, potentially good eat in NOON Square. NOON Square is my current favorite mall in Myeongdong. Why? It’s relatively small but it has H&M, Steve Madden, Mango, ZARA, Billabong, Jessica Simpson, Adidas Originals plus stalls of hard to find Korean Cosmetics ~ Elisha Coy, Skin79, Pure Minerals. At the basement is a bookstore with a reading area and a little Cold Stone Creamery outlet. On the fifth floor are small indie clothing brands with reasonable prices. i.e, brands started by young Korean entrepreneurs.

The food section on the sixth has a dimsum place, an American diner, A Japanese Buffet resto, and a traditional Korean Restaurant. In the end, we went to Dr. Robbin.

Dr. Robbin promises the following: No Sugar Added, No MSG, Reduced Oil, No Butter, ½ Cream, ½ Oil. When a restaurant promises you great food with the fewest calories possible, wouldn’t you be hooked too?

A check on their one page paper menu showed reasonable prices with entrees running at an average of 10000 won (about 450 pesos). Not bad for Seoul.

The restaurant has a nice ambience and even has an al fresco dining area which is great since it is on the 6th floor, so you get a good view of Myeongdong’s busy shopping streets. But it is summer in Seoul, so we stayed indoors and enjoyed the A/C comfort and funky prints on the resto’s walls.

THE FOOD

The requisite free appetizer: pickled pink cucumber and green peppers.

Chicken and Tofu Salad. First let me say that it is incredibly hard to find good and reasonably-priced western style salads in Seoul. You know, those with good greens and nice dressings. It might be because, the usual Korean meal is already replete with a lot of veggies~ in the soup, in the kimchi, and in their numerous banchans (appetizers).
This Salad is pretty good, the serving hefty enough for sharing. The Chicken part is actually steamed chicken breast slices, the tofu is simply steamed and doused with a sweetish, soy and sesame oil- based sauce. The greens are crunchy fresh and goes well with the sweet and salty sauce.

Aglio Olio Pasta. While good, I still pledge my allegiance to the Aglio Olio Pasta of Pizza Pamilya in Davao City. Dr. Robbin’s version is dotted with a lot of parsley and is ironically not spicy enough for my taste. More pepper flakes please!

Oreo Brownie. By far the best tasting, fudgiest, richest brownie I've tried in Seoul. And this is supposed to be sugar-free? Hmmmm. Addicting, though a bit expensive at 4000 won (about 180 pesos).

We spent about 22000 won (900 pesos) for this meal. Certainly not cheap, but for the ambience and considering it is supposedly “good” food, it’s a reasonable enough.


NOON SQUARE
Myeongdong Station Exit#6
Seoul, S. Korea