Stumptown Coffee Roasters Garosu-Gil • 스텀프타운 커피 로스터스

I first heard about Stumptown Coffee Roasters (스텀프타운 커피 로스터스) after I moved to Seattle. Just like I associate Blue Bottle Coffee with San Francisco, I associate Stumptown Coffee with Puget Sound and Portland. I'm not necessarily saying that those brands are the best brands in those two cities (they might as well be, but what do I, a non-coffee drinker, know. really), but more because of my friends and the people that I met in those two cities just happened to named those brands as their favorite coffee to drink. Seeing the brand in Seoul, this time in Garosu-gil (가로수길) to be exact, gave me a sense of familiar feeling and reminded me of the time I spent in Seattle. Funny sometimes when I realized the things that I associate with a certain period of my life seemed so small and unimportant back then, but now, they could mean hundreds of memories.

I didn't know when this place was open in Garosu-gil, but I'm guessing not too long ago since I didn't remember seeing it there last summer. I was actually talking about Stumptown Coffee beans with a friend of mine a couple of days before and was telling him that he should try their coffee beans because it's pretty well-known in Portland. And whaddaya know. A couple of days later, I just happened to pass by this place when I was exploring Garosu-gil. Since I'm already there, I thought I would buy a bag of their coffee beans and give it to my friend to try. There was some kind of discount going on I think, cos I get a small discount and a free bottle of cold-brew coffee.

A little about the place, the coffee stand is actually in the same building as the Official Holiday by Koon store. It has a small outdoor seating area, which is pretty nice and cozy I would say. I didn't get to browse around the store other than the Stumptown's corner, but I would definitely go back and check out the store and maybe have a cup of tea and sit around for a bit.

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Update:

This cafe is now closed.

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Amorino • 아모리노

I went to Garosu-gil (가로수길) for a Sunday afternoon stroll after church last week and passed by this gelato place called Amorino (아모리노). Wasn't really planning on getting a gelato or anything, but that rose-shaped gelato on a cone looked interesting. Plus I was sweating from all the walking around and could actually feel that my face was burning. So, taking a break at a gelato place sounded perfect. Ordered hazelnut and vanilla on a cone and it did came out like the pictures they have on the banners in front and on the counter of the store (just minus the macaron in the middle, cos I didn't order one, but it looked exactly like a flower). The gelato has good texture and tasted nyum. The only downside was I had to somewhat quickly finished it cos the weather made it melts pretty fast. Anyways, hope everybody have a good weekend!

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Baobab • 바오밥

After we finished our photowalk (see my previous post here), we went to Baobab (바오밥) in Sinchon (신촌) to get dinner. The place is fairly new, I think, cos last time I was here, they just had their grand opening. Never been to this place before but the menu looks good, the food looks good, so I thought I should give it a try (and dragged Yais with me too this time). Their menu is not particularly extensive, which is usually a good sign for a Korean restaurant since they have to cook those few menus real good, otherwise people won't come back after their first visit. There are 4 main menus to choose from and some sides too if you feel like you need to order more food to add to your mains.

When it comes to food, I'm a fairly easy eater. Doesn't matter if the food is simple, as long as it tastes good, I'm a happy camper. Simple delicious foods are the best sometimes and that was exactly what I got from this meal. We ordered one pan of the galbi (소갈비한판)—which comes with rice and banchan—and the steamed egg with cheese and shrimp (치즈새우계란찜). Everything tasted good, seasoned well, and the portion was just right for two people to share. It was a solid meal, especially after all those walking around we did earlier that day.

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After dinner, we decided to go to Homilbat (호밀밭) to get some bingsu (빙수). This is probably one of my fav milky bingsu spots up to date, so I thought it'd be a good idea for Yais to try it too before he leaves. We ordered the summer special—the watermelon bingsu (수박빙수)—and it was really good. Ending a hot summer day with bingsu is never a bad idea, really. So that was my Saturday. And oh, I did a post before about Homilbat which you can check out here. That's it for now.

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Lookups with Yais

Last Saturday, I went for a photowalk with @_yaisyusman_, one of the Singaporean instagrammers who I've been following for a while. I actually met him for the first time during my last trip to Singapore, but we didn't get a chance to shoot together that time. So this time, when he happened to be in Seoul, we decided meet up for a photowalk and visited a couple of spots that he wanted to check out. To be honest, I didn't know if I were going to survive this walk, given Seoul's super hot weather these days and almost all the locations we decided on are outdoors. But I did give it a try anyway, thought it could be fun.

Funny thing tho, we both came from tropical countries—he's from Singapore and I'm from Indonesia—that has similar temperature to Seoul's summer weather. You'd think that we would be used to this weather, but let me tell you, Seoul's current weather is at another level (it reached 38°C at some point). We both agreed on that. And we both can't remembered the last time we sweat that much just by standing still in one spot without moving. In the end, I did survived the walk. So did he. And here are some of the shots from the walk and be sure to check out @_yaisyusman_'s instagram account for his shots.

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Zado Ranking Shop

One thing I learned about Seoul is that shops open and close so quick around here. One time, I was on my school break and went away from the city for vacation, and when I came back a month later, there were quite a bit of a change of the stores in some of the neighborhoods I frequent to. This time, since my last trip was almost 5 months ago, I thought I'd do a survey to my old neighborhood and see what's changed. Quite a bit I should say.

I ended up going inside Zado Ranking Shop (Zado 랭킹샵) at Sinchon (신촌) yesterday. I think it's a new snack/bakery store (cos it wasn't there when I was here last time) and if I'm not mistaken, they have ranks for different category of the items. Some of the categories are snacks, beverages, instant noodles, rice, and they even have unique one like 'blindtest'. Not sure what it actually means. The products sold on the store are not exclusively Korean, most of them came from different countries like Japan, America, and even Indonesia. I'm thoroughly surprised to see some of my favorite Indonesian snacks and instant noodles in this store (Indomie takes 2nd place in the Rice & Noodle category btw :P). I ended up buying a Japanese watermelon soda from this place, which tasted pretty good, and for my next visit I think I'm gonna try one of those Emergency Food Instant Rice that they have in store (see picture below) just to see what it tastes like.

Wishing everybody a great weekend ahead! :)

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