Hog Island Oyster Co.

I've been to San Francisco Ferry Building so many times but this was my first time trying out Hog Island Oyster Co. with my mom during one of our lunch outings. The place seems to be always packed every time I passed by. This time was no difference. We had to wait for 30 min or so for our table. Not too bad I guess since we came right during the lunch hour rush. We were seated right in front of the guys who are shucking the oysters. It was really interesting to see them opening one after the other. Their food was overall great. I'm no foodie so I can't really describe each of the items we ordered in great details, but they all tasted fresh and delicious, each with different distinct flavors. My favorite was their clam chowder. The clam chowder has a nice tasty broth and they are pretty generous with the amounts of clams and other ingredients in the soup. It was a really fulfilling and satisfying bowl of chowder. Can't go wrong with ordering their clam chowder at this place.

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Chocolate Snowflake Bingsu

Patmiok's (팥미옥) version of chocolate snowflake bingsu (초코 눈꽃빙수) is my favorite chocolate bingsu that I've tasted so far. The thing about it is that it's not overly too sweet and those really crunchy chocolate toppings are just delicious. They also offer two different serving sizes for your order that you can choose from—1 person or 2 persons (1인/2인) serving. This location that I visited is the one located in Sinchon (신촌) area, but they have multiple locations all over Seoul so you can find them in different neighborhoods as well. I would definitely recommend this bingsu, especially if you are a fan of chocolate.

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Saint Frank Coffee

Walking into Saint Frank Coffee kinda feels like walking into an office space, or a library, cos everybody there seemed to be working on their laptops or tablets or papers. And the place was pretty quite. I really love this place tho. The cafe is more spacious than how it looks like from the outside and there is plenty of natural lighting coming in from the ceiling above. Came here with the fam to get some breakfast and my dad seemed to like their coffee (can't remember what he ordered tho :P). Anyways, I can totally see myself coming here to get some work done. Just hope that I can get an empty table next time.

Wishing everybody a great week ahead! :)

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Graduation Day

Last summer, some of my friends from Yonsei Korean Language School finished their 6-levels language program and I got the chance to attend their graduation day. It was truly a bittersweet moment. I've became good friends with some of these people and I know how hard they studied and worked for to get to this point. I was truly happy for them for completing the whole program and made it this far. On the other hand, it was kinda of sad because I know we probably won't be able to see each other that often anymore. A good number of people are going back to their home countries after this graduation to go on with their next chapter of life and, to be honest, I don't know when I will be able to see some of them again in the future. Even so, I'm grateful for the experiences and good memories that we've shared together during the short time that we have in school. Some I got to be friends with and some, I'm even lucky enough to call my good friends. 

It's apparently a tradition at Yonsei KLI to wear Hanbok for graduation day, so almost everybody wore Hanboks at the ceremony. I went for a little fun impromptu photoshoot with a couple of my friends to commemorate their last day at school. Sharing with you some of my favorite shots from that afternoon. Hope everybody have a great weekend ahead! :)

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Here are some behind the scenes shots. My friends are one silly bunch :P

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Blue Bottle Coffee Co. Oakland

Blue Bottle Coffee is one of the most well know coffee in San Francisco. Having Oakland as the location for their headquarter and for being known for their excellent coffee, it's not surprising that they are pretty popular in this hipster town. I've seen their products here and there, spread across different locations in the Bay Area, but never actually go to their coffee shop.

And so, my mom and I decided to check the place out during one of our outings. We went to the Webster Street location in Oakland. They decided to use a restored brick warehouse and converted it to a cafe with an on-site roastery. The place was pretty busy when I was there. Half of the people coming in were grabbing their take-out coffees and pastries, and the other half stayed in the cafe to do meetings, work, or reading. Per usual, I tried their hot chocolate and decided to try their waffle as well. The hot chocolate runs a little bit on the bitter side, which I don't mind, and the waffle was delicious. The space has plenty of lights, high ceilings, marble tables, and tiled floors. Perfect space for a working, chllin' or if you want to get that perfect hipster shot of your coffee ;)

p.s: currently editing my cafe hopping pics when I was in San Francisco. More coffee shop posts coming up soon.

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