E-dae/ I-dae stands for Ewha Woman’s Univ. something like a shortcut name for it. Ewha Woman’s University is a very popular all-girl univ. and the shops near by sells clothes, food, etc. at the most reasonable prices; prices students can afford. and from what Natalie told me, shopping for clothes in E-dae is the cheapest.

E-dae is right next to Sinchon, where Yonsei Univ. (the most beautiful Univ IMO) is. =D. walking distance, because I walked all the way from E-dae to Sinchon. about 1-2km walk.

upon exit, you’d see TEENIE WEENIE! it’s like Ralph Lauren but the logo’s a teddy bear. guys wearing a Teenie Weenie polo is so adorable <3. I once saw this macho man in KLCC wearing one! <3.

as you walk towards Ewha Woman’s Univ., you’d find many street stalls around!

I wanted to try this one where some local television people were filming on him. seems to be selling BBQ-ed rice cakes and corn.

and dried squids. I think dried squid is much more disgusting compared to living squids. =S. living squids are damn delicious though D=.

and a local treasure that I have found..

DALG GGO CHI 닭꼬치!! it’s the most HEAVENLY CHICKEN SATAY I’VE EVER HAD. you can have it spicy or not spicy, your choice. =D. I stopped by the street stall at Nami and tried a number of street snacks (3 of us had 30,000won/RM90 worth of street food X_X. Peter said he can eat RM100 worth on his own when he’s hungry zomg. never underestimate street food!) and still felt that dalg ggo chi is the best.

a stick of heavenly chicken costs around 2000won/RM6 =D. it’s a low price to pay to buy so much tummy happiness!!

I was full and had no idea of what this was. looks like burger patty to me haha.

the winding narrow E-dae street. with bright pink banners. I like how they are so daring in colours. it just brightens up the place! =D.

and every street seems to be connected by even narrower lanes where the number of interesting shops never ends.

they placed a cute mascot running everywhere but at the same time the mascot didn’t give out fliers nor did it stood statically outside a certain shop. I wonder what’s the purpose but it’s alright, because the mascot’s really cute!!

and that shop behind me is COLD STONE. THEY HAVE COLD STONE RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR UNIV.!! super lucky. I only discovered the phenomenal taste of cold stone until I went to Japan. pfft. but it’s a MUST TRY if you see the shop. remember, COLD STONE!!!

Charlie Brown Cafe! anybody’s a Snoopy fan? and Natalie (find her link on my sidebar!) reviewed about this adorable cafe! it’s so cute but time was running out at that time. pfft. it sucks to visit on Autumn/Winter because it gets dark really early.

no idea what this is?? well, THIS is their UNIVERSITY. beautiful yet cool ain’t it? and those metal strips on the sides are actually their classroom, library, etc. the architect is mad. it’s like where modern meet traditional.

camwhore moment.

spam.

spam spam spam.

I only have this picture that shows how the inside look like T_T. anyways, it’s very special! =D.

the other view. =D.

AMAZING ARCHITECTUREEEEE. <3.

there’s Auntie Anne’s and Body Shop right outside. =D. if I were to study here I’d be bankrupt in no time. Auntie Anne’s an addict. and in Japan the line for it is madness. like at least 30 people in line on a weekday D=!!!!

AH! <3 cheap clothes!! Korea's fashion is much more simpler (but nice!) compared to Japan's but at least the price is pretty affordable =P.

do note that it is like looking for a penguin in the desert if you want to find summer clothes in winter. haha. okay-lah. there ARE summer clothes but very hidden and little. not very nice either. =/.

an installation right outside a Subway station. I have no idea of the name of this subway station. I thought it was Sinchon Subway station but there wasn’t any McD outside the station (Nat told me that I must try that BBQ buffet in Sinchon so I did!).

we then asked some local whom have guided us and we had quite a long walk (to save up 900won/RM3 PER PERSON!) and finally, SINCHON 신촌!!!

so like how Nat guided me, she said,

take the exit where it leads you to McDonald. then walk straight and along the way you’d see Paris Baguette (a very famous  bakery shop in Korea. prolly more famous than McD.) and shops like Addidas and all. walk straight until you see Starbucks and that shop with a huge T on it.

walk on that lane in between those two shops and you’d see “with espresso” and walk a little bit more.. and you’d see the shop.

it was pretty dark when I arrived, it’s that shop with that yellow sign board. there are yellow boxes above the shop but because it was late so it ain’t noticeable. T_T. anyway, you’d see a HUGEEEE 8,000won (or a bit more if the price goes up) on their poster and you’ve arrived!!

EAT ALLLL YOUU CANNNN. beef, pork, chicken, only at 8,000won! the place gets really crowded when it’s near dinner time which is around 7.

there are rice, rice balls, tauge, noodles and soup. pajeon too! but I don’t usually eat rice when I have buffet. it’s too filling.. and it’ll become not worth it. D=.

Peter said only Chinese people are like that pfft. as in, we must eat what’s MORE worthy. HAHAHA.

their witty way of puncturing holes on the piece of aluminum foil to let the oil released by BBQ-ing the meat drain.

and this is the second type of witty way. haha. and this way, you’d see the amount of oil. it’s pretty scary. we had 2 cups filled with oil. eeeerk T_T.

BBQ pork and kimchi. nyum nyumm <3.

walking towards Sinchon station and bumped into this horny Garfield hahahaha. he thought I was Jap! he kept saying aishiteru and some other jap phrases then hugged me tightly while he meraba-raba my back U_U. what’s meraba-raba in English again? errr. rubbing in a wrong way? haha.

a bathtub installation art =D. the designers of Korea made Korea an even more special place. <3.

today I would like to introduce you to this sushi which is not very known outside Japan. as usual, I always try my best to look for some interesting food in a country that I am going to visit through google and I found Shirako.

it wasn’t available in the small-bar-type sushi shop so I went ahead and look for a conveyor belt sushi shop; or what some people will call sushi from a hole. hole in the wall sushi?

the prices could be seen above. just so if you can’t see, it is : 525yen, 399yen, 262yen, 210yen and 168yen. what odd prices. right?

unlike the bar-type ones, they serve sushi’s in pairs. I had always had my sushi’s in pairs ever since I first started eating sushi, but it wasn’t so much of a popular thing in Japan. in fact, they only have sushi in pairs when it’s on a conveyor belt. of course, sushi served this way are less fresh compared to those where the sushi professional makes it on the spot for you. but the prices are always more reasonable.

the prices of a plate of sushi can go up to 700+yen for a set of 3 pricey sushi (sea urchin, toro/tuna belly and salmon roe). and do you know how much is 1000yen? RM37. but it’s really cheap compared to what we can find here. the only sea urchin sushi I saw on the menu is in Hokkaido Ichiba which costs RM18 for ONE piece. T_T.

the plates there are really pretty. and in some places, there are GLITTER plates of gold or silver even. and also, I had my first sushi culture shock. SALMON sushi is the most famous sushi here in Malaysia. but in Japan? it’s about the same price with.. tamago sushi (egg omelette). or at some places, even cheaper.

and oh! these plates (at higher end restaurants) have some sort of chip in it? because the waiters does not count your plate. instead, he’ll use a machine to swab vertically along your plates to check the total of your bill. I get why it’s essential, though. because the plates are all so.. fancy and difficult to differentiate when it’s all stacked up.

back to Shirako. that sushi IS Shirako.

have you heard of it?

it is a VERY famous sushi in my opinion because the middle aged Japanese woman who sat beside me ate ONLY Shirako.

Shirako is DELICIOUS I have to say. I am pretty sure I ate the cooked version somewhere in China before and it tasted like.. smooth goose liver/foie gras. to have it raw, it’s very creamy. something like Mayo. but much more fragrant =D.

and you wouldn’t believe what that is.

guess?

peach ice cream is YUM. 200yen. RM8! U_______U. or was it 300yen. in Japan, you’d spend money without knowing because even a 500yen is a coin.

Shirako is the fish’s male organ.

yeap. fish testicle. would you like some fish testicle? seriously, it’s delicious. .

*******************************************************

looking for a PSP? and a GPS too? how about a great camera too?

what about a Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY?

as you can see above, it’s a smart phone cum PSP with it’s PSP-like gaming buttons. it works as a GPS and it has a 5MP camera! it’s just so convenient! and because the phone is so new, everybody will start noticing you and your phone while you’re gaming with your new cool gadget =P.

and no worries about it lagging because it uses the Andriod 2.3 Gingerbread with WiFi/DLNA support = FAST GAMING SPEED. best still, it has a 4″inch screen! not only is it more fun gaming, but it’s also easier to surf the web! because I hate scrooling the page from left to right too. up and down is good enough.

so, WHATS THE DEAL?

how about getting it from RM848? well, you can only get it from Celcom Exec! Celcom is widely known for it’s great customer service, stable line and wide coverage too! awesome, right? and getting it now will let you stand a chance to participate in Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gaming contest to win RM100,000!!

click here to read my more detailed post and here for more information on the Celcom website!

HI! if you’re going to Japan, then this post will be useful to you. even if you’re not, some of it can be found here in M’sia. =D.

first off, TOKYO BANANA.

it’s a very famous snack for Japs from the other states to buy home as a souvenir. it’s very very famous because it’s sold almost.. everywhere. you can find it at most major train stations. it’s fresh and it can only last for two weeks.

for a box of eight. it costs 1000yen (about RM37). if you’re wanting to buy these home, get them at the airport . it’s cheaper and the duty free shop is always open.

as for the taste, I wouldn’t say it taste absolutely heavenly. but it’s really fresh. it’s quite delicious actually. it doesn’t taste as artificial as what I heard it’d be. ahaha.

rating : 7.5/10.

next, Jaga Pokkuru. this is Hokkaido’s most famous potato stick. or what I would call the french fries. it costs 800yen for a pack of 8. pretty pricey I’d say. one pack have more or less 10 sticks of  french fries haha. it is very very very famous in Hokkaido that these are limited to only 3 box per tourist at Hokkaido. what’s best is, you can find this in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport too! and they DON’T LIMIT YOU.

but I’m really not sure why there’s such a huge craze over this. it’s good but paying around RM4 for a small pack of crunchy french fries? no thanks. =X. but well, if you like potatoes.. you should really try it haha.

rating : 6/10

so now, let’s get to what’s less commercialized!

Meiji’s Rich Strawberry Chocolate. I bet you’ve seen this chocolate before. but don’t buy the wrong one. there’s the normal one where the strawberry part is much more creamy. this one, the strawberry is.. well, rich. and is absolutely HEAVENLYYYY. it melts in your mouth and it could be bought here too at those shops which are always stuck together with Zanmai outlets – Shojikiya. well, for almost twice the price. so if you’re going to Japan, GRAB MOREEE.

rating 10/10

BOURBONs costs a bomb here. but it’s so good. I don’t know how to express how delicious it is. I think it’s thin crepe (?) covered in creamy white choc.  but it’s sooooo soo soooo soooooo soooooo goooooodddd. U_U.

rating : 10/10

this can be bought here too =D. like it’s name, Meltykiss literally MELTS in your mouth. I like both. they both taste uber awesome.

rating : 9.5/10

I’ve seen something similar here but not this flavour. and it costs about RM12 here. can you believe it. you can buy Rocky for lesser than 2 bucks pfft. but this one is very good. T_T.

rating : 10/10

if you like sweet stuff. these are amazing. Kando’s Pure Peach flavoured sour chewy sweets are so addictive. so are those Grape gummys. <3. THEY ARE SOLD HERE TOOOOO! =D!

rating : 8/10

I don’t know what are these called but it’s very cheap. only found in Japan. these sticks have a mad selection of flavours. their website’s yaokin.com. =D. I like everything. just that the cheese one tastes too normal =X. I bought a huge pack of Tako flavoured back. I did not regret it at all. =P.

rating : 9/10

have you seen anything similar but choco top with normal biscuit bottom?

greentea products are madly expensive, I really wonder why. a small box of 8 kitkats (the mini one okay, those with only 2 sticks) costs like around RM35. mad a not? but this is really awesome. I can say all green tea products are worth paying for =X. but you’d get sick of it if you eat too much of these. so it’s a wiser choice to share it. even if it look like a small packet =D.

rating : 9/10

don’t this look very familiar? I’ve always wanted to try this. it ain’t cheap. approx RM6 for one? unlike Malaysian cup noodle ad’s where they show you all kind of beautiful prawns and other ingredients on the poster, Japan give you what you see.

REAL PRAWNS AITE! and it tastes good. very very good. wonderful noodles with some real good soup. I wonder how unhealthy it is to taste this good =X.

rating : 8/10

totally unrelated picture hahaha. I thought my hairstyle looked Jap but my mom called it the cow dung hairstyle and my sis gave me a weird stare while my grandma just laughed. =X.

well, I am just weird like that =D.

PS : it’s not dumb at all to carry snacks all the way back from Japan even if it can be bought here. you save at least 40%! it’s like mega sales without having to wait for sales to come. and yes you can carry dry sealed food in flight. don’t worry about having to check it in. =D.

Penang was more of a sort of break for me because I had limited time to use internet. I spent most of my time.. eating, sleeping, eating and more eating. I literally became a glutton there. I like my holidays to be rushed and exciting but this time it’s really different haha.

this is my sister. I KNOW, “why don’t you look like your sis? so.. different.” we don’t look alike. that is because she look a lot like my mom while I look a lot like my dad (which isn’t very fair! fml because my mom was really pretty and my dad’s.. a man).  it’s been pretty long since I last had my sort of artsy mood to shoot portraits. =P. but when I saw that angle I just suddenly had that “feel” to shoot it. I’m weird. =P.

and you’d not guess what she’s leaning on.

it’s that huge thing filled with sand(?) for you poke your joss stick into in temples!

back to my topic.

the heritage Penang.

if you had not already know, the best Asam Laksa (says my mom) is in Ayer Itam. it’s located right below the cascading temple there.

there isn’t exactly a name for this stall I think. it’s just written LAKSA on the wall. it’s not a huge shop. but it’s constantly packed with people. I was there at a non-peak hour and definitely not the school holiday season. and it was still full!

bliss. I hate how Asam Laksa’s in KL give you a whole piece of fish. I like it minced.

NYAM~!

just if you are wondering how this effect came into all the pictures in this post, they are screened and edited to high contrast.

this was one of the things I had in my list before going to Korea, TO TRY THOSE MOVING RAW OCTOPUS. and on my last day in Korea, we went to a shop (it’s a 24hours shop!) with live octopus living on the tanks outside for breakfast!

at first, everybody will think it is GROSS. but, it is not disgusting. really. in fact, it tastes great! a very very good snack. a snack because it doesn’t fill you.

if I really have to explain how it taste like, I’d say, have you ever eaten octopus sashimi? well, it is similar. it might look wet and gooey but the truth is, I don’t feel any mucus or whatever slimy stuff. when you pick it up with your chopsticks, it just.. hardens @______@. and somehow, it’s crunchy because it hardened.

and the wriggling feeling and those tentacles sucking your tongue is one of the greatest (and most ticklish) experience. haha! you’d enjoy it. =P.

the yummy dipping sauce. consists of salt and sesame oil. this is the best sauce in my opinion. those chili sauce tastes very much like what you’d find in a yongtaufoo shop here. haha.

had out breakfast in one of the shops in Myeong Dong. forgot it’s name but it seems to be pretty famous with celebrity signatures stuck everywhere. it’s a decent shop. you can find it next to Pacific Hotel (Myeong Dong Exit 3).

one thing about it is the price. it costs 20,000 – 30,000won for a plate. that is about RM60-90. not cheap yeah. especially for something that doesn’t fill you stomach. and also, always CHEW it well before swallowing. every year there would be a few cases of people dying because they choked on Sannakji @@. but it is rare. so yeah, just make sure you chew thoroughly.

our total bill came up to 35,000won. around RM100. pretty pricey for a breakfast for two. we had Pajeon (korean pancake. the ones in this shop was absolutely delicious.) and Sannakji ONLY. haha. the Pajeon costs 15,000won (RM45!! for something made out of flour. and some vege). the most expensive one I’ve ever had. those in Malaysia are around RM25-30 only. T_T. but it really taste very good. and we had a whole table filled with Banchan 반찬 (the small plates of side dishes) there were at least 10 sidelines. madness. but yummy. <3.

my first time actually recording a video. I was really excited about eating it so I kept saying “jajang” (my own way of saying TADA!) some of you might just be annoyed by it. haha. pfft.

enjoy! =D.

PS : it is NOT going to be just a once in a life time thing. it’s really really good. if I were to be in Korea again, I’d definitely look for Sannakji!

PSS : my voice is so weird when it is recorded. is it REALLY like this in real life? no wonder I am weird pfft because my weirdness starts from my voice T_T.

the best I have ever eaten, in Sin Seow Fong Lye Cafe, 94C, Macalister Lane, 10400 Penang.

they’re like a kopitiam actually. =D.

I don’t really look like my mom =X. but we both love the chee cheong fun very much. we both had two BIG plate EACH!

TADA! the Ha Kou Chee Cheong Fun! <3. the best thing I’ve ever tried. but if you hate ha kou, then don’t try it haha.

after being hit by the hazard caused by my chopsticks!

okay the shop is not only famous for these.

their Char Kuey Teow is very famous as well. but the thing is, 90% of the kuey teow you can get will satisfy you. it isn’t the best, but it’s GREATTT.

their menu. I had Omelette B, C was sold out T_T. trust me, it spells D_E_L_I_C_I_O_U_S. I thought it was just normal omelette at first so I didn’t take any picture of it. they didn’t use normal cheese. they used CREAM CHEESE. oh nom nom nom nom!

otak-otak. I prefer the ones here compared to the ones in Muar, I’m weird. >=(. I like how they have those vegetables in it. YUMM. but the one sold at this coffee shop ain’t as good. go buy it from the “neighbour”.

here’s the neighbour’s contact. not sure if it’s RM2.50 or what. somewhere there. it’s seriously damn good. T_T. I wanted more but we only went there once. sigh.

and on the ferry, I thought I was going to face the most tragic situation of my life. the PETROL factory (Shell) was in that state. lucky it didn’t blow up or something. I was literally scared. T_T.