seoul-12-08-17

Woke up and decided to try a "western" korean breakfast treat - basically a Koreanized egg-on-bread sandwich type of thing.    Many web sites recommended "Issac's" as the place to go for this, although this is more of a 

'window' that you line up for than a sit down restaurant.    After confirming this was the case with the front desk I took one of the subway lines near me to a station near this place and walked about 10 minutes from the station to

the window.    Between Google-Maps floating blue dot (of where I was) and the directions from the front desk i made it to the line without incident.   Here is the subway route I took on the "City Hall" station line #2.

I made a slight mistake though -- didn't take my heavy jacket or scarf (just my gloves, hat, and black fleece with long underwear tops and a log sleeve shirt).   It was sunny but C-O-L-D waiting in the long line to get to the window

to order.   About a 20 minute wait.

So 20 minutes later (and colder!) made it to look at the menu.   Here's their menu in two shots and a single shot of what I ordered.

Here is a video of them making my (and others) breakfast

And what I ate...  Buttered white break that had been grilled, slice of cheese (mostly melted),  scrambled egg, meat patty, cabbage (probably some type of kimchi but not spicy), sweet pickles, some type of sauce... It actually 

"worked" from a flavor and texture point of view.   Not what I would call a healthy breakfast, but it did taste good and I can understand why people will wait 20-30 (or more) minutes to get one.

headed back to Seoul Station, this time on the main line (a quick 2 minute walk from Issac's).    Once at Seoul station it took me about 10 minutes of walking to

get to the exit nearest my hotel and to walk there.    On my way I had to stop at Paris Baguette again and pick up some additional "breakfast items" which I ate in my room.

Updated this web site and time for a nap!   And more nap!!! And MORE nap!!!   I must be half way+ through the trip as I need more sleep.

Also it is cold out -- "-2 C".   Looking out the window it is sunny, but going outside is COLD.    Fortunately I packed my ski hat, my ski fleece, one of 

my ski jackets, gloves, scarf AND long underwear tops and bottoms!    Ha!!    Even with all of that it is still cold on my face (unless I wear both hoods

from the fleece and the jacket AND use the scarf to go "bank robber" while wearing the hat.    Glad I packed that stuff though!

Anyway, since I have a huge dinner tour coming up from 6-9pm tonight I skipped lunch in favor of a nap but needed a 2pm-ish snack.    I checked out the web

and found a waffle reference that seemed interesting and I also recall walking past this very same "hole in the wall" yesterday.     So I put on all the above gear and

headed out.

Was easily able to "re-find" the place -- for once didn't even need to use my iPhone Google Maps app.    Here's their menu and various pictures.

I ended up ordering the waffle dipped in dark chocolate with hazelnuts.   Came on a stick like a big popsicle in appropriate protective sheet of cardboard/bag.

This allowed me to 'eat it on the street'.

Ate the whole thing, more or less and walked back towards the hotel.   Decided even with  all my winter gear and the waffle now in me that

I was still on the cold side so I stopped in a "tea house" and bought myself a nice hot milk tea.    

Around 5pm headed over to the subway station to head over to the "west side" for another tour dinner that I'd booked.     The meeting point was an exit for the subway station

and had some pretty amazing artwork as well as a nice bench to sit on.     Here's a video of the art down the hallway from where I was sitting -- drawn onto the wall in such a way 

as to make it look like you could just walk right into this alternate reality!

Walking back from this "gateway" (too bad it didn't let me in!) towards where I was sitting waiting for the tour you can also see

the "bookshelf" art.   At first glance it looks like the two walls just have bookshelves, until you look up and realize that these actually

extend and wrap around the ceiling, defying gravity.  

Met up with my tour group, which ended up being the guide and one other visitor from Singapore.   We headed out of the station and walked

a few blocks to a korean BBQ restaurant for dinner.     This dinner was both pork and beef.    Our guide cooked the meat items up for us on the grill 

in the center of our table and we built little "leaf packets" of the meat mixed with kimchee, ssamjang (red spicy sauce), garlic and other pickled veggies wrapped up

in a lettuce leaf.   There was also a spicy boiling soup that was quite good!

We learned a little drinking game along the way.   A korean beer is poured into a glass and then a shot glass is placed floating in that.

Pass the glass around and pour some soju (another korean drink) into the internal shot glass, a little at a time.   The person who 

causes the soju filled glass to sink "loses" and has to drink it all.    Guess what?  I lost!

Fortunately we also had some really good soup -- a non-booze liquid for me to also consume!

It was a pretty amazing first course of the dinner tour

`

We moved on from this BBQ restaurant to walk around to look at some street markets and street food.

We came across a Bau steamer vendor making several kinds of Bau.   One was stuffed with pork and scallions

(I had that one), one with the same plus kimchee - but they were bought out of that so we couldn't get any as the new

batch was still cooking, and one was a dessert bau with red bean paste in it.

Here's a video of the Bau stand

Another street vendor we stopped at made various kinds of Korean Chicken.   

Then we picked up some fry food and went into a little place where we could sit down and eat the fried food and the chicken

Then we headed to our final stop of the night - another BBQ place but this time for chicken.   Here are some photos and a video.

I was so full!    Headed back on the subway to my hotel and passed out for the night!