Sunday, 11 March 2012

Didi's Gaufres Waffles, Seoul

Okay. We're back to Korea again. This time, we're visiting something not quite Korean but still amazingly delicious. We have no idea why but Korea seems packed with places to eat waffles. It's either coffee houses or waffle stores. So inevitably, we had to try it.

The story of how we found Didi Gaufres Waffle House is quite an interesting one. While we were stumbling around blindly on a particularly cold day, we noticed this small little store in the middle of a busy street. It wasn't outstanding or anything. It was just there. It had a unique, very non-Korean name too. Plus, the cold and a terrible hunger had driven ECF and myself mad.

A savior.

When we reached the outside of Didi Gaufres, there was literally no one inside. It looked deserted and kinda scary. Like one of those haunted bakeries that seem to always pop out of nowhere. But as I mentioned, hunger and cold adds up to bad decisions. So we went in. Note: This may seem like a familiar scenario. This is how horror movies usually begin.

Luckily for us, Didi Gaufres was far from a horror movie. In fact, it may have been one of the best decisions we made in Korea.


As unassuming as the place is, they serve pretty good waffles and not half bad coffee. Didi Gaufres is more like a takeaway kinda place rather than an eat-in so their shop is a little too small for 4 hulking giants like the Buggers.


Going back to their waffles. The only thing I can say is 'chomp chew chomp chomp burp.' It may have been the hunger talking but the waffles were absolutely delicious.


The very kind lady boss personally made our waffles right in front of us. That is, everything is made on order. None of that microwaving nonsense.


Well, she was the only one in the shop, so expect service to be a tad bit slow.

See how mad ECF was driven by hunger? He even wanted to drink my coffee.

But it's worth the wait. The waffles were crispy enough and yet soft. Add in the maple syrup and a scoop of ice cream and you will get a Didi Gaufres waffle.


Add in a cup of coffee and your perfect day has just been made perfecter(?)


ECF even licked his plate clean. No joke.


If you're in Korea anytime and you happen to chance upon Didi Gaufres, y'know what? Walk right in and just order their waffles. You're not gonna regret it at all.

Trust us.


Here's their address in case you need it.Address: 406-13 Jungni-dong, Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, South Korea. (It's near the University District)
They have a website too but unless you're good with Korean, you won't understand a single word.

Writing our blog address on a tissue paper. How professional.

Cheerios!


Thursday, 8 March 2012

Will You Please Pick Me Up?


We take a small break from our Korean fiesta to bring you a little post from one of the Buggers, Joel. He left the rest of us alone and just went for his own food review. Once a Bugger, always a Bugger. Here's his review of Pick Me Up @ Kuchai Lama.


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As I try to venture further into different aspects of blogging, I tend to always go back to food. There's something about food which just, draws me in. It's more interesting than simply going to a place and eating. It's the social etiquettes you have while you eat, like not talking with your mouth full and not stuffing 27 different things down your throat at the same time. Then I realized that it was quite stressful to be a food blogger because of all the conventions you have to follow.

And that's why I went for a Pick Me Up last Sunday with some of my fellow bloggers. No Buggers this time because everyone was busy.



If you don't know, Pick Me Up is a dessert place. That should be obvious from this signboard.


It's the perfect place for you to just have a nice, ice cold dessert to pick you up from the stressful job you may have. Everyone knows that stressed is desserts spelled backwards. Their tagline: "scrumptious desserts and snacks" promises you exactly just that.


Pick Me Up is a small little place in Kuchai Lama, which contains more than a dozen other dessert places.




This means that the competition here is more intense than your average McDonald's vs. KFC. This is the real deal. So let's just see how they stack up.


First off, ice cream burritos.


Now, this is something new. So far, I have not seen ice cream and burritos put together but surprisingly, it turned out to be quite good. A little messy to eat in that all the crumbs tend to get all over your body but a good brush will send all those crumbs flying to the floor. But overall, it is a good combination. Comes in 4 flavors; Original (original ice cream?!), Banana, Mango and Oreo Cookies.


We were probably hungry because next thing you know, you see this.


Next up, the Ice Pick.


Yet another unique dessert I have never seen before. The Fruity Ice Pick was like a giant edible, icy traffic light. With 3 different flavors topped together, with a ring of ice cream separating each flavor, this is delicious. Add in a generous serving of 3 different toppings, you can bet your bottom dollar that this is good. Well, it was good for me. C'mon, a dessert called Ice Pick won't mess up. Though the Soya, Cincau & Red Bean Ice Pick did taste a little too soya for me.


Yes, they have a healthy Ice Pick too.


Ice picks.

Of course, thanks to BenDan, who has the itchy hands of a chipmunk, the entire ice pick was demolished and reduced to ice water.



Thanks very much BenDan.


Also, bloggers doing what they do best.



Up to this point, there is nothing to even differentiate Pick Me Up with other dessert places. Wait for it. What makes Pick Me Up different from all the other dessert places mushrooming like...mushrooms all over KL? Nothing much really, aside from the fact that they do serve snacks on the side. When I say snacks, I mean snacks. This is not a place for you to waltz in and expect a fulfilling lunch. Check out the snacks.


Meet the Chilli Chic Nachos and the Chilli Fries.



This hot combo will have your mouth back to room temperature in no time. No, these aren't in the least spicy. Believe me, I know what spicy is.


It was followed by what one could only call manna. The Cheesy Nachos and Cheesy Fries.



Same thing as above but with cheese. You can never go wrong with cheese. If only they put a bit more cheese, this would have been the only thing I ate all throughout the session.


After the brief stop for snacks, it was back to desserts. Fro-Yos agalore.



Comes in 3 flavors: Mango, Blueberry and Strawberry. All very heavy tasting and very yogurt. It's good and comes in quite a big portion as well.



I had 3-4 scoops because honestly, I have a very low tolerance towards yogurt. They also had it in soft ice cream but I was too traumatized by the yogurt to taste the ice cream.



Finishing off the session was one of the highlights. Does the word 'Nutella' do anything to you? If you're still reading this, what is wrong with you? But if you're paddling away on a sailboat because you're drooling too much, congratulations fellow Nutella fan. We have the French Toast with Nutella and a side of blueberry jam, strawberry jam or peanut butter.


While I would have enjoyed purely Nutella and more Nutella, I had to restrain myself. Remember what I said about social conventions and protocols in the first paragraph? I had to abide by those laws even though it was tough as heck to resist from Nutella.



And there you have it. I was certainly Picked Up but Pick Me Up. Do give this dessert place a try. It's worth your time. I insist. All the information about Pick Me Up are below after this fullstop.


Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pickmeup.com.my
Website: http://www.pickmeup.com.my

Address: 35, Jalan Kuchai Maju 8, 58200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: 03-79714983
Email: info@pickmeup.com.my
 
Cheerios!


Friday, 2 March 2012

Seoul Trip 2012: Giant Dumplings 만두 (Manduu)

Ah another day in our Korean Fiesta!

Today, we're going to introduce you to some giant dumplings found in Seoul. Known as 만두 or manduu, these huge dumplings are eaten plain with either vinegar or soy sauce to dip. And when we say giant dumplings, we mean giant dumplings. Each dumpling is potentially the size of a fist.

A fist!

Okay fine. Someone has to have a really small fist but it's big enough to NOT fit in your mouth in one go. Unless of course you're like ECF, who has the biggest mouth I have ever seen. He probably unhinges his jaw before swallowing his prey whole.


Now about the dumplings.


These dumplings are huge and frankly quite popular with the tourists around the Palace area, as evidenced by the long line which greeted us when we reached.


However, the dumplings themselves are nothing special at all. In fact, we were all very excited when we saw huge dumplings but when we started eating, it became evident that we had been putting too much anticipation into the dumplings.



And at RM4 a piece, it simply wasn't worth that price. We could have eaten much better street food (in a post coming soon) for half that price and still be stuffed.


Still, we had to finish our dumplings. And we over-ordered because we were all starving.

The face of the overstuffed.

I would say, once is enough. I'm sure the Buggers agree.

Cheerios!


Thursday, 1 March 2012

Seoul Trip 2012: 감자탕 (Gamjatang)

So if you have been stalking our Facebook fan page and Twitter, we...absolutely posted nothing up. That's because the Buggers (or rather, 4 of the Buggers) went off to the Land of the Morning Calm. That's what Korea is called by the way. We Wikipedia-ed it.

Yes. We went off to Seoul, Korea for a week and of course, we simply couldn't escape from the Korean cuisine. So while it was a holiday for us, it was also work time for the Buggers. We knew that Forever Hungry needed something...Korean. 

So, It's officially Korean Week here at Forever Hungry. YAY!

The first night we reached Seoul, we were absolutely starving. Air Asia's nasi lemak did nothing to stave off our hunger. And the weather was -9 according to Google. -9 is 'Oh crap, I don't want to go out anymore' weather. Yet, we trudged on in the freezing cold. After dropping our bags off at the guesthouse, we went out to find food. Mind you that this was about midnight. Most normal restaurants would have either been closed or in the midst of closing.

But we didn't like normal restaurants. That's what led us to the only restaurant open. It's offering? 감자탕 or Gamjatang.

 This is a picture of nothing because this was precisely what was in our stomachs. Nothing.

For those of you who are not familiar with this dish, you're in luck. Gamjatang is a spicy Korean soup made with pork spine, vegetables, green onions, hot peppers and ground wild sesame seeds. And can I tell you that we absolutely gobbled up this delicious dish.


Even I, as a non-spicy eater, had 5 portions of the soup. I suspect that the freezing cold had something to do with our appetites. I was willing to eat anything, even if it burned my tongue.



But in all honesty, the gamjatang is something really nice. It's certainly one of the better Korean dishes we tried while we were there. The soup was absolutely heavenly. Mixed with the pork and other ingredients, it provided just enough flavor and taste.

ECF agrees.

The meat is perfectly tender and nice to chew.


Washed down with a shot of cold soju, this was the perfect midnight snack for 4 hungry Buggers.

 A shot! Not a bottle, ECF!

 And this is what happens to gamjatang in the middle of the night in Seoul. 4 hungry Buggers tore into this dish and made it look like this:


Yeah. Don't mess with hungry Buggers. A hungry Bugger is an angry Bugger.

Cheerios!


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