Friday, June 13, 2014

Gwangjang Market (광장시장)

Surprise. Surprise. Another post from our Korea trip. Another post that's food-related.

We spent an evening at Gwangjang Market with Jieun's sister and brother-in-law. As we got there, we ran into this street parade just outside the market. I believe it was for the upcoming Buddha's Birthday national holiday.



These fish don't look happy.



The market is mostly made up of rows of food vendors.



On a busy night such as this, the counter space around the food stands was scarce.



One of the must-visit spots is this famous food stand that serves the so-called mayak kimbap (마약김밥). It literally means crack kimbap (or drug kimbap). If you're not familiar, kimbap is essentially Korea's sushi roll.



True to their name, they were indeed addicting.



Our next stop was another famous spot that serves up jeon (전), a savory pancake dish. Apparently, the director Tim Burton visited Gwangjang and was a huge fan of this place. So of course, it's now their claim to fame. Honestly, it was a little oily.



Finally, we grabbed some Tteokbokki (떡볶이), which is a spicy soft rice cake. I was also craving some soondae (순대), which is the Korean blood sausage, but it wasn't as good as the place we discovered early in the trip.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Modern Times

One last post from our vacation to a whale's vagina for my birthday a couple of months ago. I had bookmarked a bunch of breweries ahead of the trip and didn't hit anywhere near that many. But I heard some good things about Modern Times.



The space has that industrial feel with a very cool vibe. Samplers are served in a cigar box. And the coffee stout is excellent.



On the day we headed out, we were rescheduled to do our waverunner tour of the coast, but the strong winds returned and ruled that out. So we decided to stop by Coronado Beach.



They were setting up a wedding on the beach and had this nicely detailed sand creation. Having just been through a sand castle lesson the day before, we found it all the more interesting.