It's our last day in Seoul, and we have a couple of stops to hit before flying off. Coffee is usually the first order of the day for Foursheets, and I honestly felt a little lazy this morning. Since there's a branch of
A Twosome Place right in the lobby of
voco Seoul Myeongdong, I figured we should just get our coffee and breakfast right here.
I got myself some kind of a
bacon and cheese bagel, which was OK. I don't expect amazing bagels when I'm in Asia...
...but this coffee... This was REALLY SHIT. Totally bland and tasteless. This was most definitely the blandest coffee I can remember ever having. Together with our experiences over the last few days, it makes us wonder... do Koreans actually know to make coffee? I don't remember the coffees I had in Seoul last year being anywhere nearly as bad, and I know that this is a chain and all... but still!
In fact, Foursheets was so disgusted with her coffee we had to cross the street to the outskirts of Namdaemun Market (남대문시장) to get her another one from a coffee stand. It was slightly better, but still not a decent cup of coffee.
We were lucky enough to get a booking at
Geumdwaeji Sikdang (금돼지식당) - otherwise known as "Gold Pig" to tourists. This time we were not seated on the top floor with sunlight coming through the windows, but on the second floor in front of the counter.
The restaurant makes it easy to order with sets for 1, 2, 3 people and up, so we just took it easy and ordered the set for 2.
First up was the
bonsamgyeop (본삼겹) - the bone-in pork belly. 300 grams for two of us.
The bone was cut away from the meat and grilled separately.
We got it cut down to bite-size...
I took the first piece with just a dab of salt to ensure I get the pure, porky flavors with the liquefied fat.
Second piece was taken with the spring onions and fish sauce.
Then another piece wrapped as
ssam (쌈) with basil leaf.
Kimchi-jjigae (김치찌개) - standard for every set.
And this came with with chunks of fatty pork with skin on.
We also had plenty of kimchi.
Pork cheek (항정살) - very fine marbling. 100 grams for two of us.
Really nice and juicy. Taken with plenty of spring onions and sauce.
Nunkkot moksal (눈꽃목살) - the "snowflake pork neck". 100 grams for 2 of us.
Very tasty with a bouncy texture. Also made into a
ssam.
The bone of the pork belly was kept on the grill, and eventually the meat just next to the bone was stripped and served up.
Just look at how the melted fat glistens in the light...
Ramen was thrown into the
kimchi-jjigae pot, and that was definitely better than your average
Shin ramyun (辛라면)!
At this restaurant, even the dessert is pork! We finished with some
pig skin (껍데기).
Grilling this right required patience and effort, pressing the skin down on the grill to melt and squeeze out some of the fat, while imparting the right amount of char.
Seeing liquid fat drip from the skin was just sooooo tantalizing... and we were encouraged to coat the pieces of skin in garlic sauce and
kinako (黄粉)-like soybean powder.
This was delicious pork, but then I already knew that - having visited last year. Very happy to have come back, and maybe we can even pay their Taipei branch a visit in the future.
We still had plenty of time before our flight this evening, so we trekked out to the brand new
Haus Nowhere to take a look at the new
Gentle Monster / Tamburins store that had just opened days earlier.
Everyone had come to see
Sunshine, the animatronic dachshund who dominates the first floor.
I could spend a lot of time just watching Sunshine... waiting for her to wiggle her ears, and watching her armor move up and down with her breathing.
One could also make use of the AI photo booth, where a picture could be taken "with Sunshine" whereby Sunshine ends up wearing the same outfit. That was kinda cute, except Foursheets was wearing black today and the "outfit change" isn't glaringly obvious...
We didn't end up buying anything today, but did enjoy ourselves. We picked up our luggage from our hotel and caught the airport limousine to Inchon Airport for our flight.
Before leaving Korea, there was one stop I needed to make... and that was
Burger King in Terminal 2. We had seen them advertise the
jalapeno pepper monster and I just HAD to try it. It's basically 4 jalapeńo poppers on top of a beef patty. Not bad at all, and happy I got it ticked off my list.
Foursheets didn't want BK, so we also stopped by
PLE:EATING so she could have her
brisket gomtang (양지곰탕). This was OK, and it was a nice way to wrap up our excursion. Next time, though, we should probably hit
Gomtang Lab (곰탕랩) from Chef Yim Jungsik...
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