12 April 2012 - 삼겹살 Samgyeopsal dinner with Carrie and Ivan

Met up with Carrie and Ivan at Gwanghwamun station, exit 2. Although I don't miss Singapore at all but it feels really good to see my relatives in Seoul! My plan was to have dinner at 장뚜가리 Jangtugari. If I'm not wrong, Jangtugari has a few branches. From exit 2, we made a 180 degree turn to our left. I was not sure where was Jangtugari but I think we had to walk in the 2 o'clock direction. The online information stated that it will take about 3 mins to walk from exit 2 to Jangtugari. Warning: Below pictures do not led us to Jangtugari.

We walked and walked.  It took about 5 mins to reach here.  
Yeah...We have already walked for 5 mins but where's my Jangtugari...

Cross the road...

Saw this place on our left...we continued walking....

And we came to this alley....We wondered what was the building on our right.  One of the unique thing about Korea is you can find ancient building structures in the mist of modern buildings.

I felt bad to make my cousin and her husband walked so much, so I decided to ask some Koreans for directions.  If I am alone, I would probably walk a few rounds before asking for help!  I approached two Korean office workers by showing them my map and the word "장뚜가리 Jangtugari".  Surprisingly, one of the Korean guy knew 장뚜가리Jangtugari and his English was very fluent. Hmm...that shows that Jangtugari is popular.

He told us we were walking in the wrong direction and need to retrace our steps a bit. He even offered to bring us there!! Oh gosh...we were very touched but we felt bad becos he was going to meet his friends for dinner.  I told him we can make our way there if we could just show us the direction.  He asked if there's any special reason to choose Jangtugari and suggested a nearby restaurant, which he frequently patronised if we wanted to eat 삼겹살 Samgyeopsal.   

Yes, I wanted to check out Jangtugari becos of its 삼겹살 Samgyeopsal and 돌솥밥 Dolsotbap. The Korean guy told us the Samgyeopsal that he recommended will be a bit oily. Hmmm...oily??  Sounds strange. Well, we took up his suggestion and the restaurant was just a few steps away.

Saw the white signboard? That's the place.

대성 Tae Sung was the restaurant he recommended.

Making our way to the restaurant.

삼겹살 Samgyeopsal at KRW 10000 for each person. Is that considered cheap? Expensive or normal?? Oh, they have 부대찌개 Budae jjigae as well. Ya, Budae jjigae is something that I wanted to try for a long time...

The lady boss spoke in Mandarin when she realised we are foreigners. Great! Ivan ordered Korean Beer becos he's a beer lover.  He also agreed that Korean beer taste a lot a lot nicer. See, I mentioned about this in my last trip. I'm not an alcoholic but its really a fact that Korean beer is much nicer.  

I wanted Kimchi jjigae but the lady boss told us that's 김치 찌개 Kimchi jjigae in the center of the hot plate.  BUT!!! It didn't taste like 김치 찌개 Kimchi jjigae at all!!  It was almost tasteless.  We understood what the Korean guy meant by "oily"!!  It was really oily when the fats oozed out from the fatty meat!  The fats came in thick layers...omg...so fattening...but so yummy!!  Hur hur

I was craving for 계란말이 Gyeran Mari but it was not on the menu. The lady boss said she can prepared it for us. It was a very nice gesture but we were shocked when she presented us with two plates of 계란말이 Gyeran Mari!!  How could we finished two plates of egg omelettes??!  I asked her why there were two plates of egg omelettes.  She said becos there were too much eggs used!  Huh??  The omelettes were nice but we couldn't finish it...The total bill was about KRW53000.

We walked back to Gwanghwamun station and past by this shop. I loved the decor! We actually planned to check out Banpo bridge but it was really really cold that evening.  Carrie and I were chattering our teeth from the cold  so we had to drop the idea of going to Banpo bridge ㅠㅠ
By the way, we discovered that carrying a haversack helps to make one feel warmer! Carrie took over Ivan's haversack for the rest of the night and she felt a lot better!
I came to know that Ivan likes the black bean milk. I told him it would cost almost double the price to buy it in Singapore.  He decided to drink as much as he could before they fly back to Singapore in two days time. Ya, me too!! That's my favourite beverage in Korea!