The Sweet Side of Seoul

Bean paste filled sweet & pretty rice cakes

Who knew that Baskin Robbins had such fantastic icecream cakes?

These were the celebratory "pup"cakes (Welcome Tiki!!) we found at the food court in Hyundai Dept Store in the Coex Mall on our way to see the temple across the road from the mall.

One of many afternoon treats we tried... funny how the lady who sold it to me gave me two spoons, perhaps I was meant to share it? Nahhhh!

The fish shaped red bean paste filled sweet snacks that we read about before we arrived. Of course we just had to hunt some down and try it! They turned out to be someone's absolute favorite Korean snack.

A waffle sundae topped with green tea icecream and bananas - obviously it's to share..... or is it?

So overall, there was a lot of eating while in Seoul, and I mean a ton of it. We wanted to try everything & anything suggested to us by our wonderful hosts who had the inside scoop on the "best of's." I must admit however, that we didn't end up trying the infamous dog soup, there just wasn't enough time or hunger for that one I guess, but overall, we tasted so many delicious treats & meals during our trip. Lucky for me that a good chunk of them were sweet!

I admit that I have a pretty wicked sweet tooth, and I was peasantly surprised with certain things like the abundance of green tea icecream everywhere, but I was also a tiny bit let down by the lack of "oomph" in certain sweet things. I guess different cultures have different preferences for tastes which is an interesting fact to discover while on your travels. I did appreciate the nicely decorated soft & sticky bean paste filled rice "cakes", but they just weren't sweet enough for me. But they really did look the part and if i was given a plateful of them as a gift i would be very thankful.

To sum up....my tastebuds were very pleased with Seoul's sweet side!

Seoul Vacationing....

I've been away on vacation to Seoul, South Korea to visit my sister and it was fantastic! I am a bit cross-eyed and fuzzy headed today though from the combination of jet-lag and beginning the organization of my trip photos. But above is a teaser to give a "taste" of what's to come..... hehe..... lots of food photos and lots of amazing sights to be shown(once i've finished organizing & editting them). But only a few highlights to write up & show on the blog, the rest will be on Flickr eventually. So yeah.....Seoul is an awesome place to visit even if it wasn't on my Top 10 list of places to go. I highly recommend it!

Groceries arrive safe & sound...

Playing with scenic shots directly into the sun - sometimes they work really well in my opinion.

Don't know what she thought would happen - these birds wanted more food! Ha!



So, online grocery shopping gets a thumbs up from me! It went to plan, the dude arrived within the timeslot, he had a few substitutions which was fine & dandy, didn't have to pay any more for them. I got my stuff(which will last a loooong time), and I didn't break my back or pocketbook to do so.

But i did learn something, which was my own fault, but i know for next time not to choose the cheapest option automatically. I used one of those sites that help to point out if there is a cheaper option for something that you have put on your grocery list, and i had chosen a pre-packed bag of sweet potatoes(bear with me, there is a point to this!) which was like £1.70 for 1 Kg of small sweet potatoes(ie:one per meal), and this webpage helpfully pointed out that if i requested the sweet potatoes as loose veg instead i'd save .68p a Kg, or something like that. So, ever the penny-pincher, thinking i was getting a bargain i said, "yes please! Loose potatoes work for me!" and the punch line.....instead of getting a bag of about 8 individual meal-size sweet potatoes, i got 2 gianormous potatoes together weighing 1Kg! Ooops. They still taste great, but i have to eat LOTS of potato, ha!

But if that's my only complaint, well i think i'm on to something - online grocery buying is goodstuff!!