am back from my korea trip not too long ago. it was really really fantastic, almost close to perfect. in fact i wished i never came home! overall it was alot better than i expected. i'll blog more abt the trip in my next entry but meanwhile, here's some of the food pics. i don't think the food was actually very good, we had pork for almost every meal coz apparently pork is very cheap in korea so it was pretty sickening. only 2 meals consisted of chicken and there was no beef at all. plus the side dishes, its always kimchi, beansprouts, seaweed (and laver/kelp soup), fishcake-like dish etc. pretty boring and predictable i would say. some people who couldnt take in another meal of pork & kimchi actually bought cheesecakes and bread from the bakeries LOL. it was ok i would say, the food is still edible but nothing to shout about. here are some pics of the food :


breakfast in jeju island - abalone porridge, with hardly any abalone in it


side dishes - fishcake-like side dish, kimchi, seaweed are STAPLE food!


in jeju - black pork bbq lunch, one of the better meals. there's cabbage & squid in there and i totally dig the spicy sweet soup base. it was good!


cucumber kimchi - i love this one, very cool, crunchy & appetizing. the taste is sweet & vinegary, somewhat like our local achar.


in jeju - seafood steamboat dinner. i was actually expecting something better, but this is really very yucky! everything's dumped in there, and u can see that the soup base is very diluted & tasteless. i hate seafood being cooked this way. even the steamboat during our CNY reunion dinner taste like 1000x better than this. disappointing.


a breakfast buffet consisting of standard korean fare like porridge, rice, noodles, fried dumplings, tofu, kimchi side dishes, yakkwa (korean donuts), as well as bread, ham, jam. for beverages we had coffee, tea, orange juice & milk.


another view of the breakfast buffet table


and i must mention this! these are traditional korean rice cakes called gul ddeok stuffed with honey and sesame seeds. this is specially arranged for ME by our tour guide coz i asked him where i could get my hands on some of these rice cakes and he said he'll arrange for it for one of our breakfasts. i'm so touched!


the famous dakgalbi in chuncheon, one of the filming locations of winter sonata. dakgalbi is spicy hotplate chicken with tube-shaped rice cakes, cabbage and potatoes. and halfway into it, the lady boss would come by and fry rice in there. yummy yum! easily one of the better meals that everyone enjoyed :p


dinner is yellow pollack stew. in chinese yellow pollack is called huang di yu, literally translated as emperor fish. as usual, our pork & the lovely side dishes take centerstage *rolls eyes*


a close-up of the yellow pollack stew.


buffet breakfast @ yongpyong ski resort, another filming location of winter sonata. its funny to see fries there. i don't think people eat fries for breakfast do they? hashbrowns maybe, but not fries!


nevertheless it was quite good. i could never say no to americanized breakfasts LOL


bbq pork lunch, near mt. sorak. koreans' way of eating this - take a piece of bbq pork, rice, garlic and wrap it with fresh lettuce.


close-up of the bbq pork. didnt like it one bit, unfortunately.


dinner is another round of bbq pork + bibimbap (hot stone mixed rice). this is slightly better coz the pork is thinly sliced.


bibimbap


samgyetang - ginseng chicken soup. this is one of the worst i've tasted, and whats more in korea! prior to this, i've tried them twice in sg, and they're really not too bad. but this, the soup is bland with absolutely NO ginseng aroma, the chicken is bland, and there are hardly anything inside the cavity, just lots of glutinous rice. i can confidently say that i can do better than this, MUCH better.


shots of ginseng wine & noodles to add into the soup. unfortunately, its still blah.


tofu steamboat dinner - suprisingly this is one of the better dinners. i love it, but i think i love their potato & saba fish side dishes more :p


close-up of the tofu steamboat. again, u see pork but its really very yummy!

*sigh* writing this post makes me miss korea all over again. despite the fact that i can only give 60/100 for the food, i totally love korea so so much. love their sceneries, the places, the culture. they have very vast lands, something you're not able to see here. and the most regretful part of the trip is not buying enough things (i barely spent 200 bucks), esp at the face shop, korea's homegrown cosmetic chain which is very popular here. they have MUCH wider range of stuffs and at very cheap prices too (about half the price compared to ours). other brands like laneige, missha & beauty credit are also pretty cheap. and so, i'll be going to korea again in october!!! yes, hubby finally relented. hee.

anyhow, spring is a good time to visit korea. we saw rows & rows of cherry blossoms as well as tulips in everland, korea's biggest amusement park. it was really beautiful.