AUTUMN IN KOREA – DAY 6(SEOUL) – First step in Seoul , Tosokchon

If you read my last post, I already tell you that we stay overnight at Jimjilbang. We didn’t get a good sleep there, but at least we got good experience. We had flight in the morning, so we woke up early that day. Start with Miss Pepz, she woke up 4 am in the morning, she enjoy bathing alone, and dip her body in the hot tube without anybody see her. I woke up around 5 am and didn’t find Miss Pepz and Big Sis; I guessed they already went down stairs. I saw Mr. Damz still sleeping there; I let him sleep more because I thought it’s too early to wake up him. So I woke up and went down. I found Miss Pepz and Big Sis sat while watched television. Miss Pepz already took a bath. So I decided to prepare myself too. I didn’t shower today. I already clean my self tomorrow night, so I just wash my face and brush my tooth. And then I followed Miss Pepz and Big Sis watching TV. We bought ramen cup to fill our cold stomach. After we finished, we checked Mr. Damz. He was ready too. So we met at the receptionist. Yesterday, we asked the receptionist to call a taxi for us. Thankfully she is so helpful, the taxi comes in time and we directly went to airport.

Flight Jeju – Seoul
this picture make me think I already leave earth atmosphere

We use Jeju air to go to Seoul. The best price we could get at that time. We checked in and time showed us we has plenty time to find breakfast first. So we go to the food court and eat there. Because it’s still in the morning, there were not so many people. There are only some airport officer, stewardess and steward eating there. We ordered pork rice and seafood ramyeon. The taste is good, but lacks something I think. It’s like Korean food in Indonesia, lack of Korean taste but still good.

Seafood Ramyeon

Pork with Rice

After we eat we go the waiting room and not for so long our plane is took off with us inside went to Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, our last city in South Korea. We arrived at Seoul, and it’s time for us to find our apartment. But first, we went to buy T-money first. We ask information and she told us we can buy it in the mart, she showed us the way. As I remember the name is GS-25, we bought 4 T-Money there and filled the balance up to 20,000 KRW. It’s so easy to buy although the shopkeeper can speak English, but at least he understands what I want. Btw, we found our apartment at airbnb.com, out host is Suhee, she already sent us tutorial how to go to her apartment from airport. But we totally forgot to tell her that we will arrive in Gimpo Airport not in Incheon airport. She thought that we will arrive in Incheon, so the tutorial is totally wrong. We completely confused. We asked the information, and they suggested us to find a taxi. So, we looked for jumbo taxi, and find them queue inline in front of arrival gate. So we took one, fortunately the driver ahjussi is so kind. He can talk in English little; he even helped us call Suhee with his phone to make sure where the apartment is. And we arrived safely in Suhee’s apartment. It’s not check in time, so when we entered the room, it’s still messy from last tenant. Suhee already told us before, that we only can drop our luggage because the check in time is at 2 in the afternoon, but we arrived around 12 pm. So, after drop our luggage we went to our 1st destination.

Actually our apartment is near Gyeongbokgung. So we decided to go to Gyeongbokgung, Gwanghwamun, and Cheonggyecheon stream today. But before we start our tourist mode, we change into food hunter mode first, finding the legendary ginseng chicken aka Samgyetang, Tosokchon. I bet most of Korean lover know this restaurant. It’s the first time we feel confused to find way in South Korea. In Busan we have Sung oppa, and in Jeju the GPS really help us. Now it’s the time for the true adventures. We turn on the google maps and start to walk, went to the left and at the end we were confused. So we asked a girl in a bus stop. She doesn’t speak English well, but we know that we must go to the right side not the left side. So we said thank you and turn around. We found some man in suits, we asked them, but it’s so hard, they even didn’t try to explain us with English but because they know we don’t understand Korea, they tried to explain with their body language, so confusing. We start walk again and fortunately met with a woman (so stylist woman, with hip hop style) and she speak English well. Thanks God because of her we could find Tosokchon. If you see a long queue in front of Korean house style, it’s Tosokchon.

Tosokchon

But, we are too tired and too hungry to wait but the queue is so damn long, so we just stand and while do some chit-chat we took a photo too. We waited around 30 minutes, and got the table. I really surprised when entered the place. It’s so big inside, so many tables; you can get a table with chair, or table with cushion. Actually we cannot choose chair or cushion, because of it’s so packed with customer, just accept where is table they showed us. We got table with cushion in so remote area. As we sit, they gave us a menu and a ginseng tea (we think it ginseng tea, but from what I read it’s ginseng soju). The ginseng drink taste is so strong, but really makes us warm after standing outside so long. Their main menu is Samgyetang, but they sold other thing like Pajeon. Here is the menu.

Tosokchone’s Menu

Ginseng Tea or Ginseng Soju

Tosokchon

We read from some blog that in Korea, we must order food as many as the people. If you are 4 so you must order 4 portions. But 1 portion of Samgyetang is 1 whole chicken with rice inside, ginseng, Chinese dates, and many other things. Hmmm, can we finish it? We saw our next table, they just 4 tiny girl, from japan I think. They ate 1 bowl each, and nearly finished it but didn’t show it’s so hard thing to do. So we decided to order 4 too. We order 1 Samgyetang and 1 black chicken Samgyetang. 1 portion of Samgyetang is 15,000 KRW and the black is 22,000 KRW.

In each table, there is a jug filled with radish kimchi, salt and pepper, and they also gave us a pitcher of water. We can take the kimchi as much as we want, and ask again if it run out. The Samgyetang is arrived. It’s so healthy food, from the first sip I taste, the soup is so healthy, and the meat is tender, so easy to eat. The ginseng is so big and not bitter. The chicken is filled with ginseng, chest nut, jujube, garlics, ginger, allay, perils seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seed, nuts, pine nut, black sesame, and etc. So delicious, if somebody asks me what I should eat in Seoul, I will say Tosokchon. And I prefer the original Samgyetang, not the black chicken. Because it’s cheaper and the taste is same. But they said the black chicken is more nutritious. But with ginseng and the other herbs I think we already eat enough nutritious even in white chicken Samgyetang.

Tosokchon – Samgyetang

After we finished eat. We go to our main attraction today. Gyeongbokgung is the main palace in Korea. In our way to Gyeongbokgung, we find the true autumn here. The leaves are so yellow, so beautiful we never see something like this before. As tropical country citizen, we can just found green and brown leaves in our home. The bright yellow leaves are so beautiful. We find some in Busan, but not so many like in Seoul. It makes me falling in love with autumn. It is so great.