12th Seoul Silver Grass Festival

Last Friday, I went to Haneul Park (하늘공원) — located within the Seoul World Cup Park (월드컵공원 Subway Line 6) — to see the Silver Grass Festival that is going on right now with seoulstateofmind and inner.pastiche. It was a much needed break from all the studying that I've been doing all week so a walk in the park instead of reading books and hangul characters was definitely a more appealing option for a Friday afternoon. It was weekend after all :)

The weather was super duper nice that day — warm sunshine with blue sky, what more can I ask, really (I'm really a sucker for blue sky :p). This was my first time going to Haneul Park so I was imagining that it's just like any other park that you can just walk to. Apparently, it's located on some sort of a hill where you need to do a short hike up the stairs before you actually arrive at the park. After we got to the top, we just wandered around and enjoyed the view of waves of silver grass around the park. It was very pretty :) Anyways, the festival is going on from October 16th to 24th so anybody who's interested to go still can make it this week :) And oh, you might encounter lots of ahjummas wearing bright hiking outfits in the park taking pictures (at least we did).

// special thanks to Ken who was being a good sport modeling for us :) //

Sinchon Hwangso Gopchang • 신촌황소곱창

Visited Sinchon Hwangso Gopchang, which apparently one of the most popular gopchang 맛집 around Sinchon area. I was looking forward trying out gopchang, but my friend who ordered for all of us ended up ordering daechang (대창) (large intestine) instead (I think). Anyway, after our order came out, we have to wait for a good while. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the ahjummoni came over to our table and pretty much cooked the whole thing. After that, it's another couple of minutes of waiting time again. I think this is probably not a good place to go when you really hungry and want to eat right away.

After they say it's all cooked and ready to be eaten, we started eating. It's my first time eating daechang and it certainly has an interesting taste. It has rubbery and chewy texture and after eating a couple of pieces, it's very oily. I'm not quite sure if I like it or hate it. I might need to give it another go :p Anyway, we also ordered the fried rice, so after we ate all the daechang, they cooked the fried rice in front of us. Next time I come here, I'll try their famous gopchang for sure. 

Sinchon Hwangso Gopchang • 신촌황소곱창

Address: 서울특별시 서대문구 창천동 52-148
Telephone: 02-337-2640
Hours: 15:00 - 03:00 (Everyday)

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Gossam Naengmyeon (고쌈냉면)

Gossam Naengmyeon (고쌈냉면) is one of the place that I usually go to for a quick and cheap lunch. They have multiple locations and I've been to the one in Ewha University Area & Sinchon area. They're (obviously) specialized in Naengmyeon, but their Bibimbap is also good too. And when you order either one, it comes with a side of beef. 

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Pork Bone Soup (감자탕)

One thing that our class ended up doing every time we finished an exam, go out for good food. For our end-of-midterm celebration we went out to eat Pork Bone Soup (감자탕) near Grand Mart around Sinchon area. According to my Chinese friends, this place is pretty popular amongst the Chinese. The food was definitely tasty, price is reasonable, and it's not as spicy at it looks :)

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Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu • 춘천집닭갈비막국수

Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu (춘천집닭갈비막국수) is one of the popular places around Sinchon area to eat Dakgalbi. The food is good and the price is affordable too (costs around 6000-8000 won per portion). This place is also popular amongst the locals and also tourists, so if you come here, the staff can help you order too (I think they can speak basic phrases for ordering in Chinese and Japanese). We ordered the cheese dakgalbi and it wasn't too spicy. So for those who can't handle spicy food, this would be a good choice. 

After ordering, the staff brought us banchan and we waited for a couple of minutes for the food to be ready because it involved a couple of steps when they cooked the food. First they put all the food items on the grill pan, mixed them when they're cooked, and added cheese in the end. But they pretty much did all the cooking. So all you need to do is sit back, relax, and wait for the food to be ready.

Chuncheonjip Dakgalbi Makguksu (춘천집닭갈비막국수)
1, Yonsei-ro 5ga-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 서대문구 연세로5가길 1 (창천동)

Sinchon Station (Subway Line 2), Exit 1.
Turn right onto the first side street (Hyundai Department Store).
Go straight for 130m and cross the street.
The restaurant is next to Changcheon Children's Park (창천어린이공원).

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