20131230

School Food

Totally rushing this entry at 2AM in the morning because I haven't updated my blog for some time... and now I'm more backdated than ever. It's gonna be 2014 in just two days! Sadly, my winter holidays have JUST begun. I still had a deadline on the 28th! After Christmas! Ridiculous. I guess I'm finally free now though, until the 9th of January that is, when I'll have to fly to China for a field trip. So basically my winter holidays are only a total of less than two weeks fml.

Might as well make the most of it. But honestly it's so hard to balance my time - I want to rest at home but I also want to go out!

On the 23rd of December I met up with my N's Girls to finally try School Food in Times Square! It was really popular in Hong Kong a while back (I guess it still is) and people actually queued up for hours to get seats cos they don't accept reservations. We actually decided to meet at 11:45AM just so we didn't have to line up. School Food opens for lunch at midday. Dedicated foodies or what!





Pan-grilled kimchi bookeumbap: Very average. I guess it isn't really a fusion dish which is what the restaurant is known for, so it just tastes like the typical Korean dish. Which isn't bad, but yeah. It was really oily too or maybe that's just because I'm so used to eating non-oily things haha.





Carbonara topokki: Which I have no comment on because I didn't try it haha. Cos I don't particularly like cheesy/creamy sauces and I hate topokki.



Squid ink mari: Not as good as expected. I was most excited for this actually, cos the black colour looked so goooooddd... but it didn't have much flavour and just tasted like plain rice. The squid didn't have much flavour as well.



Spam mari II: Basically a rice roll with spam, kimchi, a thin layer of cheese and egg wrapped around it. I actually wanted Spam mari I cos that's the version without the cheese... but I decided not to be selfish cos I never let the girls eat cheese fondue because I HATE CHEESE (they always talk about eating cheese fondue and I'm always like NOOOOOOOO hahaha). So I thought a little cheese would be okay? It was bearable and actually made the roll much nicer! Obviously I would still prefer the version without the cheese cos the smell makes me sick, but this was MUCH better than I expected! I suppose spam and kimchi taste nice with anything though, lol.

Oh, and we also ordered a side salad which I didn't take a picture of because it was nothing special. Just a bunch of leaves with dressing.







Whitney arrived after being late for 45 minutes so we got a group photo in!



Little somethings I got for my girls in celebration of Christmas! Handed their goodie bags over to them during lunch :')

Afterwards we walked around Times Square and Citysuper and LOG-ON... we'd been trapped at school for so long we were only seeing the Christmas decorations for the first time that day! I know, so sad, right? Hahaha. We were so happy :)



























We were in LOG-ON to look for 2014 schedules... I still haven't found the perfect one but it's pretty much the new year already... panic to the max! But I'm so fussy and they don't have any that fit me, even in LOG-ON! I'm willing to pay big bucks, why aren't you here, you perfect schedule! Anyway I got sidetracked by this self-proclaimed sulfate free shampoo and conditioner set for just $98HKD for both! Omg what a steal. I had to get it as a Christmas present for myself LOL. So I went to Citysuper to buy a schedule and ended up with shampoo and conditioner. Naiceeee.

We all made our own separate ways after we finished our shopping. I had a doctor's appointment that day and my Dad picked me up at 2:30. Okay why am I writing this it's so irrelevant LOL.

Anyway the verdict for School Food would be: eh... not really worth it? It was so typical and it wasn't THAT special or anything. I guess the whole concept is kind of cute though so for me, it's a one-time thing!


FIND ME ELSEWHERE:
facebook / bloglovin' / twitter / tumblr / instagram / lookbook / youtube

20131226

N's Girls in Seoul: VIDEO!






Here's a video of our trip to Seoul at the end of May (omg, literally feels like YEARS ago now... time really flies) made by Maisie with clips from Whitney's camera! It's a compilation of the whole trip, all four days! Well - some key events when we actually remembered to video LOL, so it's still missing a lot of detail... and yes we speak Chinese in it so sorry if you don't understand!

Just thought I'd share! :)


FIND ME ELSEWHERE:
facebook / bloglovin' / twitter / tumblr / instagram / lookbook / youtube

20131223

N's Girls in Seoul: Day 5



Yesss! I have finally reached the concluding post of my Seoul trip! *huge sigh of relief* This post is gonna be a short one sadly because our flight was in the early afternoon, so we only got the morning to spend in Itaewon :(


I think this picture was from the night before but never mind. Sorting out our loots! We were supposed to go clubbing but we were SO damn tired we just went to bed after packing our stuff! It was such a shame we didn't go, but seriously four nights and only three full days in Seoul was not enough to do everything there was to be done. I guess sacrifices had to be made.

The hostel peeps were shocked that we didn't go partying at all. They'd been trying to convince us to go clubbing and drinking from day one, haha. But somehow we did too much hardcore shopping and walking and sightseeing during the day time we were dead every night when we got back to the hostel. It was too much for us old girls HAHAHA.



Okay finally day five! I think it was a Monday, and all the stores were closed. Even the brunch places, all of which were bustling with activity just 24 hours ago on Sunday. :( We didn't expect we'd have so much difficulty finding a nice place to have a nice brunch on our last morning in Seoul!



Taking OOTD pictures. Haha there's me in the background fixing my hair while I wait for my turn. The dress code that day was "denim" cos the girls all got cheap denim jackets from Dongdaemun the day before. Except me, because I'd gotten two from H&M prior to the Korea trip and my frame is too small to fit into one-size jackets. I mean even the smallest size in H&M is too big for me. =.=



This was the place we wanted to have brunch at, but it wasn't opened yet in the morning! I think the shop keepers told us they'd open at 11:30 but we couldn't wait that long cos we had a flight to catch.

We debated whether to have Flying Pan Blue again or try a chain store. We settled for a chain store called Homestead Coffee instead. I was slightly disappointed but it was still better than the food in Hong Kong in general.











Our brunch! Not bad I think! We ordered a burger set, an omelette set, and a waffle set. Not really filling enough for me haha.





Saying bye to the people of SP Guesthouse! They were super nice, helping us carry our luggages down the super steep slope! We didn't spend much time inside the hostel (we would've if our trip was longer!) which was sad but yeahhhh! Oh and note the matching denim jackets the girls were wearing, which I was left out of. But hey, I still followed the dress code, I had denim shorts on!



Wtf is up with the effect of this pic of me and Whitney on the subway to the airport... LOL. We were watching our videos.

For some reason we managed to be late to the airport. It was sooo tiring dragging our luggages around the subway stations cos they were bursting with heaviness from our new buys. THANKFULLY our flight got delayed, we were saved from missing it! HAHAHA! We even got 10000won each for compensation, which we spent in Jamba Juice!





SO FUNNY. We are seriously cheap to the max. We spent exactly 40000won so we didn't have to add extra money. We had nuts, gum, muffin, a scone, a wrap and drinks.

On the plane ride back to Hong Kong I watched Warm Bodies - finally - I was so late and outdated, as usual. I mean, everyone had been raving about how good it was but it was just everything I'd expected. A cheesy predictable chickflick. Gah, I never really like movies that the other teenage girls LOVE, like I seriously think Easy A and Pitch Perfect are so overrated and just NOT GOOD. Especially Easy A... it was as stupid as shit. But anyway.

Got back to Hong Kong and I was just in time to buy my (then) favourite Immunity Bowl from Just Salad HAHA!!! I remember binging on it the next day wtf.


FIND ME ELSEWHERE:
facebook / bloglovin' / twitter / tumblr / instagram / lookbook / youtube

20131221

N's Girls in Seoul: Day 4



Fourth day of our Seoul trip, otherwise known as the SWAG / YOLO DAY. And the last full day in Korea. The reason it's called Swag Day was cos in case you haven't cottoned on, we had a dress code for every day and we were supposed to dress "hardcore" on day four. But somehow we failed, we ended up wearing yucky graphic tees and shorts haha.

Woke up in a good mood because despite over-eating the night before on fatty foods (Ben's Cookies and ice cream waffle!) because I was thin in the morning. Haha thin is a feeling I tell ya! I was also in a good mood cos I didn't shower the night before (oops... dirtiness revealed to the public!) and I finally had a good night's sleep and there was no construction on Sunday morning to wake me up!



Had a satisfying brunch at Tartine! We ordered two brunch sets between the four of us and initially I thought I'd still be hungry afterwards (because my appetite is somehow bigger than everyone else's due to my binge-eating tendencies) but I was surprisingly satisfied! Maybe it was cos we ate so slowly? We even had to cancel the two tarts we ordered. It felt great afterwards cos for the first time in Korea I didn't have a mini-binge during meal times and I wasn't bloated after the food.







Maisie and Whitney asked to be included in our selfcams... hahaha look at Whitney's face cos I was blocking her! Sorryyyy! 





More selfcams of Cherry and me from her iphone.



With our drinks! I didn't get a drink cos I was a cheapass and wanted to save money, even though the rest of the girls got tea and we split the money equally. Lol I really just felt like water!



Finally the food came! So excited!



Don't even remember what these are... I think a pancake that doesn't look like your typical western-style pancake (it was called pancake though!), hash browns set, and omelette set!





Camera eats first! Then we dug in :)





Heading to Insa-dong and Ssamziegil by metro once again. We had time in between trains to selfcam cos if I remember correctly, Maisie had to go poop. I WAS SO JEALOUS LOL I wanted to poop so badly! But I guess my mood didn't go sour today (finally!) cos I pooped the day before... lol. Sorry there are so many poop references in these blog entries x.x poop was a huge topic between the four of us during this trip and it was when my constipation was at its worst.

OMG SORRY I'll shut up now!





My swag/yolo OOTD with a pretty artsy wall in the subway station!



Trying to imitate the ugly faces of the rocks haha.



Our "ugly" photo, woops sorry I failed!



And a normal smiley one! :)





Walking on the Insa-dong Art Street!



Arrival at Ssamsiegil! Actually I was really looking forward to this place cos when I went with Cherie in 2011 (I have blog posts about that trip, but I think all the image links are broken sigh) it was super nice!





Poop snacks. I wanted to get them! I remember I decided I was gonna get them after we were done with Ssamziegil but I forgot after we were done shopping.





Ugly doll, soooo adorable but soooo expensive.



Love the walls of all the places in Korea where people scribble all over them! Maybe it's vandalism to some but it makes the infrastructure so personal and homey to me.



Helloooo beautiful view and architecture! Sorry to bring poop into this blogpost again, but this time it was Whitney and Cherry's turn (notice how it's never my turn thanks to my constipation) so Maisie and I were left to explore the place ourselves.











Various versions of the same picture from different photo taking devices hahaha. Feel so bad for the people we ask to help us take pics, cos they have to use four devices: my camera, Whitney's camera, Cherry's iphone, then Maisie's polaroid camera.



Walking to our next destination for our traditional Korean tea. We were sooo lost and it was sooo hot! We were about to give up but luckily we found the face in the end. But here's me, captured on Whitney's camera, always photo-ready even though I was sweaty as hell ;)



Wtf is this picture supposed to be of? For the answer, please scroll down....



I wanted to take a picture of the pretty polaroid that Maisie had but she snatched it out of my hands at the last second cos I wasn't "covering her fat legs". She wouldn't let me take a picture of the whole polaroid, that evil girl!



After a short round of waiting, the Traditional Korean tea set we ordered at Dawon Tea House arrived!





After searching for the teahouse for SO LONG in the unforgiving sun, it was sooo nice to sit in the air-conditioned room with a cold drink. Not to mention we'd basically been walking nonstop for the few days we'd been in Seoul so our legs were at breaking point, even for four shopaholic girls haha.



This picture is seriously TOO FUNNY not to post omg. We laughed nonstop for so long at Whitney's expression then we began taking really bad pictures of ourselves with ugly faces. Obviously those pictures will never circulate in public, it's in a private album on Facebook for us to laugh at when we're down. They're seriously embarrassing to the max omg.



Went shopping in Dongdaemun afterwards! I was quite worried after my experience the other day at Ewha and Hongdae because my taste in clothes differed so much from the girls. Like I said, I really liked cheap clothes from cheap places (I love deals!) but the girls are a bit different - they like pretty things and don't mind paying more, unlike stingy me. So I was scared I'd fall into a bad mood again because I wouldn't get to shop till I dropped.

But I didn't have to worry cos when we went to Migliore, I ended up buying nothing (nothing really fit me! SHOCKING) and everyone else, especially Whitney, bought so much! In the end, it was me who got bored! Lol!

Oh and here's Whitney and her banana milk or something. Maisie and Cherry also shared a corn dog but I felt so repulsed by its appearance I didn't have any. That and I wasn't in a good mood like them cos I didn't purchase anything. xD





Went for dinner at Yoogane Dakgalbi! It was a random choice but the posters looked so damn good we couldn't resist! I was in such a good mood at this point - finally some cheap and local Korean food, no more expensive overpriced cafes!





It was one of the better meals for me despite all the cheese (I hate cheese with a passion, had to pick it all out of my portion), because of all the CHICKEN first of all and then the KIMCHI and then the RICE! All of which are my favourites!





Another good thing was this dinner wasn't as spicy as the one yesterday, which was murderous! It was like comforting spicy!



There was also dukboki (however you spell it) which I didn't eat cos I don't like it in general - takes too long to chew, tires my mouth out when I could be sweeping up on more chicken haha!





Picture with the posters. Um it's just a really bad picture of me at a really bad angle, I swear I'm not that fat! :(





Cheonggyecheon River at night! We shopped for a while after dinner as well, and I was finally HAPPY cos I finally got my "school shoes" that I'd been searching for for so long! And for so cheap as well cos I bargained to the extreme! So all of us were happy girls with our new buys. :) There were so many couples at the river-edge, it was such a romantic atmosphere. I'm glad to have spent the night with my girls. :')

This would've been a nice ending to this blog post and to the last night in Korea but WAIT! Hungry girls were hungry...



We went back to Tartine (their second store in Itaewon that solely sells pies, not brunch) because we'd missed out on the pies that morning. They were closing in half an hour but we really really wanted to have their pies so we begged the shop keepers to let us in and we told them we'd finish in less than thirty minutes.



Of course we KO'ed the pies in like five minutes and left them plenty of time to pack up the store. Hahahah!


FIND ME ELSEWHERE:
facebook / bloglovin' / twitter / tumblr / instagram / lookbook / youtube