Italian Night at Il Mare.

Present day living is dictated by dense urbanity, a landscape of high rise units and fast paced lifestyle. But the city life, no matter how good it sounds or how colorful Carrie Bradshaw cunningly puts it, could sometimes makes us feel like an embattled heroine in a crappy telenovela. Sure it would be nice if we could get whisked away to exotic places and take a breather, but we all know that rarely happens. So what do you do when the city life gets too tough? I say explore what the city has to offer, find interesting spots and plunge head long to it, millions of people didn't choose to live here for nothing. You don't have to always get away from the city to unwind, for all you know, the next adventure is literally right around the corner.

Say for example the case of Il Mare. We've been seeing this restaurant for years, but somehow, it never occurred to us to actually try it. One Saturday evening, for lack of better place to go, we decided to pay this restaurant a visit. "Il Mare" roughly translates as "the sea" in Italian, and unlike your quintessential restaurant hiding under the pretense of 'authentic Italian cuisine', Il Mare is way ahead of it's competition.

Outside, Il Mare looks no different from any other restaurant.

Inside, walls are adorned with paintings of famous Italian actors and panoramic view of the streets of Italy.

I love the casual, laid back vibe of the restaurant. The interiors hinted that young people frequent this place.

Light fixtures mounted on each table are muted and easy on the eyes. I particularly love it's design.

Dinner is their busiest time, so expect to wait a little for the food to arrive. These heavenly bread would keep you occupied while waiting.

It's always good to start off with a glass of wine, it gets the conversation flowing. Chris got a glass of "Villa M" Italian white wine, while I got myself their house wine.

I always thought good food is about balance of flavor, texture, and appearance. This Seafood Pasta in Cream Sauce, an Il Mare Special, has it all.

Their charming Pizza creation tastes divine! One bite and your hooked forever!



Because of it's classy and quaintly-decorated interiors, you'd think it's a snobbish, steeply-priced restaurant. You'll be surprised to know that everything is reasonably priced here. And with music so cleverly-chosen playing in the background, it creates a relaxing ambiance fit for a nice romantic meal.



I'm closing this entry with a phrase that best describes the experience you get at Il Mare: "It's love made edible."

Fall Came Early: A Taste of France.

I've never been to France, and the closest thing I ever got to something French is a bottle of red wine and my favorite French food. But I read a lot about how beautiful this country is. France is apparently so captivating that one man decided to make a replica of a village he visited there. That's how "Petite France", a theme park I visited in Gapyeong came to life.

Whenever we come to Gapyeong, we'd always pass by this, nestled beautifully atop the mountain, with rows of exquisitely designed French houses and colorful flowers surrounding it. It was all too inviting to see from afar, and this time around, I just had to enter. A single entry ticket costs 8,000 won, and that gives you a taste of how it feels like to be in the "Land of the Franks".









Just as the sun was at it's peak, and herds of picture-taking tourists got plentier by the second, we decided to go. It was lunch time then and I was getting hungry. We drove to Nami Island where lots of specialty restaurants thrive. I chose this restaurant that has a huge picture of their special menu called "Dolsot Bap" (stone cooked rice). Each person costs 10,000 won, and that sounds unreasonably expensive for a bowl of rice right? But the catch is, it comes with so many mouthwatering side-dishes. I was stunned as the lady served all of it, barely having enough space for chopsticks and spoons!

To be cont...

My Korean Coffee Experience.

Lately, I noticed that I'm having this 'incessant' craving for coffee buns and caramel macchiato. So for 4 straight mornings (excluding my other occassional visits), I've been going to this coffee shop called "Rotiboy". Here in our place, we have about a hundred different coffee shops, and Rotiboy happens to be the smallest. It's so small that it could only accomodate around 10 people, even less. Their coffee is actually not that impressive, cause I've tasted better, but compared to other coffee shops in our area, they're the best! Their coffee bun is a totally different thing. Those buns are 'out of this world'! It's so damn good it's gonna be hard to describe it without using profanities ;-). As soon as you enter the door, the first thing you're gonna notice is the smell of these 'heavenly' buns (I could even smell it from across the street^^), and it'll be impossible for you to resist ordering. I guarantee that on the first bite, you'll be hooked, and you'll be craving for more (drool)... and more... till you blow up your diet for the sake of these buns. I'm beginning to sound like a deranged coffee-bun addict, and I think I should stay away from these buns for while before it turns into a full-blown, 'hard-to-get-rid-of ' addiction.






Coffee is like a drug to me, and I need to have 2 cups of coffee a day to function properly. But I can't afford to go to Rotiboy twice a day, so I just drink Maxim's in the afternoon. Sometimes, I'd have some pastry on the side like the one shown below. I got this cheese cake from Homeplus for 1,700 won. It's the only cake I eat cause for some reason, I'm extremely choosy when it comes to that. I find the ones served at coffee shops disappointing (except for those buns of course), and I think it's a total waste of money so I almost never order from them. I could get something 10x better than the ones they serve at half the price anyway!

The day we went to Daebudo.

I've heard about Daebudo (Daebu Island) a long time ago from Chris. He always mentioned he wanted to bring me there, but for some reason, we would always end up going to a different place. He went to Daebudo with his parents a couple of years ago, and that trip inspired him to bring me there. Daebudo is located in Ansan-si, Gyeonggido province. This huge island which connects to Oido in Siheung City, sits in the Yellow Sea or how the Koreans call it, "the West Sea". Like I said in my previous post "Beach Talk", the Western shore is muddy and shallow like that of Daebudo, so this place isn't exactly for swimming and more for sightseeing purposes only.

So Sunday was the day we both decided to visit Daebudo. Chris woke up early to find some info about the weather and the place . He doesn't know how to get there without a car (we don't have it right now, and we wont be using it for a while.. long story^^), so he has to know how using the subway and bus. He woke me up around 11 am, demanding breakfast. I don't know but Sunday has always been my "lazy day", so I just bought coffee buns instead of preparing the usual breakfast. Right after we ate, we departed. The coffee and buns made me even more sleepy than I already was (we were up till 5 am the night before the trip), so I had to have more coffee at the station to perk me up.

We got off somewhere in Ansan, and while we were waiting for the bus that'll take us to Daebudo, I took a picture of the place. What I love about Ansan is that it has it's own 'urban' and 'rural' side. This is how their 'urban' side looks like. It doesn't look any different from the streets back in the city.

And this is how their 'rural' side looks like. Looks so different from the picture above right?

Ok, I know Daebudo looks icky and muddy cause you have to get dirty and all (this isn't a place for the squeamish), but you'll be surprised to know how romantic and fun it is to walk in the mud and explore different weird creatures. It's a totally different experience for me, and I had a lot of fun.

A lot of couples and families visit this place. There are so many crabs in the mud so some people brought their own shovel and buckets to catch them.

Those who didn't wanna get dirty chose to stay in shady spots like this. Some put up their own tents, and had barbecue (and if there's barbecue, there would always be soju right?).

Chris had so much fun digging and looking for creatures in the mud. I didn't touch any of them cause I'm afraid they'd bite. Here's Chris scaring me with some unidentified insect.



When the sun was about to set, I grabbed Chris to clean up and we chose a cozy spot to watch...

It's one of the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. The sun made a cute reflection in the mud...

Of course, a trip would never be complete without tasting their famous food. Daebudo is known for it's delicious Kalguksu (칼 쿸 수). It's the main reason why Chris wanted to bring me there. We went to a Kalguksu restaurant that was featured in SBS. While waiting for our order, "banchan" (side-dishes) were served. The grain thing-y is called "bori" (barley), and you mix it with those veggies and gochujang to make "boribap".


And this one is called "bajirak kalguksu". It comes in a really huge bowl, enough to feed 4 hungry people. It was so delicious and so different from what I've tasted before!

Right after we ate, we decided to go home. It was already dark then. Both of us were really tired and we slept on the bus going to the subway station. Chris was being his usual 'goofy-self' when we were at the train, so as not to make me fall asleep again. Ansan is known for it's numerous factories, so there were more foreigners than Koreans on the train. We were oblivious to the stares we got from them as we took this picture...

* and as you can see in the picture, I bite my nails a lot!!!

Not just another Birthday.

I celebrated my 28th birthday yesterday! I can't believe that I just turned 28 cause maturity-wise, I feel like I'm forever stuck at sweet sixteen. Half of the day I spent moping in front of the computer cause Chris seemed to forget that it was my special day. At noon he called to greet me "Happy Birthday" (he even sang the "Happy Birthday Song" in korean). To cheer me up, he gave me a one-day, guilt-free shopping pass, turns out it was totally useless considering the heavy rain...

When Chris came back home, he gave me a bouquet of flowers. I was in awe cause he's so not the type who gives flowers. All I could say is "you remembered!"... He bought it during his lunch break, and kept it in a plastic bag while he was working, so some of the flowers were damaged a bit. I guess he hasn't heard of the word "DELIVERY" yet?! ^^



Despite the rain, Chris wanted to have dinner at some restaurant, so I changed into an orange bohemian-inspired dress which I bought on impulse the other day (blame it on Tessa cause while we were at ZARA last Sunday, she said orange is my color, and when I saw an orange dress on my way home, I remembered what Tessa said and bought it without thinking..^^). When Chris and I went out, the rain was so strong that part of the street was flooded. We had to go back and change into something more comfortable (by comfortable I meant house-wear). It didn't really matter what we wore cause at an instant, we were totally wet from the rain.

We went to a Japanese restaurant that serves all-you-can-eat Tuna sashimi. The guy who cuts up tuna was very welcoming, he even gave us towels to dry our hair. The restaurant is really nice and cozy. It's lucky that we were the only customer at that time as we got the best spot and the privacy we needed. I wasn't able to take a picture of the whole restaurant, but it looks a little something like this..



Like any other tuna sashimi restaurant, they first served some crab porridge and miso soup.



Their tuna is really good! The quantity looks small in the picture, but did I mention they serve this non-stop?



This is one delicious Japanese salmon egg roll.



Since it's my birthday, and we're both shivering from the cold, we had to have some alcohol to go with the tuna.. Ok, I know I said a hundred times before that I don't drink anything besides beer and wine (and a few cocktails), but this is a rare exception where I actually craved for something to warm me up.



While eating, we talked about politics, a bit of history, Lee Myung Bak, and North Korea. It seems boring, but not if you happen to see Chris making funny facial expressions as he try his best to articulate difficult words such as "expatriate" and "solidify".

After dinner, we spent the night at Noblesse. Chris woke up early and got ready for work. He said I should sleep more so I stayed there till 2.

The only thing that's lacking in my birthday story is the gift right? Well, in the middle of writing this, the delivery person came and brought it.



It's NIKE DUNK 6.0 in brilliant magenta and vivid blue color!!! I like how they said "BRILLIANT" and "VIVID" in the box, it sounds so enticing, LoL. So it's cute (CHECK!), outrageously different (CHECK!), color so bright it'll give you eye-sore (CHECK!), but this shoe is so me and I could totally see myself wearing it in the mall, up in the mountain, at the park, or by the beach!

Apart from the flowers, dinner, and the gift, the thing that I'm most thankful for is having Chris in my life. (Picture taken somewhere in Pocheon, Summer '08)



To Oppa,

Last night, while we were talking about lottery and you were doing all those mathematical equations, I realized one thing, and that is having you in my life is like hitting the jackpot! Thank you for making each day better than the last!

Lunch for the Lazy.

Lunch was the first meal I had here without Chris. Whenever he's at work, I can eat any food I want. But when he's here, I'm forced to cook. Unlike Chris who needs rice with every meal, I can pretty much survive without one. In fact, when there was a rice shortage back home, we weren't affected cause my family aren't fond of cooking rice and elaborate dishes.

I scoured the fridge to make this big, fat sandwich. I just threw some lettuce, a big chunk of ham, tomatoes, mayo, and 2 slices of cheese (2 cause the cheese here is a bit bland for my taste). I ate this with a cold glass of orange juice with lots of ice. I can't see any reason why I should sweat in the kitchen cooking a decent meal (in this very hot weather), when I can make a delicious meal like this in less than two minutes!

Going Vegan.

Life seems to be anything but jumping lately.. In fact, I'm so bored there hasn't been a day that I didn't wish to be whisked away to some place more exciting. But my blog badly needs an update, so I thought I should write some of the stuff that's keeping me busy (Ok, I know that there are so many important issues that are far more worthy to put my two cents in, however, I want to keep this blog as personal as possible)..

Weeks back, I enrolled in a vegetarian cooking class. Before you start rolling your eyes on me (esp. those who know how much I love eating meat), let me say that I'm not a convert, and I still enjoy a big, fat, juicy steak without feeling any guilt whatsoever... So what the hell am I doing in a place that shuns those? Well, my mom was recently diagnosed to have type 2 diabetes, and part of managing her illness is becoming vegan. At age 57, she barely tips the scale at 93 lbs. But even with her reed thin figure, she has to go on a strict low-fat, low-sodium, low-cholesterol, and sugar-free diet, which basically means she can't eat anything besides vegetables and some fruits. Because of this inhumane, almost torture-like diet, her weight plummeted to 89 lbs. She has become dangerously thin that sometimes, I wanna force-feed her some cheeseburger and milk loaded with butterfat. So I asked her to enrol in a cooking class, so she could start whipping up things more edible than chopped raw veggies and stir-fried tofu to eat. Turns out she wasn't too psyched to go to class with her age, and so she asked me to fill in for her. I love to cook, and I love learning new things, so I thought it couldn't be that bad, besides I'm also trying to lose weight, and this might be the perfect chance to start eating healthy. The first day of the 4-week long class was a blast. I got to meet new people and stuff.. But as the lecture progressed to the theoretical part, it turned into a snoozefest. There's something about the teacher's raspy, almost humming voice that makes me yearn for a pillow more than anything. She probably recognizes me as the girl who keeps on yawning. I can't help it, as soon as I see her face, I start to yawn uncontrollably. Sometimes, it gets to a point where I get tempted to record her voice to help me sleep at night. Her class reminds me of "Ibong Adarna", and how the son of the King struggled to stay awake so he wouldn't turn into a stone figure. Instead of cutting my palm and pouring calamansi all over it, I take down notes so I wouldn't fall asleep by accident, it also keeps me from chatting with my seatmate who is really nice by the way. Her name is Nasha, a dietician, and a semi-vegan by choice (she still consumes eggs and dairy products, mostly from pastries and coffee)

Going to this vegan cooking class made me realize two things; one, I can't stand the smell/taste of Hoisin sauce (I'm more than surprised to know that there is a vegetarian counterpart for almost anything!), and two, soy milk gives me a bad case of stomach ache, which is weird cause I've never experienced getting a stomach ache from drinking milk, be it skim, whole, or half-and-half. But of course, it also resulted to good things which I'm really thankful for. I'm not sure if I should give it the entire credit for losing two inches off my waist (cause I've been religiously working out as well), but it surely helped a lot. More importantly, it brought me to meet and be friends with two wonderful, and very interesting people. One is Nasha (which I've mentioned quite a few times earlier), and the other is Renan. He's an advocate of PETA, and it's really interesting to hear his opinion as to why we shouldn't eat animals. He sounds like an over-zealous religious extremist whenever he does that, but I don't mind cause he's a genuinely nice guy (or operatively, a proud gay). Even he speaks of feminist theories and philosophies, he never bashed me when I gave negative comments on Katrina's well-orchestrated tears, and things that would normally trigger violent reactions from people who support her.

I owe it to these two people.. They take a couple of hours out of my incredibly boring week. And if not for their contagious sense of humor, wits, and interesting beliefs, I would've surely quit after the third class.

One Costly Craving.

Today's menu is smoked salmon. A recent trip to VIPS got me in the mood for it. So after deliberately and purportedly kicking enough tantrum as I can manage, Chris ordered it online. I guess you could call me a wimp for doing so, but it's only with this display of temperament that Chris would be willing to oblige. So last night, the salmon arrived and I could barely wait to have it all thawed and sink my teeth on it. It was really good, and I couldn't get enough of it. A portion of it, we ate raw like carpaccio without the sauce. Then I sliced up some, and tossed it in my salad. I marinated the remaining salmon in lemon juice, waiting to be pan-fried later. But the hefty price tag kinda makes me feel guilty... I guess 30,000 won for a bunch of cut-up fish is just not worth it, like Chris redundantly pointed out. The price is something I wasn't aware of, till it was packed and delivered in our doorstep. Who knew salmon could be that expensive? I could have had a big, fat, juicy steak for the same price!

The Date.

The weather was really nice yesterday, so Chris and I decided to go on a date in Kangnam. Saw a lot of good restaurants there, mostly serving western and fusion dishes. After a long walk, we finally decided to go to Carne Station (our favorite meat buffet restaurant).

There weren't a lot of people at that time... only a few couples and a group of Americans. But after we got our first serving, more people started to come and all the tables were filled.

Chris went straight to the meat section, and started grilling right away!




I opted for something light like sushi... This was my first entrée.



I love the salmon salad so much that I kept on coming back for more!




We also tried the shrimp and baby octopus...




For desert, we had a plate filled with fruits and other delicious treats. Chris love their rambutan so much, he ate a lot of those.



Food was great, but all too filling. The thing I don't like about buffets is that we tend to eat more than what we could handle. And that's always a bad thing... Just before we left, we made a pact to walk till our feet hurt to burn those inacalculable amount of calories! ^^

The Bread.

I'm currently addicted to this bread which I get at the nearby bakeshop. The shop's name is "Fresh Bakery" (a fact I so recently stumbled upon), and I don't know if they have branches or anything. I consider myself their good customer as I regularly pay them a visit, however, I didn't know about the bakery's name, not till I was about to take a picture of the bread to post here. I couldn't really blame myself for the name recall thing, their name afterall is "Fresh Bakery"... How generic can you get? But it's really good so that fact is the farthest thing on my mind. And without batting an eyelash, it's probably the best bread I ever tasted in Korea... they put really good stuff in it like loads of chestnuts, some other nuts, and chocolate morsels. So good! Reminds me of muffins though, outside it's crisp and with a bit of crunch, and inside it's all moist and yummy! It costs 2,000 won. Really cheap considering a piece of that bread is heavy enough to be a full meal! Love it, love it!

The Cake.

I wasn't exactly in the celebratory mood last New Year's Day, and all I wanted was to get some sleep. But Chris didn't want to make it an ordinary day so he asked me out on a date. We went to Bennigan's for my favorite baby-back ribs, and it took nearly an hour before we could get a table. We must have spent 3 hours there before we decided to come back home. I took his New Year's picture before we left.



Chris then asked me to go home first. He said he forgot something. When he came home, he was carrying this..



It came with a greeting card that says "Happy New Year's Day... from Oppa". So the New Year's day wasn't exactly jumpin, but nevertheless, he made my day! ^^