Sunday, 22 May 2011

Korean Breakfast Part 1 @ Kiswire's Training Centre

First day woke up in Korea. Oh my God, sunrise at 5:15am. Our breakfast at 7:30…still a long time to wait.  Bite a biscuit and cup of coffee first while waiting our breakfast. Damn starving.

We went to the dining hall and the auntie or ahjumma were busy setting our breakfast.  A typical Korean breakfast is not much different than any others meal of the day, except maybe just lighter side with less of banchan. Korean breakfast should have rice, soup, meat ( fish, etc ), small dishes of vegetable. Anyway, my first breakfast was quite pleasant. 


Fresh & Big Cockles in Sesame Chilli Sauce

Ojingo Bokkeum
 It’s a dish of sautéed squid and vegetables in a spicy sauce. The flavors are savoury and the dish is very fulfilling. This is one of my all time favourite Korean dish.

Fresh Kimchi

Preserved Mu or Radish

Cucumber Kimchi
Overall, Ahjumma that work at this training centre  really can cooked very well.  Really nice breakfast. I won’t mind to savour it everyday.

Kiswire Training Centre, 
92, Dalmaj-gil 117 Beonna -Gil, 
Haeundae Ku, Busan,  



Saturday, 21 May 2011

Hotteok @ PIFF Square, Nampo-Dong, Busan

In the evening, we went to Gukje Market to buy some souvenir to bring back home. We took a subway from Haeundae to Jagalchi at KRW1,300. On the way there we stopped at PIFF Square at Nampo-dong. PIFF stand for Pusan International Film Festival.  Every autumn, the Pusan International Film Festival, Asia’s best film festival is held with various events in PIFF Square. The whole street is always crowded with people and at night full of splendid neon signs and deep hum of thousand voices are never ended. 

Then we stopped at one stall selling Hotteok. It’s a Korean filled pancake. Handfuls of stiff wheat-flour are stuffed with a delicious mix of brown sugar, honey, generous chopped peanuts and cinnamon. It’s crispy and sweet with full flavor of several types of peanuts. It’s very nice feeling munching this snack while strolling at PIFF Square. Price about KRW900 or RM2.50.



Nice bite of Hotteok

Hotteok Stall 

PIFF Square
PIFF Square, Jung-gu, Nampodong 3-ga, 
Busan, Korea  

Friday, 20 May 2011

Authentic Korean Dinner @ Ye Yi Je Restaurant, Haeundae, Busan

After lunch, one full day we were brought to several factories around Busan at Yusan, Yangsan, Chenguan and Gwang Cheon. Still tired from a long flight and not even sleep we straight away go to work. Night time, our company president invite us for a dinner. This should be a great place. Arrived at restaurant about 7:15pm and it’s located on the 4th Floor. Name of the restaurant is Ye Yi Je. 

Great thing about Korean Food is that you can have something to nibble on while mulling over the menu. These assortments of small dishes are known as Banchan.  Ye Yi Je served great number or cheop of banchan. Each of these dishes presents elemental flavors and textures – sweet, sour , salty, spicy, silky smooth and toothsomely crunchy. In combination, remarkable things happen.



First course, Chap Chae, boiled of dangmyeon or potato noodles, steamed spinach, roasted sliced onion, roasted julienned carrots are mixed with seasoning made of soy sauce, sesame oil and half-refined sugar. Other dishes are salad with creamy and sour sauce, vegetables wrap and jelly fish with seaweed.

Mushrooms
Several types of mushroom, my favourite is oyster mushroom.

Dish of vegetables and egg


Fish dish, don’t know what the name is but still the taste awesome

Modeumjun
A dish of assorted pan-fried delicacies such as cucumber, fish fillet, mushrooms and summer squash, slices that have been coated with flour and egg.

Another Banchan
Crab

Tasted a little bit spicy and sweet, the crab was so crunchy that you can eat it with shell.

Grilled Fresh Prawn
Wild sesame soup, unique creamy taste
Gaji Nomul
 It’s a cylinder rice cake rolled and steamed and marinated egg plant in sesame seasoning.

Dwenjang Jjigae
Soy bean paste soup. Typically served as the main course or served alongside a meat course. It contains a variety of vegetables, shellfish, tofu and occasionally small mussels, shrimps and large anchovies. Usually, anchovies are used for preparing the base stock, and are taken out before adding the main ingredients.

Injeolmi
Is a variety of Korean rice cake, made by steaming and pounding glutinous rice flour, which is shaped into small pieces and usually covered with steamed powder dried beans. This dish also served with several banchan.


Lastly, persimmon tea with peanut cake.

Ye Yi Je dining room is warmly lit and comfortably furnished. Nice decoration and looks elegant. Great place, variety of foods. Truly authentic korean food.




Korean Restaurant Ye Yi Je,
4F, 1150-8, Jung-1 Dong,
Haeundae Ku, Busan,
Korea,
+051 731 1100














Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Tae Gu Tang "Cod Fish Soup" @ Ki Hwa Jip Restaurant, Haeundae, Korea

We arrived at Gim Hae airport, Busan around 8:20am.Temperature about 12 °C. Cool and refreshing. After checked in our luggage at our accommodation in Haeundae Beach. The person in charge brought us for lunch at one of the popular restaurant for cod fish soup, in Korea they called Tae Gu Tang at Ki Hwa Jip Restaurant. The restaurant located at the hill of haeundae and you can see clearly the sea and haeundae beach. 

Hot Bowl of Tae Gu Tang
Tae Gu Tang is Cod fish stew with assortments of vegetables and bean curd in spicy broth. The fish soup boiled with red chilli pepper paste “kochujang”, red chilli pepper flakes “kochukaru” and various vegetables. I got a piece of codfish head and mix with other ingredients such as watercress, onion, white radish, chillies, garlic, bean curd and many more to absorbed the kochujang which is base flavor of this dish. You can add more kochujang to meet you own spicy taste. This soup really tasted great. The fish totally fresh because Korean always prefer fresh and live fish for their food otherwise it won’t taste delicious. 

Banchan
They served several cheop of banchan. It refers to small dishes of food and is served in small portions, meant to be finished at each meal. It will replenish during the meal if it not enough. Delightfully fresh and tasty. Truly Korean.

Most Wanted Kimchi
Kimchi is fermented vegetables, usually baechu ( Napa Cabbage ), seasoned with Chilli peppers and salt. This is the essential banchan of standard Korean meal. Some Korean do not consider a meal complete without Kimchi.

Kongnamul
  콩나물 is a cold boiled bean sprouts with sesame oil.


Ggakdugi or Cube White Radish
Radish Kimchi



Myulchi Bokkeum or Fried Anchovies

Cucumber with Shrimps
Visited by popular korean artist

Restaurant Front Entrance
Definitely will come again to this restaurant in the future.

Haeundae Ki Hwa Jip, 
999-3, Chung 1 Dong,  
Dalmaji Gil 104 beon gil
Haeundae Gu, Busan,
Korea
+051 7315020


Monday, 16 May 2011

In Flight Meal @ Asiana Airlines, OZ 752

Felt exhausted and sleepy from the mtb ride in the morning. Boarded the plane at 11:00pm in Changi Airport, Singapore and straight away went to sleep until that pretty stewardess woke me up for dinner at 1:30am. Main course is black pepper chicken and mix vegetables with rice. That meal also includes fruits platter, egg salad and a bun with butter. Complete the dinner with a cup of Korean coffee.

Muslim Meal Set

A Cup of Coffee 
Asiana Airlines
Flight OZ752
Singapore to Incheoun Seoul