Seoul 2013: 홍대 (Hongdae)

Having declared my love for Hongdae previously here, and for the cutest cafe here, and the best coffee here, I guess it comes to no surprise that I would be posting about Hongdae yet again.

홍대 (Hongdae), 2013

츄로 101 (Churro 101)
Address: 서울 마포구 서교동 328-15 2층 (2 Floor, 328-15 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul)
Get there: Hongik Univ Station, Exit 8
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 1pm - 11pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm - 11pm
Phone:+82-70-8625-0331
Website: http://www.churro101.com/
To try: Churros sampler set

We visited Hongdae several times in our trip, and managed to check out a few interesting eateries. One of which we checked out was the churros specialty shop, Churro 101. With a tagline so cute "Churro 101 - Better than a boyfriend", how could we resist it? The shop signage was on the ground level along the streets, but you gotta walk up a flight of stairs to reach the tiny cafe.

It's quite easy to make churros at home, but sometimes you really don't want to go through all the hassle to deep fry dough. Anything that involves deep frying scares me. And it's pretty hard to find churros in Singapore, I don't really know why, but it just is the case. And even if when I do find churros in Singapore, I'm not very impressed with the churros I've eaten so far.

We ordered the churros sampler set to share as it had four different churros - the original coated in sugar, the vanilla sugar coated, the cream cheese filled churros and the chocolate filled churros. Oh ya, and it came with a tiny pot of melted chocolate dip.

I think it goes without saying that we polished off every morsel of that delicious-ness.

Rainbow steps

Random bicycle

Graffiti artist at work

Cute wall mural (perfect for an #ootd heh!)

트레불 카페 딩동 (Ding Dong Cafe)
Address: 서울 마포구 서교동 333-24 (333-24 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu)
Get there: Hongik University Station, Exit 9
Phone: +82 2 334 3381
Opening Hours: Mondays-Fridays 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m., weekends 11 a.m. -11:30 p.m

One of the girl pals had found this cafe online and wanted to pay it a visit. It took us a while to locate it cos it had relocated, and the colour of the signage had also changed. We were originally looking out for a blue signboard as depicted online, but when we found the place finally, the signboard was a hot pink shade. *facepalms.

It was late afternoon when we were there and all of us were not hungry. So, default order? Drinks of course! We had a matcha latte, a blueberry latte and a regular latte. The matcha latte was slightly sweet than bittersweet, and the blueberry latte was just plain sweet. The latte was alright though. It was a pretty nice spot to chill though. Sorta like a travel-themed cafe.

More cafes...

and more cafes...

There seems to be graffiti everywhere in Hongdae. It's the norm I guess. And one thing that struck me was how there were quite a number of heart motif drawings. I did manage to capture some hearts and I thought this was quite pretty.

Another heart

구이가(92ga)
Address: 서울시 마포구 서교동 331-15호 (331-15 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul)
Get there: Hongik University Station, Exit 9
Phone: 02-324-9592
Opening hours: 5pm - 2am
Website: http://92ga.co.kr/
To try: BBQ

Hongdae is BBQ haven. When night falls, there are more than a handful of BBQ spots that gets packed with people during dinner time. We had dinner there one night at one of the many BBQ spots. We just walked into a random restaurant that looks quite good, and it was so full that we had to sit out back at the yard area cos the actual restaurant had no more seats. Lol.

To make things easier for ourselves, we ordered a set menu (pork) and a side of beef. Seriously, if it's Korean BBQ, it's meat, upon meat, upon meat. Agree?

Eggs stew love

Requisite meat  on the grill shot

Oh how I miss Hongdae.