Yearly Archives: 2012

Shopping in Korea

By | Shopping, Travel | 2 Comments

We didn’t really do much shopping, but we were able to visit some places quickly mentioned to us by some friends.  As mentioned previously, branded imported items are 30% more and other imported items in general.  So I would recommend doing local shopping or buying Korean brands or Korean made items.  

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Near Mc Donald’s in Itaewon is an underground market, you might find some nice export overruns here if you are patient enough to look

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 Crocodile and python skin products! 🙂

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James wanted a wallet, but ended up buying a cheaper version using eel skin 🙂

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I think he just liked the vendor so much since he was very kind,

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he ended up buying things he did not really need.  Even Javier got an eel skin belt for himself. Yikes! 😉 

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and I saw this store that looked exactly like The Pink store by Victoria’s Secret 

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 Clothes for dogs! how cute! 🙂

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I think Daddy misses Japan, he asked Nana our tour guide to take him to electronics shopping

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While Dad was there, we went to COEX Mall which is an underground mall.  This was good for us because it’s so cold outside that mall shopping is much better!  We only had 30 minutes though so we did not get to see and shop much  

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There is an aquarium and a megabit theater which we were not able to see.  My friend Steve says the Aquarium is not that great though

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many facial masks all over!!!! You will go crazy!!  Especially during winter when you need all the moisture that you can, you want to buy all of these!! 🙂 

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Myeong dong is very near our hotel – a very crowded street, mostly young people shopping here.  The shopping carts in the street come out mostly at night.  Many street food carts as well 

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Love all the local korean brands for make up and skin care!! 

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Banana Republic? 🙂

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Winter accessories!!! 

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Noryangjin Fish Market, Korea

By | Foodie, Travel | One Comment

We love Fish Market adventures! 🙂 Day 3, we went to the fish market.  It’s not as nice as the one in Tokyo, though I always remind the family to stop comparing Korea to Japan or else we will continue to be disappointed!

Previous entry:  Tsukiji Market Fresh market January 9, 2010 

Each country has it’s own unique charm 

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries operates the Noryangjin Fish Market which is Seoul’s largest market for marine products. This 66,000 square meter facility houses over 700 shops selling fresh and dried fish and squid from 15 fishing ports around Korea. It also includes numerous restaurants, an auction floor, and an adjacent agricultural section. Open from 3:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., retailers work every day while wholesalers take off Sundays and holidays.

Hours:01:00 ~ 18:00 (wholesale auction)07:00 ~ 20:00 (dried fish)24 hours (raw fish)Open throughout the year 

Directions: Subway line 1, Noryangjin Station 

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The vendors have this can with charcoal to keep them warm! I just stood beside this because it was super cold!!

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Jaime told me that Koreans eat octopus live!! I wonder if this is it!

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Live crab that we bought

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Cleaning the fish and making it into sashimi

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We were looking for Toro!  We found but it is not the same as the one in Japan

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After shopping for the seafood, we went to the restaurant that cooked all the stuff that we bought.  They charge for the cooking

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We wanted tempura but our tour guide made a mistake

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This was the BEST!!! The crab!!!!!! SUPER! I wish we had just bought more of this and just had crabs!  Everything else was not so great, but the crab was delicious! It was around US$ 160.00 for this crab and Dad said that if you had this in New York, it would cost US$ 750.00!

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Our tour guide Nana was great!! She even knew how to cut the crab! 🙂  She also enjoyed the crab and all the food with us 🙂

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Soup made out of the fish head and bones which was made into sashimi!  Very good!

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Momoyama, Lotte Hotel Seoul

By | Foodie, Travel | No Comments

A friend told us that Japanese food in Korea is quite expensive in general, what more a Japanese restaurant in a hotel.    The food was good and the ambience was perfect…is it really worth it?  I would probably just eat Korean food while in Korea and maybe not eat in the hotel 🙂

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Lotte World, Korea

By | Entertainment, For kids, Travel | No Comments

One of the benefits of staying in Lotte Hotel is they have a shuttle which brings you to Lotte World 🙂  It takes around 30 minutes to get to Lotte World from Lotte Hotel ( Lotte Hotel, Seoul Jan 10, 2010 ) 

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Good thing it was indoor!!! 

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It’s a mini Disneyland 🙂 

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Since it was Christmas and everyone as on holiday, not a good time to go to Lotte world! oh my gosh, the place was jam packed and the wait for the rides were too long!   

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Ice Skating rink  

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I got to ride one ride! 🙂 the others maybe two.  6 of us in one cart.  We just went around, had lunch and then left.  We warned the rest of the family not to enter anymore to avoid paying the entrance fee. 

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and there is an outdoor park as well with rides for the more daring ones! 

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For more information, click below to go to their website 

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 There is a hotel and some shopping as well in Lotte World. I wasn’t able to go around much for shopping

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Coffeeshops in Korea

By | Travel, Yummy! | 2 Comments

I noticed that there are so many coffee shops in Seoul!!!  So many different brands!  According to our tour guide, the biggest chain is Caffe Bene with around 3,000 stores in Korea

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followed by Tom N Tom’s with around 2,000 stores

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and then Starbucks with around 1,000 plus stores

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James was looking for his chocolate croissant in Paris Baguette which he really liked, but there was none in the area so we entered Paris Croissant while in Insa-Dong

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Our tray

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This was the BEST!!! It is like a profiterole without chocolate sauce!! Mom got this and shared it with us

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The cream inside is just super duper yummy!!!!!!!

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I went to check out the display where Mom picked it up.  It comes in a package of maybe around 6 pcs. inside

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Of course I chose the cheese bread which was also good!

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Din Tai Fung, Seoul

By | Foodie, Travel | No Comments

While we were driving from the hotel and made a turn, we saw DIN TAI FUNG!!!  Everyone got excited!! So we reserved for lunch!  It’s the best looking one I have seen among all, too bad my photos of the restaurant interiors were corrupted.  Mostly everyone said that the Xiao long bao was not the same, but James said it was the same.  So he enjoyed! 🙂   I liked my frozen yogurt dessert 🙂

I told my Mom, we will attempt to go to Din Tai Fung in every country it is in 🙂

Previous entry: Din Tai Fung April 26, 2010 ( Shanghai ) 

Din Tai Fung Hong Kong June 29, 2010 

The Best Xiao Long Baos December 24, 2010 ( Hong Kong ) 

Din Tai Fung Singapore May 7, 2011 

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Garosugil Street, Seoul

By | Shopping, Travel | 2 Comments

This is one of my favorite spots in Seoul!  Thanks to my friend, Keri Zamora, for recommending this!  It’s one street full of nice quaint coffeeshops and hip stores! I think i took a photo of almost every store in the street

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Traditional Korean Meal

By | Foodie, Travel | No Comments

To veer away from korean bbq, we wanted to have other korean dishes like beef stew, chap chae and others.  So we asked help from the concierge and they recommended this place.  I don’t have the name anymore, it was in Korean!  What I want to show here is a Traditional Korean meal.  It’s like having a degustation or Chinese Lauriat meal

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They have different set menus and varying price ranges

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We just chose the cheapest 🙂  since we just wanted to try and see what it was all about.  Some couples ordered one meal and just shared.  It’s a good thing they allowed

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