SK Trip Diary: Food Trip, Seoul style

The first time i tried eating Korean food was when I was still in Iran during my site assignment in 2005. Our joint venture company is Daelim and since they are the major company most of the food in the mess hall are Korean food. At first I didn't appreciate their food but when I tried Kimchi, it was heaven!

It was love at first sight for Kimchi, and from then on I started to love kimchi and crave for it whenever I'm in a Korean restaurant.

During my stay in South Korea I discover many korean traditional food other than kimchi (heck, kimchi is just an appetizer pala!). Here are some of the foods that I tried...

(since i didn't remember their name i'll just specify the restaurant where I ate it)

1. The meal that I ate in Hong-Ik University area. Cost: 12000 Won

It's actually a heavy-gat meal that I ordered one super hungry afternoon (i ate it at around 2:00pm kaya sooper gutom!) Was suprise me is mas madami pa yung side dish kesa sa main course!

Fromt he picture below you can see four different types of vegetable side dish. The orange thingy is  radish kimchi, the far above are toge with some garnishing and sweet sauce while the other one is another form of kimchi. I ordered a seafood style hot pot complete with live baby octopus!!! In fairness masarap sha.

Can you see the baby octopus now cooking?

Oh, I love this vegetable side dish. It's sweet and spicy. Pang mayaman ang peg at arrive. LoL!

2. The unexpected chicken. Cost: 15000 Won


What a weird situation, when I arrived in South Korea I instantly craved for Fried Chicken. Yes, weird isn't. Kung kelan naman nasa malayo ako saka naman ako naghanap ng Jollibee Chickne joy! While looking for restaurant for my dinner I pass by this small pub that offer friend chicken at a reasonable price. No brainer pasok agad ako and immediately ordered Fried chicken.


To my surprise a whole bunch of friend chicken arrived on my table. Parang 2 kilos of chicken pala yung inorder ko! Turns out the pub was a "beerhouse" and the servings there are "pulutan" size kaya madami! Ayun ang ending kinain ko lahat ng manok an inroder ko.


After that I think I didn't eat chicken for the next 2 weeks.


In fairness the fried chicken taste yummy and  the side dish (cucumber and radish, no kimchi) are so-so lang.

3. The common Korean food. Cost 6000 Won

This is the same food which are available in many Korean restaurant in Manila. Typical tonkutso pork, kimchi, cup of soup, rice and some vegetable garnishing. Nothing fancy. Feeling ko pang fast food lang ang mga ganitong food sa Korea.

4. The ginger inspired delicacy. Cost: 10000 Won


Five different types of ginger side dish with fried pork is a good combination pala. This one I got on my last lunch in Seoul. Mabilisang kain lang because I need to get back to Busan for my flight to Manila.

So, what struck me the most about Korean food...


1. Some food are serve in small servings, no wonder they are thin!
2. Some food comes in big servings, which is a plus points for heavy eater like me.
3. Magpakagutom ka then order those big serving foods.
4. No need to order softdrinks, tea is more preferred during lunch or dinner (and it's for free!)
5. Try other coffee shop instead of the usual Starbucks and CBTL. The Angel coffee shop is a must try!
6. For cheap foods, try to visit Hong-Ik University. Since madamins students dito obviously pababaan ang mga restaurant for their food service.
7. Kimchi is bottomless. Get as many as you want. LoL!
8. Most restaurant have credit card machine. Very convenient for people who doesn't want to bring money during trips.
9. Most service crew cannot speak English, so turo-turo system with the menu is the key for understanding.
10. Enjoy. Eat. Burp.

Celebrating Friendships at Sonya's Garden

Last Palm Sunday, me and my college friends decided to visit Sonya's Garden in Alfonso, Cavite. Though it was a long drive, the bonding experience with the girls was priceless.

I was actually in the place a couple of weeks ago, and since we didn't get an reservation for a lunch, I decided to return to that place (with a reservation in tow). Here's the pic of the girls (all Mechanical Engineers) I'm with at Sonya's Garden.

(from Left to Right: Olive, Otly, Joy and Ka Kenny)

If you're into vegetarian food, Sonya's place is the place to be (parang wendy's lang jejeje) If only my crush agreed to have our date in Tagaytay, I should hvae brought her here. Kaso we parted ways before I even asked her out. (insert sad song here, lol)

(The main entrance of the Lunch Hall)

(Inside the Lunch Hall)
The place is full of organic/flower/plant-thingy, even on the shot glass! Gah, the ignorance in me complained to the waiter why there is a leaf on t he glass. Turns out it's some kind of a fly repellant. Wow!

(Sir di po ako dumi, pang-design po ako sa table.Duh! - dahon sa shot glass)

First meal course was the bread and ceasar salad. Since we arrived past 1:00AM already we we're patay-gutom na when they start serving the appetizers.

I think we had a second serving of the salad coz it was just totally delicious. yes i'm a sucker for green-and-leafy vegetables.

Second meal course was this fried salmon, though it was malaman, i didn't like it's taste =P.



But my biggest discovery in this trip is the so-called "taragon tea". The smell is so sweet and the taste is so sarap! One mistake though, i didn't bought a taragon plant at Sonya's. Shucks. Mental note to self: BUY TARAGON PLANT IN TAGAYTAY!!


When we we're in the place, there was a wedding reception to be held later in the afternoon, so we got a chance to see the intricate details and design of Sonya's Garden for wedding set-up. Look at this wonderful napkin design. At least you have an idea on how your table set-up would look like if you plan to hold your reception here =).






Oh this is not included in the wedding table set-up, this is our table lang, hehehe. I've notice also the design in the napkin is not the same as the other napkin. No two napkin are the same ( i think).




Outside the restaurant are the myriad of plants, shrubs, and flower where you can enjoy the relaxing surroundigns of the place. Also, you can buy freshly baked bread on their bakery and some pasalubong on the store. All are affordable in fairness.

(Sonya's store) (Flowers are abundant in the place, but no picking of flowers ha!)

(Roses are not always red, there's pink and white too)

(Inside the bakery for pasalubong)
(One fo the mini-water fountain inside the garden)

(Tourist buying pasalubongs)

Though the place are a bit far from Tagaytay rotonda where most of the restaurant are located, it is still worth the effort if you're really looking for a relaxing weekend get-away.

Felling hot @ Chilis

One thing that excites me this past few weeks is discovering good restaurants here in Al-Khobar/Damman/Dharan area. One good restaurant find is Chilis in Mall of Dharan.

Actually there's two Chilis branch located near to our place, the one is in Al-Khobar Corniche and the other one is in Mall of Dharan but we prefer the Mall of Dharan branch because of the ambiance and
its is convenitently located next to my..errr..our favorite mall also (i.e. IKEA).

Chilis restaurant is divided into two areas, the family and bachelor, as customary to Saudi's law, though we need to pass throught he family section before entering the bachelor's area.
Upon entrance, their gracious host welcomes you together with their servers who will take your orders. I find this very hospitable and feels like we're @ home. I remember experiencing this kind of kind gesture
when I ate in Kamayan/Dads/Saisaki in Glorietta together with Floro.

As for appetizers, I recomend the Garden fresh salad, with chicken and shrimps. It's not only healty but the servings is huge 4 persons can share on it.

Though Chris prefered eating Tostada as appetizers.

Though im not a big fan of chips/tacos I do recommend ordering this Tostada coz not only it has a superb creamy white sauce dip but also this is bottomless.

Yep. You can eat Tostada as many as you want and you can even take home your remaining Tostadas. Isn't it great?!

The Iced Tea beverages are to die for. I love the way that we have to add-up the syrup by ourselves. This is the best prepared iced tea that 've ever tasted (sorry tokyo tokyo, but your my second favorite iced tea parin dont worry!).
And one thing good about it is it is Bottomless also! Yahoo!

Bottomless iced tea = Frequent visit to the bathroom.
(btw, the bathroom is waayyy too far from the resto, so you'll better have an empty bladder upon entering and ordering bottomless drinks)

For Main Course we tried a variety of food in the Menu.

Flame Grilled Ribeye, with bones still on it, was a winner. I think it was 306 grams of pure beef meat, tenderly cooked and easily sliced. Best to eat while it's still hot.

I suggest you to dip it in a hot sauce, super good combination!!!

As for the side dish, they have a lot of side dishes to choose from like mash potato, buttered vegetables and steam brocolli. All of them taste good (tried them already) but im always been a mash potato lover and their version of it was delicious! Sorry brocolli, better luck next time =P.

As for dessert, the molten chocolate cake is a runaway winner. Actually the only reason I went to Chilis is to eat this delicious cake with ice cream on top. Its a combination of cold + hot dessert. Sure fire hit!

So if you're living near the vicinity of Mall of Dharan or in Al-Khobar Corniche, please do visit their restaurant and I assure you you'll enjoy every minute of dining out here.

Ja-ja-ja- Jollibee is now open!!!!

So the long wait is over, the favorite Filipino fast food chain is now open in Al-Khobar (again) and situated in a mall where a lot of Filipino hang-out too.
Of course i would want to be there on their opening day. It's the "IN" thing now in Khobar and i should be there =P
So last Sunday, after begging a friend to join me in my forray in Jollibee (he doesn't want to go there coz he's not a Jollibee fan, but i can be very persuasive hehe) and see what's the fuzz is all about.


I was expecting a small crowd shuold we get there since it's already 7:30 pm but lo and behold there are 50+ people who are in line in Jollibee.
Not to mention the another 30+ people who lined in family/for girls only section. Jollibee's opening was a hit! One kababayan even told me that TFC even covered the event earlier.
Sayang, I missed the opportunity to be seen on TV.

Thank God we have a friend who's already in the line so we ask him to buy our order as well.

And after 1.5 hours of waiting, sight seeing, making new acquiantance to other kababayans, finally our order arrived!

I must admit the cooking was hastily done but nevertheless the gravy is still as delicious as in the Phils.

Mapapa-ilabyou sabado pati narin linggo ka talaga sa Jollibee. Sarap talaga!

Gain and Loose weight in a week

It's official, in less than 1 week I gained 5 pounds! How?, Ganito yon: Sunday lunch I ate 4 servings of my nanay's kare kare (which happens to be my favorite food lang naman), then at about 4 pm i ate 2 servings of this ulet, then around 7 pm another 4 servings. Grabe, lamon kung lamon talaga. Then came the new week, due to personal reasons like my car having scratch, non-profitable work sa office, boring canvassing that i need to attend at the office (c'mon a beauty contest sa office, how cheap is that?), and the super sweet super sarap yema of our beloved but mega expensive canteen i didn't have a chance to visit the gym. So you'll see too much eating plus zero gym activity equals additional 5 pounds sa weight. I was even shocked to learn that my 31 inch pants is too tight for me na!

So what a better way to loose this excess pounds? Join the Badminton play of Lingkod in Makati. Me, being a neophyte in this game, who handle the racket for the first time in his 27 years of existence, and the only 60 degree of relation is through Kuya Efren, got a shock of my life, err.. as i called it "Badminton Shock". At first I was skeptical and intimidated by my co-players, especially when i missed hitting the shuttlecock, but in the end I get used to it. Though after 30 minutes of game I have to stop playing coz my finger is already bleeding due to scratch in the handle, and I'm sweating all over like when I'm still in Iran. I must admit I have a great time playing the game, I think 30 minutes of running, hitting, smashing (naks) and cursing (hahaha, can't help it eh) is equal to 1 week of gym exercise. Galing diba? Now I'm back again to my old form, thanks to Badminton. Nakakapayat pala sya =D. Yun lang may isang catch.....


Now, my body is aching pain all over. But hey, no pain no gain diba?

Now, I'm looking forward to what's gonna happen over the week.