Eats with Jeff #11: Grand Finale


It's been a long time coming, but I finally edited the photos from our final "Eats with Jeff". I can't believe that this was six months ago and that we've been in America for six months. Anyway, on this last eats we finally met Jeff's beautiful girlfriend Allison. I was bummed that we didn't get to hang out sooner. It would've been nice to have her along for all our eating adventures. She's really sweet and a perfect match for Jeff.


For our final meal, we decided to go to a crab restaurant. In the two years that we lived in Korea, we never ate crab and it's one of my favorite foods. We spied this fancy crab restaurant in Seomyeon during one of our other outings. Jeff researched the place a bit to make sure it was good and fitting for our final eats. I have to admit that I don't remember much about the food, but I do remember that I liked it. I mean we ate everything on the table, so it had to be good right?! Unfortunately, Jeff told me recently that the restaurant closed. It's the sad fact that in Korea the restaurant business is a competitive business. Restaurants are always opening and closing regardless if they're good or not.


After dinner, we went to our favorite coffee shop, Tokyoloose. It was great seeing Jeff and Allison interact. She's really funny and full of aegyo or cuteness, which I love. In the short time that we were spent together, I could tell she was bringing the best out in Jeff.

I really miss these outings with Jeff. It's been a bit hard being back home. We're starting over in a new city and it's easy to reminisce about the good times in Korea. I wish that we could've spent more time together. Jeff is a great friend and I'm thankful for the short time we had together. I'm looking forward to the next time we meet and we can have another "Eats with Jeff"!

Eats with Jeff #10: Baseball Stadium Food


When you go to a Korean baseball game, you can bring in any food that you want.  It's pretty amazing what you can bring. Before the game, masses of people go to Homeplus, a Korean version of Walmart. We've also gone to Homeplus and the amount of people is overwhelming. Everyone is clamoring to get pizzas, chicken and more. It's incredible seeing people walk into the stadium with boxes and coolers stuffed with food and drinks. I don't know where they put the food, because the aisles are tiny and there isn't much leg room. Some people get creative. I saw one group put their cooler in a seat, which meant they bought a ticket just for the food!


I'm so excited for fried chicken!
Kimbap
Never buy fried chicken from the ahjummas on the street!
Dried Squid!
Look at that delicious fried goodness.

We tried to be creative with the food that we brought to the games. Some things you can get in America, but some you can't. I do think we went a bit overboard because we just kept eating and eating. Although, it was nothing compared to what I saw other Koreans eat. Games usually run for three to four hours, so Koreans come prepared. They bring enough food to feed a classroom of kids. In some cases, they bring enough to share with people around them. We had a few guys feeding me all sorts of things. It's not unusual to make friends with those seated around you. I love that about Korean people. They are always ready to share a shot of soju or a chicken wing. It's great part of their culture and made the experience that much better!

I can't believe we brought a whole pizza!
Blood Sausage and Liver
Someone is excited!

Eats with Jeff #9: Special Edition


I feel like it's been ages since I've posted an "Eats with Jeff". Sadly, our time is dwindling down in Korea and I wont have many more outings to post. Today's post is a very special edition as it features Jeff's best friend Cathy. She came to Korea back in May and we met them for dinner one night. We had a great time and it was really nice being able to meet one of Jeff's friends from back home It was also great being able to share our eats with a new person. 
Galbijim
Korean Style Barbecued Ribs

 We decided to take her to eat one of our favorite Korean meals, galbijim (갈비찜). Markus and I eat it quite often and wanted her to have a great experience, so we took her to our favorite galbijim restaurant. Galbijim is basically ribs, beef or pork, that are stewed with various spices and vegetables. Most of the time it's spicy and the meat just falls off the bone. I love galbijim so much that I'm determined to master the dish and cook it once we get back to America. We also ordered a side of barbecued ribs. Markus really misses Southern BBQ and this is the closest we can get to it. They didn't taste like Southern style ribs, but they were still quite tasty. They were a lot more savory than I imagined, since Koreans love to make everything sweet, regardless if it's dessert or not. 

I think these two bff's really missed each other. Cathy was only in town for only five days and they spent all of those five days stuffing their faces. Jeff is a huge foodie and he loves finding the best food in town. He took her to all his favorite places and sometimes they even managed to fit in five meals in one day. By the time we met her later in the week, they were exhausted and halfway into a food coma. 

After we ate galbijim, we still managed to find more food to eat. We came across this new food stand that offered Japanese style fried chicken. As soon as I saw the words fried chicken, I knew we had to try it. The chicken is fried and placed on a stick. Then you can flavor it with any sauce that you want. Most of the flavors were normal, like ketchup and mayonnaise.  They also had some strange ones, chocolate being the strangest. I tried most of them and honestly, chocolate was one of the best sauces. I was pleasantly surprised and it was the perfect ending to an evening of delicious food and great company. 

Eats with Jeff #8: Outdark Chicken

Outdark Chicken, we finally meet.
If you know me, I'm a huge fan of fried chicken. I know I talk about it a lot in real life, it's really unnatural. I would eat it every day, if it didn't make me fat. I'm not even joking, that's how much I love it. Since we have such a limited time left in Korea, I wanted to make sure that I tried Outdark Chicken. Every time we've tried to go, it's been full and a really long wait. Koreans love fried chicken too. There are fried chicken places everywhere. So when there is a long wait, you know the place is good.

Someone is having a good time.
Yummy Chicken
Banchan and Sauces
I've had a lot of fried chicken in my day and the chicken at Outdark was really good. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but I would definitely eat it again. You can mix flavors and add extras. We added fried cheese sticks, french fries and fried tteokboki. It was a bit too much fried stuff for me, but it was a nice compliment. Jeff brought some sesame leaves so we ended up using them to make chicken wraps and it was delicious. A bit ghetto, because we were the only ones in the restaurant with sesame leaves, but still delicious. I think when we're back in America, one of the things I'll miss the most is Korean fried chicken. I guess I'll just have to learn how to make it! 

I love you fried chicken.

Eats with Jeff #7: Sundae Bokkeum

Sundae Bookeum

On our last Eats with Jeff, we were walking through the streets of Seomyeon and spied a restaurant that offered sundae bokkeum. Some of the restaurants have the kitchens on the outside and you can see what chefs are cooking. The three of us walked over and our mouths instantly watered. I told Jeff that we wanted to eat that and he noted it for another time. Later he did what only he does best and found one of the best sundae bokkeum restaurants in Busan.

Ingredients ready to cook
Those faces...
Ready to eat!

Sundae is Korea's version of blood sausage. I am no stranger to this kind of food. I love Cuban style blood sausage and one of my favorite Filipino dishes is dinuguan, or pork blood stew. When I first tried sundae, it was at a street stall and it wasn't good. I have to admit that ever since then, I've sort of stayed away from it. You know how one bad experience can ruin your impression of something. Markus loves sundae and he was really adamant about having sundae bokkeum, which is sundae stir fried and mixed with vegetables. I'm really glad that I didn't let that bad experience hold me back forever, because this sundae bokkeum was delicious. It was spicy and savory. It's something that I would definitley eat again.

Various sundae

We also ordered a plate of various sundae. There were some that had more blood than fillings and others with more filling than blood. I could tell that these were made in house and not pre-packaged like most places. I really enjoyed these sundae, maybe a bit more than the bokkeum. They didn't have any metallic or tinny flavor. I preferred the one with less blood, because it tasted a bit more savory and meaty.

Everyone always takes pictures with this dude.
Strawberry and Custard Puff Pastry
I love my cranberry juice!

After stuffing our faces full of sundae, we of course continued on in search of dessert. The sundae restaurant was really close to my favorite cafe, Tokyoloose. We decided that it would be the best place for something sweet. I love this place. It's really cute and girly. The servers all dress in the same uniform and they all talk with a really high and cutesy voice. Markus and I go here least one a week or every 2 weeks. They don't speak any English, but they know us. The owners are really sweet and always give us little extra things. Sometimes we don't need a common language to understand one another. We ended this installment of Eats with Jeff as we normally do, stuffed to the brim and happy with the company.