A Delicious Affair: Tiger Toppoki

I hate going to the doctor's office for multiple reasons, but by far the most frustrating is the endless wait. Today, I had a doctor's appointment at noon, and guess when they called my name? 1:20! Absolutely ridiculous. What made it even more unbelievable was that it was an extremely speedy check-up; the whole thing literally took less than 2 minutes. Wow.

Mom and I were quite angry afterward, but we soothed our frustrating and our hungry stomachs with a trip to Tiger Toppoki, a Korean fast food restaurant a few blocks away from the doctor's office.

We decided to sample all the main items on the menu. This is every Korean child's dream. Yum :)

Toppoki is a spicy rice cake dish, a very popular street food/snack in Korea. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't as spicy, but the rice cake was chewy and the sauce was not too salty, not too dull.

Odang, fish cake, is served in a bowl of soup. I ordered a spicy pepper odang. Nothing spectacular.

Udon Noodle. Personally I am not a huge fan of Udon, so Mom ate the whole bowl.

Sondae, Korean sausage, used to be made of noodles wrapped in pig's intestine, but nowadays a lot of places have replaced the intestines with something more artificial...thankfully! Sondae here was way too greasy.

Overall an affordable (~$10 for the entire feast!) meal/snack. It reminded me of my childhood. Haha.

A Delicious Affair: Sky Lounge

For lunch, Mom and I stayed "local" by going to a restaurant managed by the University called Sky Lounge. The restaurant is located on the 12th floor of this building, which is also a dormitory for women.

The view from our seat wasn't anything spectacular or breathtaking, but sure beats the typical traffic we see every day.

The restaurant served typical "Koreanized" Western food, such as pork cutlet, spaghetti, and steak. Since I don't eat fried food and am not a big fan of meat, I decided to choose one Korean entree they had: spicy squid with rice. A traditional American restaurant in Korea serves salad and soup before the main meal. The greens weren't as fresh as I would have liked and the salad dressing was a bit too sweet for my taste (I'm the type who don't put dressing on my salad anyways...). It also had some mayonnaise taste I didn't like.

This was my lunch. Mom asked the waitress to make it less spicy than usual, but it was still too spicy. The green leaf garnish was a nice little touch.

The little itsy bitsy two pieces of French fries made me laugh. If we were to order the same meal in Texas, the plate would be OVERFLOWING with fries. I suppose this is why Koreans are not as obese as Americans...

I look angry in this picture, but I'm just tired...Surprisingly still a bit jet lagged!

After we finished our plates, the waitress asked for dessert: "We have coffee, juice, Coke, Sprite, or Green Tea." Okay, I guess in this country, people drink beverages for dessert...?" Again, I don't mean to generalize, but no wonder Koreans aren't as heavy as Americans...Needless to say, it was a nice cup of tea.

A Delicious Affair: VIPS, Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse

I am going to start a new "column" in my blog: A Delicious Affair! The series will chronicle some of the highlights of Korean cuisine...that is, yummy restaurants in this wonderful country that I visit during my stay here this summer. The first restaurant to be featured is VIPS, Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse (or so they say_. Ironically, when Mom and I visited VIPS this afternoon, we didn't order steak. Instead we took advantage of its healthy, fresh all-you-can-eat salad bar.

Now, let's make it clear that I absolutely detest buffet because I always end up with an awful stomachache. Besides, the quality of food at buffets are typically inferior to that at regular restaurants. Nonetheless, VIPS is known for its fresh food and I've always wanted to come here again since my first visit in 2009.

Because Mom and I had to come up to Seoul for a doctor's visit, we decided to eat lunch at VIPS. This is the entrance to the restaurant. We walked from the hospital to VIPS because the traffic was awful and we figured it'd be almost as fast to walk than take the bus.

This was our first dish. As you can see, it's very green (spinach, broccoli, smoked salmon, mango, and, of course, my favorite food of all time, SQUASH!

The salad bar & buffet line was well-kept and fresh.

Dessert time! I loved the frozen yogurt (plain and green tea), but the cake pieces were unfortunately very dry.

This reminded me of Annenberg and how often it used to serve squash. Bahahaha

French fries covered in some sweet sugary syrup. I was confused whether to eat it for dessert or with a meal. Definitely got the sweet and salty going on.

This was a delicious concoction of tofu, greens, Korean radish, and fish roe. Yum :)

Tomato & Cream sauce pasta that we ordered. The waitress cooked it behind the counter in the kitchen and brought them to our table. The pasta sauce was a bit spicy, while the cream sauce was a bit too...creamy. We only had a few bites of the pasta because we were full, and Mom talked about how she felt awful wasting food when there are people in North Korea starving. This discussion got us talking about how Kim Jong Il is a horrible, selfish leader.


VIPS (Very Important People's Society), Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse. I would highly recommend its salad bar. Yummy in my tummy! :)