24 Oct 2011 - Day 15 in Korea

Meeting up with Seon Young and Jihye today before flying back to Singapore tomorrow....

I took the subway to Sindang, exit 8 to meet Seong Young and her boy for brunch at Sindandong.   I chose this place because it was well known for its Tteokbokki.   Actually, I am not a Tteokbokki fan...in fact, I don't really like it because of its chewy texture.   Despite that, I wanted to try out Tteokbokki  at Sindandong because the whole street is famous for their Tteokbokki.  It was a wet and cold morning...The thought of having a pot of piping hot Tteokbokki felt most inviting  ^^ 

I learnt from my previous experience at Express Bus Terminal.  The subway map showed that there were two lines meeting at Sindang station.   I was on line 7.  The other line was line 6.  Exit 8 of Sindang station was quite a walking distance after I tapped my T money.    I can't remember the exact direction from exit 8 to Sindandong.  I think we walked straight for about 5 mins from exit 8, and turned right, where we managed to locate the famous street of Tteokbokki  ^^ 

 

Hmmm....the street looked empty and quiet.  Seon Young checked out the notice pasted on one of the doorway.  She said the Tteokbokki business was something like a family business and all of them went for a picnic!   Therefore, the whole street was closed!   Picnic???  We were unlucky but its ok, at least I know how the famous Tteokbokki street looked like.   I told Seon Young this weather was not really suitable for picnic..hopefully they were not affected by the wet weather..

Seon Young said this is the granny famous for her Tteokbokki

We walked around to find a place to eat. 
Here's Sangyoon who wanted to pose for a picture in front of the fire engine.

I asked if he wanted to take a picture in front of the bigger fire engine and he nodded his head. 

It was before noon when we finally settled on this place for 순대국 Sundae Guk and 감자탕 Gamjatang because I have yet to try both of them in Korea.  감자탕 Gamjatang sounds exciting to me hahahaaa....but 순대국 Sundae Guk sounds worrying because I still do not have the courage to eat 순대 Sundae...

Remember to remove your shoes before stepping onto the platform.

When I have my Korean friends with me, I simply sit back and relax while they placed the order.

Yummy!  I always love piping hot soup  ^^

Suddenly, I realised I was so stupid all this while...instead of using the "zoom" function, I always bring my camera close to the hot food....As a result, my lens went blurred within split seconds since it will take a while to focus on the image.....

Sangyoon has been very patient with me while I took pictures of the food...His mother told him to wait and eat only after I am done!   Poor little Sangyoon was looking at the food with eyes rolling and his spoon all ready to eat!    Errmmm.....I tried my best to snap some pictures very quickly...Sangyoon, so sorry to keep you waiting ㅋㅋㅋ   He was such a good boy ^^

순대국 Sundae Guk.  Seon Young said she likes to add pepper into the soup.  The soup tasted like our pig intestines soup!  Yaaa...I will also add more pepper when it comes to pig intestine soup...

Seon Young added some noodles into the soup. 

That's Sundae 순대..aka "blood sausage", where cellophane noodles/glutinuous rice and pork blood was stuffed into the pig intestines..

It didn't taste as "terrifying" as I thought....was it because it was soaked in the soup??  I haven't tried the normal sundae, so I wasn't sure whether it will taste different if it was just steamed to eat..  I guessed there shouldn't be much difference...

At last, I get to eat my 감자탕 Gamjatang once again!   I saw a few shops selling 감자탕 Gamjatang in Myeongdong but was worried that the serving was meant for at least two persons.  Didn't have a chance until now ㅋㅋㅋ  
Come to think of it... 감자 Gamja refers to potato... hhmmm...I didn't see any potato in my soup.  감자탕 without 감자 felt somehow incomplete...hahahahaa... was it because it was a small pot, so maybe there wasn't much space left after putting in two big pieces of pork.  I remembered the one that I ate in Gold Coast had potatoes, but that could be because it was a big pot for the family.   Nothing to do with the potatoes, but I felt the one that I ate in Gold Coast was better.  Nevertheless, I was grateful that I can eat 감자탕 Gamjatang once again ^^

Waa....Seong Young gave me such a big piece....



The place was packed with people by the time we were done with our food.  The staff were so busy that they have no time to accept our payment.



I saw many Koreans ordered 추어탕 (Loach Soup)

We turned left as soon as we came out from the shop.  Walked for a few mins to reach exit 7 of Sindang station.  Our next destination was Children Grand Park.  Our little Sangyoon had been looking at his mother's watch all this while, to see what time we can leave for Children Grand Park  ㅋㅋㅋ