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.

Our Favorite Korean Café

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We posted a couple of videos a while ago on Insadong and its Cookie Makers. Quite possibly, Insadong is our favorite place to go outside of Bucheon, and we're not talking about the tourist area which is a long cobblestone street filled with cheap wares.

How do you get to this secret area? It's a bit complicated.

1. Walk along the busy cobblestone street, all the way to the end, keep going and you'll see a small set of lights.
2. Cross at the lights, turn left once you cross.
3. Turn right onto the second street. It looks kind of like a tunnel because it has high walls. At first, it looks like nothing, just a narrow street with some high schools hidden behind high walls, but if you keep walking, you will be rewarded. The area is SO unique. Tiny shops and restaurants all different from one another, with quirky workers and decorations.
4. To get to our favourite café, you keep walking past the restaurants until you have to cross a busy little street (there are no lights).
5. Once you cross, keep walking and turn left on the first tiny street.
6. You'll pass a couple other big looking coffee shops, but you'll soon see the 커피 선반 café on your left. It's across from a hat shop.

Why do we love this place? Here are a few reasons.

Décor:
The café is covered in Polaroids of people and things, and the owner has a small guestbook filled with people's polaroids and their comments. The tables in the back rooms are scribbled on by guests leaving happy comments and drawings. The walls are coated with little love notes to the café. They are delicately written on paper napkins with the many encouraging pens hanging around on the tables. If you're there, try and find our napkin!

Comfort:
The napkins are printed with cartoon doodles of the café's owner and workers. Sometimes the employees wear Mickey Mouse ears or hot pink construction hats. Why? No reason needed. You can stay a long time and no one is going to kick you out. In the back room, there is a secret upstair attic (only 4 steps high) which can only hold two snugly people. If you're hungry they serve dessert (homemade fresh waffles, ice cream) and freshly made pressed panini.

Coffee:
This place takes its coffee seriously. They roast their coffee on location (it's a bright red roaster) and have a wide selection to choose from. If you order a cup of hand dripped coffee, it will NOT be served with milk and sugar. Trust me, this coffee doesn't need milk and sugar. If you get an expresso based drink, it will be perfect! Nothing burnt, bitter, or weak about it. Just perfect! If you want some beans to go, it comes with a hand-drawn picture.

We love this place, really love this place, and we'd be there everyday if it weren't so far from Bucheon. If you're ever in the Insadong area, make sure you check it out. Click on the picture above to see our video tour of Our Favorite Korean Café, or click on the sidebar to see it on YouTube.

Korean Sticker Booths

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Our experiences with photo booths in Canada are limited to a tiny booth with a single strip of 4 pictures that are overpriced for how simple they turn out. Sure, it's fun to jam yourself into the booth with your best friend and make silly faces, but wouldn't it be better if you could more? Well, Martina's dream has come true! The sticker photo booth trend originally started in Japan and made its way to Korea; it is an entire store dedicated to (at least) five different types of booths, plus they have free props, wigs, and outfits you can use too! The one we went to was in the Hongdae area (near Hongik University) but if you live in Bucheon, we have one in the Sopoooooong Mall, upstairs, near the movie theatre.

Here's what you should know:

1. These places are self serve so don't feel intimidated. Pick a booth you like and check the currency it requires. Some of them are in Japanese yen, so you'll have to exchange your Korean won at the front cash.

2. Expect to pay between 3,000 won - 6,000 won depending on the newness of the machine. The older machines have only a few backgrounds that literally roll down before each picture is taken, but the newer ones have you posing in front of a green screen, and you can choose different computerized backgrounds. The more expensive machines often have ladders and monkey bars that you can hang off of, and they allow you to manipulate your computerized image in a more complicated way, such as erasing your body and adding a cartoon body.

3. All the instructions are in Korean, but it's not too hard to figure out. As soon as you put your money in BE READY because a timer counts down for you to choose your backgrounds. Use your finger or the touch pen to choose your favourite backgrounds. Most machine take 8 pictures and let your choose the 4 best.

4. Once you choose your four best you can lighten or darken the images. WARNING: It appears MUCH lighter once it prints, so be careful.

5. Once you finish taking the pictures, leave the booth and walk around to the computer where you get to decorate on them using a touch pen and touch screen. WATCH THE TIME LIMIT!!!

6. When you're finished, pick your layout style. In our experiences, the littlest pictures are so so small (smaller than your "enter" key) that the decoration details barely show up, so don't waste your time decorating a lot if you want 32 mini pictures!

7. Once the stickers print out, head to the front cash and choose which coating you want on it. Each place differs, but most have sparkle coating, bumpy coating, glossy coating, matte coating. Once you're finished, you can buy many things to keep your pictures in, such as keychains or picture frames, or you can peel off the backing and use it as a sticker!

Have fun and be prepared to be addicted! Of course, we made a video about them, so click on the picture above to see our video tour of Korean Sticker Booths, or check the sidebar instead for different formats.

Restaurant Reviews: Hongdae's Dos Tacos

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Korean food is great, but - as you can tell from our last Thai food restaurant review - we're also looking for foreign food. Our hunt for Thai food failed. We can't find any Mexican places in Bucheon, so last Friday we travelled to Hongdae to try our luck there. We heard about a place called Dos Tacos, which supposedly served really good Mexican food: burritos, nachos, margaritas, tacos, so on and so forth.

Would it be authentic, though, or at least as good as the Mexican food we're used to from back home? After all, back in Toronto we constantly ate at Bar Burrito or Burrito Bros, and they serve some pretty good stuff. Have our standards been met here at Dos Tacos? Click on the picture above to find out, or click here to see our review of Hongdae's Dos Tacos Restaurant. If all else fails, you can view the video on YouTube through our sidebar.

If videos just aren't your thing, then we'll spoil it for you right now: Dos Tacos was a big let down. Any burrito with pickles in it just ain't a burrito to us. The refried beans were kidney beans! Although it tasted good, it just wasn't Mexican enough for us. What a letdown.

Korean Poke Machines

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If you saw our post on Korean Claw Machines (or the Lobster Machine), you'd know that Korea is full of little money-gobbling-difficult-to-win-but-addictive toy machines. You can win anything from gum, golden turtle statues, lighters, or women's underwear. Well, there is a new machine in town. The stick-poke-out-a-toy-machine. You can win a solar powered bobble head guy or an mp3 player that looks suspiciously like an iPod shuffle. When Simon sees these machines, he is determined to beat them. Luckily we have a huge box full of change that just grows bigger everyday, so we use our coins to fuel the toy machine industry in Korea. Unfortunately, these machines are rigged, as the stick used to poke the toy through the hole is too fat to fit into the hole itself. Honest! We have video proof of the stick going in, but getting jammed because of it's cheating-outer-ring. If you don't believe us, check it out: click on the picture above to see our Korean Poke Machines video, or check out the sidebar for other video formats.