[Busan] Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap 본전 돼지국밥

First evening in Busan, and I had arrived from Seoul via KTX while the rest of the gang, were coming in from Jeju. So interesting, right? Keke.

First meal, we agreed to have local food. The top must-eat foods in Busan seemed to be 밀면 milmyeon (wheat noodles), 돼지국밥 pork and rice soup (dwaeji gukbap),  어묵 eomuk (fish cake), and 냉채족발 (naegje jokbal) pork trotters with chilled vegetables. On hindsight, we did 3 out of 4 which was quite a feat, yes?

Let's start with dwaeji gukbap or loosely translated as pork rice soup. Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap was about 5 minutes from the KTX station and within walking distance to McDonalds too. We were hungry and weather was nicely cooling. There was a line outside of the shop by the time we were there at about 7.23pm. Waited for 20 minutes before we got seated.

Busan KTX station

Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap (left) shares the same building as Motel 3.6.9

The place had local tourists plus the foreign tourists like us. The place is casual and no-frills. The ahjumma running the place was rather strict and placed more emphasis on guys. Pretty traditional I'd think.

menu

The menu was rather straightforward too. Reasonably priced and slightly cheaper than Seoul. We ordered almost everything from the food menu.

Once the order had been taken, the staff will bring forth the side dishes. On the table, there was a pot of something that looked like chinchalok, fermented small fish. Tasted extremely salty and not pungent as chinchalok.

Jeotgal 醢

raw green chilies and onions, kimchi and spicy spring onions (back)

The kimchi was refillable, if you wish to have more. The green chilies were rather powerful and I learnt it, the hard way. The burn was strong and stayed for quite a while (about 10 minutes).

super spicy!

Initially thought that the sundae gukbap 순대국밥 would taste funky but it was pretty good. The sundae was cooked till soft and when eaten with the light tasting soup, it warmed our tummies and hearts.

순대국밥 

There was a gukbap with pigs stomach and that tasted really familiar. Much like the pig stomach soup back home. All the soup bases are similar and very mild tasting. One could add the jeotgal to season it a bit.

pig stomach gukbap 섞어탕반

Actually, the ahjumma did share with us on how one should be eating the gukbap. She said, add a bit of the jeotgal to the soup and then throw in a bunch of those seasoned spicy spring onions. Depends on your preference actually. One could do original and then alter the taste with the side-dishes.

돼지국밥 (pork bits rice soup)

For the premium set, the boiled pork belly was sliced thinly but intact while the regular pork rice soup had smaller bits of the pork meat.

pork belly gukbap

porridge and beer?

Good thing about dwaeji gukbap is that you won't end up feeling bloated or very full. The amount of rice in the soup was either half or about two third of a normal bowl.

Bonjeon Dwaejigukbap 본전 돼지국밥

Address: 3-8 Jungang-daero 214beon-gil, Choryang-dong, Dong-gu, Busan, South Korea
Phone: +82 51-441-2946
Business Hours:
Daily 830am to 930pm

[Keepers Playground Of Infinite Happiness] Come Eat, Shop, Play, Gram @ National Design Centre

Head on down to Keepers Playground Of Infinite Happiness at National Design Centre over these two weekends from 27 to 29 Jul and 3 to 5 Aug 2018 11am to 9pm. Check out the various retail pop-ups from the artisans and craftsmen. Bring your family, friends and money!

Come Play!

National Design Centre is located at 111 Middle Road and within walking distance from Bras Basah MRT. Explore all levels and embark on a journey of discovery. For those that are in the know, head on right up to Level 5.

reminds me of Helix Bridge

If you're a chocolate lover, head right up to Level 3 and meet with the good folks from Fossa Chocolate and Demochoco でもチョコ. Tried the Apple Brandy chocolate from Demochoco and it was good. Tasted like nama chocolate, with Manjari (64%) chocolate blended with Nikka’s Single Cask Hirosaki Apple Brandy (aged 12 years). That brings back memory of Nikka factory visit in 2015.

DEMOCHOCO

FOSSA Chocolate

It was kind of interesting to just walk around the area and to discover interesting stuffs along the way.

makerbot 3D printer

born out of a printer

As I was walking down the stairs, something caught my eye as it was looking out of a window. It was one of the ten mini Miuns one could find 'hidden' in National Design Centre.

mini Miun

National Design Centre is also having its Fifty Years of Singapore Design exhibition at Level 1. The exhibition chronicles the development of the Singapore design scene from the early 60s to till date.

Fifty Years of Singapore Design

iconic Singapore Girl kebaya

At Level 1, if you're feeling hungry, there's Tanuki Raw with hearty food. But, it was so crowded, so decided to shop around Kpok @NDC.

localization

Level 1 has many other installations including Funan Playsuite. There's a claw machine and you might win something from there!

Funan v2.0

good luck!

If you feel like having ice-cream, there's ButterKnife Folk with their delicious range of gelato. Hmm, there's an exotic and localized Chicken Rice ice-cream too. Are you game for it? I wanted the Infinite Happiness, but alas, it had eluded me. In plainspeak, it was sold out. So, I got the blueberry cheesecake instead.

Blueberry Cheesecake Gelato @$5

yummy

Found another Miun-related item while I was enjoying the cool treat. Quirky and fun.

Miun box

Looking for OOTD spot? There's plenty at NDC.

nice colourful backdrop

magic mushrooms

Only for two weekends to meet your favourite retail pop-ups! See you there.

[Busan] The Plate @ Gamcheon Culture Village 감천문화마을

One day in early Oct 2017, we were at Gamcheon Culture Village and had probably walked a couple of kilometres here and there before we decided to stop for brunch/tea? Whichever it was, we were hungry! Chanced upon this place that looked pretty cool from the outside. It said "Coffee Brunch" and that was enough to propel us inside. That and those other people eyeing this place as well.

throngs of tourist flocking here

I thought I saw a puddy tat. Double blink and I did. It did not care for the crowds and neither did it care when I approached. Meow.

guardian of The Plate

pondering about life, beside an advert for 32cm ice-cream

The shop has a retail area downstairs and it had a bit of souvenir as well as postcards etc.

buy a souvenir postcard?

how about some soju/beer to takeaway?

Order and pay for the food at the cashier downstairs and the staff would send it up towards the second floor. It was a rather steep climb up.

window view

view from the top

watch your head, Ivan

It was actually rather nice to dine there. Comfortable and homey. Sit by the window and slowly watch the world go by.

mocha

The drinks was served in mugs with beautiful flower print on them. That's a nice change from sterile looking containers.

We ordered a couple of items to share. The fish and chips and breakfast plates looked quite fitting to the theme. Very British-like, especially those pale looking chips.

fish and chips

breakfast set

Then, we had some somewhat eclectic items such as pasta and...fried rice? The fried rice with egg was so homely. Surprisingly, it was a taste that we didn't know we missed.

pasta

fried rice with egg

Was hungry, so we tucked in. Enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere, the holiday mood and to plan our next meal. Yes, we are like that.

let's eat!

Special thanks to the travelling homies; Hence and Tracy, Shermaine and Ivan. With you guys, we ate so much more, posted more and blogged so much more. 고마워!

The Plate

Address: South Korea, Busan, Saha-gu, be, i)-dong Gamnae 2(i)-ro, 113(baeksibo Gamcheon 2)
Contact: +82 51-207-7592
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Plate/491324161034565

Trung Nguyen Coffee @ International Plaza

Trung Nguyen is a coffee chain from Vietnam, and first taste of it was in 2011 when we were at Ho Chi Minh. Lunch hour at International Plaza always sees throngs of office workers looking for a place to dine.

This place is not so crowded so we were there after our meeting. Lunch set $11.90 consist of a main dish, an appetiser and coffee. Pay at the cashier and await for food. Noticeably, those who ordered noodles will get their orders first. Perhaps, it was easier to prepare? One could see two big pots of soup bubbling at the counter.

pay and wait

I got myself a banh mi pâté which consist of french baguette stuffed vegetable, a slice of ham and chicken liver pate. For appetiser, I had the fresh spring roll. And of course, coffee.

fresh spring roll

The spring rolls were prepped prior and one just need to peel off the cling wrap from the small plate. It was compact with rice vermicelli, lettuce, cucumber, cilantro and a prawn. The sauce was like a watery sweet chili sauce but necessary. Light and mild.

chicken liver pâté banh mi 

There's something about chewing on a baguette with stuffings. The more you chew, the tastier it becomes. Loved all the lettuce, pickles, thin spread of pâté with each bite. Yums.

The staff forgot about my coffee so had to remind them. All the cups were pre-prepared and one just needed to top it with hot water for it to start dripping.

cà phê sữa nóng

The coffee taste was agreeable. Not too sweet. The temperature after drip was right for drinking. Just need to stir the coffee to get the condensed milk mixed well.

hot coffee with condensed milk