Weekend in Andong (안동)

 Andong 안동

Day ONE:

After taking a 3 hour bus-ride from Seoul to Andong via Central Terminal in 고속터미널 (the tickets can be purchased either via internet or at the station at ~16,500won), I finally arrived in Andong feeling rather famished and excited.

It was the first time I had been to Andong, which I just simply knew as a city famous for its traditional village and the famous soy-sauce stew chicken famously named "안동 찜닭(Andong Stewed Chicken)". So to many of my friends, I had travelled for 3 hours to eat the ORGINAL 안동찜닭.... now that's dedication to finding good food around seoul.

After arriving at the bus-terminal (rather far from city central), I met my friend who travelled from Busan to take the local bus into town. Almost all the buses go to the city central (just a matter of shorter/longer route).. I recommend taking the BUS 11 or BUS 0-1 and getting off at 안동초등학교 (Andong Elementary School) just in time for dinner or lunch at the infamous 안동찜닭골목 Andong Chicken Street! you know a town is serious about its chicken... when you have a whole street dedicated to just chicken. Literally it was shops after shops selling the SAME thing and all proclaiming they were the original and the best. 

However, as always, I came prepared to try only the best. After all I had travelled all the way from Seoul for this dinner! After spending silly amount of times researching in the internet.... I found THIS ONE coincidently sharing my name (which came highly recommended by locals) - google/naver 

The menu is rather straight forward and simple (and no portions to choose from... so if you're travelling with just two... you have no choice to be insanely bloated).  The Andong Stewed Chicken was ~18,000won enough for 2-3 (or even 3-4) people!

Even for all of those reading (if any) who had tried this famous korean dish before in Seoul or any other city... has not truly tried Stewed Chicken unless they have had it here! Rather than the overly sweet and mundane Chicken Stew... The one you got in 유진안동찜닭 was the right mix of spiciness and sweetness filled with perfectly cooked noodles and chicken!  It  had left the two of us (rather small girls) happily bloated to literally waddle out of the shop as the shopkeeper looked at us with half admiration and half pity.

We stayed at a guesthouse called Guesthouse Gotaya (tripadvisor), which is conveniently located in downtown (near the train station) and rather guest-friendly + cheap! We had stayed in a clean female dorm but I did hear that they had private rooms as well for those interested. 

Day TWO:

We woke up early (as the bus to the Folk Village runs every hour - check the schedule beforehand!), to quickly head to the Mammoth Bakery to buy breakfast before catching the bus. Mammoth Bakery 맘모스제과 is apparently one of the Top 3 bakeries in Korea and apparently featured in the Michelin Guide. It is located in the city center (naver map/ google map), and as such there's always a long queue of people greedily piling on breads on their trays.

Their most famous bread is the Cream Cheese Bread and Walnut Cream Bread (as well as the Blueberry pie bread(?). Due to the popularity of the bakery the breads get sold out so quickly so it's a matter of luck which type is left (there's also a great variety of croissants, pastries, baguettes and so forth).

We managed to score the two of the "best" items (which were rather expensive at 4,000won each).

They also have a extensive selection of cakes, which are also said to be of excellent quality (some of which my friend later came back to buy for her family).

Although we wanted to try some of the cakes as well, we were rathe pressed for time to make the bus (8:50AM) that we bagged the two buns and dashed off to the bus-station (only 20m from the shop).

Although the walnut cream bun was rather disappointing (too sweet) the cream-cheese bun was surprisingly good! But it didn't really live up to its fame in my opinion unlike our chicken! :D' The bus ride to the folk village takes around 50 - 60 min, after which you arrive at this picturesque village by the mountains. Make sure you go when it is warm (or wear appropriate boots) or you'll end up freezing your toes off like we did. There's also lots of traditional guesthouses where you get to experience sleeping in these amazing houses. I heard they were quite expensive, but it is definitely an experience that I wouldn't mind returning for!

Another thing Andong is famous for is there SOJU. Andong Soju is much much stronger than the normal soju (at 40% alcohol content).  The generic soju is a chemical based alcohol where as Andong Soju is still distilled from wheat.  As such, I am told that Andong Soju has a much cleaner and deeper taste as well as the added bonus of a 'clearer' head the next day.

There's also a great variety of programs such as mask making or calligraphy that you can try at the village... and such this is my attempt at calligraphy :)

After a morning walk around town, we made our way back to the city where we had a traditional sardines lunch set at 일직식당 (naver map), which came recommended by our guesthouse. 

The rest of our short trip involved the walk to the 벽화마을 which is a small part of town where the walls are decorated/spray-painted as well as the walk to the famous wooden bridge (1-2km away from town). The bridge called 월영교 (wol-young-gyo) is the longest wooden bridge in Korea, only a short distance away from the Andong Dam (안동댐). Although we couldn't visit the dam due to time-constraint, I hear it is worth the drive/walk up :)

Island East Markets and Weekend Brunch at the News Room

The News Room

33 Tong Chong Street, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

 

Rating: 7.5/10 
Price: Around 100-150 HKD for a late-Benedict lunch

What do you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, where you are bored out of your mind but had not planned anything in particular to do for the rest of the day?
  Although many men (sorry for the gross generalization) do not seem to understand the reasoning, but to me it makes perfect sense to call up bunch of friends and head out for a late-brunch!

 
Plus, there was the Island East Markets to check out right next door, so it was the perfect excuse to indulge myself with some eggs Benedict!

All three of us got Eggs Benedicts.
Well.. I kind of forced my friends to get them, as they were unconvinced as to how poached eggs can outweigh pancakes or french toasts...but after long hearty promises (although with slight hesitation) they complied and we were served with double Eggs Benedict with Salmons :)

The eggs were fresh and perfectly poached, and the muffins toasted to the right crispiness!
It was absolutely a delight, and these girls were won over by the beauty of Eggs Benedict after the first bite or two!

Island East Markets

I had planned to check out this mini-market for months but Sunday being a designated lazy day... and not being able to find another enthusiastic grocery/market shopper.. it had always been delayed till today!

The market itself was smaller than I had thought it would be.. but it had a wide selection of fine foods, organic vegetables, hand-made jewelry.. and to my surprise root-beer and gingerale!

If I had not planned to go to Taipei the next day, I probably would've bought more vegetables and fruits but today I stopped myself at a glass of Coffee, a croissant and a necklace! 

The Market is held in Quarry Bay. It only took around 5 minutes walk from the station and was really easy to find!

The First stall was Ming-Cha... selling exquisite Oolong Tea with an even fancier name! Although I loved the tea that I had sampled... I did have a whole box of tea (with Every Fruit tea imaginable and.... tons of chinese tea as well)... So on we moved on to the Levain Bakery Stall

I had always planned to go to Levain Bakery in Central... so it was a great delight and a surprise to stumble across their stall selling oh so many french breads and pastries.
I'm usually very good at staying clear of carbs... mainly rice and pasta... but when it comes to bread...especially ones as delicious as these, I seem to forget I am on a diet!

I had really wanted to buy a loaf of the sourdough bread or the dark-rye bread but thank god I had trips planned the day after or I really would've bought all of them!

In the end I opted for a Hazlenut Chocolate Croissant.!
Maybe it was my guilt, or maybe it was the paper-thin crispness of the pastry that went perfectly with the chocolates and hazelnuts... but I had devoured this little croissant in less than a minute.. and was left wondering what I had just eaten.

It was beautiful!

We then found this small booth selling hand-drip coffee! :) I never can resist the smell of fresh coffee and the barista was kind of cute! :) on a side note they said they also offer hand-coffee classes... and I have a friend in mind that is perfect to drag to these things!

Hopefully I will end up going (reasonably soon) and blog about it as well!

The coffee I did try was from Kenya, and it was very different from the ones I had tried previously. It had a very distinct earthy flavor that I hadn't tasted before! I'm not quite sure if it is unique to the region or not but maybe next time when I buy coffee beans, I'll try Kenyan ones and see!

I finally bought these cute necklaces in shape of dragonflies for my mom and I! They were only 200HKD and very cute indeed! :) Overall, today was a perfectly successful and delicious Sunday afternoon!