Dari Korea ke Inggris Naik Kereta

Minggu lalu gue jalan-jalan ke pinggir Seoul, tepatnya Gwangmyeong. Saat gue nunggu bis, gue liat iklan ini dan gue pun mendekat dan mikir, "Wait ini beneran kah???"

Taglinenya berkata "Stasiun antar benua untuk keberangkatan ke Eurasia - Stasiun KTX Gwangmyeong". Sub-taglinenya "The cuting edge of Semenanjung Korea, titik logistik spesial"
Lengkap juga disertai dengan peta yang intinya dari Gwangmyeong, bisa ke Beijing, terus nyambung ke Rusia sampe Moskow, terus lanjut Berlin, Paris dan bisa ke London.

Gue tau Stasiun Gwangmyeong emang besar dan dilewati KTX. Tapi nyambung Eurasia, really? Sampe London, beneran? Kenapa ga pernah denger? Apa karena gue udah setaun gak main ke Gwangmyeong?

Tapi siapa juga yang mau ke Gwangmyeong kalo gak ke IKEA... Anyway saat gue turun bus dan mau nyebrang ke IKEA, gue liat iklan yang sama dan bahkan lebih besar. Gue pun mulai berpikir, "Wah agresif banget nih marketingnya"

Beruntungnya hari itu gue memutuskan untuk pulang lewat Stasiun Gwangmyeong. Gue pun memberanikan diri untuk bertanya (setelah didorong-dorong Elaine) ke mbak di pusat informasi. Jawabannya, "Wah maaf. Ini belum ada. Masih dalam proses perencanaan"
"Kira-kira emang adanya kapan?"
"Kalo itu kurang tau, sekarang ini masih dalam tahap pembicaraan di pemerintah."

Gue. Kesel. Sambil. Bingung.

Eh tapi saat mau ke arah platform subway, ada lounge khusus yang didedikasikan untuk si KTX Eurasia ini. What?!

Tanpa diminta, Elaine masuk dan nanya sama tante yang jaga. Tante yang jaga punya penjelasan serupa tapi lebih informatif.
"Ini emang lagi diwacanakan sama Perusahaan X dan pemerintah. Tapi sayang, sampe sekarang pun jalur ke Korea Utara kan belum kebuka. Tau sendiri kan sekarang hubungannya lagi menegang. Kalau kebuka, pasti bisa lebih cepat dan menguntungkan kedua belah pihak."
"Oh gitu. Tadi saya liat iklan dimana-mana makanya saya jadi penasaran sambil mikir, ada ya?"
"Iya, pemerintah berpikir kalau banyak iklan dan banyak masyarakat yang ingin tahu, bukankah nanti bisa membuat jalur ini terwujud lebih cepat lagi? Ada minat dengan isu ini?"

Wah ternyata politik juga. Jujur gue bingung, masih tahap perencanaan udah sewow ini. Seakan-akan mau bikin jembatan Jawa-Sumatera terus iklannya udah dari Lampung sampe Bogor, tapi ternyata jawabannya "Maaf, ini sebenernya masih dibahas di DPR. Cuma biar banyak yang kepo, jadi diiklanin gede-gedean, manatau bisa kasih pressure biar lebih cepet jadi."

Gue salut dengan approachnya. Mungkin kalau berhasil bisa ditiru, tapi untuk sementara jangan ketipu dulu. Ditunggu, ke Beijing naik kereta!
(Mau bilang London tapi kejauhan ah, naik pesawat aja capek)

IKLAN: LIAT #alirajalanjalan ke SMA di Korea, Gwangmyeong dan Hangang disini ya!

Best Grilled Fish in Hanoi

I went to Hanoi, Vietnam to visit one of my closest friends, Ha. I have been to many places and wandered around with locals in the city but I would say Ha knows the best of her hometown. We were able to explore Hanoi on her Vespa, without GPS. Well, I would be able to do the same in my own hometown but what makes Ha a waaaay more amazing than all my local guides is that she knows literally every road (or alley) in the city and the best food in town!

I was there only for four days, how hard can it be for my host to serve me the best delicacies in town, right?

Well, it is pretty challenging because I do not eat meat, only poultry and seafood. But this is no challenge to Ha, as she kept feeding me BEST food while I was there.

Out of so many, the 'Cha Ca' grilled fish is one of my favorite.

FIIIIISH

It came pre-cooked like this. Served with plenty of green and condiments, it tastes supeeeer fresh.

We are in Southeast Asia but no, you do not eat this thing with rice but noodle.

yay noodle!

I have no idea what is this white noodle called in English or Vietnamese, but yeah. It was a very smart combination.Oh, I did not get to take picture of the phenomenal fish paste sauce but it was really good. They also give you chilli so you can create your own spicy sauce.

Cooked Cha Ca!

Ha said this dish actually was first served in a road called cha ca (my memory is not that good with Vietnamese words). The original place is rather old and small. We did not go to the original restaurant but the other one, located at 19-21-31 Duong Thanh, Hanoi. This place is very spacy and they only serve one dish. You can order fish intestines after your meal. Ha did order it but I rejected the idea since... I am not sure how would I like it (or I'd just probably hate it).

Only VND 120,000 per person (would not be cheap for Hanoi standard)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

The Original Pancake House Seoul

It's been a long time since my last visit to The Original Pancake House. I am actually a big fan of their whipped cream and choco chips pancake. I always miss the American vibe and the welcoming English-speaking staffs. So I decided to bring my international friends to try the legendary pancake today.

As soon as we arrived, I saw this banner.

Strawberry Fiesta

Not an unexpected surprise. Strawberry fever hit Korea every winter and seems like The Original Pancake House could not resist the wave.

Turned out I visited during the lunch rush. We had to wait for 20 minutes and we decided on the four plates we'd have today while waiting. We chose 2 sour and 2 sweet dishes.

It's a FEAAAAST!

The dishes came at the same time, left us wondering, "Could we finish all theseeee?"

Hussaina chose the Strawberry topping with 6 pancakes. I did not try it as I don't like banana. It was KRW 15000.

one of my fav

Piling listened to my advice and picked the Country Fried Chicken. It's boneless American-style fried chicken with gravy and french fries. They put salt on it, making it even more-American. (I swear I never use salt on my fries and chicken before). This was KRW 17,000.

Now my choice. It was Hash Potato with Eggs. They have 5 kinds of eggs. Scrambled, sunny side up, over medium, over hard, and one more style that I couldn't catch. I went with scrambled eggs. It also came with 3 pancakes and buttermilk. This was priced KRW13,000.

Hash potato and french toast

The last one was Lisa's pick. She ordered French Toast and it was phenomenal! I think it was my new favorite. It was soft, not too sweet and the way they cooked it was just right. The jam was okay, the buttermilk did not go well with it, I prefer to have it plain. It costs KRW9,000.

We spent about 2 hours catching up and enjoying our meals. We haven't met each other for almost a year and it was really nice meeting them! When we were about to pay, I notice the classic American touch they put around the register.

the classic phone

It is always a very nice visit and I would definitely come back again!
They should hire me as their marketing strategist but their Business Playbook says, "Never advertise".

Oh well, they hit it right. I am doing the word-of-mouth marketing on behalf of them :))))

1000 Hari Tenggelamnya Sewol

Mungkin lo tau atau gatau kalo ditahun 2014 ada tragedi kapal feri tujuan Jeju yang tenggelam di Korea. Penyebab tenggelam, kenapa dan gimana silahkan cari sendiri. Yang gak banyak orang tahu adalah ada 9 badan yang gak ditemuin atau terperangkap di kapal. Demi 9 badan itu, protes berlangsung selama bertahun-tahun.

Gue kira, "jir lebay amat, kalo kecelakaan pesawat juga gak bisa nuntut kek gitu"
Sebagai orang Indonesia yang terbiasa denger berita pesawat jatuh, kapal tenggelam, bis masuk jurang, bencana ini cuma satu diantara banyak kecelakaan yang pernah gue denger. Buat Korea, ini masalah besar yang mencoreng sejarah.

Korbannya ratusan siswa yang mau piknik. Tapi ternyata, itu cuma sebagian dari masalah yang ada soal misteri tenggelamnya kapal Sewol ini.

Respon pemerintah dianggap sangat lambat dan berkontribusi buat makan korban lebih banyak.
Udah lebih dari 1000 hari sejak kapal ini tenggelam, alias hampir 3 tahun, tapi masih ada grup yang setia buka stand di Gwanghwamun, plaza tersentral di Seoul, tiap hari. Konon mereka orang tua dari korban.

Awalnya, tuntutan mereka selama setahun pertama adalah buat pemerintah untuk ngangkat bodi kapal Sewol ini dari dasar laut. Pemerintah nolak dong, mahal dan susah. Gue rasa logis juga. Inget tragedi Adam Air? Apa ceritanya kalo keluarga penumpang nuntut pemerintah buat ngambil bangkai pesawatnya, disaat ngambil blackbox aja biayanya udah melambung?

Eh tapi akhirnya dilaksanain juga. Tuntutannya melebar. Masih ada hal-hal yang HARUS diklarifikasi.

Gue sendiri baru sadar kalo udah lebih dari 1000 hari karena gue liat poster ini di stasiun subway.

Lo mungkin ngikutin kalo di Korea lagi gencar banget protes pemerintah. Nah, Sewol masuk ke dalam salah satu penyebab dan tuntutan demo yang dibawa. Presiden sempet hilang selama 7 jam dihari kejadian kecelakaan. Well, gue pikir, apa hubungannya? Kenapa semua salah Presiden? Capek amat jadi Presiden?

Bukannya anggap sepele. Tapi coba ada feri tenggelam di laut Jawa, kaya waktu arus mudik. Terus apa Presiden kita langsung tau? Biasanya kan engga. Nah, yang gue pahami di Korea ada sistem hirarki. Konon, bantuan SAR ga bisa langsung bergerak karena belom ada perintah dari Boss besar. Jadi respon SOS tunggu perintah Boss, dan Bossnya gatau kemana. Semacam itu.

Pesan yang dibawa adalah: Jangan lupa.

Jangan lupa dan jangan ulangi tragedi ini.

Rumah untuk Generasi Muda

Sejak gue nulis seri Korea Public Sign, gue baru sadar ternyata Seoul (atau Korea) punya banyak banget iklan layanan publik dan isinya seru-seru. Kemaren gue nemuin ini, dan sejujurnya, gue ga gitu paham isinya apa selain policy untuk anak muda.

Cuma ukurannya terlalu gede buat dilewatkan.

Ada kata anak muda, jadi somehow tertarik

Baru gue terjemahin, ternyata ini policy perumahan terbaru untuk bantu anak muda bisa dapet rumah di deket stasiun subway dengan harga yang masuk akal. Gila, sebenernya gue gapaham juga kenapa perlu policy kaya gini.

Sebagai background, di Korea emang ada trend lebih banyak orang yang keluar alias pindah dari Seoul daripada yang masuk Seoul. Ini dikarenakan sewa rumah di Seoul yang gamasuk diakal. Mahal banget terus tahun lalu gue sempet baca, anggap lo nabung 100% gaji rata-rata lu buat beli rumah, ga ada keluar uang buat makan, transport atau apapun, baru bisa beli rumah di Seoul setelah 12 tahunan.

Astaga kalo nikah, anak udah SMP lagi...

Kos-kosan gajauh beda. Kamar di sekitar univ gue rata-rata sebulan 500 ribuan alias 6 jutaan sebulan. Sedangkan di Indonesia, itu gaji fresh graduate di kota-kota pulau Jawa. Makan apa? Transport gimana?

Alhasil banyak orang yang bela-belain tinggal jauh dari kantor atau sekolah, demi cari yang lebih murah. Cuma ini kan ga sehat dan buang-buang waktu, jadi capek dijalan. Gue di Bogor tinggal 30 menit dari sekolah dan naik angkot tinggal duduk dari depan rumah sampe depan sekolah aja masih pengen sekolah yang ada di depan komplek... 

Katanya, ini ditujukan buat mahasiswa, orang-orang yang baru masuk ke society (ini agak awkward dibahasa Indoin, tapi maksudnya generasi yang baru tau dunia setelah seumur hidup sekolah doang) dan pasangan yang baru nikah. Intinya adalah pengembangan perumahan murah yang bagus (re:layak) buat dihuni.

Kapan nih? Sayangnya gak sekarang... Ini program buat tahun 2030...

Dibanding sad, gue lebih tertarik sama line kecil kedua dibawahnya. Pemerintah Seoul mau ngembangin budaya carsharing (bukan ridesharing kaya Uber ya! Gue baru belajar nih!), jadi di perumahan itu nanti targetnya ga ada mobil. Mereka mau ngembangin ekonomi daerah lewat komunitas anak muda. Menarik juga.

Selain itu, disebut juga kalo bakal ada kemudahan atau deregulasi buat pelaku bisnis atau entrepreneur muda sebagai part dari benefit policy ini. Wey, rada jauh.

Nah, pusing kan kalo ngomongin policy secara teknis. Mending ngomongin impact yang diharapkan.

Si mbak yang pertama bilang, karena beban sewa rumah berkurang, jadi bisa fokus belajar.

Mas kedua bilang, karena rumah deket stasiun, berangkat dan pulang kerja jadi nyaman.

Pasangan yang terakhir bilang, di Seoul bisa mulai atau bangun 'My Home' tanpa beban.

Pengen tinggal di Seoul? Pikir lagi.

Inflight Special Meal

Food is the second most important thing for me to rate my in-flight experience after seat width and comfort. In the past 5 months, I flew different airlines and I got to see their variety of special meal and its service. I do not eat red meat, so I order either seafood meal or lacto-ovo vegetarian meal.

Life changed after Korea. I take this meal pre-order very seriously and I got really grumpy when I forgot to order one (sigh my recent China Airlines experience). I don't bother thinking about this meal pre-order when flying with my national carrier because they would never have pork and lamb in their options, so there will always be seafood or chicken option. By the way, I would not normally enjoy in-flight meal back home because I often travel with LCCs :P

Korean Air 

KE is my new favorite! Super wide seat, fair mileage reward, and best special meal service. I flew their A380 for my London stopover or ICN-LHR and LHR-ICN leg.

1st meal

My ICN-LHR leg was a very full flight (the only remaining seat was first class) and they had countless special meal requests. They have a very systematic way by sticking yellow sticker to passenger's seats who requested the special meal. They served different bread than the normal breakfast bun to other passengers. I opted for seafood meal this time.

I was delighted with the menu. Pasta with generous salmon. The portion of the salmon was just... Wow. Super fulfilling.

2nd service

My second meal was a different kind of fish. Man, I am really lame with fish name, but this was also a good one. Not a fan of veggie, I liked the first meal better than the second one.

fish with potato and veggie

I loved the potato! 

Now for my LHR-ICN leg, I opted for the vegetarian meal.

The flight was also full, but not many people in my area (because most of them are Koreans) requested for the special meal. I did not see the flight attendants flying with the tray of meals this time. 

first meal

I absolutely love my mac 'n cheese with broccoli and carrot. I have yet to found a good place for mac 'n cheese in Seoul sigh. I felt like this was my second best meal in almost a month, after spending time in Brazil. First best? The chicken in Sao Paulo :P basically Rio food sucks.

second meal

My second meal was a pretty salty omelet. I love mushroom and hash brown, but the mushroom was too salty. Good choice of menu though.

Another good thing about KE is they also serve snack. Standard Korean cup noodles (you have no idea, Koreans love their cup noodles THAT much), folded pizza, onigiri, nuts, and banana. Of course, I got the banana which I really hate.

LATAM Brasil

First of all... After 12 hours of flying KE in A380, my LATAM flight from London to Sao Paulo was just a disaster. Cramped seats, old aircraft and unfriendly flight attendants... The list goes on but lets just focus on the food.

LHR-GRU leg

LATAM does not have seafood option so I am stuck with lacto-ovo. They did not check nor confirm my order with me before hand. The flight attendant almost served the normal meal to me until I asked for my vegetarian meal. So I did not get my meal ahead of others too. Only one service, mac 'n cheese, standard deal with a plain taste. 

My next leg on LATAM was a slightly better GRU-LHR.

First meal

I love that they served real vegetarian food this time! They have soy meat with Brazil rice. I should say 'Brazil rice' because it was not the sticky rice like what I normally eat in Asia. Match the taste, fair taste. I like the cracker snack too.

second meal

My second meal was a bread with spinach and egg filling plus fruits. I am sure this dish has a fancy name, but I just don't know haha. I am not a fan of spinach but this was a good one. The fruits were also nice, I appreciated it more than salad. 

Thai Airways

Thanks to Thai Airways recent huge promo and AirAsia's weirdly expensive price, I got to fly from ICN to BKK via HKG with Thai for the first time. I know it was not the most efficient route, but as a student, I have more time than money :P

I ordered seafood meal for both legs. The flight was relatively quiet and the flight attendant kindly came to me to confirm my order, few mins before they closed the door.

Fun fact: I just nodded even before he finished the sentence because he was speaking in Thai and he thought I was Thai :))

ICN-HKG, Pasta!

I got pasta with fish and cream sauce and a very pleasant sashimi salad.

I never ate raw fish before, really.This one was my first and it was actually nice.

HKG-BKK

I got an oriental style pasta for my next leg. Orzo (yeay!) with fried fishballs and cream. What was unique here is the tofu dessert. This was also really good, I don't know which one I like better. Wow, great job TG!

Oh, they also gave me special nuts with berries with my seat number written on it. They gave nuts to other passengers, though. Not sure why they have a different kind paired to the seafood meal order.

Now for my route back to ICN.

I was not in my best mood after the check in drama. Their system went down for almost 30 mins in their own base. I was really tired and although they sent me to the business class immigration gate to skip the queue, another drama happened.

ICN-BKK Seafood meal

The meal failed to cheer me up. It was a seafood platter (squid, small shrimp and a chunk of fish) with potato and green peas. Korean touch of Kimchi was added. The bread did not taste fresh and warm that night.

Still, better than LATAM. *everything is wrong with LATAM*

Then I forgot to order seafood meal on my recent China Airlines flights so let's keep that for next time. *grumpy*

Overall, KE is still the best with their system in handling the special meal request. I also get my food ahead of others by ordering special meal, except in LATAM. I love Asian airlines for their hospitality and their food certainly didn't fail me. I think the only non-Asian airlines that I have ever flown with are only LATAM and Aer Lingus. I did not like my Aer Lingus meal since... I did not eat them. I regretted my stupidity back then by ordering Kosher food instead of vegetarian so I ended up with sandwich that I could not eat :))

Eating in Gwangjang Market

I never liked going to Gwangjang Market. Maybe I have been in Korea for too long that the 'unique' dishes don't really impress me. Or maybe it was the traumatizing first visit that turned me off. It was a hot day and ajumma who was busy shooshing us, foreigners who flooded the market with phones in hand, taking pictures in every single corner. I prefer the one next to it, Bangsan Market, because it has a better (or quieter) vibe.

I really had no intention to revisit. But few weeks ago, I was sort of 'trapped' to go to Gwangjang Market with AskCulture. I signed up for sannakji but I never knew we were going to Gwangjang Market. This time, I had a totally different impression.

First thing first, it was a weekend evening in the winter. No more weather complain. We also had a very clear purpose, thanks to Sangah, so I do not have to wander around in the market like a lost child.

Sangah took me to the Yukhoe alley and specifically pointed at this super famous place to eat Yukhoe. I thought Yukhoe is all the same everywhere, but apparently, only this restaurant requires its customer to take waiting number (just like in bank or hospital) and has multiple branches.

very famous 'zzamezip'

While we were waiting, Sangah took many videos and countless selfies. I thought I was the only one feeling fascinated but apparently, Sangah and JinAh both think that it was unusual for foreigners to be that-excited with 'weird' Korean foods.

Oh by the way, this restaurant has a very unique 'never give up' tagline. Apparently, it comes from the fact that many people give up queueing for them :)))))

so can you see what is she preparing?

But what is Yukhoe tho?
A red dish?

'fresh' raw beef

This is it. Raw beef. I am not even sure if I want to further explain this dish because to me, it's just disgusting. Even in pictures.

But basically it's pure beef with onion and raw egg. That's it.

Yukhoe and Yukhoe mix rice

Sangah and Jinah had a very 'raw' meal that night. They finished everything and I was just like, ummm...

But hey! I got what I have been craving for months too! Sannakji or the live octopus! Well, it wasn't technically alive. He had been chopped before they serve it to me. Poor octopus, I promise not to eat this often!

In a flash, it looks just like any fresh and raw octopus. Not that I eat it straight from the aquarium. But what interesting is that the octopus was still moving when it was served. Bluntly speaking, it was not the sensation that made me crave for sannakji, but the taste itself!

Look at the short video above.

I did not realize how much I enjoy sannakji that I finished the whole dish myself. Later I realized that it's not a good idea because apparently my stomach kinda resist it :)))

I hope to come again but not sure if I can afford it. These dishes are actually expensive, man. My plate of octopus is worth 15,000 won while the Yukhoe is 12,000 won and the rice is 10,000 won.

tempting tempting

Our eating journey did not end with bowls of uncooked stuff. While we were walking, I told them that I love pajeon so Sangah decided to take us to eat pajeon! Lovely!

Now this is my stuff. SEAFOOD PAJEON.

OMG the visual, the smell... Everything was just perfect. Again, this is not cheap, around 16,000 won I guess. Worth 3-4 times of my lunch.

I was really really happy with my pajeon. This particular dish mean a lot to me because I had a good history with Pajeon.

When applying for Korean scholarship, the Korean interviewer asked me about my favorite Korean food. With no hesitation, I said "pajeon!" and both of them burst out laughing. I did not know until recently why they were laughing. My Korean friends told me it was because they probably expected more popular foods like bibimbap, bulgogi and such.

One of my friends even said, "Just like if you ask foreigner about they favorite Indonesian food. You expect bakso, sate, nasi goreng but what if he say bandeng or cireng?"
Muahaha make sense.

Sangah said I have a terrific smile and I smile even brighter as soon as the pajeon came hahaha. I think I can really do an advertisement for pajeon, seriously.

We parted ways after I finished the pajeon. I was delighted that I came for sannakji but I ended up eating pajeon too. As expected, AskCulture trip is always so much fun!

Check the result of our nonstop filming too on Youtube!

Lapar dan tertantang? Cobain Sannakji dan Yukhoe!