Snacks from Daiso

I recently had a craving for rice crackers, after a colleague brought some rice crackers back from Japan. The local grocery store doesn't really carry them, so I turned to the most available Japanese outlet, Daiso.

Daiso has a giant grocery/snack area that I have only recently began to appreciate. On my second trip to buy snacks, I noticed a distraught teenage girl complaining to a friend that her favorite snack was sold out. I haven't really seen such emotion in the snack aisle (maybe it was worse when South Korea was going through the honey butter snack fad). I would love to know what that girl wanted, but I didn't get around to asking her.

There doesn't seem to be a guide to the snacks at Daiso, so I'm starting one here.
 
1. Rice crackers (small, salty)   Rating: 5/5


This is the first snack I bought at Daiso, and I immediately fell in love with it. It's super crunchy, and quite tasty. My family thought it was too salty, but I think it's on par with any snack. There are hints of sugar, to balance out the salt flavor. I could sit and eat these little crunchy things all day, which is why I only buy 1 pack at a time. The crackers are just the right size to pop into your mouth. I checked, and most packs didn't have broken pieces.


My sister tells me that there is a sweet version, which I will have to try out soon.





2. Rice crackers (medium, salty)   Rating: 4.5/5

On my next trip to Daiso, I noticed that there were multiple brands of rice crackers, so I tried a new brand.

The crackers in this pack were bigger than rice cracker #1, so you need to bite it. Since it's a super crunchy snack, you'll definitely end up leaving crumbs when you bite. I didn't notice any big difference in the flavor.

I took 0.5 off because I didn't like the larger size, but maybe you feel differently about it.





3. Caramel corn (original flavor) Rating: 4/5

Alright, the rating is completely subjective. Most of my family liked this snack more than they liked the rice crackers actually. But I personally thought something was lacking...just can't pinpoint what is missing.

This is unusual because it's a sweet snack. It's a crunchy type snack, but it's a very airy and light kind of crunch. I didn't really taste the corn, but the caramel flavor is good.

The snack also comes in cheese and brown sugar flavors, which I will try some time in the future.





4. Mentaiko mayo potato chips   Rating 3/5

I was really excited for this, and was sorely disappointed. I love anything mentaiko, and mentaiko mayo sounded like just the right kind of blend.

The bag was pumped full of some inert gas, so there wasn't much potato chips. But you can tell that there is a lot of air in the bag, so you shouldn't be surprised. The potato chips tasted like a mild BBQ flavor, so they weren't bad, but it wasn't what I expected.

In terms of value for money, this ranks pretty low. It's way cheaper to get a giant bag of Lay's -- you get way way more for your buck.

Hongdae -- a dessert foodie's paradise

Hongdae is one of those cool neighborhoods where musicians hang out and make independent music...I think. Not quite my kind of thing since I'm musically illiterate. But we decided to check it out anyway, which is when I realized that the tourism board and tv dramas don't quite do a complete job in describing Hongdae.

The Hongdae area is served by three subway stops - Hongsik, Hapyeong and Sangsu. The first time we went there, we walked around Hongsik. Hongdae from that side looks like any other commercial area with a giant Samsung shop and the usual little skincare shops. It looked like the inner lanes had restaurants, but they didn't seem particularly exciting, especially after dinner. To try get the most bang for my buck, I tried earlier that evening to get dinner at a grilled eel restaurant featured in a visitkorea article that is outdated. Fortunately, we walked by a fried chicken restaurant with enticing pictures and went in for some honey butter garlic chicken (thanks of course to the honey butter craze).

 

Honey butter garlic chicken...so good....Also got their cheese fries which was just okay. 

We realized a little later that the Sangsu stop area was where the action was supposed to be and paid a second visit. Getting off at the Sangsu stop, we wondered if we were too early. I imagined rockers, but the people we saw at the station were wearing resort wear. Hmm.....

Outside the stop, it looked like a quiet intersection with food places with a college type vibe that's less commercial feeling than that of the Yonsei area. We walked up the street and followed some girls into an alley imagining that the action would be hidden. All we saw were more restaurants.

Emerging from the alley, we saw the club scene on the main street. Loud booming music but it was too early for crowds. We tried going into a random cute cafe and got some milk ice (it was just OK). Then we thought to try visit the Picasso street and maybe the wall paintings since we didn't see where to get music.

We found the wall art alley, but decided it was too narrow and dark for a visit. The Picasso street didn't seem any different from the main street, but we noticed another busy side street and decided to turn around there instead of retracing our steps. There was a bit of a park area in the middle of the street and people hanging out. My eyes caught a sign for Penguin Macaroon and we decided to check it out.

Penguin macaroon -- (Top left corner clockwise) Cheesecake, Green tea, Chocolate, Strawberry

Penguin Macaroon sells ice cream sandwiches with macaroon. It didn't sound like it would be different from any ice cream sandwich, but they had a big sign saying that they were featured in Tasty Road, a Korean food show. Since the night was hot and the first milk ice was unsatisfying, we sprung 3500 won for a second dessert. There were 4 ice cream flavors (we picked cheesecake) and another 4 macaroon flavors (we picked blueberry).

I thought the ice cream sandwich would be unremarkable but it completely blew my mind. Firstly, the macaroon part didn't get soggy through the eating, instead it stayed crunchy (it was properly made macaroon). The cheesecake flavor of the ice cream tasted perfect to me, not too overwhelming or sweet (I think it's important for the sweetness of the macaroon to be able to stand separate from the ice cream flavor). I wanted a second one but we held back.

Across the street, we found another dessert place by accident. They sell sobok ice cream, which is some grain ice cream. It was featured in a food show too. Since we were there, we thought we should try it. We ordered the sobok ice cream which is soft serve ice cream with one injeolmi ice ball. Some of the other customers ordered the injeolmi ice ball (starting at 9 balls for 7500 won), but the soft serve allowed us to try two thing for 5500won.

Sobok ice cream with an injeolmi ice call, assorted nuts and a daisy.

The sobok ice cream tasted full bodied, to borrow a term from wine tasting. It wasn't too sweet and it had hints of grain. The injeolmi ice ball was rather bland, which made me glad that we didn't only get the ice ball. Final verdict: the sobok ice cream is interesting but I prefer the sweeter ice cream macaroon.

There was one more cafe I would have hit but MP didn't want a fourth dessert that evening. If you're in the area, check it out and let me know if I should regret missing it. Imi is a cafe that sells orange creme bingsoo. I stole this picture from the visitkorea page -- you should totally check out their page on a New Era of Sweets.

(Picture taken from visitkorea.or.kr)
Imi orange creme bingsoo...maybe the next time I'm in Seoul.

Where to stay in Seoul

I just got back from a week long vacation in South Korea. It was my first visit so it was more exciting than a regular vacation. I'm a little mentally disorganized right now but I think it'll work out if I keep the topic of the posts narrow.

I'm one of the many tourists from Singapore going to Seoul so I decided to use the collective knowledge of those who have gone before to help plan my trip. The general consensus seemed to be to get a hotel in Myeongdong. Reasons? It's conveniently located to shops and food. Slight digging on the internet will reveal that Myeongdong is overrun by Chinese tourists, which may be a good or a bad thing for you.

Just for brief orientation, the older part of the city is north of the Han river, which is where you find the palace and the old gates. The new part of Seoul, south of the river (or Gangnam) was built only relatively recently. The government pushed the population south by moving a bunch of good schools down there. If you learn your Korean history through dramas like me, you'll remember the fields of barley that the alien dude from You From Another Star bought that became highrise expensive areas.

I ended up picking a hotel near Jongno 3(sam) ga, and I'm pretty happy with my decision. In fact, I'll probably go back to said hotel for future trips.Here is a brief analysis of why Jongno 3 ga is different and maybe better than Myeongdong.

1. Jongno is not right next to all the skincare shops but it doesn't need to be. Those skincare shops are all over Seoul, in the subway and above ground. Consolidated shopping isn't really necessary for skincare products, unless you're looking for a more elusive shop like Boots which is only at Myeongdong and Gangnam. 

2. Local food is readily available at Jongno 3 ga. In fact, exit 14 leads you to the famous gool bossam alley, which is also home to soondae guk restaurants, sullongtang, samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) and some stragglers of other food. Over at the next street, they have a bunch of red tents serving street food. They don't ensure that all the food you want to try are present, but anything there is cheaper and just as good (specifically gyeran bang, the egg bread, is 1000won locally and 3000won at Myeongdong). The Jongno 3 ga area seems to be a local eating spot, so they mainly serve Korean people, but they are not shy to tourists. Tourism is a big part of the livelihood in Seoul, and people are not shy to try engage you in Chinese or in English. Chinese proficiency seemed a little higher on the street, and it probably has to do with the number of Chinese tourists.

A 28,000 won meal for two at the gool bossam alley includes gool bossam, 

gamjatang and a grilled fish.

3. Now we move to other considerations like transportation. Myeongdong is only served by subway line 4. That means you probably have to switch lines whenever you want to go somewhere. Jongno 3 ga is served by subway line 1, 3 and 5. I was actually in between Jongno 3 ga and Euljiro 3 ga, which also gave me access to subway line 2. This means I can take a direct subway line or change once to get to most places like Apugeong/Sinsa (line 3), Ehwa/Sincheon/Hongdae (line 2), Jamsil (line 2, and one transfer to Olympic Park), Seoul station (line 1), Gwangjang market (line 1) etc. 

4. For me, there is also a more nebulous factor, namely Jongno felt more real. Myeongdong is a modern place, clearly set up for tourists. I consider it a Seoul equivalent of Singapore's Gluttons Bay. I didn't find it much different than any other bustling modern city like Tokyo or Singapore. Jongno is an old part of town, where electronics and jewelry are sold and non-tourism sector workers can actually be found. That is not to say that there are no tourists in Jongno -- there are hotels -- but it's less blatant.

So here you have my take on where to stay while in Seoul. I think a second location to look at would be south of the river -- our Seoul friends and family were surprised by our choice of hotel. But the touristy stuff is mostly in the north so if you're visiting for the first time, the north is clearly superior. The south is more for the locals.

Bigmama Korean Restaurant

Located at: 2 Kim Tian Road, Singapore 169244

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MP had been in Singapore for 2 months at that point, and he was craving good Korean food. He's tried a couple of places and has been disappointed. But we can't let past failures keep us down can we?

Bigmama Korean Restaurant seemed the place to go to. It appeared on the top lists of several Singapore food blogs. Moreover, we have tried the recommendations of at least one of the said blogs and think that they have a pretty good grasp of what good food is.

Walking into the restaurant, I kept an eye out for Korean people. You know the food is good if the culinary natives patronize the restaurant. I wonder if the people at that table are Korean...who can tell? Everyone is Asian.

Yelp doesn't quite serve the same purpose in Singapore as in the US. Usually I scan through the reviews to see what people recommend, but there aren't enough reviews on Yelp Singapore for that purpose. So plan B is to scan the tables of the people seated, and order what they are having. Unfortunately, the big thing at the restaurant seems to be dakgalbi, which is a fiery spicy stew that I cannot consume.

Bigmama also sells samgyeopsal suyuk, which is a mild dish.We went for that.

The banchans came first.

The banchans were okay. Except for the kimchi. Which is a big warning sign. I've had kimchi that I disagree with -- too much ginger, not fermented enough etc -- but this was just wrong. It was also overwhelmingly spicy, but that wasn't the biggest issue.

Next came the pancake.

The pancake looked kind of tan. It was soggy too. This was just overcooked, and in the wrong way. The pancake tasted of grease. There was something strange about the sauce -- it didn't taste clean. MP said that's why he never adds sesame oil to his sauce. The basic sauce is vinegar and soy sauce, with a touch of red pepper flakes, maybe sesame seeds (which I usually omit). It should come out tasting clean. I would have raised my hand to ask for soy sauce and vinegar except MP told me not to make a fuss. We'll just eat it without sauce.

My other issue with the pancake was the red chili slices in it. I've never actually seen spicy peppers in my pajeon, although I knew it was a possibility (there is a green chili pepper with garlic version). But I wasn't used to having my pancake this way, and I didn't like the way the spice mingled with the grease.

The sundubu jigae was just ordinary. A little too spicy, and not quite as flavorful as I had hoped for. But we have been having problems finding a sundubu place that we liked for a while, so that didn't surprise me.

I was confused when the suyuk came out. It looked so much like bossam, but it wasn't.

There was a bean sprout mix for sauce, which tasted murky. The bean sprout thing was warm, which is weird. I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to taste like. Fortunately, you can eat the meat on its own, although we could have done without the soft bones at the bottom. (I had to explain to MP that those bones were always there. It's just that we are usually served pieces without the bone.) The thinly sliced cucumbers and pickled radish slices were edible. I didn't pay attention to the full name of the suyuk dish, but it was some regional variation that I've never seen before. My previous experience with beef suyuk was quite different.
[Edit: Looked at some pictures of this dish from 2012 on another blog. That version looked better. It was at least missing those tiny small bones.]

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their dakgalbi. Maybe that is actually good, but I'm not going to try it. The flavors of the restaurant were not Korean, and in seeking a Korean flavor, I would probably be disappointed.

I was extra disappointed because Bigmama was highly rated by the other food bloggers. What went wrong? They recommended excellent hawker stalls, so why can't they recommend good Korean food? I concluded that they did not understand Korean food. It's not just spicy Chinese food. It's a balance of light sweet and sour flavors made more complex by the spiciness.

One of the things I understood eating at Malaysian restaurants in the US is that the flavor will drift. It has to drift to suit the palate and the understanding of the local population. Bigmama has certainly done well to cater to the taste of the local population. Daniel's Food Diary had a post from 2012 that alluded to the shift of flavors. I guess by 2015, the flavors have shifted too much.

Final verdict: We won't be going back. But please keep enjoying the food if you like it. And if you're wondering if you should visit, ask yourself what you are looking for. If you are looking for Korean flavors, I don't think this is the right place.