Fall Vacation Trip: Fukuoka Day 3

My third and final day in Fukuoka!

Ohori Park a great place to relax and enjoy the lake and see the local wildlife. There are paths for biking, jogging, and walking around the lake. Bridges on either end of the islands in the middle of the lake allow access to even more paths to explore. Fukuoka Castle and the Fukuoka Art Museum are located near the park and you can walk to both from the park grounds. If you'd like to enjoy time on the water, there are paddle boats available for rent.

After the park, I headed to a famous ramen restaurant called 一蘭 本社総本店 (Ichiran) for lunch. While there are tables for larger groups on the first floor, a lot of the dining is done at individual booths on the upper floors. You can also buy ramen kits to enjoy their ramen in the comfort of your own home. The restaurant itself is open 24 hours and prices are reasonable. Below are pictures of the ramen and a soft boiled egg - both were delicious!

That afternoon was spent strolling around the large shopping complex called Canal City, however I didn't take any pictures. There are many different shops and restaurants and in one of the stores there were a ton of the capsule toy machines (ガシャポン). Check out the capsule toy cats below!

Overall, the trip was really enjoable. Fukuoka is very convenient to get to from Korea and flights are normally reasonably priced. Low cost carriers such as Jin Air, Jeju Air, Eastar Jet, and T'way Air have daily flights. For hotels, check out agoda.com.

Thanks for reading! More to come soon!

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My Korean Life #40: Raw Beef (육회)

I'll admit, for the longest time I was completely against eating raw beef here in Korea. The last thing I want to experience is food poisoning or some other nasty stomach ailment. Therefore, I wrote off eating 육회 ("yook-hwae"/raw beef) basically from the moment I started living in Korea over 1.5 years ago. BUT...lo and behold...the more my Korean friends as well as other expat friends talked about eating this dish, the more curious I became. I figured, if all of my friends have already eaten raw beef and if tons of Koreans eat it every day, it must be relatively safe. So, I mustered up the courage to visit a local market and brave one of the many 육회 restaurants.

The photos you see below are of the main staple: 육회 as well as 비빔 육회. I wrote the dish contents in the captions below each photo but generally, the standard 육회 is raw beef, pear, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and a raw egg yolk. You are supposed to mix it all together before enjoying...which I did. Now I admit, it does not look all that appetizing BUT it was actually pretty good.

The second dish is kind of like 비빔밥 but with the raw beef. It featured a lot of the same ingredients as the raw beef dish with some added vegetables. I would say the 비빔 육회 was a bit more flavorful in my opinion.

Overall, the raw beef was tender and mild in taste. Yes, you did have the beefy taste but not as strong as if you would have grilled the meat. It is served chilled and is soft and often served to accompany alcohol (almost everyone in the restaurant was drinking). It was rather a refreshing bite to have some pear and raw beef together. I am still alive and kicking and had no bad stomach problems since eating the raw beef so, if in Korea, I recommend trying it!

Raw beef, raw egg yolk, sliced asian pear, sesame oil, sesame seeds.

Lettuce, spicy red pepper paste, raw beef, sesame oil, sliced vegetables, sesame seeds. 

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My Korean Summer 2013: Day 14 - Hongdae Free Market and another Cat Cafe

[Day 14]
My friend wanted to check out the Hongdae Free Market (no the items are not free of charge) today so we decided to meet up for lunch and then head over. The market venue is the "Hongdae Playground" right across from the university. It runs from 1PM-6PM every Saturday (March to November). After a quick meal of Galbi Tang we walked over to the market area. I didn't take many pictures there because a lot of the artists had signs prohibiting photography of their work...

The above stalls are not actually part of the free market but this street is representative of the area.

Many of the items for sale are handmade goods, or at least goods that appear handmade. Another popular item for sale are caricatures. My friend wanted to get one but the line for the artist she wanted was actually quite long :(

[Cat Cafe #2]

The next stop of the day was another cat cafe. We went to Toms cat cafe which frankly was not as nice as Cat Attic in my opinion. There was a noticeable smell of cat in the cafe. One thing that made me nervous was they had you put any purse/bag/pack you brought in with you inside a plastic drawstring bag. This was just in case the cats decided your bag was their new litter box. 

This cafe had more cats than Cat Attic but I don't think this was necessarily a good thing. They had over 30 cats on their roster including a few kittens...it was all a bit overwhelming for the cats and humans...

It was still a decent time but I would recommend Cat Attic.

[Anyang]

I spent the evening in Anyang visiting my friend who used to work in the USA but has since returned to Korea. We ate shabu-shabu which is delicious. I recommend trying it! You may have had the Chinese version before...I'm not sure what really differentiates the two but below are a few pictures of the Korean version!

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