June 9th 2014 Eating my way through Korea town!

Well it's official, Tsuyu (rainy season) is upon us and with a vengeance this year! It's been a pretty much steady rain for the last five days! My sister bought me new shoes when I went home but I can't wear them because I don't want them getting wet, so I'm wearing my old tennis shoes instead! Still and all it is cooler outside but I could use a little sunshine hopefully this week to do some laundry!
In other more interesting news, on Saturday, Aya and I  pretty much ate our way through korea town! We stopped at a grocery store first and sampled a bunch of different kimchis and bought a few groceries. There were at least 12 different kimchi samples, some with seafood, others with cabbage or seaweed or cucumbers... you get the idea. Delicious! The store also had a street side grill making tasty treats. Aya had kimchi chijimi which is like a veggie pancake, I had a taste and it was  very good! I bought a couple to take home and fry up later!
                                                                       

I chose to have Hotteok with cheese in the middle!

First, he took a handful of yeasty dough and put some cheese into the middle .

                                               

Then he put it on a hot griddle and let it sit there for a few minutes.

(Around this time he turned away from us and did some bending exercises by the window for some reason, maybe he was bored. That made Aya and I laugh, but I didn't take a picture!)

Then he flipped the hotteok and squished it down!

After a few more minutes on the griddle it was HOT and ready to eat! It was delicious! 

There were other filling choices as well, including honey, kimchi, and sweet red bean paste. Being from Wisconsin, I opted for the Cheese!

After that, we walked and explored some of the local shops which turned out to be mostly K-pop souvenir shops for teenage girls!

Then we decided to find some more food! (of course) We ended up at a korean bbq place called Tonchang and that's when the real fun began!

We had  Samgyeopsal, delicious grilled pork belly and kimchi with many side dishes that you can pile onto a piece of lettuce and stuff the whole thing in your mouth.. preferably in ONE bite!

 (Pretty soon it looked like this picture I stole from the internet because I was too busy eating to take a proper picture!)
                                       

 
                  Aya was moving so fast trying to eat it in one bite that this picture came out blurry....

  We were making quick work of our porky feast!

Soon it was gone... but that wasn't the end, the grill was cleaned and the final course begun!

                                         Udon noodles were thrown onto the hot grill

                         Kimchi , green onions and other goodies added (not sure what all it was to be honest)

                                                                  Some fried tofu

                                           and finally, bonito flakes danced to the heat on top!
                                                            (it really does look like it's dancing)

It was all very delicious and fun! 

And as if that wasn't enough, as we headed back to the train station we found a cool "icecream stick" shop and had to try that too!

Finally, we waddled to the train station and I was so full that by the time I made it to Kichijoji train station, got off and was waiting for my bus, I didn't even mind the rain anymore!