Vegan's Day

Family Renew-nion

My sister's back in Korea! Her flight came in at the glorious crack of dawn, so my parents drove to the airport to pick her up and then they all arrived at my doorstep at around 7am for a complete family reunion. :) T'was a grand way to start the day.

Insadong with family

After eating breakfast together, catching up, and unloading all the pressies she brought, my sister was hungry for some good han-jung-shik for her first meal back. So ofcourse, I took that as a pretty solid excuse to head to none other than my fave han-jung-shik restaurant, Jirisan at Insadong! I've been there three times now (all in this month), and I'm not sick of it yet! The food is tasty, diverse, traditional, and clean- what's not to love?

Insadong with family

Check out the banch'

Insadong with family

One of my favorite side dishes on the table: dubu

Insadong with family

A full table of banchans & jjigyes~ I counted 20 in total! Not everything was veg*an, but the majority was, so I was able to eat til I was stuffed to the brim.

Insadong with family

Even though we were practically bursting at the seams after a delicious lunch, we still had space for coffee and tea. When my sister was in Seoul a few years back, we both went to 'Su-Yo-Il' ('Wednesday') cafe, so we figured it would be a nice spot to take our parents to.

Insadong with family

Here's the view from our table. This cafe is located on the second floor of a building that is right along the main Insadong-road, near the middle of the strip.

Insadong with family

My dad's hot coffee...

Insadong with family

...my sister's cappuccino...

Insadong with family

...and my cinnamon-ginger-persimmon ice tea (su-jung-gwa). Yea, I'm pretty obsessed with this tea.

Insadong with family

Unlike the other tea house that only gave a small chunk of dried persimmon, this one threw in the entire, whole thing! The persimmon was seriously maaaassive- about the size of a tennis ball. And I ate it all myself, naturally.

Insadong with family

Gooey goodness.

Insadong with family

They also gave us complimentary snacks/desserts of yakgwa, and puffed rice bars. I'm not a big fan of those little yakgwa cookies because they're too oily for my liking, not to mention, they include honey. They do look adorable though.

Insadong with family

Lookin' pretty on a plate.

Insadong with family
Insadong with family

Interior shots of 'Su-Yo-Il.'

Insadong with family

We also walked around for a bit and admired all the little trinkets, souvenirs, and fooood:

Insadong with family

I've blogged about this Ssamzie-gil snack shop before cuz I'm in love with their peanut bars. Even though I already knew how good they tasted, I had to take advantage of the free samples before buying a package. :)

Insadong with family

A fruit stall along the road selling cherries and figs.

Insadong with family

Steamed corn and roasted chestnuts. Mashikketda~!

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Another sidewalk stall selling traditional Korean snack bars. I love watching them in action.

Insadong with family

And here are some interesting bulb-like greenery we saw. They look like mini lanterns!

So yea~ I'm happy that my family is in one country again. I had a great day, and now I'm off to meet up with some friends for some Saturday night fun. :) G'nite!