…and not the kinds of dongs that you will find in the Cedar Point parking lot.

After a long and leisurely morning strolling palace grounds, we unanimously agreed with whole hearts that it was:

SALT.

BREAD.

TIME.

Back to Ikseondong!

Frfr, if you’re in Seoul, ya gotta get to this spot and grab a bag(sssss) of motherfucking salt bread. My mouth is filling up faster than Tammy Faye’s eyeballs, you hear. The mere THOUGHT of the salt bread has my mouth WEEPING.

PLEASE ignore my trash nails. I was too busy running around Korea to worry about painting them. (Although I think I did that night?!)

Jayeondo Salt Bread, you are 100% worth the hype. Listen to the salty, crumby cries of the people – this is THE place to get your sogum bbang on. I wish I could several bags delivered to me right now.

Still having (some) room left in our stomachs, we hit up the nearby Cheese Industry, having ogled the goods a few days earlier. I didn’t want to leave Korea without getting something from here, so Henry and I shared a honey brown pastry – some sort of delicious, sweet cheese thing slightly reminiscent of baklava and dotted with hazelnuts. I could easily have housed this whole thing on my own, but whatever. We were going to get lunch soon plus do more cafe hopping later so I didn’t want to ruin myself so early in the day. All I can say is THANK GOD for all the walking we did, else I’d have had to buy all new pants when we came home.

SHEESH.

They make their own cheese in-house! And even a selection of their drinks are infused with cheese! I opted for just an iced Americano though because I do have limits. But! I have had drinks with cheese foam / cheese caps from Asian cafes in the States and can confirm that it is the good kind of unusual taste. Ugh, I hope this place is still there the next time I go to Korea!!

Also, I’m wearing my necklace from Gyeongju in this picture! I love that necklace and I loved that man that owned the gift shop where I bought it! AND I LOVE GYEONGJU.

LOL Chooch with his ring that he made with us in Hongdae that served as a fidget spinner for the rest of the trip.

After this, we did some perusing in the shops. I bought a scarf that I am considering using as a background for our dumb marriage license once we finally get it framed, and then there was this adorable collegiate-esque cardigan that I had my eyes on the first time we walked through Ikseondong. It says MILK on it and I love clothes like that because my aesthetic is very niche.

Anyway, I almost didn’t buy it! I don’t know why I get like this, like I get preventive buyer’s remorse just by touching something on a rack and then I start pouting even though no one told me I couldn’t buy it?? But when the salesperson asked me if I wanted to try it on, I said NO for some idiotic reason and then not 1 minute later, some older woman strutted in, tried it on and immediately bought it, walked right out still wearing it.

Henry looked at me and frowned. It was the only one on the rack. :(

But that gave me the IF IT WAS MEANT TO BE….kick in the ass that I needed so I marched over to the salesperson and asked if they had any more. Of-fucking-course they did, come on. She pulled another one, still wrapped in plastic, out of a box and held it out to me, nodding for me to try it the fuck on already.

So I did.

And then I handed over some cash and walked out happy.

NO REGERTZ.

After Ikseondong, we walked to the neighboring Insadong because this is where lunch was happening. But first, family caricature time at Acorn! There are numerous locations around Seoul (maybe outside of Seoul too? I feel like I saw one in Jeonju…) and this one is unique because they specialize in fast drawings. I think 1 or 2 minutes per subject? And you can even show them a picture of your pet on your phone and they will draw from that too!

Chooch was NOT happy to do this and kept hoping that I would forget.

I wish I looked that cute IRL!! And I love how she captured Henry’s downtrodden essence. He looks beat down, which is accurate having spent so much unrelenting time with me and Chooch. :)

Back in one of the alleys of Insadong is yet another vegetarian restaurant called Osegeahyang. This one is pretty well-established, I think. When you walk in, there’s a wall of famous vegetarian/vegans and I dunno why but the formality of WILIAM BRADLEY PITT cracked us up so Chooch was inspired to take a picture.

That says “American actor” under his name.

Yo, we feasted here. It had a really decent crowd, a mix of locals and foreigners, so that’s always a great sign! The Happy Cow website tells me that this is one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Seoul (and by that they probably mean non-temple food restaurant I bet).

I had been craving jjajangmyeon, but that dish traditionally has PORK in it (lol I initially type PORN I guess because of all the DONGS) so when I saw that this place had it, my eyes became blind to the rest of the menu. I only had eyes for you, jjajangmyeon.

Henry got tonkatsu and I have no idea what Chooch got, some Chinese ‘chicken’ dish? And a plate of Korean fried ‘chicken’ for the table.

(Henry’s tonkatsu was REALLY good, btw, and I had slight ordering remorse but my jjajangmyeon really was just what I needed.)

I got a fried “egg” on the side. This picture is so trash – I must have been in a hurry to start eating.

Just looking at this is making me so hungry and I literally just ate dinner. Henry, make me pork-less jjajangmyeon this weekend, wah.

Dude, this was a really great first half of the day! I had fun reliving it just now. :(

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