It was a spontaneous decision to go to Seoul. We decided like 1 week before departure, stroll all the reliable airlines because I do not want to go long haul flight with Airasia my backbone will suffer if flying long haul with airasia. China Eastern Airlines and Cathay Pacific. I absolutely love Cathay but the timing is a bit off so we took CEA instead. BIG REGRET! Please read here. So yea, we flew with CEA using code sharing plane with Shanghai Airlines.
Oh bonus! Met Jacky Wu at the KLIA buying pretzel together 😀
So we stopped by Shanghai Airport for a transit.
do you even understand what they are trying to say?
and finally HELLO SEOUL!!!
Not doubt there’s a lot more places with cheaper korea street food all over Seoul and significantly Myeongdong is one of the most overpriced place to have all of these. They are more like cater for tourists market. However, if you have limited time in Seoul or you just wanna cut short the hassle and settle both shopping and food at Myeongdong, you can always read the must try street food here; or you can settle down for some of the worth trying restaurant in Myeongdong! Lets get started! P/S : My hand drawn map will be attached at the end of the post for easy hunting
So whats the must try restaurant in Myeongdong? Just in case you cant find the restaurant as they are mostly in Korean words, you can show the restaurant images and ask around. Somehow someone will be nice enough to show you the way. At least this works for me! 🙂
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Myeongdong Kyoja
images from google
This is probably the most common restaurant to visit in Myeongdong! They have a lot of branches there and do not be frightened by the queue, its very fast!
Myeongdong Kyoja has been around for more than 40 years, serving their authentic knife cut homemade noodles, Kalguksu. Their Kalguksu is served with a deep and flavourful broth with meat and vegetables, a very hearty and satisfying meal especially in the winter. Apart from their Kalguksu, i like their Mandu even more! They are so firm and packed with flavours!
You can try out their bibim guksu (spicy noodles) and kongguksu (noodles in cold soybean broth) too in the summer time!
2. Sinseon Seolleongtang
images from Danielfooddiary
A 24-hours popular ox-bone soup in Myeongdong. This is highly recommended by me. The restaurant started their operations since 1981, serving ox bone soup with a heart. In order to get a perfect bowl of seolleongtang, ox bone need to be simmer for hours before it turned milky white. It was not salty at all, just a pot of natural goodness topped with sliced brisket and green onion. I can only say, simplicity is the best. I am overwhelmed by the soup, it is thick and flavorful, but smooth enough to make you keep drinking until the last drop. And the most incredible part is, the seolleongtang actually conquer my brother, who hate soup stuff his whole life. Powerful enough.
Apart from that, we order mandu. I am guessing they are addicted to mandu ever since we had our mandu from Myeongdong Kyoja! They are delicious as well
Kimchijeon aka kimchi pancake is our next order. Not too bad, its crispy on the outter part and still moist and plump at the middle.
AND lets put our hands together for the sides! They sides are incredibly addictive especially the kimchi! I think we had like around 7 or 8 rounds of hand cut kimchi. Soo good just soooo good!
And this conclude our happy meal in Sinseon Seolleongtang! Just in case you cant find the shop like i do, simple show this image to them and they will somehow lead you there! HAHAHAHA.
3. Yoogane (Dak Galbi)
image from Icosnap
Yoogane is a restaurant specialized in spicy stir fried chicken. Sad to say that as we don’t really take spicy stuff, we opt for the non spicy one. Still as good
cold noodles
Another dish that I sincerely love is the Naengmyeon (cold noodles). Naengmyeon is a very thin and chewy noodles made with buckwheat and other ingredients; served icy cold to give it a extra el Dante texture. The soup is somewhat refreshing and a bit sourish. Very good dish i must say! Oh, they gave you scissors to cut up the noodles for easy munching! Love it!
But.. be prepared to smell like BBQ or spicy chicken if you dine in Yoogane! Your bedroom definitely hate it!
4. Gaehwa Jajangmyeon
image from 12myfood
Hidden somewhere across the china embassy at Myeongdong for over 50 years, this chinese restaurant served Jajangmyeon (black bean sauce noodles) and Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork).
I had very very very good Jajangmyeon and Tangsuyuk at Busan back in the 2014 and it really took my heart. I think jajangmyeon and tangsuyuk are one of the most lovely pairs in the whole universe. Ever since then, I have been craving for them.
However, they did not fulfill my craving. They are good enough but I still think Busan had the best Jajangmyeon. But those who have not tried your best bowl of Jajangmyeon, this one is good enough to make a place in your heart.
Jajangmyeon!
sweet and sour pork
Tangsuyuk!! OMG these are really good. The sweet and sour pork is just tender. The thin layer of batter is very crispy and the amount of the sauce is just good enough to cover the meat. Very good proportion.
Meat patty. Meh!
5. Organic Farming Ice Cream and Yogurt
This is probably the best soft serve i had in Seoul. Tips; if you see any soft serve with this shape, its gotta be good! We were so addicted by this soft serve we had it almost everyday ever since we discovered it!
They have one at the underground shopping street of Myeongdong Station and they have one just outside the main gate of the China Embassy!
What we love about the soft serve, it is so milky! Its like eating frozen creamy milk! I don’t know how to express my addiction to this but, ya! you must try!
Oh, if you get it at the one opposite China Embassy, its very instagram friendly! hahahahah! OK stop talking, go eat <3
And so I’ve attached my hand drawn map for your reference. I hope it helps you to get to the place you want 😀
Click and right click open in other tab for better viewing 😀
Happy Eating Peeps!
One of the popular places or things to do in Seoul is definitely Myeongdong Street Food! Top of the list where you can find various of local delicacies in Seoul with a slightly higher price. You can get cheaper and more authentic street food elsewhere but Myeongdong is where conveniences came in.
If you haven read my Myeongdong Street Food guide 3 years ago, you can click here! Hahaha!
We will start off with my all time favourite – Gyerangbang! Egg Muffins!
It is a very common street food and you can see it all over korea. Its like your usual muffin with one whole egg inside! Yums! I always love sweet and savory combination and thats why it’s always remain top of my list.
However, to be honest.. I am not very impressed with the Gyerangbang this time. Not sure if my expectation rises or my taste bud gets hardly to praise nowadays. Hmmm!
Its ok, let me now show you my new love — Hotteok aka Korean Sweet Pancakes.
I used to love this back in the days but I never really get addicted until now. I had more than 3 pieces of hotteok over the trip. Its basically dough filled with brown sugar and nuts or sunflower seeds! Some used honey instead of brown sugar. All are equally noms!
Mama like the savory one with beef bulgogi fillings. Love it as well!
We had this thin type i am not sure if thats the same thing but I prefer the thick dough one! woots!
My second new found love of all the street food – Tteokgalbi Meatballs!!
OMG with the white sauce and it just bring me to heaven! the meat is soft and juice.. with a slight smokey aroma and lastly washed down by the yogurt like sauce! I can finish the whole thing by myself!
Dakgangjeong – Sweet Crispy Chicken! Love it. Nothing beats a simple korean fried chicken in the windy day. Needless to say, everyone will love this
Mandoo! Street mandoo is equally nice. No complain about it because they all taste decent
Taiyaki! Its like eating a croissant with fillings! Yums!
Waffles and Ice cream!!!
Cream Puff!! They are all so beautiful~
And the Instagram famous rose shaped ice cream! Not the best ice cream but very Instagram and Facebook worthy.
My dessert queen posing for it
Even my keren look so cute with it <3<3
Dried Persimmon <3
Grilled Lobster Tail with Cheese <3
Over price but its not bad
Fire grilled scallop with cheese, lotsa lotsa cheese!
Look at how the cheese pulled <3
So obsessed with the pipping hot cheese with scallop!
Brother’s favorite soft shell crab. Hmmmm!
Pomegranate Juice! Always so refreshing!
However there are things that I highly advise not to try. Not to try as in.. Its below so-so and we cant even finish these!
VERY DISAPPOINTING JAJANGMYEON
Being a big fans of jajangmyeon, im more than excited to queue for this famous jajangmyeon. The queue is long and thus my hope is high. The first mouth totally bring my appetite down. What is this?? Its plain salty, just one layer… I miss my Jajangmyeon! Give me my delicious Jajangmyeon!!
VERY TASTELESS CHEESE AND TTEOKBOKKI.
Without the condensed milk, its pure tasteless. Argh!
OK, forget about the bad one and lets focus more on those yummy ones! So that’s my verison of Myeongdong Street Food and I hope you enjoy reading <3
So as you all might know, we were kinda stranded in Shanghai for like a day. Enough of all the complaints and ramblings about the world recognize culture of China, we will be talking about food in Shanghai airport instead. Something happier!
So we bought China Eastern Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul transiting in Shanghai using the code sharing airlines call Shanghai Airlines. To be honest, thumbs up for the in flight service and the food is awesome as well.
Hello welcome to Shanghai Airport!
The first transit was smooth so we were just taking some nice photos and exploring the airport. Everything is fine. And subway is called “SAI BAI WEI” which is kinda funny because if you think other wise, you will get what I mean. Hahaha!
English sucks as usual. If you do understand what they are trying to say, please let me know.
So during the returning trip we got some hiccups that you can read it here but nevertheless we settled down in a Chinese restaurant for some food to heal our tummy. Lets just talk about food yo!
So I have no idea what is the name of the restaurant as maybe I am too angry to take note that time but food definitely cures.
We ordered a few to share. Price is above average in airport.
We had this fresh shrimp wonton noodles and it is very delicious. Noodles is al Dante and the soup and clear and sweet. The price came with one whole shrimp with well marinated minced meat in the wonton. No complain, it was a very satisfying bowl of good noodles.
Shrimp dumplings aka har gao. Look at the size!!!
LOOK AT THE GIANT HARGAO! They have at least 3 whole shrimps in one! I am not a big fan of har gao but my bro and my dad loves them so much! Shrimp is fresh and sweet as well!
Meat Dumplings. No complain, the food served is all fresh and delicious!
Crab roe soup dumplings! This is something worth sharing. Similarly as the crab roe soup dumplings in Din Tai Fung, this one have more of a stronger crab roe flavor to it. Not a bad thing, people who love crab roe definitely heart this one!
Salted egg yolk custard bun! One of my favorites! At times you will be served egg yolk bun which is overly sweet or just custard or the yolk is not flowing but this one is just nice! You can even tasted the egg yolk texture from the runny yolk!
I hate to say that but food in Shanghai is really delicious!! Even the pathetic looking meal we claimed for the flight cancellation is surprisingly tasty and appetizing! Regardless how much MSG they add in or wad, it just taste amazingly good to me!
Clockwise : Rice, meatball, beancurd skin meat roll, braised chicken drumstick, pickle mustard green stir fry with eggs and veges! Somewhat missing that meal. hahahahaha! Dont judge!
I must say, the whole experience with China Eastern Airlines flight is awesome. Flight attendances are very nice and helpful, in flight meals are delicious and legroom is comforting. A+ when it comes to the services on the plane but D- when it comes to dealing with the ground staff
I always love to try out different airlines and hence this time, choosing between Cathay Pacific and China Eastern Airlines, I chose China Eastern Airlines. Not to say purposely choose CEA, reason being Cathay Pacific arriving time to Seoul is kind of late in the evening whereas CEA arriving time is before evening and plus point I have never travel with CEA so yea, thats the decision. However I used Cathay to Hongkong few years back and the experience is excellent! Highly recommended!
So back to the topic. I am flying with CEA to Seoul transiting Shanghai. Flying to Seoul is somewhat smooth and happy, problem came when you are heading back to Malaysia from Seoul. So initially the ticket went like :
China Eastern Airlines:
Seoul 4.20pm depart and reach Shanghai at 5.30pm
Transit Shanghai 1h55m
Shanghai 7.25pm to Kuala Lumpur 1.10am
Airasia:
6am flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching
Our flight delay from 4.20pm to 5pm boarding. I was worried like we have to rush or run for the connecting flight so I seek advise from the flight attendant at Incheon Airport, they said should be ok but if I missed the flight, then I can go to the counter and change to the next flight back to Kuala Lumpur. So after settled and 5.20pm its ready to fly. In flight service is awesome and we finally touched down at Shanghai around 6.30pm. (Pls be noted Seoul is one hour behind Shanghai and the flight from Seoul to Shangghai is 2h10m) I was like thinking ok we just need to rush to the counter, and we are good to go but unfortunately i think the airport land is kinda crowded and the plane took half and hour pacing around before we are allowed to get off. We need to board a bus to bring us to the terminal and the bus freaking took 15 mins to reach there with a lot of traffic stop.
By the time we were at the counter, its 7.20pm and they do not allow us to board anymore even though its a connecting flight and so on BUT you know how the situation went;
We walk through the gate showing our boarding pass. The lady without looking at our face or even smile said two words. JUST two words : HUAN PIAO (means change ticket).
I was like ha? Because i din’t hear it properly and she said again, “huai piao” without even bother to explain to us or even look at us. YOU THINK I AUTOMATICALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO AND WHERE TO DO BY SAYING THAT TWO WORDS ISIT?? NVM! Luckily i asked the crew at Incheon Airport earlier and they gave me the whole instruction already. We figured out the counter to change tickets and HOLLYSHIT such a long line. People missing flight to New York, Kunming, Japan, everywhere… So we waited around half and hour for our turn..
NEXT FLIGHT. 8.55am NEXT MORNING. One line!! HELLLOOO??? YOU ASSUMED I KNOW THE PROCEDURE AFTER CHANGE TICKET ISIT? NOT EVEN a little helpful to explain to us or anything. I have to ask how about the stay, how about the meal and so on so on.. You know la… i ask one sentence he answer one sentence. Nvm.. this is not the worse… at least he is not yelling or shouting just not smiling.
So we have to go through immigration with the temporary visa and collect out luggage because we din’t board the plane the luggage also will be going down as well. We can’t find the luggage because its not in our designated luggage line so I asked the baggage man, he say, I am not sure. You find yourselves around line 8 9 10. Nvm.. this one consider polite d. After we took the luggage, it was already 8pm. We have to go to the transit office to don’t know how and why..
So we queue at the service counter trying to ask : 1) WHATS NEXT? 2) HOW TO GO TO THE HOTEL YOU ARRANGE? 3) WHAT HOTEL ARE WE STAYING 4)HOW ABOUT MEALS 5)NEED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE?
But its TRUE. MOST OF THE CHINA PPL DONT BLOODY QUEUE. We got cut queue by 4 person, just like that. WTF, simple manner la diu!
SO we finally squeeze through our turn. The guy just say, go wait there and try to ignore us, we have plenty to question like wtf i’m so confused but they get so impatient, say just wait there the bus will come and send us to the hotel. We asked about our flight back to kch like its burnt and normally good airlines like Turkish airlines or Emirates they do compensate for flight missed caused by their airlines, but this guy just say this is china follow china rules. Ok he is correct also but hello, i din’t owe you money can you at least talk properly. NVM. We din’t get the worse treatment. While we were queuing and numerous people cutting our queue, we saw a lot of horror stuff.
Couple 1 :
Same flight as us but their are transiting to Kunming, they changed their ticket and will be flying in half an hour but they cant find their bags, went to the counter and got blast, say want to wait luggage go luggage area not here, then the couple its like.. but they ask us to find out here. The guy look at them, do u see any lugagge here? No. then continue ignore. The couple is like.. my flight taking off in 10 mins I can’t missed it anymore. The guy just say : do you understand my language? do u want your luggage? do u? Go there wait. Then I have no idea what happen. Its the attitude and tone that they treat them. So OMG
Aunty 2 :
Try to change her flight to tml morning to ZhangJiaJie because got important things there. Rude guy just say; no flight, you want then wait dont want then dont go. Win liao
Girl 3 :
Missing luggage but no one guide her and no one help. Asked if she make any police report she say she has no idea what to do next because everyone is ignoring her
So we waited from 8.20pm to almost 9pm and no bus and no instruction given. To be honest, everyone is raged and fed up. There is one guy missing his flight to New York said he waited for the bus to go hotel since 730 until now. He is a foreigner, he tried to ask but then they just do what they do the best, ask him to wait so he kinda fed up already. The indian group flying the same flight with us got so angry and he ask if i could go to the counter with him to ask some questions.
So we went to the counter, asking some people there how long should we wait. They said, half and hour more. Of coz, everything is commerce with a very rude attitude like as if you are a slave or begger asking for something. So 9.30pm and the bus is not around, everyone get so tired and I guess because no one give us proper instruction of guidelines it kinda pissed us off. So indian guy ask me to get the headquarters number from those people so he could call and complain how ridiculous their attitude is. So I asked, and guess what they say?
WE ARE THE HEADQUARTER? YOU CALL NOW AND COMPLAIN I WILL ANSWER THE PHONE. GO AHEAD and with a smirk. WTF! I salute you ppl. WORLD CLASS SERVICE AND ATTITUDE.
So the indian get pissed off and say : Do u know we haven been sleeping the whole day and we were tired with all the delays and now its 9.45pm and tomorrow we need get up at 5am for the 8am flight. No rest how to go for morning flight tml???
GODLIKE RESPOND from the counter guy : TAKE AFTERNOON FLIGHT
I duno if i want to laugh or what!! HAHAHAH WTF these people. But in the end, we got to our bus at 10pm, reach a very run down budget hotel at 1030pm. Not to mention from only us around 10ppl waiting for the bus until we have a full bus of 45 passenger boarding the bus to the hotel. wow! And I get to rest at 1pm after settling all the thing. Wifi is not working well so i have to go to the lobby to get the line connected to check tickets for the next flight etc etc… and since the receptionist is friendly, I asked her why is it so many people checking in. Her epic reply cleared all my doubts.
They have actually a few motels nearby to just cater those passengers who missed their flight. She also mentioned that everyday the motels were full. They do not even have spare rooms to welcome the walk ins.
As Shanghai is the major connecting flight cities, I guess its very common for everyone to miss their flight. And the ground staff maybe have to handle like 1000s of confused passengers thats why their service and attitude is like SHIT. not to forget maybe thats their best way of providing services already because most of the china people are already crowned one of the rudest citizens in the world.
We reached Kuala Lumpur and lucky for me I have my jimui to help book our flight back to Kuching but as for my brother, no flight for that day and he needs to stay one more day in KL before he can catch the next flight back to Singapore. #walletbleeding
But we are grateful for the safe flight and no missing luggages! Positive vibes!
Moral of the story : I will not take china airlines anymore in all my upcoming trips!