BBQ beef inards

Seoul - Views from Couryard @ Mariott Times Square Hotel.

Young Jin arrived at about 1:30pm and we had lunch together.

In the evening, we wanted to eat Eel but we could not catch a taxi as it was raining heavily.  We had dinner with Kevin Chae instead at a Korean BBQ restaurant specializing in beef inards - stomach and intestines.   BBQ of both are first time food for me - so I was unsure what to expect.  But the BBQ beef stomach was really delicious but the intestines were full of fat.  So, not really my liking. 

Beef stomach and intestines

This is a typical Korea BBQ area with the over hanging exhaust pipe.  The waitress will patiently cut up the beef stomach and intestines into bite sizes and ready to be eaten.  I could not take a good picture without the shadow.  Tried twice and both pictures still show the dark patch of shadow.

Bite sizes beef stomach and intestines. 

Egg cooked in a hot clay bowl

As we are still hungry we ordered beef ribs.  Unfortunately, the beef ribs was bad - it was either an old stock of beef ribs or just bad.  The taste was rancid and all of us just stopped eating it.  We called the owner but was told some 'BS' story which I don't believe at all.

Korea Independence Day

Seoul - Today's is South Korea's Independence day and it's a public holiday.  I arrived late into Seoul @ 10:30pm.   Because we were having heavy rainfall in Singapore, the flight was bumpy.  Inspite of this, I still manage to catch 2 movies.

Upon arrival, it was my first time to experience massive chaos at the immigration queue. It was so crowded that I never experienced before. The airport authorities closed one wing of the immigration and directed all arriving passengers to the other wing. There were long queues for each counter. As I cleared immigration and took my luggage, there were already a long queue forming up at the 'Nothing to declare' area. I handed over the customer declaration form and exited the area. I quickly approached the KAL airport limousine counter but had a rude shock that the limousine bus services ended. So, I asked for taxi and she said why don't you take the subway. That is out of the question, when I have a big suitcase. Finally, one of the limousine counter staff told me to go to Mapo and take the taxi to TimesSquare @ Yeoungdongpo.


I arrived at around 12 midnight - checked in and was hurry.  The reception staff directed me to a 24hr beef bulgogi shop across the street, next to the fire station.

It was an experience...

Japanese Pizza

Jakarta -  I wanted to visit the Luxurious shopping Mall - Grand Indonesia which is next to Grand Hyatt Hotel to check out some of the shops.  I bough a pair of running shoes for my son and it was much cheaper as compared to Singapore.

Both Lesley and I went hunting for dinner and came across this diner which is a Japanese casual dinning restaurant called Pasta De Waraku.  This chain of restaurant originated from Singapore under the waraku group.   It was brightly lit and had numerous plates of what was served on their menu displayed on the glass cabinet.

Beautiful lined menu on showcase

Another angle

Unagi Pizza

 The servings of the Pizza are small only 4 pieces but taste delicious.

Seafood Pizza with prawns and scallops

My choice of spaghetti - Vogole Cabonara

Lesley choice - Spinich spaghetti

As we walked around we came across a cafe named after an Ice Cream and it was crowded.

Here I am at the games arcade.

Delicious satay

Jakarta - We had dinner at this Indonesian Satay chain - Sate Khas Senayan restaurant,  The food is good.

Ginger + peanut drink

Background is a noodle dish
Foreground is Tahu Goreng

My dish Ox Tail soup & rice

Yummy delicious satay Chicken and Beef

Jakarta Massive traffic jam

Jakarta - I booked Lesley 'air-ticket to arrive the same time as me and I saw him queuing up at immigration counter and approach him.    The queue was long and there were many foreigners who had forgotten to purchased their 'on-arrival VISA' and thus had to start their queue from the back - quite unfortunate.   There is no VISA required for ASEAN member countries visitors.

Along the way to the hotel, I was hankering for a nice 'seafood' meal.   We went to Pondok Laguna restuarant.  The last time I was here was 3 years ago - the restaurant was crowded as ususal.  I ordered the food as I was familiar with their menu - not much changes, even the waiter uniform remains the same.

Deep Fried Gurame (Fish)

Udang Pancet (BBQ Prawns)

TaoFu with stuffed prawn fillings

BBQ Squid

San Francisco

San Francisco - Both Young Jin and Lesley are on the same SQ flight to San Francisco.  Upon arrival at SFO, Young Jin decided to go solo and go hunting for some nice handbags for his wife.  Lesley and I headed to our hotel in Walnut Creek via the BART.

The Hotel is a very nice with modern fittings in the room - Mariott Sports @ Walnut Creek.  After checking in, we headed back to San Francisco to meet Young Jin.  We did not want to lug our heavy luggage around SF.

As we were feeling hungry, we went to Chinatown but could not decide which restaurant to have our dinner. 

Sweet and Sour Pork

 But it was too sweet for all of us....very different way of cooking from Asia

Roast chicken

Lesley and Young Jin tucking into the dinner

Ice beer

Manila - The 1st morning meeting was cancel so Lesley and I decided to have a later breakfast @ 9am.  There were new dishes on the breakfast menu and I tried both of them - Crispy Danggit is a breakfast dish in Philippines - the taste is crispy, very salty and pungent. Danggit in English it is called Rabbit fish or spinefoot.  It is abundant in Philippine waters and is caught, split open, dried in the sun with salt and transported to markets to be sold.

The otther dish is Sotanghon Guisado - which is saute glass noodles (also called Tang Hoon, Chinese vermicelli or Cellophane noodles). 

Late morning, the duty manager escorted me to the Executive club floor for my new room. 

Dinner was at a location called commons restaurant located @ 162 Valero Street Salcedo Village Makati Metro Manila Philippines.

I tried this soup - Suam na Mais with Prawns.  Suam is Corn soup prepared in a Filipino traditional way.    The Country Style Spareribs is fried and thus too dry for my liking.    We also had deep fried Tilapia.    Then came the ice beer called San Miguel light sub zero beer.   Fhilipinos love their iced stuff...it was real fun.

Ice Beer

Ice Vodka

Watch the you tube to see some tricks and amaze your friends...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHNTfuks_ww