Taverna de Portugal

The only Portuguese restaurant I've been to in Seoul, Taverna de Portugal (터버나드포르투갈), has became one of my favorite places to go to, especially when I'm craving Nando's Chicken (which I haven't eaten in ages btw). Granted, the taste is not is exactly the same (according to a friend of mine who knows for sure what it tastes like), but their Grilled Piri Piri Chicken (피리피리치킨) is super delicious and full of flavors and it's good enough to fulfill my cravings :p

Located in a small alley in Sangsu (상수), the restaurant is owned by a friendly husband and wife duo. The place is not too big and it gets pretty busy during dinner time, especially on weekends. I usually ordered the Piri Piri Chicken Combo Menu 1 (피리피리 치킨 콤보메뉴 1), which consists of one whole grilled chicken, rice, sausage, bacon, salad, potatoes and home-made chips. It's good for 2 people and if you think that you need more food, they also have other selections on the menu.

They are currently having a summer special menu: Piri Piri Grill Fish Combo—oven grilled whole fish with piri piri sauce (minimum 1 day pre-order is required). Check out their facebook page for more info. 

Tips: Come during lunch time if you want to avoid the crowd. 

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Masizzim

A quick short post on Masizzim (마시찜), a Korean restaurant famous for their Galbi Jjim (갈비찜). They have multiple locations, but the one I went to is the one at Garosu-gil (가로수길). The food was delicious and the meat was tender. There are different levels of spiciness for your galbi jjim that you can choose from, but I have to warn all of you who don't eat spicy food, just get the non spicy ones. My friends ordered the mild ones and they were super spicy according to them (and they eat spicy food pretty well).

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Ewha Campus Complex

Ewha Campus Complex (이화여자대학교) is one of my favorite architectures here in Seoul. Built by Dominique Perrault, this grand complex certainly left quite an impression for first time, even returning visitors. The modern campus complex is nothing like I've seen before anywhere else in this city. It is also interesting to see, even when they have this very modern building structure, they're still preserving the old 19th-century gothic brick buildings surrounding the top part of the complex.

Sharing the shots I took during winter, that particular day was pretty cold. So not a lot of people were crowding the place, only the locals who were braving the cold weather, I assumed. We got there right before sunset, and it was my first time too coming to the campus at that time of day. Seeing how the sunlight hit the vertical structure of the stainless metal was certainly a new experience.

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Ikovox Coffee

A strong smell of coffee immediately greeted me as soon as I stepped into this place. I guess it's a good thing since it is a coffee shop after all. Went to Ikovox Coffee (이코복스) in Itaewon (이태원) by the recommendation of Soozee, who said they have good coffee and good vibes here, which were true. The space is small, a little dark with hints of afternoon light coming through the windows here and there. Two gentlemen talking in the middle of the room, another gentleman was sitting on the counter waiting for his order, and the one that we sat next to was working on his laptop. I think this is a good place to chill, catch up with friends, or simply to read a book. Although when we were about to leave, the place suddenly got really busy, people were waiting for tables and looking for empty chairs. I think it's a weekend thing.

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Seoul City Hall

Can't believe the first 6 months of 2015 is almost over. It's almost the end of June and time sure flies fast. The first half of 2015 have been super awesome for me. I think I've learned and experienced lots of new things that I've never imagined before. School life, work, (new) friends, and traveling probably occupied most of my time. Made lots of great memories and hopefully I can share it here later on :) Now that I'm back in Seoul, I finally have a down time to work through all the backlogged photos that have been sitting on my hard drive all these times :p

Sharing one of the sessions from earlier this year, a visit to Seoul City Hall (서울시청) with Ken and Davina in one cold winter day. To be honest, the interior of the city hall kinda reminds me just a little of Singapore's famous Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay (but of course Cloud Forest is much more impressive) just because they have all these green plants on the walls with the concrete structure on the background. But anyways, the whole building is pretty cool. Lots of natural light (we went on a pretty bright sunny day), tall windows, and interesting building structure. A lot of different angles you can play with when taking shots. There were lots of older people that were hanging out in the cafe on the upper floor—reading or meeting up with their friends. Although seeing that made me think of how much official business actually going on around here? ;p

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