Showing posts with label Baskin Robbins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baskin Robbins. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Friday Favourite V8: Street Food

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was the ice cream shop Baskin Robins and here is this week's (a little late)...

Imagine playing russian roulette with food, that's the only way I can think to describe street food in Korea. You never really quite know what you're getting or how good it's going to be, until you take the first bite.

Living near Nampo, I think most people would be surprised that it's only in the last month or so that Tasha and I have started eating it. Nampo is packed full of food stalls. There's the international market, the back streets of Nampo and also the stalls packed into PIFF square. They're brightly lit with lots of people milling around, grouped together and eating food. Running down from the square there are these tiny tents, all with mini seats and tables where you can pick your food and drink and take a pew.

I that love late at night when we walk home from Nampo we walk past these tents that are dotted through the backstreets, which're sometimes zipped up. You can hear the revelry of the business men inside, but it kinda feels like a private, soju induced party that we're not invited to!

So far we've tried BBQ'd chicken which was pretty good, waffles which Tasha is a massive fan of, fried shrimp, fried hard boiled eggs and kimbap 김밥(sushi rolls) which I could take or leave. My two absolute favourite things is pajeon 파전 which is a savoury pancake/omelette with lots of greens and meat in it, and the best thing I have tasted so far is hot-tteok 호떡 which is a sweet, deep fried pancake that's stuffed with nuts, which unsurprisingly always has the biggest queue for.

Pajeon

My first try of hotteok
Tasha with hotteok
In one of the tents eating fried shrimp

Friday, 1 June 2012

Friday Favourite V7: Baskin Robbins

At the end of every week I'm going to write down one thing I love about Korea. Last week it was pity gifts and here is this week's...


I am currently on a hiatus from eating Baskin Robbins for a month, after having ice cream cake for breakfast and dinner two days in a row following Natasha's birthday. My favourite flavour is the candyfloss flavour. Mainly because it's an amazing mulch of pastel colours and has POPPING CANDY in it, always a winning recipe. As soon as this month\s finished I am straight on the ice cream fondue.


Meanwhile...Natasha's challenged herself to try every flavour before the year's out. She swears by the chocolate ice cream and loves to eat it with a cone- which i think should be avoided at all costs as cones only come with drama (spillages, breakages etc). Cups all the way!


Not only do I love BR for their amazing ice cream and cakes, but i love that they give out free lego ice cream trucks if you spend enough in one transaction... I'm not quite that hooked yet but maybe one day.


The only negative thing I have to say about it is my inability to spell the name. I am consistently inconsistent at the ways I spell Baskin Robbins and have noticed it's been called a number of different things throughout the posts on this blog! From now on I'll just call it BR to save my poor brain.







Thursday, 31 May 2012

May

I can't believe that it's the last day of May today, where did it even go? It feels like this month's flown by scarily quick, but at the same time I can't believe how much we've managed to pack into our time. It's made me realise that this year is going to be over before we know it.
So this month was the first time I got my kit off and visited a jjimjilbang, which is a Korean spa where for the majority of the time you have to be publicly naked. It wasn't as scary as I'd built it up to be in my mind, although we haven't been back yet. I think I need to sort out my Baskin Robbins addiction before I go again.

We got ourselves out of bed super early (like 6:30) which I'm sure is the earliest that I've been up while I've been here, so we could walk across the Diamond Bridge. This is something that only happens once every year and I'm so glad that we managed to do it. The weather was perfect and the view was great. I also loved the glamorous brass band who not only were carrying their massive instruments the whole way, but were doing it all scantily clad in mini skirts and high heeled cow boy boots! Classy. Our second walk was far more difficult and made me feel like Indiana Jones. Seokbulsa temple and it's view made every bit of the struggle worthwhile though.

I feel like I've spent so much time sleeping on the beach this month that 'beach naps' should be listed as a new hobby of mine. I've not just been napping on the amazing beaches around Busan though, I've also been to a masquerade party on the beach which resulted in me having my first experience with a Korean doctor, and witnessing first hand the hypochondria of this strange little country.

We visited Seoul for the first time, although we only got to see the train station and the metro, which looked very much like any station in Busan, before we arrived at the World DJ Festival. We got caught up in our first extreme storm, which made me feel like an extra in a Final Destination movie.

Two birthdays were celebrated this month, Natasha's and Buddha's. Natasha wasn't the only one to get presents, as I was inundated with pity presents. I also treated myself to my beautiful new camera, which I am still trying to get the hang of. Not only that but I received 3 amazing care packages. The two I've mentioned are from Stacey and Pauline which have been like my favourite parts of England packed into a box.

We've met lots of amazing people that will probably just make my time go even faster, and sadly had to say goodbye to a couple too. I' have my fingers crossed that June turns out to be just as good...

Monday, 21 May 2012

Our Weekend in Pictures

This weekend we celebrated Tasha's 27th birthday and I think it's one that she won't be forgetting any time soon... It started with baseball which turned into a bizarre night out in Nampo-Dong in a Korean night club, next was a trip to Daegu to practise roller derby with the ROKD ladies, a swift KTX ride back to Busan so we could go out in KSU, no time for sleep but Haeundae beach seemed like a good idea at 8am in the morning, tried to sleep it off there but just got sun burned. The best bit was Tasha being so deliriously tired that she managed to walk all the way into my room and stand there for several seconds before realising there was Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday blaring out, a massive cake and lots of presents waiting for her! What was even better was Birthday cake for breakfast this morning.

A street vendor casually chilling with a kitten on his shoulder.
Happy Faces all around when he let us hold it. Not so happy
faces from him when I pretended to run away with it.

Sajik Baseball stadium
Homemade pom poms
Sleepy Giants Fan
Bet he's had a fair few trips from the tooth fairy
Alternative head wear

Bag Heads
Noone wanted to join in our metro party
The third set of people asking for their picture to be taken with us
The fan then preceded to take us to a techno club
Escorted home
Daegu for the ROKD monthly scrimmage
ROKD ladies in action
Trying to get the Baskin Robins cake home in one piece
Ready for birthday fun
The lovely Maybelle Kim
Our view in the morning
I don't know how he stayed asleep this long
Secret birthday hijack attack Natasha. Stevie Wonder was
playing and everything. 
Birthday cake which turned into Monday's breakfast
Trying to embarrass her failed miserably. She loved it.