Back in Seoul + the Jjugumi

SEOUL | DAY 01

-BACK TO SEOUL-

incheon int'l airport

This time, I’m going back to Thailand during the winter break. This is only the second time that I go back for such in the winter. Normally, I wouldn’t since it’s not really worth the place ticket fee being back only for a couple weeks. However, this time, I really wanted to escape. I just wanted to be away from school despite having to do work still; I just needed a break.

It began from a simple thought of extending the layover from only a few hours to having enough time to go to Seoul to hang out with my friend, Tae, grab some food and come back to the airport. I found a layover as long as 7 hours daytime, but then I thought.. why not stay for a few days?

Being in Thailand, I wouldn’t really be able to spend time by myself anyways, so I might as well just use my time in Korea to think about my future and what to do with my life.

And here I am, on a plane headed to Korea. Because I’m a grown up now, I don’t want to keep asking my parents for a lot of money. My father offered to pay for the plane ticket, so this time, I decided to fly economy. I chose Korean Air since it’s very likely that the majority of the passengers are Korean, so I would have some breathable space. I was kind of wrong. I got to the airport pretty late, and I forgot to choose a seat prior to check-in, so I got a middle seat in between two guys. It was super uncomfortable. I always felt too bad asking them to get up when I want to go use the bathroom, so I would have to wait for either of them to go out, so I could go out without bothering them.

I didn’t know that the holiday season was going to be this busy. The flight I flew was a full flight, and the airport was packed with people. The baggage storage company I used their service last time was out of space, so I had to go to the one on the other side of airport.

Tae came all the way to the airport to pick me up. I was so hungry, so we grabbed some food from Tous les Jours (뚜레쥬르). I was making a joke that I came all the way to Korea to get food from Tous les Jours that we also have ones in NOVA. I mean, it’s definitely different from what we had, and we didn’t have a lot of choices. And we just wanted something light before getting dinner with Tae’s cousin. I brought the stuff that she ordered from the States, so she wanted to treat me — so sweet, right?

They had some festive desserts like the Christmas tree shaped croissant with sweet cream filling — so cute

But I wasn’t in a mood to have something sweet, so I just got egg sandwiches to share with Tae and of course, I also need some caffein.

We took the metro from the airport to the Airbnb place I would be staying at for the next few days. The place is in Seodaemoon (서대문) area, so we just got off the Seodaemoon Station (서대문역) and walked from there. I’m so grateful Tae was there to help me. Without her, me dragging my bag to the place by myself would be miserable. We dropped off stuff at the place. I really liked it since the place is a very traditional place with some modern mix into it. The host was really nice too. Here is the link to the place on Airbnb.

Afterward, we left the house for Garosugil (가로수길) which is where the restaurant we were meeting up with Tae’s cousin is at. It was a lot colder than I expected, but I kind of liked it better than the weather in Virginia since it’s a lot more humid here, so my skin doesn’t feel as dry.

-THE JJUGUMI-

garosugil

Garosugil (lit. a tree-lined street) was pretty nice, and it was really pretty at night too. Koreans are actually pretty good with winter fashion. Despite of the cold, they still dress up really well. It was such a pleasing sight.

We didn’t get to eat until 9pm-ish since Tae’s cousin got off work pretty late. The working culture here is crazy. People work almost non-stop, get stressed, so they drink a lot to destress.

Anyways, the ‘The 쭈꾸미’ place we were eating that is popular. They got all the celebrities and all that good stuff. This is just another branch, They have a branch in Gangnam and Hongdae as well. We first ordered the Jju-ssamp-gyeop (쭈삼겹) which is a stir-fry set consisting of small octopus (쭈꾸미) and pork belly (삼겹살). Because we weren’t sure of how spicy the most spicy level (Lv. 3) would be, we started with Lv. 2. We also ordered Cheese Fondue (치즈 퐁듀 ), Corn cheese (콘치츠), Steamed egg (계란찜) and Fried Dumplings (만두).

My favorite food in one picture:

And of course, I also got Makkoli (막걸리) that I’d been craving for — CREAM MAKKOLI ~!!!!

After we finished everything, we ordered two more orders of Jjugumi with the spicy Lv. 3. The waiter seemed surprise to see us eating Lv. 2 without even sweating and that we were eating A LOT. The Lv. 3 was a lot more spicy than Lv. 2, but it was really good. (FYI, I could eat the Mango Habanero at Buffalo Wild Wings without feeling anything, and the Blazing was not unbearable (even though it tasted so much like chemicals).

There’s a saying that, “a meal is not a meal without rice”, and we all agree to that saying and ordered fried rice (볶음밥). They used the leftover sauce with the excess scooped out and put in a separate bowl. Tae lives pretty close to me, so she didn’t have to worry too much about not going back early. I really like how they put some roe in here to add a very unique texture to the dish. I seriously would come back here just for the 볶음밥.

Location: 강남구 신사동 540-18 1F (Link)