The breakfast buffet at Shilla was excellent, emphasizing quality over quantity. I enjoyed sticky Korean rice with steamed salmon, pickles and seaweed. As well as crisp waffles, maple syrup and bacon. The filling breakfast lasted me almost a whole day, a very good thing as it turned out because we were so caught up with work we missed lunch.
Scenes from my taxi: the shy mascot was teased by his friends.
A fruit shop.
What I ate at 6.00 pm. Ham and cheese bagel sandwich. Originally tar-powed by colleague for lunch but we didn't have a chance to eat it until the meeting was over.
After work, we went off to a place that is known for pets and accessories. Colleague couldn't tell me what it is called in English, she wrote the name of the street in Korean script to show the taxi driver. The shopping was fab, bought lots of clothes and hair bows for Mimi and Rufus.
Decided to look for something to eat, nothing too filling. A bar on the second level looked inviting, and we found ourselves in a simply furnished room half occupied by a mix of salarymen and schoolkids (there is a cinema nearby). Young people served drinks and performed pyrotechnic stunts at the counter, a good sign I thought.
We ordered the signature item, booldak, which the picture-book menu described as chicken grilled in a spicy sauce. And some roasted rice soup to accompany. The young server set dishes of pickles and the ubiquitous kimchi on our tables, as well as a pitcher of ice water and a stack of paper napkins.
Our booldak arrived, and a few minutes later a similar dish of squid and scallions came too. We tried a few pieces of each. Yummy, the meat had a smooth meaty sweetness and savouriness with a pleasant charred taste from the grilling process, and very tender too.
But it was all very very hot, so very hot that within 5 minutes we were in extreme agony. My eyes teared and my sinuses overflowed. Tongue became inflamed. Cheeks flushed so red we had to open the windows to cool ourselves down. This was without a doubt, the hottest thing I have ever eaten in my life, beating mala hotpots, vindaloos and incendiary thai salads handsdown. I alternated between sips of cold beer and sticking my tongue out in desperation. We looked a mess.
Somehow we managed to eat about half of the food, mainly by washing it first in the rice soup to remove the chilli rub and taking long pauses in between bites. We observed the other diners, thinking that perhaps the locals have developed good tolerance to this dish. But we were relieved to observe that they were similarly torturing themselves. The next day we told our colleague about our experience. Ah, the fire chicken, she said..... now she tells us.....
After the booldak, we came across a stall selling little cakes baked in chestnut and peanut moulds. The batter was fine and soft inside while the outside has a crispier skin, the chestnut ones even has little balls of chestnut paste embedded within. Simply delightful. Definitely our favourite street snack. 1000 won per bag.