Oh, all the things I ate...

All I did this week was eat. It was eat. Let me show you... Feel free to drool.

Even though she's super busy in the mornings getting ready for work, my aunt still found time to cook this crazy good breakfast for me. Spicy octopus with veggies, fried fish dollars, fresh cucumber kimchi, and cabbage soup. Man, I wish breakfast was like this every day! Seeing my aunt is always so great because she and my mom are so alike. I love my eemo (mom's sister)!


After getting some glasses made next to my aunt's pharmacy, I met up with my cousin, Calvin, and his wife, Gina to begin my weeklong face-stuffing bonanza. It started with this insanely delicious fresh raw crab marinated in a soy sauce base. I've never had anything like it. To eat it, you grab a piece and suck out all the juicy meat, which is kind of slimy but in a fabulously delicious way. This restaurant is famous now and is a frequent stop for Japanese tourists.


After you're done with the legs, you add rice to the main cavity and mix it up with the marinade and raw crab eggs and EAT! See below for demonstration.


The thing with Korean food is, you don't eat to be just be satisfied. You eat till you need to be barreled out of the restaurant. We ate 4 whole crabs between the three of us!


So, I thought that was dinner... But then we went to HongDae and ate another dinner. No joke. Haha. This was a spicy BBQ chicken dish, mixed with round dduk (rice cake) and topped with stretchy cheese. What I love MOST about Korea, besides my family of course, is the diversity and creativity of their foods. They're always inventing and innovating new culinary creations! I love it! Every meal, my cousin and I talk about bringing some of this stuff to the states. Could you imagine a food truck with this stuff?! It'd go like hot(rice)cakes! Hahahahahaaaa. I'm so funny...


Ddukbokki (sautéed rice cakes) is an all-time comfort food. I LOVE it. But of course, the Koreans have reinvented it once again. Add some ramen noodles to the mix, throw in some deep fried vermicelli noodles wrapped in egg roll wrappers, and throw in some blood sausage ... And Mmmmm ... Oh man ...


One night we hit up the grocery store (which was massive, btw) and cooked Koreanized Italian pasta and bell pepper salad with crunchy garlic bread. Gina is a culinary genius so it's been so fun to be in the kitchen with her! When I get back after the Philippines, she's going to teach me some of her Korean cooking secrets!


And since it's summer, it's mandatory to eat shaved ice. Pink Berry and Red Mango got nothing on Korean cafes' ppat bing soo (red bean shaved ice). C'mon, look at all this fruit! And this one is the 'standard' size. Apparently there's a place that serves this for large groups where the bowl is as big as the table! Kimch, we'll have to go there together!


After some shopping with Gina in sanchong dong, we went for more ddukbokki - because you really can't eat this enough. Every shop makes it differently. For example, this place is famous of it's 'soup-like' broth.


And then, since just the entree is never enough - they fry up this rice with seaweed and sweet corn in the leftover broth. Oh mannnnnn!


So that you don't think I just ate... We actually did some things in between meals. Mostly to just digest and prepare for the next meal though haha. We went to this spa where we got full body pressure point massages and I wanted to cry - both bc it felt great but also because I thought I was gonna die a slow Chinese torture style death. Haha. It was really great - good primer for all the massages I'll get in Thailand!


We went to the park outside a famous library ... Where everyone pretends to study, but are actually just hanging out with their boyfriends and girlfriends haha. Gina is so stylish that this one girl in fashion school asked to take a picture! Gina you are so cool :) she's trying to break me into wearing colors - look at my new blue shoes! Blue!! Not black or brown!


I also went to Kyobo Bookstore, which is the centurial predecessor to Barnes and Nobles. This sign says 'Love creates books, and books create love.' Koreans have always been really scholarly in the past, reading books, and being smart ... Sadly, now statistically only 1 out of 9 Koreans read one book beginning to end in a given year! I umm... Have to admit, I didn't go to the bookstore to look at books haha. I went to look at all the cute stationary things for 2 hours. Hahaha. I'm no better! I'm one of the 8!


Alright there's more entries coming! Stay tuned...