Day 10- Food

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On my last day here, I had pork stew for lunch. At first glance, it looked like bak kut teh from the look of the meat. It had huge chunks of potatoes and pork ribs. The pork ribs were very tender but bland, which I figured out by now that korean food were mostly quite bland when it comes to their stews. Also, the rice I had was different at this restaurant as it was mixed with red beans, which was an interesting experience. Overall, it was a very healthy meal that definitely helped cleanse my system from yesterday's fast food!

As for dinner, we were given cashback to eat whatever we wanted at our last destination which was at a mall at Gimpo Airport. We all had different meals as we filled up our tummies after a shopping haul at Lotte Mart.

Overall, my food experience from this trip, I felt that korean food is quite bland and healthy in terms of taste and that they really love their meats. They also eat a lot of vegetables as part of their side dishes. Though by the end of the trip, I really craved for some spice and stronger tasting food like laksa or chicken rice, I still enjoyed the food experience that korea has given me. I finally got to taste authentic korean food, fresh from the land of kimchi.

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Day 9 - Food

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For lunch, I had saba fish again, accompanied with shrimp pancake and octopus soup.

When I first had saba fish here in Korea, I thought it would taste the same as the Japanese ones I had in restaurants, but Korea’s saba fish tasted different. The fish was bigger with more meat and less bones and tasted fishier than the Japanese ones. I’ve always heard that korean pancakes is a must try and I finally could have a taste of a shrimp pancake! Even though it was bland, it tasted quite good as the shrimp carried the flavour of the pancake. As for the octopus soup, it surprisingly had a punch as it had a strong pepper taste that tasted like the Bak Kut Teh soup. I did not expect the strong kick to it as it looked like a clear bland soup. The taste definitely took me by surprise! I even got to eat some cake as dessert as we celebrated my friends Nick and Eliza’s birthday! Happy birthday to Nick and Eliza!

Today’s dinner was a little special as I got to try Korea’s fast food for the first time. I had a steak burger at burger king, which was really different from the ones we have in Singapore.

The steak was fat and juicy, topped with bacon, cheese, vegetables and lastly, a light fluffy bun. The burger was so huge and stacked so high that every bite was a big mouthful. This burger cannot be compared to the ones we have in Singapore. It’s really different and much better than what we have.

It was also served with fries and coke. Something that surprised me was that their coke was contained in a reusable plastic cup instead of a disposable paper/plastic one that we use in Singapore. I think this idea is a good adoption as it helps save the environment so that we don’t waste paper/plastic cups. Fast food chains in Singapore should really adopt the idea too!

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Written by Andrea Ng as ODAO

Day 8 - Food

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Today’s lunch is a little different as compared to the meals I’ve had on this trip thus far. I have been eating korean cuisine for the whole trip and felt a little food sick. Thus, to have a little taste of home again, I had Chinese-Thai cuisine. Even though its not really Singaporean food, it still brought me back home a bit since it’s similar to our diverse culture of food. I had a wide spread of food ranging from fried omelette, sweet and sour fish, stir-fried mushrooms, fried chicken, egg soup and other dishes, but these were the main highlights.

My personal favourite had to be the fried chicken. Even though its just plain simple fried chicken, it’s taste was something that I had not tried before. It tasted so good with its outer crispiness of skin and inner tenderness of the meat. I guess that’s why Korea is so famous for their fried chicken. Overall, the meal felt like a warm home cooked one that relieved me of my homesickness for local Singaporean food as my last few days in Korea drew near.

For dinner, I had yet another shabu shabu with a mushroom based soup. This shabu shabu tasted different from the ones I had so far, especially the meat. The fresh red meat was sliced thinly and had such a beautiful marbling. The quality of meat was I’d say, the best out of all the shabu shabus I had so far.

The mushroom soup blended with the meat really well, giving the once tasteless meat a new flavour to it. It also came with fishcakes, but not the kind we eat in Singapore. It did not have as much flavour and fish paste filling as compared to the ones we are used to, but it was still tasty! I especially liked the seaweed that came as a side dish. It didn’t come as a sheet of seaweed, but instead flakes. The seaweed was salty on the outside but when mixed and eaten with rice it had a sweet aftertaste, which complimented the combination well.

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Written by Andrea Ng as ODAO