Jeju Island (known as Je-ju-do in Korean) is Korea’s largest island that is 3 times bigger than Singapore. However it contains only about 500,000 people. The only way to get to this island is by aeroplane from Seoul. No buses, trains and ferries.
One of the regrets brought home from this Korea trip was not being able to buy home instant jja jang myeon. During our first night in Jeju Island, the 3 of us went to a supermarket called E-Mart located just opposite our hotel.
Mushrooms
Baby tomatoes
La-myeon!!
We bought these…
All the things we bought are really delicious! No complains at all. Even the sweet potato chips which might sound weird to some since we rarely have those kind of chips here in Singapore.
One of the most famous and must-eat fruits in Jeju Island are the Mandarin Oranges. They contain no seeds, are so very juicy and sweet! >.< Those who watched the Kdrama My Girl would remember the scene of illegal orange-picking and selling in Jeju Island!
After buying back those food, we wanted to eat and drink the cup noodles (shin la-myeon and jjajang-myeon) and hot chocolate but we realised we didn’t have any spoons and chopsticks. In the end, we only ate the fruits while watching Boys Over Flowers or did we ate them after the show? LOL. Can’t help but mention that.
It was only on the 2nd night did we called for room service to bring us chopsticks and spoons so that we could satisfy our late night hunger. Why didn’t we call for room service the night before? I don’t know and can’t remember why. :x
That was when I first tried Korea’s instant jjajang-myeon. It is woooooooooooo! Delicious man! All 3 of us agreed on that. Super nice.
Tadaaaa… Us and our supper.
La-myeon and Jjajang-myeon
Are you drooling already? hehe. I’ll understand if you do. XD
Our very lame but sometimes humorous tour guide told us that buying clothes, accessories and those non-food items in Jeju Island is actually more expensive than those sold in Seoul. Due to the import/export taxes that are incurred when items are flown to the island. So he told us it is advisable not to do any shopping in the island.
Tapdong street @ Jeju Island
As we walked down the street, we could hear Kpop music blasting away in some shops. Yeah man, my kind of world. Like how many times do we get to hear Kpop played in shops in SG? 1 out of a 100? (Except for Square 2)
Throughout our stay in Korea, the song that we heard the most number of times was T-Max’s Paradise from Boys Over Flowers OST. Why am I not surprised? Everywhere we went, there were posters of the BOF’s casts because they’re in some kind of commercials. Then there were a lot of unofficial merchandises of the drama sold in street side stalls as well. BOF is just steaming HOT!
Down to JungAng underground shopping centre!
The clothes sold are really very pretty and stylish. Some of the shops selling children wear are only specially for girls and there are even shops for boys. Those children wear are not only t-shirts and jeans. They have coats with pretty patterns, mini-skirts with laces and etc! The designs for children could surpass some of the plain wear seen in Singapore.
Look at these!
Dongbangshinki and Boys Over Flowers socks! I know those DBSK socks exist but wow, I didn’t know there’re BOF socks as well. Heh, steaming HOT indeed. We didn’t buy them because we heeded the tour guide’s advice and thought that we could get them while shopping in Dong Dae Mun. But we didn’t because we couldn’t… That’s another regret and another story.
In the end, we went home empty-handed from Jeju Island’s shopping district. I thought we should have at least bought something! Like the socks… lol.
Anyways, I spotted the socks in Square 2 today. :x Alright, I just can’t get over Korea! Going to Square 2 brings back a bit of Korea but still it’s not.
I finally bought instant jjajang-myeon from the Korean mart! I was so happy to see the exact jjajang myeon sold there! Silly to buy when I was just back from Korea but cannot help it! Regretfully I didn’t bring back even one packet of jjajang-myeon. I need to satisfy my craving for it!
So I went home eagerly and cooked it myself! My maid insisted that she cooked but this is no ordinary instant noodles so I cooked while she watched and learned. XD
My instant jjajang myeon with pickled yellow radish bought from Korea. A typical Korean way of eating this Chinese-originated noodles.
Watching dramas does help one to understand the culture. This fact that Koreans usually eat jjajang myeon with pickled yellow radish was instilled in my head when I watched one of Dongbangshinki’s short dramas. It was a scene when all 5 of them had to stay in the studio to eat delivered jjajang myeon due to the screaming fans outside. When the delivery man finished handling them the bowls of myeon and wanted to leave, Jae Joong suddenly said, “Hold it!” Everyone froze at the seriousness of his voice and looked at him. Jae Joong looked at the man seriously and said, “How come there’re no yellow radish?” LOL. XD
Click to watch (It’s just in the first 2 minutes)
So yeah, what a delicious lunch I had today. Yummy yummy!