MMMG Cafe, Anguk, Seoul

I love this cafe because it is so cozy and well decorated. Nothing too fancy, yet pretty enough for you to just hang there all day. The coffee selection here is really good, even though I made the unlucky choice to buy their 'Orange Latte' which was not tasty.

It is located just above Anguk Station at Exit 1. Would recommend this as a cafe to hop to in Korea!

Click for more pictures!

Coffee LEC, Garosugil

How should I start this post?

Just recently, I got to know about Coffee LEC by accident, when I was walking along Garosugil with Matt & Joce. Apparently, it is a very famous one because the owner of the cafe is an award winning barista and Matt just happened to have read about it on the magazine.

We popped in and we were pleasantly surprised by ... how good the coffee and service is ;) (ok honestly, our eyes were feasting more on ---)

Because Seoga & Cook is simply the best

I must say, I have never tasted such awesome pasta in my life. After eating in Seoga & Cook, I would NEVER EVER go back to those shitty chains like Pastamania.

Why can't any restaurants in Singapore cook these western food as well as Seoga & Cook in Korea? After all, Korea isn't as much a westernized place as compared to Singapore.

So anyway, you would definitely regret coming to Korea and going back without trying Seoga & Cook. Everyone who has tried Seoga & Cook can vow for its taste!

So thankful that I returned to Seoga & Cook for the second time with a bunch of 7 friends. We could order a variety and I just can't help feeling SO blissful with every mouthful.

Here are the dishes we tried and yes, I am recommending ALL of them.

Carbonara

The cream sauce is super yummy and we just can't get sick of the creaminess at all.

Shrimp Pilaf

The Pilaf is just like fried rice and the flavouring is so good!

Seafood Spaghetti

The soup is just so awesome! It is buttery and sweet in the savoury way. After we were done with the noodles we just slurped the soup up!

Tomato Seafood Risotto

I usually don't like any tomato based dish but I am really impressed with this. Really delicious!

Pork Steak

We also tried something non-pastaish and the pork steak was not bad. I thought the meat was a little tough (good pork should be soft and tender!) but the sauce is really nice! The salad was nice too!

So you heard me right, GO FIND A SEOGA&COOK if you are coming to Korea. There should be one in all of the pops area. I went to one in Sinchon and one in Hongdae.

http://www.seogaandcook.com/

Will keep going back there for more!

Changdeokgung in Autumn, Seoul

I have read about this "Secret Garden" hidden in Changdeokgung Palace, which was said to be really beautiful during autumn. Even though I have been in Seoul for a pretty long while, I just thought that there is no rush to go to those palaces and honestly, I am really not so much of a "cultural" traveller. I prefer scenery so much more, so I decided to keep Changdeokgung to the fall season.

Coincidentally, my friends Matt&Joce were here for a two weeks trip and I made plans with them to visit the palace. Indeed, the Secret Garden was a really nice place. The colours were rich and with those nice traditional buildings in the back drop, the picture comes out perfect effortlessly.

The only troublesome part about this trip was that in order to tour Secret Garden, we had to follow the tour, which also has limited spots per day per language. I thought we almost couldn't get into the English tour because it was fully reserved as shown on the website but when I went to the ticket booth itself in the morning, tickets were still available fortunately. The tickets that were most popular were actually the Korean tours.

The entrance cost 3000 won and the Secret Garden tour was another 5000 won.



In the end, the tour was pretty boring and we were more excited to just snap our photos and not listen to the tour at all.

We intentionally, or non, slowed down our pace because we were obsessed with our pictures and we got told off by one of those park staff that we had to follow the tour in order to walk around this Secret Garden. He was pretty fierce and I thought we didn't deserve that!

Look at these golden leaves!

It was a really fun time with Matt & Joce and I didn't regret going there because the fall colours were beautiful. However, I still think the Palace is pretty from the outside because there really isn't much to see within each of the "house".

Cafe Ordinary, Near Hankuk University

After walking the entire area of my university vicinity, I concluded there are only 2 really nice cafes, one is Cafe I'm and this, Cafe Ordinary, is the other one.

Cafe I'm, near Hankuk University

As expected, it is really hard to keep up with blogging as I travel. I have backlogs for Busan, Ulsan and Cheonan and I am just going to take my time as there are super a lot of things to do. I can't settle down because there are just endless things to explore.

Wan Swen, hwaiting! 

So, I was supposed to do some of my work at this Cafe I'm just outside my school but I have to leave soon again to go for cycling at Yeouido Park.

So, updates again later!

Korea 2011 - Hongdae, the place bursting with life!

Hongdae is one of my most favourite places in Seoul. Hongdae is in short for Hongik Daehakyo, or Hongik University.

It is less commercialized as compared to Myeong Dong, and is a popular spot amongst locals and youths. There are manyyyy things to see in Hongdae, and it homes over hundreds of cafe in just that area!!! I have over 300 photos for the cafes there, and I will be blogging it separately from this post soon.

There are a lot of small shops selling apparel, accessories, gifts, collectibles and there is a free market (flea market) every weekend. There is a great range of food there as well, most popular will be the 고기구이/ barbeque meat restaurants!

Korea 2011 - Myeong Dong, famous for everything n nothing!

Myeong Dong 명동 lies in the heart of Seoul, it is known as a "must-visit" and a heaven for shopping.. I have a second opinion to it though. Yes, it is comprehensive and you can find multiple shops of the same big brands like Etude House, Face Shop, Nature Republic etc, and it won't be hard to find your favourite international brands like Forever21 etc here as well. However, most clothes are more expensive than those you can find elsewhere in Seoul (like Ewha), and because it's a "gold mine" for shoppers, it's even harder to get any discounts or bargains here.

However, it is still a "must-visit" for the city buzz, good food, and overwhelming fashion-candies.

Korea 2011 - Garosugil and Rainbow Cafe

Garosugil 가로수길, or Tree-lined Street in english, is a really nice hideout near the Apgujeong area in Seoul, and can be accessed from the Sinsa subway station.

As the name suggests, this entire street is less than 1 kilometre but filled with many interesting cafes and shops within the short buildings. The whole lane is pretty artistic and each individual store is a compilation of everything nice.