My friend went downstairs exploring the area around Times Square this morning, and within forty-five minutes came back up with two breakfast meals of scrambled egg and cheese thick toast sandwiches from this place called Eggstory.
Originally I had thought the place was at Times Square itself but as my friend later explained, it was within the premises at one section of the (rather large) Yeungdeungpo station itself, and it seemed quite a popular drop-in spot for Metro passengers on their way to work, or to the train.
I was rather surprised by the thickness of the toast, the amount of egg, how soft it was, and the generous serving of sauce.
Here they didn't just splatter the sandwich with sauce- as most places are wont to do. They squeezed in as much as the slice of bread could hold. The sauce- I think it was mayonnaise- literally dripped down the side of the toast whenever I took a bite.
A bit of a messy eating it was for the fastidious one that I am, but it made for a warm-hearted breakfast, and it was good.
By the way we had our meal at the Sky Garden of Courtyard by Marriott amongst the planted foliage of trees. shrubs, flowers and plants.
It amazes me just how they were able to recreate a little garden featuring Korea's notable forests and flora up on the small little roof.
I might not know what a maple tree looks like but I think I can tell what a maple leaf is like, and I'm pretty sure these here were all maple leaves.
Lunch afterwards was at a restaurant called Walking On The Cloud at 63 Building in Yeouido.
Long time it has been since I last came to this part of Seoul, and not until now did I realize that Yeouido is, in fact, part of Yeungdeungpo, a fact which I find interesting, because, coming to the building that is now owned by Hanwha Group, you wouldn't find it so.
Yet 63 SQUARE- as its officially known- is impossible to miss.
Not when the building- opened in July 1985- gleams gold in the sunlight, looks most glorious at sunrise and sunset, and is the second tallest gold-clad building in the world (besides the Grand Lisboa in Macau).
The 60th floor has a observation deck and an art gallery.
The lower floors include a shopping mall, an aquarium, and an IMAX Theater.
Our restaurant was on the 59th floor, and yes, this was the view.
Accompanying such a great view was, of course, a great meal.
There were two menus here, so whilst my friend took the Montana, I took the Rio.
With the Montana the meal began with a Seafood Salad and Korean beef Carpaccio. After that there was a Lobster Bisque Soup, which was really loved, and then, the main of Charcoal Grilled Beef Tenderloin, and Grilled Black Plaice with Saffron Sauce.
The Rio- on the other hand- began with a dish of escargots, or as they put it, Snails with Herbs and Garlic Butter. My soup was a French Onion Soup, and then for the main, I got Grilled Toothfish with Shiitake and Pineapple.
The soups were well loved.
And since we liked both, my friend and I agreed to split, passing the bowls across the table to each other.
We shared the escargots and the beef carpaccio.
At first I had thought the snails might be a bit oily- some places don't do them very well- but this was a surprise. There was just the right portion of garlic, a rich taste of butter, a faint hint of herbs, and the chew of them snails done just right.
The toothfish was unusual.
I've never been able to differentiate between one type of fish versus another, and I too wasn't able to do with this one, but despite it being a very big chunk, the flesh was soft and tender, the taste clean, and there was the bounciness to the fish that I liked. What's interesting is that whilst the casual diner I had half expected to see a piece of pineapple on the plate, the fruit was actually presented elegantly in the form of a light, clean, clear sauce, almost like a juice, and the taste of shiitake was, if I'm not wrong, in the little dots of sauce all over the pineapple.
With the mains being over, up came dessert, as well as coffee and tea.
They did it right- the people here at Walking On The Cloud.
The sweets were so gourmet.
On the plate there was a small little heart-shaped cheesecake with a tiny little dot of blueberry, there was a green macaron that I think was lime, then a little sugared meringue of pink that must have been of some lovely flavor but which I have since forgotten. Then there was a biscuit stick of sorts, which, I must say, made the entire dessert feel somewhat cutesy and fun.
I really liked the cheesecake.
It went so well with the coffee.
Oh, and there was sorbet- a sort of palate cleanser, if you ask me.
Earlier on in the lobby of the 63, I had noticed a couple of housing block apartments right across the road, and because I'm the sort who gets interested in life and living and how people live, we made a little detour to the estate, where I was intrigued to find it somewhat familiar.
Yes, the blocks were a little closer to each other than what I was familiar with, and the corridors and colors were laid out a bit differently (slightly less streamlined) but the exteriors were more or less the same.
The playground didn't seem too different from what I was familiar with.
The basketball court too looked almost the same.
But what struck me most about the similarity was the lay of the carpark, the row of unit shops, the sheltered five foot way corridor outside the shops (where over here each shop placed all manners of stuff outside their units and had plastic sheets hanging down from the roof to keep the elements out), and the walkway between one block and the other.
That alone was fascinating.
And had it not been for the closeness between one block and the other, the size of the windows (most of which seemed to be closed and had no clothes on bamboo poles hanging outside) or even the lack of trees, I might have thought the blocks were in another estate, another country, another part of the world.
Having wandered about this estate a little bit, we went to Myeongdong for a while.
It was nice being there again.
The last time I'd been there was on a late winter's evening on my way to Namsan Tower, and at that time all those years ago, almost everything had closed.
This time everything was open.
They weren't kidding when they said Myeongdong was a shopping street.
Clothes, shoes, bags, makeup, skincare, accessories, all from a gamut of international brands and local brands, mostly fixed between a mix of casual and street styles. I don't think I saw much of formal dress styles being offered in the stores or stalls on the street.
This afternoon we weren't here to shop.
We were here for a head spa that my friend had booked for us at this place called Juno Hair Salon. Where exactly in this famous shopping district, I dont know, but right out the window where I sat (bench-like style) was the church that I'd seen in a drama serial over a decade ago.
Let's just say it's lovely how some things don't change.
And they feel like they're waiting for you to come back.
One thing I hadn't known about Juno Hair Salon (until I got there) was just how popular they were. I had been expecting a sort of quiet place with a couple of customers here and there but no, it was crowded. A pair was already sitting on the sofa waiting to be guided to their seat when I arrived. A couple minutes later, two more people turned up and sat next to us also waiting for their turn.
The staff got us to put our bags inside the locker, then we were brought to individual sinks for a hair wash.
It was so comfortable.
After that we were brought to the bench-like table where I sat next to another lady and waited for the staff to come by with the hair dryer and treatment lotion and all.
I can't really remember for sure what it was the lady did, but I know she rubbed the treatment lotion thoroughly into my scalp, massaging it in bit by bit, and so comfortable was the massage that I nodded off in the midst of it, falling asleep.
It was raining in Myeongdong when we came out from Juno Hair Salon but there was shoe store ABC Mart just to the right of the lift, so that's where we headed.
My friend needed a pair of new shoes anyway.
After buying a pair- I don't remember the brand that we bought- it might have been Adidas or Nike, either one- we headed back out but because it was still raining (and Myeongdong is not suited for pedestrians if you don't have rain gear) we decided to head back on the train to Yeungdeungpo.
Dinner this evening was at Saboten in the basement of Times Square Mall itself.
Was it familiar?
A little.
The prices, in particular, which seemed to be of standardized across all their different franchises.
I'd like to remember just what it was we had that evening.
It might very well have been a tonkotsu filet of breaded pork.
It might have been chicken.
But what I can remember are the crumbs that dropped from the piece of filet that I picked up with chopsticks, and the way some of them fell to the floor.