Kona Queens

Cafe Kona Queens in Samcheongdong is one of those places that I find very interesting just by looking at the exterior of the building. So one day, I decided to check out the place and see how the interior looks like. The cafe has 3 floors, the top floor has patio area where you can go if you prefer to sit outdoors. The use of wooden furniture definitely gives a rustic vibe throughout the whole place, yet modern at the same time. This place is probably more of a hang-out-meet-your-friend-and-chat kinda place rather than a studying place. Although I did see a couple of people studying and doing work meeting there. I guess if you don't mind a little bit of background noise, this place will do just fine. And as far as the drinks, I tried their mango smoothie and it was pretty good. 

Nun Namu Jib (눈나무집)

With school stuff going on, freelance projects, and guests visiting town, this past month has been a pretty busy month for me. Now that things are slowing down (for a little bit at least), I'm starting to sort through the images taken during the times my friends were in town. We went sightseeing here and there and tried different restaurants and cafes, so I'm going to share a little bit of that here. 

Before my guests arrived, I was asking one of my Korean friend about what's good to eat in Samcheongdong (삼청동) area and he said there's a pretty famous Tteok Galbi restaurant that I should go and try. And so I went there with my friends. The place is called Nun Namu Jib (눈나무집), which literally translates to Snow Tree House. There were five of us so we ended up ordering a variety of things to try. The restaurant is famous for their Tteok Galbi (떡갈비), so of course we ordered that. We also ordered their Kimchi Mari Bab (김치말이밥), Mung Bean Pancake (녹두빈대떡) and Kimchi Fried Rice (소김치볶음밥). Everything was really tasty. The only thing that was kinda a surprise was the Kimchi Mari Bab was served in cold broth. We weren't expecting that but maybe it's a given amongst Korean? Even so, since the weather wasn't too cold, it was refreshing.

When we were there, everybody looked like they're locals and the menu is written in Korean, so I don't know how foreigner friendly the place is. The price of the food wasn't too bad either. Most items are between 5,000W-8,000W which is pretty reasonable. I do recommend if you want to try different things, going with a couple of friends are probably the best way to do it :) 

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김치말이밥

떡갈비

녹두빈대떡

Nun Namu Jib (눈나무집)

서울 종로구 삼청동 20-8
110-230 Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

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The Rubber Duck Project

Last month, the famous giant rubber duck arrived in Seoul and sure enough not long after its arrival, the social media world (read: instagram) is flooded with thousands of pictures of the yellow duck. Along with hundreds other people who is as curious as me, I went to Seokchon Lake (석촌호수) to see this floating sculpture that I'm pretty sure have travelled more countries than me :)

A little about the project, the 300 kilogram, 54-foot tall duck designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and has travelled many countries since 2007  in a bid to "heal wounds" and "relieve tension" wherever it goes. "The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation." —Hofmann. For you who is interested to see the duck, it'll be on Seokchon Lake 'til next week I believe. 

Pasiya's Injeolmi Bingsu

During summer, when the weather was still hot in Seoul, I went for a small bingsu quest with a friend of mine. We tried different bingsu places for almost a week everyday. I blame it on the hot weather, really. With the weather getting chillier lately, I don't crave bingsu as much, but thought I'd share a couple of shots that I got from that time. So for the first one, we went to Pasiya (파시야) near Ehwa University (이대점). The place is not too big, so it got crowded after a group of tourists came in. We ordered their Injeolmi Bingsu (인절미빙수) and Injeolmi Rice Cake Toast (인절미 찰떡토스트). I'm not a big fan of very very sweet stuff so these two menus were good. Not too sweet, very light, and refreshing. The Injeolmi Rice Cake Toast was pretty interesting too cos the toast is crunchy but the rice cake was very soft. I believe Pasiya is a franchise so you can find it on other neighborhoods as well. 

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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 :) //