Showing posts with label Seoul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seoul. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Royal Cuisine: Jihwaja 지화자 , A Taste of Joseon Dynasty

With over 5000 years of history, royal cuisine is the essence of Korean food culture having been passed down by word of mouth of court cooks and royal descendants as well as the records written on royal feast. Royal cuisine was prepared by the best cooks in the court with quality ingredients sourced from across the country. Having reached its peak during Joseon Dynasty, there are still 7 traditional restaurants in today serving the royal cuisine that has been inherited over generations so that more people can enjoy the taste and art of royal cuisine. We decided on Jihwaja, which was the first restaurant specialising in royal cuisine in the country. 
The entrance to Jihwaja.
Directions to Jihwaja
There are a couple of ways to get there:
By Subway
* Alight at Anguk Station, Exit #5 and walk for 50m straight to SK Hub Plaza. Jihwaja is located on the first floor of the building. 
* Alight at Gyeongbokgung Station, Exit #3. Go straight for 1.2km, approx 20 min walk. Jihwaja is located on the left side of the street.
By Bus
* Gyeonggisanggo High School bus stop, green bus: 1711, 7016 and 7018. 
We reached slightly ahead of our reservation timing, so we ventured into the mini gallery next door which documents the history of Jihwaja and the founder, Master Hwang Hae-Sung. The late Master Hwang Hae-Sung, was appointed master of royal culinary art when the Joseon Dynasty royal cuisine was proclaimed part of the Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea (no.38). Jihwaja is run by the family and her daughter, Han Bok Ryeo is also known for her commitment to the culinary tradition. 
Posing on the Eojwa (the King's royal throne during the Joseon Dynasty) with Irworobongdo, a Korean folding screen with the landscape painting of a sun and moon with five peaks. The sun and moon symbolise the king and the queen while the five peaks denotes a mythical place. 
We were greeted by this gigantic porcelain vase when we stepped into the restaurant. We were then shown to our table at a little corner, giving us a lot of privacy for picture taking. 
A place card which detailed about the history of royal cuisine, as well as the founders of Jihwaja. 
Leecher kept saying that he is Jeonha (전하) aka King since this is a meal fit for a king. 
For appetizers, we had pumpkin soup, water kimchi and also, sauteed vegetables wrapped in pancakes and cucumber-stuffed dumpling. The pumpkin soup was so good and sweet. My first try at mulkimchi and the broth tasted so refreshing. The veggie wrap was really chewy and needless to say, they are delicious yet healthy. 
The highlight of the day - the royal casserole with vegetables and meat. I was talking to the server when I got startled by the fire and she was, in turn startled by me. 
The royal cuisine are very healthy and nutritious as they are prepared with only natural ingredients and royal culinary techniques, without using any MSG, artificial flavours or additives. As the server was explaining the dishes, I had a vision of Dae Jang Geum (大长今) preparing my dishes at the back of my mind. 
This was indeed a meal fit for a king for we struggled to finish all the dishes placed in front of us which included the casserole, glass noodles with sauteed vegetables and several other seasonal delicacies. 
We finished off the meal with dessert and tea.
We were lucky that the chef came out of the kitchen to greet the customers, so we took the opportunity to take picture with her and also, thanked her for the amazing meal. 
Jihwaja 지화자
Address: 125, Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Tel: +82-2-2269-5834
Reservations are required

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

N Seoul Tower N서울타워

Standing at 237m tall, N Seoul Tower (also known as Namsan Tower) is the highest point in Seoul and offers a bird's eye view of the city. From a transmission tower, Namsan Tower has undergone various renovation and remodelling to become an iconic landmark of Seoul. It was also renamed from Seoul Tower to N Seoul Tower, where "N" stands for new, namsan and nature. The tower is often featured on K-dramas as the defacto meeting or dating place for all couples, who will then leave a love lock as a pledge of their everlasting love. 
There are various ways of getting to N Seoul Tower, but we opted for the cable car since we were staying at a guesthouse nearby. It takes 10 min on foot to reach the cable car station but we took twice the time as we were busy taking pictures and exploring the surrounding areas since this was our virgin trip to Korea so we were intrigued by every single thing that we came across. 
We finally reached Namsan cable car entrance after scaling a steep slope and several flights of stairs. The cable car runs from the base of the mountain up to N.Seoul Tower. Besides walking, there are several ways to get to the cable car station.
Shuttle Bus
You can board the free shuttle bus at Exit 1 of Myeongdong Station and at the Seoul Square bus stop at Seoul Station. The shuttle bus operates every 30 minutes, starting from 12PM till 8.30PM. 
On Foot
From Exit 3 of Myeongdong Station, walk through the alley and stay to your right, passing the 7-11 store and continue about 7-8 minutes between Pacific Hotel and GS25. Namsan cable car is at the top of the hill near the Chinese Consulate.
By Ohreumi/Incline Elevator
From Exit 4 of Myeongdong Station, head towards the Hoehyeon intersection (towards Shinsegae Department Store) and turn left at the intersection. Walk about 5 minutes to reach Namsam cable car Ohreumi/Incline Elevator.
We headed to the ticketing office on the 1st floor to purchase our tickets for the ride. An adult single trip costs KRW$6,000 while a round trip costs KRW$8,500. Hence, it made more sense (for us at least) to purchase the round trip tickets. After purchasing the tickets, you will be ushered into the queue.  
Check out the crowd! It was recommended to reach before noon for a quieter experience but hey, looked like everyone had the same thought! I even planned this visit on a weekday so we get to avoid the crowd but this looked like my plan failed miserably. 
Well, I shouldn't let the crowd dampen our holiday mood :) 
By riding the cable car, you will see the whole of Namsan right in front of you. 
With a capacity of 48 people per car, I have to say the waiting time is still bearable. The cable cars is equipped with glasses on all four sides, which give riders a view of the surrounding city-view as we made our way through to the top. The ride was relatively smooth and before we knew it, we have arrived.
Our first picture here, displaying the Korean-heart. Saranghae 
It was indeed a sunny day, but surprising the cool wind kept me cold and I had to put on a light jacket.
I immediately recognize this pavilion - this was featured in Running Man, whereby they had to gather people for a rope jumping/picture mission. In fact, a lot of other K-variety and K-drama shows feature N Seoul Tower which makes it a must visit on my first trip to Korea. 
There was an event for visitors to dress up in hanbok and take pictures with the royal guards for memento.
If given a chance, I would love to visit again at night. With the latest LED technology lighting which constantly changes colours and patterns, N Seoul Tower has become a "light art" providing various media art together with an unusual cultural art experience. 
This place is so crowded that it is difficult to get a picture without anyone walking into your frame. We managed to get one decent pic, all thanks to the group of strangers who helped to stop "traffic".
The main agenda of our visit was to ...... you guessed it - that is, to leave a love lock to pledge our everlasting love! Actually, we came here to have a meal at N.Grill but since we were already there so might as well right?
This place is home to thousands of love locks, where the padlocks covered every inch of the railing and fences. Each of the padlock symbolize the hope of everlasting love that the couple shared.
We bought these from the gift shop, went to find a quiet bench and proceeded to write on the locks and ended up with
.
.
.
.
Our declaration of love, is that evidence of our "telepathy"? At least I'm faithful to only 2 (at the point) while someone had a whole truckload of girls that he liked.
Well, at least we had our less important "love declaration" on the other side :) We then proceeded to find a lucky spot for our locks.
You can chose to deposit your keys into the bin thereby sealing your love forever, but we decided to bring the keys home as memento of our virgin Korea trip. 
Tadah, our padlocks of love at N Seoul Tower. Another mission checked. 
Before we left, look who I bumped into? Leecher termed it as my "highlight" of the day, to take picture with a Kim Soo Hyun cardboard. Well, that certainly light up my day!
N Seoul Tower
105, Namsangongwon-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 용산구 남산공원길 105 (용산동2가)

Monday, May 29, 2017

Cycling at Yeouido Hangang Park

I spent the weekend catching up on my fave K-variety shows and I watched the Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 special on Infinite Challenge, with my eye-candy Park Bo Gum as the special guest (*.*) Having hosted the summer Olympics in 1988, South Korea will now host the Winter Olympics in 2018. In this special, they challenged winter sports such as bobsleigh, ice hockey and curling with the national Olympic team members. For those who have missed it, you could catch the specials on Viu (ep. 524 to 526) and witness the effects of "Bo-Gum" magic. I will be focusing more on Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 in future posts too. 
Now that the harsh and freezing winter has subsided and the weather has turned warmer, there is an increase in outdoor activities for friends and families prefer to spend their time outdoors after being in the cold for so long. Yeouido Hangang Park would be one of the top choices, for there is a wide range of activities to do in the park. We exited from Yeouinaru Station (Line 5, exit #3) and were greeted with this sight! 
It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we came out for this trip instead of spending our time indoors. During cherry blossom season, this place will be packed with people, who will set up "camp" on the open spaces with families and friends, bonding over drinks and food while enjoying the scenery. This park also plays host to the fireworks festival during fall. If you had watched "Legend of the Blue Sea", you would be familiar with the scene where Joon Jae and Shim Chung witnessed the fireworks display in this park. 
The main agenda for today's trip: renting a bicycle and exercise our butts, ha! There are plenty of bicycle kiosks scattered around the park. It was easy to rent the bikes even if you don't understand Korean: you just need to indicate the number of hours, how many bikes and surrender a photo ID as deposit. Also, try to use your driving license or student pass instead of passport just to be safe.

BIKE RENTAL INFORMATION
Min rental: 1h
Single/Child: 3000KRW/hr, 500KRW for every 15 min
Tandem/Advanced: 6000KRW/hr, 1000KRW for every 15 min
We selected our bikes which came with baskets so we can dump our stuff and ride with ease. 
Leecher testing out his bike and he looked like he's having fun!
We cycled for awhile; peddling furiously up the slope while cruising down slope. At this point, I was starting to curse under my breath for choosing this route. Well, we didn't exactly chose this but we just followed where the majority of the cyclists were heading, ha! I was beginning to feel the strain in my leg muscles, so we decided to stop for a quick break. Thankfully the weather was superb so I wasn't feeling sweaty even though I had a great workout. With Hangang Railway bridge as our backdrop, we took a couple of pictures before embarking on our return journey. 
That's the fun part, to feel the breeze in your hair after the intense workout of peddling up slope. 
Yeouido Hangang Park
Address: 8 Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Tel: 02-3780-0561
Directions: Yeouinaru Station (Line 5, exit #3)
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