La Lune Violette

Perfectly. Cooked. Lamb. That's the thing I remembered the most about this place. La Lune Violette (라 룬 비올렛) is a French bistro located around Hongdae (홍대) station with great food menu and wine selections. Went there for dinner with a friend of mine to do some catching up. We ordered their Sous-vide Pork Belly with Bacon Wrapped Asparagus (수비드 꼬숑), Apple Chips Salad (사과칩 샐러드), and Sous-vide Lamb Shoulder Rack (수비드 램) to share. The Apple Chips Salad was a nice refreshing opener to the meal. The crispy apple chips were really delicious and gave a nice balance to the dish. On to the main courses, the pork belly was cooked perfectly, with crispy skin on top of each pieces. Although the overall dish tasted a little heavy, it was still good. My favorite dish was the lamb dish. Perfectly cooked, a little crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and seasoned just right. The only thing that was lacking is the portion :p (was still craving for more lamb at the end of our meal). Overall, I would recommend this place to anybody who want to try some good French food with a fairly affordable price. Although the menu portion is a little small, I guess that just means that you'll still have some room for desserts afterwards :)

Hope everybody have a good weekend ahead! :)

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Boriam Temple

The last destination of our Namhae (남해) road trip was Boriam Temple in Geumsan Mountain (금산 보리암). The temple is located at the top of Geumsan Mountain so there was a little bit of hiking (and a short bus ride) involved for us to get there. The mountain is surrounded by small islands that spread across the Namhae sea which make the view from the top really beautiful. It's no mystery as to why there were lots of locals presence in this place. Most of them are older people with their full hiking attire, but I swear, I think they like come here everyday or something cos all of them looked like they're walking up the hiking trail like it was nothing and they all walked faster than me (shame on me, I know).

Ken, Noah and Hannah decided to do a little bit more hiking to the higher part of the mountain. But since we got there pretty late in the afternoon plus it looked like it's gonna rain soon, I opted to wait for them in the temple area since I was the slowest amongst all of us and didn't want to hold the group back. And I thought it'd be cool if I could get a shot of them from this side of the mountain. They made their way up in no time and back to the temple right when the rain started to fall and a couple of minutes before closing time.

Although we left the park right when the park was closed, we did miss the last bus down the mountain and had to call for a cab. But then, when we were waiting around under the drizzling rain for our taxi in the parking lot, a nice lady saw us and offered a ride down the mountain in her husband's car. We gladly took her offer, cancelled our cab, and four of us squished at the back of their sedan. And luckily we did, cos 5 minutes after we got in, the rain started to pour heavily. The husband was really nice too. He made conversations and asked us questions on our short ride down. We said our thank you when they dropped us off right at our car and scrambling to get into the car to avoid getting drenched by the rain. And with that, our adventure at Namhae came to an end. 

p.s: to the nice ahjumma and ahjussi who gave us a lift down the mountain, 감사합니다! :)

Read the previous parts of this series here:
Boseong (pt.1), Beach Break (pt.2), Damyang (pt.3), Field of Tulips (pt.4), Making Memories (pt.5), Dumo Village (pt.6).

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Special thanks to Noah who drove us around during the whole road trip, to Ken who introduced us to all these places, and to Hannah who has been a great company (and always made sure that I'm okay :P) during this two-day trip. This will forever be my favorite road trip in South Korea :) (until our next epic one at least :P)

Check out their instagram cos they take amazing photos:
@seoul_stateofmind | @noahskim | @hannahmuhh

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Fell + Cole

Fell + Cole (펠앤콜) is one of my favorite ice cream shop in Seoul. They have 3 locations and this particular one is the one located at Sangsu (상수). Their unique selling point is they are Korea's first artisanal gastronomic ice cream made with all natural ingredients. Their ice cream flavors are changing weekly (and sometimes daily), so if you wanna know what flavors your are getting, you should check it out at their facebook page. But if not, just head on straight and be surprised by the unique flavors they came up with—Makgeolli, Stout Beer, and Yoda's Wisdom to name a few. If you are not an ice cream fan, they also have a selection of sorbets and sherbets and seasonal cold desserts you can choose from. This place is definitely on my go to list for dessert time.

p.s: For those who are celebrating, hope everybody is having a good Chuseok holiday with the family and loved ones. 즐거운 추석 명절 보네세요!

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Dumo Village

After the two unscheduled pit stops that we had (1st pit stop & 2nd pit stop), we finally arrived at the location that is actually on our itinerary, Dumo Village (두모마을). This place was my favorite location during our road trip. Apart from being a little bit cloudy, the weather was perfect, and with a view like this, how could anybody complain, really. The canola field was really beautiful and everything was in full bloom. You can see rows and rows of this beautiful flower growing on the terraced paddy field.

Up to this point, I've had my fair share of traveling, moving around, living in different cities, and meeting lots of people from all over the world. I can say for sure that the best and most memorable experiences I've had were usually because of the people whom I shared those moments with. The people factor can really make or break an experience. It might sounds cliché, but it's true and finding the right people is something that is not easy to do. Having friends who have similar interests, passions, life principles with you AND with whom you can connect and be real with is like winning the lottery. And at that moment, I felt like I've won three. Plus, we actually got a chance to travel together and shoot together. That's just a big bonus. 

We didn't do anything particularly special at the village, but just the fact that I could share this experience with these three amazing individuals—having fun shooting together, talking and being inspired—was really something that I'm grateful for. This trip is one of my favorite moments during my stay in South Korea and I gotta say, I probably wouldn't enjoyed the view as much as I did without these guys—Hannah, Noah, and Ken. 

(Also, check out Ken's snaps and post on the trip here.)

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Cafe The Yellow

If you wanna try a not-so-classic burger, Cafe The Yellow (더엘로우) located in Yeonnam-dong (연남동) is apparently a pretty popular joint amongst the locals. Why I called their burger 'not-so-classic burger' you might ask? It's because of the runny sauce that they pour on top of the beef patty that makes the burger tastes (and looks) so much different than the American classic burger that I'm used to eating. And since it's pretty popular amongst the locals, I'm guessing that that's how they like they burgers. The portion is pretty fulfilling and they have good fries. If you are up for trying something new, this place is worth going I guess. But for me, I still prefer the classic burger over this ;)

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