dDoinkster Speaks

So finally a posting of food. This one is from Korea at the HeyriPan area. The place is huge and they have some interesting restaurant in the area but cause we were in a rush, we went to the closest one. Nice restaurant with a interesting art gallery on the ground floor. Even the stairs that lead up to the restaurant is like an art piece. Really love how they did up the place. Really love how they did up the place but I was having so much fun that I forgot to take photos of the place...almost forgot to take photos of the food too. ;) It's some kind of vegetable soup, can't really remember what it was...all I remember it was nice but a little too much green for me. :P A simple salad leading to a yummy lunch. ;) The red snapper was just right. Looks good, doesn't it? But being a meat person, the medium-done beef was delicious! :) Man, I miss Korea. Links to my other Korea posts : Annyong Haseyo. Guess who I met at Jarasum? Seoul Trip. Random photos from Korea. More random photos from Korea. Insadong & DongDaeMun.

Watched some movies over at J&C's place again. Funny how Tesco's products have interesting names, such as this one. Got myself some glassware too from them. Don't think you'll find these again. :)

Did a little sight-seeing around the Insadong & DongDaeMun area. The start of the Insadong art street...ok,so they don't call it that but they have a lot of artsy stuff there so let's just call it that first,ok. :) Lovely place. See loads of artsy stuff. Cool fire-hydrant huh. Ok, so this isn't one of the art pieces but it's been awhile since I saw a red fire-hydrant. Looks good. :) One other thing that they do have abundant here are the music stores. This building here might seem like a normal office building but it houses 2 floors filled with music stores. They have everything here. Whatever musical instrument you want to find, they have it here. When I got there, I was like a kid in a candy store! I was going crazy! They have Fodera guitars here. The kind that Victor Wooten uses. Not only they look good but they sound real good too. Cost? 4 million won, which is roughly about RM 16,000. Pretty good deal, so I've heard. If I had the cash, I would have gotten this green roundback guitar. Well, if I did have the cash then, I would have gotten the Ovation guitar I had my eyes on. ;) See, kid in a candy store! :P Anyways, back to the food! This fried chicken cost 12,000 won about RM 48. Must be some real good chicken! ;) Good sandwiches made right in front of you. I know it's just a sandwich but the girl that was making the sandwiches is hot so... That really does help with sales. haha. :P These guys were fun to watch. They would put on a show everytime there was enough crowd. Something about dragontail... all I know that they are sweet and they stick to the top of your mouth. Pretty good except for the fact that they stick to the top of your mouth!!! Why do they have to do that?!?! ;) These tasty meat on skewers are great too. Being hungry might have helped with the taste too. ;) Coachmean as they might call it gives you a choice of chicken, beef or pork. *slurp* Cheap roadside food and they are clean! Just becareful cause you might not realise that you're spending a lot of wons just on roadside food. ;) This was the worst! Boiled cocoon or something like that. All I remember was the stench that came with it. *ugh* Even the next day, I could still smell it. It was just nasty! If you have tried it or would give it a try, spare me the details cause I sure will not try it. *bleh* We took a 20 minutes walk towards DongDaeMun. The Sungei Wang style of shopping in Seoul. These shopping malls open from midnight till the next day. Koreans sure like to shop during weird hours. But it seems that the best bargains are during those times so it's like having a sale everyday but during midnight and 6 a.m. On the way there, we was their lovely river running through the city. So well-kept. Just look at it. They have ducks swimming in 'em. Try finding ducks in our rivers. Look at that. A beautiful river running through the city centre. The hustle and bustle of the city just a couple of metres away from the river. Why can't we have it here? Why? Why? Why? ;)

Been trying to sort out my Korea trip photos but to no avail so I'm just going to post whatever my pointer points to. :) Throughout the trip we were given pretty good attention by the festival organizers. Sure does pay off when you know them. haha. :) We had a bus that takes us directly to the festival. Straight to the entrance, most of everybody else had to park and walk about 5 minutes to get to the entrance. No, not us. :P So the boys had to do a gig in town at one of the fringe events with a co-sponsor for the festival. Farid and the gang was the first asians to perform at the just opened LIG Art Hall. What a honor. The place looks really fantastic. State-of-the-art facilities. Kick-@$$ sound system. Sure does make our art centres look real bad! ;) Was also doing some sight-seeing around town and was over at this mall called Lotte World. Man, the place is huge. Sorta like Berjaya Times Square but this one has a skating rink in it. They even have a ride in the shape of a hot-air balloon. Funniest thing, this little battery-operated doggie with a balloon tied to it. It'll just walk around and stop everso often to bark and then walk again. Ok,so it might not sound funny now but it was hilarious when I saw it there. Maybe cause a kid was kinda freaked out by it.. ;) As I was saying the Korean have really funny names for their restaurants and hotels. Here's one. Ho Lee Chow. The chinese food here must be real good. ;) Haha. Wait, maybe the food here is only for holy people...but it's a panda chef. Maybe it's for holy pandas. haha. :P Ok Ok...but you have to admit, that's a funny name! :D Ok, back to the festival at Jarasum. They have a whole area dedicated to musical instruments and this little thing here is really loud! All you do is step on the metal plate and it'll make the sound you usually hear during a war and they are trying to warn you of an impending air-raid. Really cool. :) But it's a really good fringe event/exhibition. Everybody was trying everything out. Good exposure for more unique instruments. If you're wondering where did all the food photos go... well,here they are. :D Yummilicious hot soup in a huge pot. I kid you not, the pot was hot and huge! But the best bit, they have a huge pig roasting and it was good! :D Thank goodness the koreans love pork. ;) The boys also had to perform at another festival, HeyriPan Festival about 2 hours away from Seoul. They have a whole village just dedicated to art, can you beat that? Wow. Couldn't get this piece of art though. Anybody care to explain this to me? :) On the way back to Seoul, we got to see the border. :) Yes, that's North Korea right over the other side. It was a great trip! :D Can't wait to go back again if I get the chance!

Yes, I've changed my Sony Ericsson s700i to a Nokia 6131. Almost everybody said that it's so not me to do such a thing.

One, going back to a nokia phone.
Two, the new mobile is not better than the old mobile. [Well, spec-wise it's not much of an upgrade... more of a lateral change of mobile phone]

I've gotta admit, I'm as surprised of my actions too. Never would I have guessed I'll change to a clamshell phone and a nokia at that.

Anyways, this is the first photo taken with the new mobile. Still trying to get a hang of this camera... not as good as the s700i i must say.

By the way, if you're wondering what the heck is this... this is called roti goreng. Made of 4 roti canai and fried like maggi mee goreng. Very interesting. :) You can check it out over at Sri Paandi near the University Hospital in Petaling Jaya.

The Koreans sure have some funny business names such as this. A convenient store. They also have a restaurant called 'Restaurant Very and Good', a hotel called 'Hotel Very 6'. Who comes up with stuffs like that? ;) They have place called Penang too. :) I wonder if they realise that Malaysia has an island called Penang. A jazz bar called 'All That Jazz'. Not too bad and they have quite a lot of jazz bars around but don't think all of them have 'live' bands playing. Best thing, they have Krispy Kreme too! What a treat! :D Why can't somebody bring in Krispy Kreme to Malaysia or Singapore? Sigh... Also right next to where we were staying, Joe's Sandwich is a good pick. Tasty, affordable sandwiches and coffee. Good alternative if you're bored of the bulgogi, bibimbap, kimchi, and the other stuffs. Delicious chicken teriyaki sandwich. :) Goes well with the bossam that you can get from Family Mart, another version of 7-11. Kinda like the stuff you get in Japan. But I have to say that I really am loving their kimchi now. Been having cravings for good kimchi and korean food. What is wrong with me?!?! ;) :P I could have bulgogi for months on. :) More photos to come after I've sorted them out.

Man, I just can't get back into the swing of things after the Seoul trip. It was just fantastic! Lovin' the place and the people that I met there. Hopefully next year I'll be able to tag along with the fellas to another country! :D This is going to be a photo-heavy post. You have been warned. :) So we got to Incheon around 8 a.m. and the weather was fantastic. A little cloudy but cooling! Interesting architecture. There was a warning about some typhoon on its way when we arrived but it didn't happen so that was cool. Seoul Residence was great. It had everything kitchen, untensils, hi-speed internet connection, washing machine, iron. Best thing, we stayed for free! All thanks to the Jarasum International Jazz Festival people! They don't use keys anymore, just a card and you 'touch 'n' go' to get into the room. Great stuff! :) One thing about the drivers there, each thinks they own the road! If you think Penang drivers are bad, you will love them after you spend some time on the road with the koreans! For my first korean lunch, we went to a basement restaurant. For 16,500 won we 15 dishes. It was like a food marathon. Not a good idea for first timers to korean food! And as with any korean food, you'll have the standard kimchi. I really have no idea what I was having during lunch but it was an interesting experience. Even Chang-Ho, the artist manager for the festival had no idea what some of the dishes were. ;) But I do know that this fish was great and I loved it. So was the beef! And the pork! :D *slurp* The salad was good too with their own special dressing. This was not fun! I took the green color vegetable thinking it was an okra but it was not. Oh, it was so not... it was the spicest chilli I've had in my whole life. Nothing came close to this. I was sweating, my face went red and my tongue was numb! It took a lot of hot water to kill the heat! So a word of advice, don't stick the whole thing into your mouth. So to un-numb my tongue, I drank most of the ice water from their 'GAYA' brand. ;) Korean style dimsum. This I loved the most. Sweet desserts, rice cakes with red beans and stuffs in them. I wonder if I can find this here. That's the spread for 11 people. The waitress do move really fast here.