Hanbunsik [한분,식 - 한분한분을 위한 식사]

The entrance to the little cozy restaurant 

If you're having a craving for some Korean food! Then you should ABSOLUTELY and most DEFINITELY visit this place. I love kimbab and all the Korean snack-like meals but sometimes you just get sick and tired of all the franchise places and want a nice homemade style. And if you're like me.. then you really.. really.. have to go here. But please do keep in mind that we all do have different opinions and taste buds so don't be put off if it isn't up to your expectation..

Hanbun (한분) - a person /
sik (식/식사) - meal

For me, however, I have been looking for some good busik (분식) place and I think this is it.. though it is a bit out of the way.

Their name is very clever, too. Hanbun, sik (한분, 식): Hanbun (한분) refers to one person and sik (식) means meal. So, translated it means meal for each and every person. I thought that was neat.

Below are the basic side dishes provided with the meals: soup and white kimchi :

White kimchi (백김치) - this is good for those
that can't have spicy kimchi 

Soup with fried bean curd(유부) it has a little spicy kick to it 

We ordered 2 kimbab, jinmi kimbab which had seasoned dried squid in it and salmon mayo kimbab. They were both delicious.. but can't wait to visit again and try the other kimbab.

Jinmi kimbab  (진미 김밥)
[in food, 'jinmi', refers to delicate flavor]

Salmon mayo kimbab (연어마요 김밥)

We also ordered ddokbokki, which is a dish of rice cake and fish cake seasoned in a little spicy sweet sauce. All three dishes were delicious and fresh. I really liked the kimbabs because they didn't have too much rice in it but more of the other ingredients. Also the ddokbokki was good to because they made it with rice cake made with brown rice. So, it felt much healthy.

Ddokbokki made with brown rice
(현미떡볶이)

The restaurant is located between Yeoksam Station (line#2) and Seollung Station (line#2&Bundang line). When you reach the Renaissance Hotel, walk to the back of the hotel and you'll see a Japanese Restaurant named IDOMI (이도미), take the alley where Idomi is and walk straight, pass the first intersection and you'll see the restaurant on your left. If you live near by, you're in luck because they do deliver and the owner and the employee do speak English. They're open every Monday to Friday from 10:30am till 9:00pm, closed on Sundays.

HANBUNSIK

address: 역삼동 664-32

tel: 025-666-555

No more hospital visits... Knock on wood!!

March 20th, 2015

My final visit to the hospital and checkup with the doc.. To see the progress and get the plastic thingy (sorry for my ignorance but I still don't know what they're called :( ) out of my nose that was correcting(?) my deviated septum. Boy, now I can believe you can practically stuff anything up your nose. I was wondering how kids got those huge toys stuck up their nose and had to visit the emergency room... I mean, I had my eyes closed when they were pulling it out but, wow, seriously they were huge.. And I just had thought it was some kind of tube. 

Anyhow, it was a quick visit: the nurse did her thing and the doc examined and told me it's healing well.. no infections or out of the ordinaries. I just need to take care of it a bit more with the cleansing for a month since there'll be scabs and occasional slight bleeding. Still am not supposed to blow my nose or pretty much he said blowing your nose is not good at all (for anyone). Mid April I should be able to start exercising and in about a month's time I should start getting some feeling back. It still feels a bit numb and stiff :( but it is still heeling so need to give it time. 

My check up for the first surgery went fine too. The swelling is all gone and I could see a huge change after the doc took pics to show the difference between the before and after photos. 

Breathing is much better now. I think it could get much better after the swelling goes down and I can feel my nose again, lol. It's weird because after the surgery, taste and scent are much more pronounced. 

Also, no snoring! And I'm feeling more rested as days go by.... Except for the occasional times where I can't really fall asleep but that has more to do with my insomnia problem and getting my biorhythm in order. However, sleeping 3 hours a day is ok because I do feel much more rested than I used to before the surgery. ;) But yes, a regular scheduled time wouldn't hurt either. 

I'd like to thank all my friends and family for being there for me and sending me good thoughts! 

Love you all! 

Second surgery... Thank heavens it's over!!!

March 6th, 2015

While my first surgery to fix the obstructive sleep apnea was concentrated in the oral area, my second surgery was all about the nasal area: fixing the crooked nasal cavity by inserting a plastic tube and burning of some tissues to broaden the airways, and some other thing I couldn't understand... :P

The morning of... I got ready to head to the hospital on the subway with the morning crowd headed into work. My surgery was scheduled for 10am but had to be there by 9:20 to see the doc before the surgery and and do a simple checkup. So, with all the people cramping up in the subway off I went...

Morning crowd...

Got to the hospital way early, talked to the doc, did some basic tests, got changed into hospital gown and off to the surgery...

I got another round of general anesthesia and this time it was different because I actually felt the liquids flowing into my veins and it hurt! But after that I only remember waking up again cold in the recovery, dizzy and just hurting all over and not being able to breathe through my nose. After gaining a bit of strength I was moved to a bedroom where I wasn't able to sleep for the next hour and half OR drink. So, tried to focus on some other things in order to forget...read a bit, played some game, chatted with my friend on FaceTime. Time did pass quickly and gosh, was I glad to be able to drink water!

I was feeling weak, tired and thirsty. My nose was blocked with gauze stuffed into it and breathing through the mouth made me thirsty all the time. I was released from the hospital around 8pm with nose still blocked, an IV needle stuck into my right wrist, so couldn't breathe properly and couldn't use my right hand. On top of that, I couldn't wear my glasses because it'll put weight on the nose and that was a no-no. So, I was half blind, and half-crippled...

Sleeping that night was really hard! Kept waking up and I couldn't sleep lying down so had to sit up again and that made it a little easier to sleep. 

March 7th, the day after the surgery I had to return to the hospital to get the gauze out of my nose and get the antibiotic shot. Getting that done even though it was very, very painful, I'm glad it was done because I'm feeling much better! 

Next appointment is a week later and I'll get rid of the stitches and the blue bandage that's covering the nose. And a week later from that they'll take the plastic tube out. 

I can't wait till everything is healed. For all the swellings to go down and have fully healed it'll take months.

There are also some precautions I need to take in the meantime (for about a month) like: no excessive exercising, no heavy lifting, no tilting the head down, no sauna or public bathhouse, no alcoholic beverages (up to 3months) 

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

I've been told I snore. 

Yes, people snore, and women do snore. The problem with me though is that I've been told I stop breathing after a very loud snore. And this had been going for some time and hadn't really thought much of it even though my family have had constantly told me to get it checked out. So after ignoring it for the longest time, I finally went to a sleep clinic to get myself checked. (Because it was getting serious and even I was starting to notice and coincidentally I saw a program related to sleep apnea and how badly it could affect your daily life and health.)

February 6th, 6:30pm was the day of the appointment with the doctor at my sleep clinic in Gangnam. We did a short survey, and met up with the doc and did the CT scan, x-ray, and blood works. Didn't take much time maybe an hour or so then at 9pm came back to the clinic to get hooked up on the wires and whatnots to get my brainwave, breathing and movement scanned and filmed. Went to bed around 11pm and the next day they had the results ready by 5pm. 

February 7th, second meeting with the doc... and I was hoping maybe a little retainer would do the trick but it wasn't going to be that easy. He said my results were pretty much on the top of one of his worst female patients. (I pretty much rank 2nd) the results said that I've been waking up over a 100 times in an hou tall becaue of sleep apnea and generally 30/hr is in the red zone and my results were 3times higher. Also, the longest I didn't breathe was 37seconds and that's not good. 

Hence, it came down to two choices, non-surgically I could be using the breathing mask to help me breathe during my sleep for the rest of my life OR surgically, I could broaden up my airways. Luckily, and thankfully I didn't have to get the complicated surgical procedure done.. just a simple not to painful surgery was an option for me, which involves: reduction of the tonsils, uvula and tongue. And yes, it sounded horrifyingly painful and frightening when the doc explained it. And it made me think of all the brave women out there who actually get jobs done willingly just for the sake of beauty... I could never do that. From the CT scan, we could also see that I had a narrow and crooked nasal cavity, hence that needs to get fixed as well and having all that fixed should cure 90% of my problem. (So, 2nd surgery si scheduled for 6th of March)

February 12th, 7pm - The Day of Surgery!

Nervous, anxious and a little frightened.. changed into hospital gown and walked into the surgery room. As I lay down on the surgical bed, I saw those circular lights that we see often on tv and the doctors started connected me to IVs and other electrical wires. The anesthetistf came in and started injecting something into the IV and put a mask on me, telling me to take deep breaths. After couple of breaths I don't remember anything but waking up in the recovery room, shivering.It wasn't painful at all, like the doctor had said, but felt all swollen and awkward, yes, swallowing was very hard. I started out with water, which was difficult, it felt like my throat was the size of a pin hole.

For the first couple of days, I could only eat water, ice cubes and ice cream. I still have to be careful with what I eat because I can't risk the stitches tearing and bleeding. So, for the next couple of weeks until everything is all healed and my lower jaw and four lower front teeth are back to normal, I can only have liquid food, no seasoning, chunks, spice... just soft, cold, sweet stuff.. Oh, and I have to sleep sitting up until the swelling goes down. It's been pretty good so far, I guess it helps because I cant chew or swallow. However, I can't wait till I can eat alll the food I've been missing out on! :)

It's been about 10 days since the surgery and the swelling has gone down substantially, the bruises are almost gone, there stilll are a bit of yellow and blue, purple patches but it should disappear in time :)

I have a checkup at the hospital coming Monday to get the threads removed and to see how the healing's been progressing so far. 

Myungdong or Myeongdong (명동), the shopping mecca

I like and dislike Myungdong. It's a great place to shop but it really has just way too many people. So, if you're living in Korea and have a chance to go and would LOVE to avoid all the crowd.. I suggest you go early in the morning. However, all the action does start late in the day so I do suggest that you experience it if you already haven't. I came to Myungdong yesterday and today to do some last minute shopping before I leave for Thailand. Yes, I probably could have come here just for yesterday and skipped today if only I had not forgotten to take my passport and my duty free membership card.. Oh, and talking of duty free, if you're leaving Korea and/or going on a vacation do check out the duty free, they have great deals. Also online duty free is awesome as well.

Anyways, going back to my original topic - Myungdong, yes it's a wonderful place lots to shop, many places to visit near by and some wonderful shows to see. It's amazing how much has changed though.. It's mostly aimed at Chinese and Japanese tourist but still it amazes me how it has upped the variety in choices of food on the streets. 

Here you have the Korean-Chinese black noodle Jajangmyun (자장면) it's called black model because the sauce is black. Some call it Jjajangmyun (짜장면) but the peoper way of writing and pronouncing is JAjangmyun (자장면). 

Below is a picture of what it originally looks like...

One thing that totally caught me off guard is the pig feet... Yes, you may easily see them on the street at a local market but I hadn't realize they had started selling them on the strew of Myungdong. 

They also had kimbab..

Chicken and fish cake...

Meatballs...

Ribs...

Mung Bean Pancake (녹두전)...!!!

Strawberry Mochi! 

And CGV added something to their sign...

It was really interesting to see the changes and the crowd...
So if you have a chance do go and have a look-see! :D

XYZ in Korean?

You know that awkward situation where you notice something is quite not right in the lower pants region and you want to point it out without embarrassing the other person.. 

In English, it would go something like XYZ (examine your zipper). 

But how could we say that in Korean? It's quite simple... the phrase you're looking for is...

남대문이 열렸다. 

(Namdaemuni yeolyeodda)

Namdaemun is the south gate and when something is yeolyeodda, it's open. 

So, South gate is open.

It's quite easy to remember too, just think south, lower part, and open. 

There are many stories to how this came about. One of the story is that long time when the usually closed south gate in Seoul, Namdaemun, was open, that's when people could see things that they usually weren't privileged to and hence the lower part should be covered most of the time the once in awhile agape situation could be viewed as how it was back then. Another way to interpret it is the word 'nam' means male and 'mun' means door, so, the door to your male part is open. 

So next time you see someone's zipper undone, try this phrase:

남대문이 열렸다. 

(Namdaemuni yeolyeodda.)

Your south gate is open!

 

Flavor & Recipe - a lovely little gift shop

A cozy little shop in the back alley of Itaewon area. You can find handmade candles and many different scented products. Love this little place. As soon as you're in you're greeted by the lovely owner of this little place as well as the relaxing aroma of different kind of scents. She also has workshops that you can sign up for and of you need a little area for your own group she also rents the place for a tiny fee. The place also has little trinkets that are perfect for presents :) If you're in the area make sure to stop by and take a looksee! (Will add map and info below) 

April 29th, 2013-DAY 1 of my trip around the Peninsula!

So my plan was to leave at 6am on Monday morning and drive towards Seolak Mountain. 
(Seolak Mountain is the highest mountain of the Taebaek Mountain range located in the Gangwon province.)

It kind of didn't work out because first, it was raining awfully bad with thunder and lightening.. and I had some unfinished business to take care of. But we - my mum, our dog, Nari, and I - were on the road around 7:40.

The reason for heading to Seolak Mountain was to visit the Ulsanbawi, which  I had climbed to the very top when I was 5 years old. And I have a medal to proof it!

Ulsanbawi is in a rock formation and tor climb it you have to go up these incredible steel staircases. The original path up the mountain was taken down because it was too old and getting rusty here and there so, they have a new and better and safer path up to the top. I remember this particular climb even though I was only 5 because it was slightly drizzling and when I was on the top I remember reaching up and being able to touch the clouds (or so I thought . It was the most amazing thing and it still is one of the most amazing memories that I have of my childhood. Also, the fact that I was only 5, and yes I have a medal to prove this, and climbed the whole 808 steps all by myself was very self-satisfying. So, I wanted to go down that memory lane and experience it again.

It did give me a fright and I was half worried and half daring when the rain kept pouring. Plus, we took the wrong highway, the longer one, and went around because I forgot to check the map and print it out before I left.. Though it was a  big relief to see the sun peeking out when we reached the east coast and finally headed to the mountain. The beach was just so marvelous that I had to stop and take a moment. So we parked and took pictures and breathed in as much as we could. I was worried at first because it wasn't what I had planned but I figured I'm not really in any tight schedule and this is what road trips are about.. So started enjoying the delays and detours. 

Since this was my very first time driving somewhere besides the vicinity of where I live AND without a map... we got lost again.. yes my fault.. but  no biggy...

When we finally reached the parking lot of the mountain, we were so glad that it wasn't raining anymore. However it was very windy and the park rangers and the shop keepers kept telling us we might not be able to make it to the top....NO! I told myself I came all this way and I'm going to the top. AND I did!

The wind was really strong. You could hear it howling and it also sounded like huge waves crashing in. You could also feel it push you this way and that..but after an hour and half we finally made it to the top with a few rest in between. 

And on our way down..

We settled on spending the night in Seokcho so found a nice motel overlooking the East Sea. Had dinner at the beach fish market and I finished my work that I still had to wrap up. 

I guess because of all the excitement I couldn't fall asleep so started writing this blog but didn't finish it because I started to feel drowsy around 1am. So.. here I am finishing it up. ^^*