Macarons from Remins I love exploring little side streets. There you'll often find traditional Korean restaurants and locally owned cafes that focus more on craft than big crowds. One of my favorite areas to visit is Bukcheon and Gahoe-dong. I think of it as the less touristy Insadong. This area is well known for the many hanok guest houses  . The area has a lot of charm with the boutiques, restaurants, and antique shops. Oh, and many of the locations have been featured in Korean dramas. One of my favorite cafes in the area is Reminis  is a great place to get a slice of homemade chocolate cake  with a cup of coffee. The last time I went with a friend, we decided to get a few macarons. These were ok. Homemade and flavorful, they were ok. We ordered the blueberry, earl grey, and lemon macarons. The earl grey was the most interesting. I mean these are nowhere as good as Paulette Macarons in San Fran, but you can't eat macaroons across from a tiny little Korean restaur...

On March 20th, O'ngo Food Communications and Seoul Eats will be organizing a Korean Food Taste Tour. Participants on the tour will first enjoy a specially tailored lunch tasting menu consisting of over 20 different dishes and it will be explained by a Korean cuisine expert, Jennifer Flinn, in English. After lunch we will walk over to the historic Bukcheon district to visit 2 museums: A Korean Folk Art Museum (Gahoe Museum) and the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art. At the Folk Museum, we will enjoy Korean Traditional Tea. After the museum tour, we will head over to a kitschy Korean Rice Wine Restaurant (Makgeolli) to have an Korean alcohol tasting. We will sample and learn about 9 different Korean makgeollis, wines, and alcohols. At this restaurant we will enjoy our drinks with Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajeon) and Red Spicy Chicken (Dak Bokkeum).  The tour is designed to give travelers to Korea an insider's view on the culture and the food. The tour group will mee...

Written by and Photographed by Hwang Hye-jung Seoul’s Bukchon-dong is synonymous with traditional houses and small shops. It’s an area where you can day dream about holding a warm beverage next to the fireplace while watching the leaves blow outside. This thought is what inspired artist and musician, Mr. Cha, to open his aptly named café Doo Roo. In Hanja (Chinese characters), Doo Roo (豆縷) means the “wafting fragrance of the beans”.  The shop was opened in September and, appropriately, offers a small menu of mostly organic coffees, teas, and juices. Their fresh fruit juices, weighing in at a hefty 7,000W, are admittedly among the priciest I’ve seen in Seoul. However rest assured that they are worth their tag as generous chunks of fruit are blended to fill your daily intakes of vitamins. This place also has the best hot chocolate that I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying. It is just the way it should be: rich and creamy with the slight tinge of bitterness from real cocoa an...

When I went to China for vacation, I found it extremely difficult to find a decent cup of coffee in “The Middle Kingdom.” It made sense, since China was--and continues to be--a tea-dominated society. I have nothing against tea, but sometimes only a cup of coffee will do. In Korea, you will not find a lack of coffee shops. You’ll find cafes on every corner, on the streets, and even in the smallest nooks. And if you are in need of more of an instantaneous caffeine fix there are numerous coffee machines dispensing sweet milky instant coffee. Korea is a coffee society, but how did that happen? Prior to the turn of the 20th century, Korea was basically a tea-based culture. According to Professor Jia Choi of Ewha University, the popularity of coffee comes from a mix of different influences. One of the main influences was from Emperor Sunjong of Korea. Emperor Sunjong was the last king of Korea and he would often have western style dinner parties at the palace. They would have weste...

Bukchon is one of my favorite places to hang out at in Seoul. Recently, I was in the area checking out a couple of cooking schools and I came across Coffee Hanjan (커피한잔). It means Coffee 1 cup and it's got strong, artisan hand drip coffee. I think they might even roast it in house because they had the coffee beans and a roasting machine there. My major gripe about hand drip in Korea is that often the coffee is week. I like my coffee black and not light amber like tea. Here you get a dark cup of coffee. I think I got a Brazilian Dark Roast, but I did also see Guatemala Peasberry and Columbian on the menu. Here is your barista. It takes about 8 minutes to get your coffee because they do it the right way. If you slowly drip the coffee, you can coax all the flavor out of the beans. The interior is kitchy. And there is serve your own bread with strawberry jam and butter. It's done by honor system, so you put the money in the box and serve yourself. Here's a toy I found o...