29 May 2022
Car store poking
Hyundai department store and poke bowl
Tonight I went to a car showroom that is actually a department store and ate a poke bowl in a pink themed store for girls. That is the kind of nonsense I get up to.
Hyundai department stores are in most cities in Korea. They are luxurious. I think they are a relatively new concept as there seems to be youtube videos of new ones opening quite often. Also the roof fell into the basement of one under construction a while ago, at least I think that was a Hyundai store.
I never actually go into any part of these stores except the basements, where the food is. The same applied to David Jones in Melbourne and Adelaide, but they closed the basements in both of those and no longer serve food at all. So there you go, if you want to find a nice food store, you have to go to another country. That is quite a dire thought given that half the actual food in flash food basements around the world is advertised as being from Australia.
And now after all that, I did not eat there, I might tomorrow. I did want to eat there as there was an advertisement for 'hot sushi' as in hot gimbap rolls. Which were presumably deep fried. Still I was keen to try that, but alas, I could not find the store. So realising I had escaped deep fried rice and vegetables wrapped in seaweed, I instead ate just about the healthiest thing imaginable.
One other quick food observation, Japanese style but claimed by Korea pork tonkotsu cutlet places outnumber all other options combined. I feel as though this is a recent thing, a bit like all the hotpot places in Melbourne.
The store on the right appears to be called Donga, and despite saying grand opening is not new. To the left, the borg cube looking thing is the Hyundai store, and despite appearances here, is much bigger than Donga.
Basement food section as discussed, from inside the supermarket looking out longingly into the casual restaurant area hoping to spot deep fried hot sushi.
Basically adjoining the luxurious ultra modern Hyundai department store, you get a traditional market laneway selling dried deer penises for medicinal purposes.
OK, I am fairly certain, but not 100% sure, that this is not an actual octopus. It is something sweet (rice mochi type of stuff) made to look like something else. All of these things are, I think the one next to the octopus is made to look like nachos. There were also giant prawns, kim chi, fishcakes etc. And there were 5 stores selling this type of weird atrocity in a row.
Another oddity, this is a selfie photo studio. There are 20 or more of these within a few blocks of each other. Some have costumes you dress up in. Then you go into a private room and pose for photos, and I kind of wonder what else you get up to in those private rooms a bit like those private karaoke places.
Ferris wheel again, this time with animatronic bowl of noodles.
And here is the sort of place I am not ashamed to eat at, despite its pink decor and girly music playing.
My poke bowl was delicious, came with cream of mushroom soup, and had a lot more good stuff in it than you normally get in a poke bowl, including mushrooms, pickled carrot, baby tomatoes, rolled up egg things (eggrolls I am guessing! Like they put on top of rice and call sushi), and the beef was very good quality. Now I am back at my hotel early because the weather has been updated, rain should be gone by morning, weather should be cooler tomorrow... long hike day it shall be.