• Running Man EP262: Taxi Drivers’ Restaurant Race [01]

    It took me some time to come up with this post because I usually write at night when it’s all peaceful and quiet to pen my thoughts, but having to look at all these food photos are apparently too much for my mental state to fight the hunger pangs.  The same reason why I don’t follow foodie accounts on Instagram.

    Episode 262 of Running Man is a race where members board a random taxi and have the driver recommend a dish. If the dish coincides with the team’s previously chosen dish, the team wins. Else, the team will have to eat whatever dish the driver recommended, before boarding the next taxi. This cycle continues until the team eats their own dish, and move off to the final restaurant where the rest of running man team is having their gathering. The last team that arrives at the venue have to pay for all the expenses of the gathering. According to Song Jihyo, there were around 200 people attending that gathering, so you can imagine how much the bill will accumulate to.

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    In this post, we will follow Lee Kwangsoo, Kim Jongkook and Kim Suro on their restaurants track. Thanks to Kwangsoo’s random choice of food, sabotaging his own team, their strong team visited sufficient restaurants to make up one blog entry.

    The first restaurant they arrived at for Spicy Stir-fried Pork with Rice (제육볶음). This dish is very affordable at the price of 7,000won!

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    최가네기사식당
    Address: 602-1 Sinwol-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, South Korea
    서울특별시 양천구 신월동 602-1
    Tel: 02-2607-7843

    How to get to 최가네기사식당

    Board subway line 2 to Sinjeongnegori Subway Station (신정네거리역) and take exit 2. Walk straight and follow my red arrows.

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    You’ll pass by KB Kookmin Bank.

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    Here, you have to walk up the slope.

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    And down the slope you go.

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    Up the slope again.

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    And down the slope. We are almost there.

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    It’s a straight straight route to the restaurant.

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    On the left, you’ll arrive at the restaurant.

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    A closer look at the restaurant logo.

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    Naver map says it will only take you 12min to walk to the restaurant. Up to you if you want to trust Naver map.

    The team were next brought to eat Grilled Squid (오징어 불고기) by another taxi driver. This is the place where the restaurant staff were debating if Kim Jongkook is a singer. Kim Jongkook sang a little of his own solo hit song but the ahjumma haven’t heard of it before.

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    동원기사식당
    Address: 210-7 Sinjeong 7(chil)-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, South Korea
    서울특별시 양천구 신정동 210-7
    Tel: 02-2606-1856

    How to get to 동원기사식당

    Hop on subway line 2 to Yangcheon-gu Office Subway Station (양천구청역) and take exit 1. Follow my red arrows. There are two staircases out from exit 1. You should walk in the same direction as the cars.

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    At this place, turn right and board the horrible flight of stairs.

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    When you come to the end, there is once again two flight of stairs. Take anyone and walk in the same direction as the cars on the road.

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    Continue walking straight.

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    Stick to your right and keep a look out for traffic on the road. Make sure you’re walking on pedestrian road.

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    Cross the road in the direction of my red arrow.

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    After crossing the road, turn right.

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    Keep walking straight.

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    On your left, you’ll arrive at the restaurant! According to Naver map, walking distance is estimated to be 10min.

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    The team continues on their food trail for Ginseng Chicken (삼계탕). Kim Suro was laughing so hard at their plight outside this restaurant that I wasn’t sure if it was true laughter, or laughter to mask his anger.

    Anyway, the team had to eat by the roadside as the restaurant was too packed. Ginseng Chicken here is priced at 13,000won.

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    호수삼계탕
    Address: 300-325 Singil 5(o)-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
    서울특별시 영등포구 신길5동 300-325
    Operating Hours: 11am – 9pm
    Tel: 02-833-8948

    How to get to 호수삼계탕

    Take subway line 7 to Sinpung Subway Station (신풍역) and take exit 4. You will probably have to take the elevator up to ground level. Follow my red arrows and walk straight.

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    After this building, you will continue to walk straight, around the curve.

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    Just follow where the road leads you.

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    Walk straight.

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    You’re almost there after passing this car park.

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    This is how the restaurant looks like from the front. Naver map estimated the walking distance to be 10min.

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    The restaurant where Kwangsoo finally got to eat the Ox Bone Soup (설렁탕) he wanted so badly, bad enough to sabotaged his team mates for. This is probably a good place for supper, since this place operates 24 hours. Ox Bone Soup is sold at 7,000won.

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    양고바우설렁탕
    Address: 400-5 Singil-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
    서울특별시 영등포구 신길동 400-5
    Operating Hours: 24hours
    Tel: 02-832-1735

    How to get to 양고바우설렁탕

    It is just beside the Ginseng Chicken shop above! See the building on the left side of the picture below.

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    A close up of the store front.

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    I’ll be sharing where the rest of the teams visited in my next post. Do let me know if there’s a particular restaurant you want to see, or I will probably skip some restaurants.

  • Seoul Chillax

    After the hectic concert days, it was finally down to our own itinerary for the rest of the trip. I got to meet a new Japanese friend with my travel mate and we hanged out together the entire day.

    We started off the day with an early lunch at 별다방미스리 (Miss Lee Cafe) in Myeongdong.

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    Does the restaurant name ring a bell to you? This is the restaurant where YongSeo couple (Yonghwa from CNBlue and Seohyun from Girls Generation) visited in We Got Married Season 2. They visited the store in Insadong, but this outlet in Myeongdong is more convenient in my opinion.

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    We had the entire second floor to ourselves. I recalled the morning had just rained and it was a little windy out in the open on a Monday morning. The cozy second floor was a good refuge for us to sit back and drink hot soup.

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    The interior is delicately decorated. A tall tree stands in the middle of the restaurant with handwritten messages hanging from the branches. There are pens and papers available for you to write yours too. I spent my time peeping at what other people wrote, while waiting for my food to be prepared.

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    Our buzzer vibrates and it’s time to collect our lunch box with hot seaweed soup. I am so loving seaweed with rice. It’s like the best combination ever. If you stare hard enough, you might see the egg underneath the pile of seaweed.

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    After taking pictures, close the lid back. Shake it like how Seohyun does in the animated GIF below. Shake it hard so your rice and dishes will mix well together.

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    I opened mine and tadahh! It’s time to dig in! I couldn’t finish mine as much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t stuff anymore into my tummy. My friends managed to finish theirs though.

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    We wandered around Myeongdong for a little, did some heavy shopping (coughs) and felt like it’s time to rest our heavy bottoms again. This time, we entered O´Sulloc Tea House. Never a big fan of Matcha flavoured products but the Fresh Citron Hot Green Tea I ordered was refreshing. Three of us couldn’t finish the Green Tea Bingsu on top of our drinks. It’s like having to drink 4 big cups for 3 of us. We were too greedy Teehee~

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    Another day, I met up with my Korean friend near her house. With her moving near Konkuk University subway station, we can finally meet more often. It’s more legitimate to meet there since it’s now her neighbourhood and Yesung’s cafe Mouse Rabbit is situated there. I got to visit the new shopping mall Common Ground.

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    This is also the place where Korean girl group SISTAR filmed their MV “Shake It”, a very addictive song. It’s after all summer when I visited, and war time between all the girl groups. My observation for this trip – amongst the girl groups’ comeback songs, “Shake It” is most popular and most played song for retail shops.

    Why is summer the war time for girl groups? It’s the hottest time of the year where it’s valid for girl groups to wear less for performance, showing more skin to appeal to males. A comeback during this period would also allow sufficient time for the girl groups to promote their albums and songs til the year end awards where sales of the year is concluded. If this comeback schedule during summer time went well, the girl group might even slot in another comeback period before year end to boost their popularity. Hence, summer time every year is the comeback war amongst girl groups. This year alone, there are major groups comeback such as Girls Generation, SISTAR, APink, Girl’s Day, AoA… etc.

    Back to Common Ground, it’s shopping mall within pop-up containers. Don’t worry, it’s air-conditioned. Spend an hour or two there but didn’t bring anything home with me. The prices there are too high-end. I guess I am more suited for cheap and good shopping at Express Bus Terminal Subway Station.

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    My friend and I settled ourselves at a cafe called Dore Dore and ordered Oreo cake and fruit juices. Superman Returns Hwijae dad brought his twins Seo Eon and Seo Jun to this cafe before! Look at the adorable twins devouring their cakes.

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    Our Oreo cake is so adorbs! Taste is not to our liking though, for both cake and drinks. I guess their dessert and drinks are Instagram worthy and stops at that.

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    I wanted to write more, but it seems like my words quota has reached for this post. I am splitting my trip into so many posts that I’m starting to run out of puns for the world “Seoul” as title. I need ideas!