Hwamyeong: Latte King

For a while I've been considering writing about specific places in Hwamyeong-dong - the neighbourhood in Buk-gu in which I live.  I wasn't entirely sure if anyone would be interested because Hwamyeong is really far out of the way.  That said, I've noticed that there are a number of new spots opening up (mostly because I can't help but stop when I see an iced Americano being advertised for the equivalent of a loonie [that's a buck for you non-Canadians]).  

You may remember my post on some of the local spots as well as Monster Craft Brewing, which is still my favourite spot to go for Chimek in Busan (get the Monster Craft Chicken with garlic sauce and tomatoes with the cabbage salad and share it with a friend!  They don't do curry Sundays anymore, sadly).  As Hwamyeong goes through a period of change and, dare I say, rejuvenation with the addition of Velocity Fitness Busan and the Paris Baguette that's right on the main drag (take-away salads for the win!), I'd like to take you on a little journey through my own personal experiences to help you make the most of your time in the Hwammer.

In today's post in a series I will quite simply call "Hwamyeong", I'm going to share a little bit about Latte King (beside Ediya Coffee and around the corner from Eco-Gym) which opened today.  I'm not 100% sure about these coffee cups I noticed right in the entry, but the rest of the decor was pretty cool.  It would be a great date spot if you're looking to get to know someone and have a good chat.  After a quick Google search I noticed that there are several franchises in and around Busan, so I should probably cut them some slack on their opening day in fair Hwamyeong.  

Having seen the new location yesterday on the way home from the gym in the morning, I decided to take my weary self for a sandwich after this evening's gym adventure.  I had gotten in a pretty good workout tonight.  Seeing as Koreans seem to dislike rain much more than say...an alumnus of a University in one of Canada's rainiest cities, the gym was fairly empty.   After a good amount of cardio and some heavier weights was ready for a tasty dinner containing more carbs than I might normally consume this late in the day (or...at all).

I took a look at the menu and everything seemed pretty standard.  The cheapest sandwich is less than $4 which was a pretty big draw to start.  They let me know (in English) that it was KRW 2,000 (about $2) more to add fries and a drink to my sandwich order.  With this post in mind (the only reason, of course) I decided to opt for the thick and fat-looking fries and an iced Americano with my Bulgalbi Cheese Steak Sandwich.  I can't remember the last time I had a really proper french fry, and these looked too good to pass up.

Amendment: I need to let you know that I've visited Latte King a few times since my first visit (to follow).  I would still avoid the combo 'cause the potato wedges are a disappointment, but you really can't go wrong with what's essentially a Subway-style sandwich for $3.90!  I've tried the chicken breast (actual chicken breast that's not pressed deli meat), the blt, and the ham and cheese.  The ham and cheese is my favourite, but they all have protein, carbs, and are full of fresh and tasty veggies.

I took my food to-go and was really looking forward to getting home, streaming some crime dramas, and vegging out with some delicious eats.  I became jaded about Latte King the moment I popped open the take out bag and realised they gave me all of 5 fries.  I mean sure, I shouldn't be eating fries, but come on guys you gave me enough chipotle dressing that you really could have given me at least half a proper order of fries.  I was disappointed.  The fries were perfectly seasoned on the outside but the potato just kind of broken in the middle.  

The sandwich looked disappointing but actually packed a punch.  I'm always on the hunt for something loaded with veggies, and my sandwich had lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickles, and olives (I usually dislike olives on most things but these worked).  With all those veggies and the cheese overpowering the sandwich (couldn't tell you what kind of cheese - it tasted whipped.  Weird, but decent) I could barely taste the meat, which was disappointing again.  The bun, however, was the perfect combination of crispy and flaky on the outside and soft and squishy on the inside.  

I would definitely check out this place again, just not after a big workout when I'm hungry.  This would be a good take-out spot to grab some nosh and head to the CU when you know a couple of hours in you'll have a monster Cheese Bokki craving.

Have you tried Latte King in Busan?  What did you think (...and more importantly: what did you order?).  Leave your tips in the comments!

Working it Out Abroad

Britney said it best: "You want a hot body?...You better work, b*tch".  I had gained about 30 stubborn pounds in Toronto over the course of my 3 years since leaving Vancouver.  I had a trainer, I would diet, but nothing seemed to work.  I've kind of come to the conclusion that I'm getting into those twilight years of my twenties where rather than losing weight I'm just working out to avoid the inevitable gain my body so desperately wants to waddle into.

Enter Eco-Gym (formerly Bill's?).  This small gym in Hwamyeong-dong, Busan has just what I need to keep my cardio and weight-lifting up, and not much more.  There are several treadmills, a handful of stationary bikes, a lat-pulldown, a leg press, some other weight machines I don't tend to use, a couple of squat racks (that the locals use for deadlifts, curls, and un-weighted squats, which makes me want to scream).  There's a plethora of free weights which I love, as Mark Sparks (my conditioning specialist at Cardio-Go in Toronto) ensured that my last few sessions focused on workouts I could do with limited equipment.  My only complaint (well, more confusion) is that most of the weights are in kilograms rather than pounds.  I'm pretty good at converting the weight in my head, but they still feel way heavier than back at home.

The gym itself was really cost effective: 100,000 KRW for 3 months of use.  This also includes use of their workout clothes, however I have yet to take advantage of that offer.  Most of my workouts usually involve a walking on the treadmill as a warm up for a couple of minutes then HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).  I follow that up with abs and weights for the next 30-40 minutes focusing on different combinations (depending on the day, of course) of arms, shoulders, chest, abs, legs, and of course - the booty.  So far I've made it to the gym 4-5 times a week since joining 3 weeks ago and am feeling pretty good about it!  I've also stopped eating rice throughout the week, which should definitely help.  

If you're in the Yangsan - Deokcheon area this is a great deal.  Some of my Korean friends/ colleagues are even considering joining so that we can all go together, which is pretty sweet!  They offer Personal Training as well (I found that out the hard way when one of the "English-speaking" Members - ie. someone who knows how to say Hello and talk about the weather a bit) told me I could use that area no problem and then I found out that I had been interrupting a personal training session - whoops.

On my walk home I pass this magnificent organic grocery store and bakery.  I don't dare step in - the bagel and cream cheese just looks far too good, as well as a Love Motel with a slogan telling me to live out my dreams. 

Update: I've switched gyms and have actually dropped a big pile of weight!  My diet has changed massively as well.  For breakfast, I mix Cellucor protein powder (120 calories and 25g of protein!) with water in a shaker bottle (all available at iHerb - click here for 10% off your first order!).  I have a 99 calorie granola bar as a snack, go through 3 - 4 L of water every day, have a turkey sub for lunch loaded with veggies and only the tiniest bit of mayo or mustard, and for dinner I usually make some combination of a protein (one of chicken, ground beef, eggs, bacon, or cheese), squash, peppers, and salad.  On the weekends I allow myself to go out with friends and enjoy a nice meal.  Once you shift your perspective from short term restriction to a long-term habit of fueling your body, making healthy choices is a lot easier!

Makgeolli, Monster Craft, and many good times!

 

Sunday night is Curry night in Hwamyeong-Dong!  Monster Craft Brewing makes a cheep, cheerful, and incredibly delicious Japanese-style curry with your choice of mushrooms, chicken, or pork cutlet with the option to add more meat for KRW 2,500.  I had the mushroom curry and added chicken (their chicken is fantastic on its own or in the curry).

The dinner came with a really tasty soup (broth and green onions), a cabbage salad (which I promtly mixed into the curry for a crunchy texture), and a form of kimchi I was too stuffed to try.  Monster Craft is a great spot to hang out, have a beer, some food, and watch cats go by in the alley (when we went there was a family of calico cats that reminded me of the cat I had growing up - shout out to Angel).  The house beer is KRW 3,500 (about $3.50 - $4 Canadian), and the curry came to maybe KRW 9,000 for a meal I certainly couldn't finish!

After dinner we met up with the boys and went to a Makgeolli bar across the street from where we live.  There's the option to head upstairs (take your shoes off!) or sit at a table with chairs Western-style (we opted for that so we could play some card games).

Our hostess with the most(ess?) showed off the menu, and we ordered Pajeon with Kimchi, Mussels, and what I believed to be Scallops but that may have just been more onion or cabbage.  The Makgeolli (the Korean rice wine pictured above) was blended with some sort of powdered fruit mix.  Since this evening, some coworkers have taken me out for some proper Korean food and different kinds of Makgeolli.  The phrase "do you drink well, Kate?" came out on a few occasions, but I like to think I kept it in check!  

Have you tried Makgeolli?  What kind is your favourite?

Busan Begins

What a wonderful weekend it's been!  After a nice, quiet Friday night I woke up early Saturday morning and hopped the bus to West Busan to start my move into my new apartment.  Two suitcases and a duffel bag later I landed in Hwamyeong-dong, dropped my luggage, and headed over to Lotte Mart to grab some essentials (Cereal, Milk, Fruits, Veggies, and Beer, of course!).  Having met a new Canadian friend last week we already had plans to head to the Soccer Game so we (A - the girl who lived in my apartment before me) packed up and met the group at the subway.  We ended up being a group of about 10 people by the time the match began, and an eclectic group of hilarious personalities meant that there were many, many laughs throughout the game.

Tickets were only KRW 10,000 (about $11.35 Canadian) and we were allowed to bring food and drinks into the stadium.  I saw people with full large-sized pizzas walking into the game, which made me want pizza in a bad, bad way.  The next game is March 21st (and I have 3 free tickets from some fortune cookies they were handing out - huzzah!) so perhaps that will be on the prep agenda.

 

 

The speakers in this former World Cup facility were incredibly loud.  There was lots of fanfare (and fireworks!) to start the game against Daejon.

The Half-Time show was...interesting.  There were some dancers with pompoms in quite a state of undress, followed by some AWESOME kids doing a Taekwondo demonstration to music that sounded like a combination of Queen, David Bowie, and Michael Jackson.  It was epic.

 

Busan scored late in the game and the crowd went wild.  To be fair, every time Busan got close to scoring a goal the crowd reacted (everyone would jump up and scream and the band - yes there was a band - would play excitedly).  Overall?  Great experience with great people.  I can most definitely picture going to many more games especially as the weather heats up.

By the time the game ended we were hungry and excited to go snack on some local fare.  We decided to go to Seomyeon for Jjimdak (thanks, Alice!) to introduce us newcomers to just one of the many "downtown" areas of Busan.

The food was tasty (and spicy!) and I was surprised a few times by the bones throughout.  The noodles in the dish weren't really necessary with the rice, and since there were potatoes in the stew it was a pretty carb-heavy meal.  3 of those bowls shared among 10 people was way too much food, but we still managed to head over for my first taste of Bingsu (or Bing-soo)!

We went to Mango Monster so, of course, we had to try the Mango flavour.  We also decided to get a Cappuccino because 1 order was just not enough for 6 girls on a mission!

I didn't really understand why some places advertise Bingsu as "snow".  It's either shaved ice or shaved frozen milk, but realistically it tastes like flavoured snow.  I think I tried to market something similar when I was about 5 but it just became grape juice-infused Canadian winter snow.  Not quite the same.

After dessert we went into a few makeup shops as one of the girls in our group loves nail polish - I feel we should probably focus on that next time we shop together because the girl knows how to use bold colours that pop perfectly together.  

The desire to meet new people in my new city was strong, so when we found out that there was a pub crawl in the Kyungsung University district we hmm-ed and hawed and decided that despite the long cab ride home (long as in KRW 30,000 which is less than a ride home to downtown from Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto so...) we would go.  I actually met a girl from UBC Music (she's a pianist so I'm hoping that we can pick up some sheet music and rock - er...Opera out together!) as well as some other EPIK (a public school English Program) expats that live up around Hwamyeong.  Hwamyeong is not the most convenient spot in Busan, but my apartment in large and clean and the area has everything I could need so I'm pretty happy!

The first bar we went to was called Eva's Ticket.  I was really happy to have a fellow Canadian with us who has been in Busan for a few months now and could show us around.  The pub crawl was organized by a guy from Ottawa who seems to organize a lot of events for expats (not just parties - trips to local festivals, etc. as well).  Canadian and American jerseys and flags were tacked to the ceiling.  These were the first of many to come over the 5 bars to which we traveled.

We got our passes stamped and since we were a little fashionably Kate to the party we decided to mosey on to the next bar where an expat Rugby team had already started drinking pretty heavily.  This is where we actually got to sit down and have some decent conversations.  Ultimately we didn't  stay super long because there were another 3 bars to hit up on our journey.

The next bar ("Drunken Master") was playing Jackie Chan movies, had darts DIRECTLY in the middle of the establishment, and was incredibly slammed.  They had some drinking games that we didn't actually stick around for, and they handed out some sweet chili nachos for which I would most definitely go back!  The staff were busy, but still managed to provide great quality guest service in a mess of drunken expats.  It was best to observe seeing as we had a bit of a trek back to Hwammy and still 2 bars to go.

Blue Monkey was where things got a even more interesting.  We were pacing our drinks seeing as we had had a pretty long day thus far (and because we no longer have the excuse of being barely 19), but I don't think that the rest of the group got the memo.  There were stripper poles EVERYWHERE and people (fully clothed, of course) were having a very, very good time whirling themselves around the poles and nearly flinging themselves onto the dancefloor.  It was great entertainment, and I was really glad we snagged a table so we could rest our feet and watch the show(s).

Last, but not least, was Eva's (just Eva's this time!) which was the last stop.  We handed in our passport stamp cards and waited for a draw.  I managed to win some beers next time we're in the KSU area and at Eva's (woohoo!) and found out that a girl in our pub crawl trip from Hwamyeong is actually a sister (Kappa Alpha Theta from a chapter in California).  Greek life works in mysterious ways, doesn't it?

All in all this was a wicked night and I'm so glad to have met these amazing people.  A couple of them are leaving soon, but others are just starting their Korea adventure and I can't wait to learn more about them while discovering this country that is so rich in history and culture.