Noël à Bruxelles

It was great to skip away from Paris for some days before Christmas to Brussels. It is just a bit more than an hour (by train) from Paris but Brussels is different enough. I like when I walk around a place and hear people talk in a foreign language I don't understand so it really feels like I'm away.

Seoul center

Just some pics around Jonggak area.

Korea - Random 3

The Gangnam area is full of clinics for plastic surgery. It starts from inside the subway station where there are all the advertising with "before/ after" pictures of surgery services they propose. I think this one was the best with its name "Cinderella". But I thought Cinderella was just about getting the right shoe?

Seoul - Sinsa

Garosugil, on the south side of the Han river, is known for its trendy shops, cafés and restaurants. I was there before noon so it was not still very quiet. As I stroll along the road, I noticed how the interior design here, in Korea, is always well done. In this trendy area, for sure, the shops and restaurants have the budget. But even in less expensive area, shops, and particularly cafés, manage to create a special mood for their interior. You can see that the design concept has included every detail. From the colors, materials, packaging till the font used on the receipt. I think that this reflects a trait of the Koreans. Things are never half done, every detail has to be well done.

For lunch, I chose this Japanese soba shop called Obiya. Their specialty is green tea soba. You can order with the soba a side of tempura. They serve chilled green tea and they fried the soba as chips. You get some salt mixed with green tea to dip the tempura.

Korea - Random 2

A car ferris wheel!! Little scooter is not tall enough to get on it so it had to wait

on the side :)

Green Seoul - Hangang park Seonyudo

Next stop was Seonyudo. The Chinese characters 仙遊島 means the island where the fairies travel.

It's a little spot of land in the middle of the Han river. It's like L'île Saint Louis in Paris but instead of the Berthelot ice creams and the luxury apartments, here, they left it all green.

The center of the park has different sections created for walks

and children playing area

There's just a small snack and coffee shop so this was lunch.

Green Seoul part 1 - Hangang park Yeouido

Seoul has a lot of parks and greens. Hangang park is a serie of parks along the Han river dedicated to leisure and sports for the citizen. I've come to the ones of Yeouido and Seonyodo.

It rained a bit in the morning but it has refreshed the air for just about an hour. The sky was all fuzzy so the pictures didn't come out great :( The area of Yeouido has a marina for tour boats and leisure. There are bike rentals in every park. I did not take the bike because it's not possible to leave it after at a different station. I originally planned to ride the bike from Yeouido to Seonyudo.

Families, couples or just alone, everyone comes to enjoy the open space. Some bike, some play, some sit, some sleep and some come with the 6 persons tent! I don't know if they invested in the tent only to come at the park for the day?

 

 

And I took this picture because the grass has been mowed like a mess. I guess the guy doesn't really like his job?

Changgyeonggung

Changgyeonggung (yeah, there's a whole bunch of g's in this name :) ) is smaller therefore less know palace. It is right next door to the beautiful Changdeokgung. I always enjoy being places where it's not a tourist packed attraction. There was not a single foreigner. I saw just 1 group of Korean tourists and the other people there were some seniors enjoying the park. And the prove that it is hardly visited, I was able to shoot some "wildlife" there. There were birds causally walking around and fishing their food and dragonflies and butterflies cris-crossed around me.

 

A palace like the other ones in the city, less renovated

but it adds to the authentic charm

 It has this western style glass greenhouse at the back of the garden

 And the wildlife :)

Korean sweet pancake - Hoddeok

After all the hard walk in the museum, this man has chosen the perfect spot to park his pancake truck. Actually, I noticed the queue before I could see what was the attraction. So I checked out what were written on the trucks then there was a queue of 10 persons. Yes again, for food, we, Asians, are ready to stand in queue under the sun. :) It was funny how everyone in the queue was standing but slightly bend on the left side to peek at the pancake making process. You see how fast the man is making the dough, put it in his special grill plates, flip sides, take out the cooked ones, serve them and do the cashier all at the same time. And the more you watch him, the more impatient you get to taste that pancake and you get so jealous of the people who just got theirs hot from the plates!

The pancake dough has completely risen during the cooking and it became this thin crispy and chewy (it's made of rice flour) crust with a filling of, I guess, cinnamon and brow sugar. We had some in Myeongdong last year and they were nothing close to this. The guy didn't lie on the signs on his truck saying "traditional hoddeok"!
It's always this kind of surprise encounters that I love the most in a trip. That's why I like to wander around places off the tourist route. That's when you get to see and taste the real thing! :) But it's also sad because even if I wanted, I could probably never eat this man's perfect pancake ever again.

Seoul's Times Squares

I have been offered this opportunity to visit Korea again. I have been invited to participate in a special event that will gather teachers and students of the Korean language from all over the world. As the events will be held in and around Seoul, I won't be able to move around the country as much I'd like to. There'll only be a day trip to Jeonju. I could never miss that beef soup!

So I will try to do stuffs I haven't done yet in Seoul like museums and other parts of the city that are more off the tourist's route. I have included in my plans a mountain hike and some biking along Hangang river but with the heat... I guess you have to come check back to see whether I would have mustered the courage... or not.

Today was a slow day as I arrived early in the morning. With the 10 hours flight, first thing on my list was a little hour at the jjimjilbang (korean bath/sauna). This time, I tried the Sealala in Yeongdeungpo next to the mega mall Times Squares. The facilites were okay but the big problem was it was filled with Chinese tourists who can not control their children running while shouting.... Okay, Sealala: done and to never do again.

I would have liked to check out the largest screen in the CGV cinema but the chimps just q
started this week so abandonned. Change plans to find some energy refill.
 

 Tonkatsu ramen

Then that left me nothing else but shopping in this mega mall. The mall has also a Shinsegae department store attached to one side and a small garden on the 6th floor rooftop. I feel like they wanted to create a high class mall but the crowd I saw while I was there (a weekday) were not the clients they expected. There is also an underground market in the subway station where it was much more crowded. I guess the prices are much more adapted to the people who lives in the neighborhood.

Dim sum @ Yoom, Paris

The sushi trend has lived its days but it's dying out slowly. The novelty combined with the healthy aspect of sushis started probably about ten years ago in France. Since then, many fast-food/ delivery chain stores have appeared selling classic or fusion sushis.

Now that people have already adopted sushis, a new trend must come to satisfy people's curiosity. Korean restaurants are spreading but due to the spicy food, I think it'd be difficult for Korean cuisine to conquer the French that easily.

The chinese dim sum is a new little trend blooming in Paris. While it's easy to find dim sum in London, it's really hard to find in Paris because there are less Cantonese natives here. I've tried the chain store Sum and the restaurant Yoom. Both have a high-end concept with fancy interior and the food is fusion.

So, more about Yoom. I've heard about it since it opened maybe a year ago? But I also heard that it's doing so well that you can hardly get in without a reservation. At last, I went there last week with some friends, I've called for a reservation, of course. The restaurant is small, canteen style, with long tables and benches. Interior design is clean with gray, beige and red accents. Menus and plates are printed with vintage Shanghai style illustrations.

You'll find on the menu items inspired from Cantonese dim sum such as Ha Kao and different kind of dumplings, steamed or fried. There's also items inspired more from Vietnamese cuisine like sticky rice crepe or steamed in banana leaves. For dessert, they have some home made and also serves 3 items from Sadaharu Aoki.

Everything I tasted were good. I most liked a set of beef dumplings that had a complex mix of ginger and herbs. I think the tastes are balanced, not too crazy fusion, just an enhanced version of the classic.

Obviously, as a true fan, I had to order an Aoki dessert to finish. There was 2 out of the 3 on the menu that I haven't tasted yet. I hesitated before choosing the lemon tart. Because I tend to always have issues with lemon tarts. More on that in another post, maybe...

Conclusion, as a pure Cantonese, I can tell you the dim sum you find at Yoom are not the "real" ones but it's still worth the experience.

Banpo bridge fountain show

After the yummy bbq dinner, we went for walk to to the Banpo park to see the water show. There were a lot of people doing some night biking. It's great that people can have a place like this right in the center of a big city for leisure.
The show was almost 20 minutes long! I had the time to test my camera, I'm posting just some of the better ones I achieved. Of course, they are the purple ones :)

 

If you'd like to watch a video of the show, you can check out Evan and Rachel's View from the Gu.

Grand Mint Festival 2010

One of the most exciting thing on this trip for me is this festival that features Korean indie bands in the Olympic Park of Seoul. Once again, I was over impressed by the logistic organization. I bought tickets on internet and I planned that it'd need at least 30 minutes of queuing to retrieve our tickets at the booth. In fact, there were 20 booths, each one attributed to some Korean letters alphabetically. We went to the "ABC" booth, no one in line, the girl exchanged our tickets with my printed confirmation and told us to go the booth at the left where we then again exchanged the tickets with a bracelet for the day. All the process took us 5 minutes.

 We've arrived late because of the delay with the samgyetang lunch and

missed some gerat performance :( We had to queue for

1 hour before getting in the stage.

 The sun setting, it became chilly so I had to buy this nice purple blanket.

The saturday evening highlight show, No Reply feat. Han Hyo Joo

We were so cold that we decided it's be better to get in the crowd up front than sitting around on the grass. Also; people around on the big picnic area were annoying. They kept on talking, going up and back to get more food. Concentration 0 on the music. And why?! Why do people come to this kind of event with babies?!

Giant bibimbap in Paris

This afternoon the Korean cultural center and Jeonju city prepared a giant bibimbap in front of the St. Eustache church. I arrived a bit late but fought through the crowd to get you these pictures, and of course a sample of the food for myself.

notice how the women are busy working, the men stands waiting

Bibimbap mixing

I wonder how much gochujang (pepper paste) has been added in there. They were about 10 women doing all the work.

 

This is the sample!

Then everyone enjoyed their bibimbap. I don't know how much impact this kind of event can produce. From what I saw, there were a lot of youngsters who came were already familiar with the asian culture. Of course there were some people who just happened to be strolling around. Maybe this will get the Korean restaurants here more clients. But this isn't good for my selfish me who wants to keep the good things to myself.

NYC errand

A summary of my two and a half day in NYC. I'll only show the fun parts and spare you the awful part (job related, of course).

With the immediate jet lag in the stomach, we asked the hotel's concierge to recommend the best and closest place to get some light lunch. We were told to go to The Redeye Grill. Nice outside seatings and we ordered our salads for a 4pm lunch.

 

Hollywood Cobb Salad with king crab

 

Yellowfin Tuna Niçoise Salad

 

 

Trip to work and hotel view 

 

NYC sweets

 

Landmarks

Last lunch happened to be Korean, I swear this was not my choice. We didn't have a lot of time, and this Korean little fast food was the first restaurant in sight.

 

Organic tofu bibimbap

(not my meal)

 

Bibimbap with very healthy chicken breast version

(not mine either)

 

Vegetables japchae

(yeah this was mine, me not a healthy food addict)

  

Kimchi mandu

(this was also mine :p)

Last hours in Soho and then off to catch flight home.