WE TURNED ONE!

We here at Forever Hungry often forget things. It's because each of the Buggers have their own busy schedule, and we're also almost always looking out for more and more delicious foods to try. But the thing that we seem to have forgotten, and it is one hell of an important thing, is the fact that FOREVER HUNGRY IS NOW ONE!

Okay. We know that we have pretty much failed as the Buggers of Forever Hungry. I mean, forgetting the day Forever Hungry was launched is essentially similar to forgetting our own birthdays. It's embarrassing to have to type this now because it makes us seem pretty much like the Buggers that we are. And the fact that we've only remembered that we turned ONE almost 2 weeks later just goes to show how incredibly busy we've all been.

When we began Forever Hungry, there wasn't much of a game plan. We simply went around trying different places, taking pictures of the food and posting it up on the blog. We wanted to write about all the different places we tried, all the different foods and the times we could hang out as the Buggers. That was the entire purpose of us setting up Forever Hungry.

But so much has happened in the past one year. We're really thankful for the chances we were given. We got to try out a lot of Korean cuisine when we traveled to Seoul early this year. It was pretty amazing to be able to travel overseas, to a place like Seoul and just try out all the different kinds of food they offered. How can we forget when we killed our tastebuds on the tortuously spicy jjimdak?

We also got invited to a few events by Nuffnang, which included a crazy time at Genting's theme park, guzzling chocolates at the Chocoholics event and sending ECF to embrace his potential at Chin Swee Temple. We're really thankful to Nuffnang for allowing newbies like us to join these events, letting us meet different bloggers. It's like allowing us to further improve our street cred in the blogosphere.

We're also thankful for all the restaurants who invited us for food reviews. There were a lot of desserts to try, allowing us to settle our sweet tooth cravings. We got to try out the world's best sandwich as well, which was awesome in so many aspects.

The highlight of the year definitely goes to us being nominated for the DiGiWWWOW Awards in June of this year. It's an amazing and humbling experience to get into the Top 5 of the Nuffnang Fave Makan-Makan category, and while we lost out to the far more experienced Fried Chillies, it was still an eye opening experience for us.

We also expanded slightly to Melbourne, Australia, doing a few reviews on the restaurants. Because nothing says Forever Hungry than traveling 3000 miles just to eat. That's precisely why we have a Urbanspoon badge on the right side of this page. Sure we're still new, but give us a while. We'll push those numbers up.

It's been a year already. It's true that time flies really fast when you're having fun. And if anything, the Buggers at Forever Hungry are having the time of our lives. Here's to this year and to even more years ahead.

Cheerios!

Seoul Metro, Lonsdale St., Melbourne CBD

There are a ton of Korean restaurants in Melbourne, which is something I am really glad about. But sometimes, it isn't about the quantity, rather the quality of said Korean restaurants, most of which, sad to say, fall way off the mark. It's just that a lot of the Korean restaurants here in Melbourne aren't really sticklers for the purely authentic Korean dishes, opting for a more globalized, fusion approach instead.

But there's always a silver lining. If you're in Melbourne and somehow want to satisfy your craving for Korean food, perhaps after a lengthy session of Korean dramas and variety shows, why not try out Seoul Metro?

This small little restaurant is hidden like a ninja in the shadows, and it offers quite a variety of Korean cuisine to satisfy your palate.

For one, the place is almost impossible to stumble upon, so unless you have a friend who has been there before (I was introduced and brought there by a friend), or you have read reviews about the place, you may not even realize that there is a restaurant there. Seoul Metro is located in one of the office buildings along Lonsdale Street, with nothing more than a overhead sign to attract visitors.

I walked right past the restaurant without even realizing that I missed it. Once you enter the building though, there are numerous telltale signs of something discreetly Korean up ahead, most notably the huge posters of K-pop stars plastered on the wall.

Seoul Metro is the restaurant right beside a car park, which explains why it was relatively empty at 6.30pm.

It's so hidden, ninja grottoes are jealous.

Once you enter the restaurant, you'll feel a very Korean vibe going around. It is a small restaurant, which is kinda fitting, seeing that there aren't many walk in customers.

You'll also notice the huge namesake of the restaurant, the Seoul Metro railway line map up on the wall for all to admire.

Again, the place is small and cozy, which is one of the highlights of most Korean restaurants.

We sat down and ordered 3 things off the menu, as ravenous as we were at 6.30 in the evening. The prices are pretty standard for a Korean meal in the city, ranging from AUD 10- AUD 25.

We ordered a serving of jap chae, the ever present budae jjigae and a helping of spicy pork bulgolgi.

The jap chae, or sweet potato noodles with beef slices mixed with sweet sauce and veggies, was absolutely heavenly.

I can never get over how delicious the sweet potato noodles are, and the sweet sauce with the beef gave the dish a savory-sweet taste. Because it was a sharing dish, I couldn't just grab the plate and wolf down all of it for myself. The serving portion was quite large, enough to feed 3 hungry adults.

Of course, the budae jjigae is a must try in almost every Korean restaurant.

Unlike the ones that the Buggers tried in Korea, which you can read about here, this budae jjigae has more ingredients mixed in, with a mixture of ham, sausages, veggies, tofu, kimchi, fish cake, deokbokki, cheese (?!) and pork but significantly less in terms of the portion of each ingredient. There weren't nearly enough pork slices to go around and finding a deokbokki was almost similar to striking gold. Maybe it was because we ordered a medium sized one, but I wasn't really satisfied with the portion for this budae jjigae.

Last dish we ordered was the spicy pork bulgolgi, just so the hungry adults could have a proper meat fix.

I was happily eating the deliciously and generously coated pork slices, without signs of the spiciness hitting my tastebuds. It turned out that the spicy pork bulgolgi was more sweet than spicy. For a few moments, I was so excited because I thought my tastebuds had leveled up to handle spicy foods. That still remains a dream for me.

Overall, Seoul Metro can be called a hidden gem, literally. It's well hidden despite being smack in the middle of the Melbourne CBD. It's not actually that difficult to find, but you just have to keep your eyes peeled out as you walk along Lonsdale Street. If you're ever in Melbourne and want Korean food, you should really go try this place out.

Here are some extra details about Seoul Metro:

Map:  

Cheerios!