On the menu you can find various kinds of tofu stew with various kinds of meat, but my favourite and the one I always order is jjolmyeon sundubu (쫄면 being glass noodles). This particular variety comes with tofu, dumplings, and seafood like all of the others but it also comes with chewy noodles that soak up the spicy broth, adding a pleasant texture to the otherwise soft dish. One thing to note about this restaurant is the things that come with the stew you order. Each time you are given 6 different side dishes, as well as a giant stone pot of black bean rice. The waiters also give you a pot of hot water so that once you transfer the rice to the plastic bowl you can pour the water into the stone pot and leave it soaking for a post-meal burnt rice soup. At the table you can also find a basket of eggs that will cook as your stew boils if you crack one into it. If tofu stew isn't what you're craving the restaurant also serves a portion of samgyeopsal (삼겹살 - pork belly meat), galbi (갈비 - marinated beef/pork), or grilled fish. I've tried many things on the menu here and can say it's all definitely worth a taste!

Directions: Come out of the U-PLEX exit of Sinchon station, turn left, and walk straight til you get to the small crosswalk. Look to your right and you'll see a pharmacy (약국) on the corner. Cross over to that side of the road and walk down the street that's in between said pharmacy and a convenience store. You'll see the tofu store on the left, quite close to the beginning of the street

Lately it seems a bubble tea craze has taken over Seoul. For those who don't know, bubble tea is a milk or fruit tea based drink originally from Taiwan. Another name given to this drink is "pearl milk tea" due to the chewy tapioca balls floating in it. It has spread all over Asia and its popularity has recently hit Korea. Walking around Ewha I've noticed at least six locations have popped up since March, and each place constantly has a long line of students waiting to order drinks. Last week I received a free drink coupon for Chatime outside my university and decided to take a look to see what was so special about bubble tea.

It's on one of the two main shopping streets of Ewha so it's quite easy to find, despite being rather small in size. I was given the option of 4 different drinks despite the extensive menu and opted for the Macha Smoothie since macha is one of my favourites and always a safe option! Upon going inside to wait I saw there wasn't much room to sit like the other bubble tea shops, so it seems it's more of a "to go" drink. The waiting time was quite short and the staff all spoke English, making ordering for English speakers an easy task.

Upon getting my drink I saw it had red bean in it, something I'm not particularly fond of. It was an optional add-in on the menu for 500₩ but they gave it to me in my free drink anyway :'( It was quite good anyway but I'll remember to order it without next time just in case. The only problem with bubble tea is that because of the thick straw you end up drinking it too quickly!

I liked the drink quite a lot despite the red bean so I ended up going back again a few days ago. This time I ordered Jasmine Green Tea (자스민녹차) bubble tea, and I liked it a lot more than the smoothie. It was just sweet enough and had the slight bitterness of tea. I ordered it without the bubbles because I'm not a huge fan of the texture of tapioca, but it was still good! If anyone wants to try bubble tea I definitely recommend Chatime because it has a very complete menu of not just bubble tea but also normal teas, juices, coffees, and smoothies.

Directions: Walk out of Ewha Station (이대역) exit 4, keep going straight til the very end (in front of Ewha University's main gate), turn left, and keep walking straight. Chatime is in between Lens Story and Holika Holika

I've decided to start off my blog with a post about one of my favourite K-Pop groups (after Beast, who are of course irreplaceable), Teen Top.

Last Thursday I went with Li ( ohlilu ) to see Teen Top perform at the TOP Media Star Audition in Lotte World. Since tickets are cheaper after 4pm (20,000w-ish), we arrived at Jamsil Station (Line 2 - Green) around that time and went to the main stage area to wait. There weren't as many Angels as I thought there would be, but it was still pretty full. Although we luckily got a seat near the middle, you could still see pretty well no matter where you were!  A friendly ajumma started talking to us after hearing me speak in Korean and she offered to save our seats while we got something to eat. She later told us her daughter was an Angel and said daughter ended up bluetoothing me 30 pictures of Niel while her mom stuffed me with cookies :') When going early to see idols at Lotte World it's a good idea to prepare yourself for the onslaught of kiddie shows beforehand, because if you don't bring anything else to do that's what you will be watching while waiting!

Finally 7:30pm came, and the show began. Since the purpose of the show was auditioning for TOP Media, we got to watch some nice performances by potential future TOP artists! After 10 performances and a short award ceremony gifting the strongest auditionees a chance to participate again, Teen Top was on.

They started their short, 2 song set with Don't Wear Perfume, the only Teen Top single I hadn't seen at that point so I was super excited! The only disappointing thing about it was that they lip-synced. I typically don't mind this, but since they had the MR version of the song only the backup vocals could be heard instead of Teen Top's recorded vocals :( After talking with the MC for some time they followed up with Going Crazy. This was also lip-synced but thankfully they had the studio version for this one! After an energetic performance they left, so Li and I decided to stick around and get dinner. Since I had never gone to Lotte World before I was a little disappointed in how small it was, and how little there was to do. It really seems like a youth oriented park, so I'm not sure how worth it it would be to pay the full price and spend the entire day there. Next I want to try going to Everland, which, despite being farther away, is apparently better.