Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 3

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On with the show! Today we finally move on to the sweet stuff, now that we're finished all of our savory foods. We had some - well - interesting things to eat today.

Orion Cookies, Crunky Bars, Market Brownies, and something we transcribe as Yawn Yang Neng.

A lot of these have their Western Counterparts. If you remember our Korean Kic Ker Bar post from a long time ago, you'll know exactly what we mean: Kic Ker bars are really Kit Kat bars. In today's video, we've got Orion Cookies as Oreo Cookies and Crunky Bars as Crunch bars. The Yawn Yang Neng bar is something completely new to us, and it's - errrr - interesting. Anyhow, click on the picture above to see Part III of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Sweet Desserts, or check it out in the sidebar. Also, if any of you know what these Yawn Yang Neng bars are supposed to be, then please tell us! They're so confusing!

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 2

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Now on to Part 2 of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Lunch-y Foods. We were a little more bold this time, and we tried some of the heartier fare. In this video we sampled:

Kim Bap Triangles, Cold Cheeseburgers, Hard Boiled Mini Eggs, and Sausage Rolls of Lord Knows What.

Supposedly the sausage rolls are made of a pressed fish - or so we have been told - but it doesn't really seem like fish. We thought they were cheese sticks at first, but we were terribly mistaken. All we know for sure is that Korean people around us have called it "Sausage," so we'll take that for what it's worth. They're a big hit around here, and you can sample them at any major grocery store among the plethora of food samples. Anyhow, we'll stop rambling about these sausages while we still can: click the picture above to see Part II of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Lunch Foods. Or just check the sidebar instead.

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 1

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We remember our first few days in Korea: we were confused, cold, alone. The wolves were howling at us, we were scared and hungry. We didn't know what to eat or where to go. So - for the first few days - we ate convenience store food.

If you too find yourself in this situation, fear no more, for we at Eatyourkimchi.com put together a mini-taste test of the good, the bad, and the weird foods you can find at your local corner store. We went to a GS 25, the omnipresent convenience store in Korea, and raided it for all its worth. We grabbed anything and everything new to us, came home, ate it or drank it, and recorded our reactions.

The result is this four-course video special. We'd post it all as one video, but it's just too huge. OMG!

Part 1:
We review some of the bagged goods, including chips and other snacks. Some things come in odd boxes rather than bags, but are located in the same section of the store.

Part 2:
We'll review the more lunch-foody stuff. What? Lunch-foody is totally a word. This will include food that's heartier than bagged stuff.

Part 3:
The deserts. You'll need to balance out all that salt.

Part 4:
We'll wrap up with a (sometimes) refreshing drink review.

For today's special, we reviewed six bagged snacks:
Jollypong, Egg Cookies, Goguma Gang, Homerun Ball, Corn Cho, and some generic Dried Squid.

If there's one thing we learned it's that you can't judge a food by its packaging. What we expected to be delicious was disappointing, and what we expected to be awful was amazing.

Please be warned: we have opinions! If we happen to have a negative reaction to something this does not mean - as some people seem to believe - that we are insulting Korea altogether and should be deported for our hatred. We tried to be as politically correct as possible, but - for the love of freedom - we have the right to not like some foods! Check out our reactions in our Convenience Store Raid: Bagged Snacks video, or find it in the sidebar instead.

Korean Valentine's Day

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It's Valentine's Day in Korea! Just when we thought we knew a holiday inside and out, we discovered we were wrong.

February 14th in Korea is also known as Valentine's Day but it is specifically for a girl to give her guy chocolate or candy. It is supposed to be handmade chocolate but most people just buy something from the many, many places offering beautifully wrapped boxes. Even the local bakeries add boxed chocolates to their normal cake and pastry repertoire! So guys, you can just sit back and relax...for now...

March 14th is White Day in Korea, and that means if your girl gave you chocolate or candy, you too have to get some for her, but you also must get her a gift. Sorry guys, guess you have more work than the ladies. Anyhow, we made a video for those of you who don't like reading this, so - as you probably know by now - click the picture above for our Korean Valentine's Day movie, or check out the sidebar for it instead. And Happy Valentine's Day!

A Foreigner's Mini-Guide to Korean Ramen

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Our experiences with ramen in Canada began in elementary school with good ol' Mr. Noodle, who pretty much runs the show for Canadian ramen. From there, we developed a deep love for those salty, spicy, delicious, and easy to make noodles, and craved something more. Surely there had to be more to the world of Ramen than plain ole' Mr. Noodle...

We found later on in life that if we wanted to try something imported (in this case, Ramen) we'd hit K-town (Korea Town: Christie Pitts/North York) or J-town (Japan Town: Markham). We thought that this would be an accurate representation of the Ramen scene in Korea. When we arrived in Korea, though, we were floored. We're serious when we say that there is an entire gigantic aisle dedicated to all types of ramen in the grocery store, enough ramen to fill our apartment. Oh the joy! Image us spinning in a meadow holding a ramen bowl happily. Yeah.

Anyhow, since we've always wanted to make a cheesy infomercial like video, we decided to do it with ramen as the star. We picked out 8 random noodle bowls that we had never tried, and called up our friends to do a taste test. The candidates:

-Jajang Bokki
-Ramen Bokki
-95 Cal
-Salee Gomtang
-"Well-Being" Ramen (aka Sudden Attack)
-Spaghetti Ramen
-Cheese Ramen
-Udung (which is different than ramen, but still hot water added to dry noodles)

What we had in the end is what we hope to be the Foreigners' Mini-Guide to Korean Ramen. Seven foreigners tasted, rated, and ranked the ramen, so that, hopefully, other foreigners here in Korea will have an idea of what's good and what's bad in their ramen aisle. Sure, our tastes are different than a Korean's tastes, which is why we made this video, SO PLEASE DON'T CONSIDER US INSULTING AND INFIDELS FOR NOT LIKING THE SAME RAMEN AS YOU. With that in mind, click on the picture above for our Foreigners' Guide to Korean Ramen, or click on the sidebar for different formats.

Our Adventure at Seoul Tower

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We're currently enjoying vacation time, so we thought maybe it was time to visit all the touristy things. Yes, "touristy" is a word (it's not).

We decided to visit N Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is located on the peak of Mt. Namsan in Seoul, a city of 10 million people. There you'll find a revolving restaurant, cafés, and an observatory deck, but if you're afraid of heights and don't want to go up the tower, you can still get a nice view of the city from the top of the mountain for free.

You have two ways to get to the tower:

A) For 7,000₩ you can take a 7 minute cable car to the top of the mountain (which is the base of the tower).

B) For free you can walk up a huge, huge, huge, windy stone staircase. It has benches along the way and its lush forest-like surroundings are nice for pictures.

We chose the cable cars, but be warned, unless you take a taxi or tour bus to the cable cars, they are a mini-adventure to find via subway. If you want to take the subway there (which we did) it will be a 10-15 minute walk.

Here are the directions:

1. Get to Myeongdong Station (line 4).
2. Take exit 3 and look left. You'll see a really wide road with a convenience store on the corner in front of you. Walk down this street.
3. You'll see Pacific Hotel. The road splits in two around the hotel so stick to the right side.
4. Eventually the road runs into a flight of stairs. Take those stairs up and you'll see the cable car building on your right. Can't miss it.

While you're at Myeongdong Station, make sure you check out the huge shopping area across the street. You have to use the underground subway path to cross and the signs will lead you. It's very funky. Anyhow, the whole day was such an epic adventure day for us. The cable car ride was well worth the wait, and the view from the top of the tower was fantastic. Make sure you bring your cameras when you're there. We sure did. Click on the picture above to see our Adventures at Seoul Tower, or check the sidebar for different formats.