Chapter 17: CH17: FooDEE Trip [2]
"Food is our common ground,
our universal experience"
- James Beard
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It was day three of Delilah's foodie adventure in South Korea. The past two days had been fun and exciting. Exploring the places were such an experience. Delilah had worn a hanbok, took pictures at most of the iconic tourist sites and of course, got to taste the local street foods.
It was still 6 o'clock in the morning. The sky was still a bit dark, from what Delilah can see from their window. Light began to seep through the blinds at their window into their room. Though, the distant sky showed signs of growing lighter as the sun began to slowly rose up.
But when Delilah and Trixxie walked out of their hostel, they were greeted by the morning, misty air. The weather was still cold with cool breeze blowing through the air, touching their soft cheeks. The breeze caress their cheeks, making it flushed pink from the cold.
The two women shivered, clutching their jackets closer to their bodies, trying to keep warmth. Apparently, wearing two layers of clothes were not enough to fight off the cool breeze.
There were not many people yet on the street. The street stalls were still covered with blankets. Some of the shops were still closed. It was a quiet morning.
Seeing a nearby vending machine, the two women headed there first before going to the station.
Delilah was amazed to see that the vending machine also offer hot drinks. She immediately insert her coins into the machine and press the button for hot Americano.
A couple of minutes later, the warmed can came out of the vending machine. Delilah bent down to grabbed it and opened it.
Delilah took a deep breath to inhale the smell of the coffee. It smells good and fresh, despite being from a canned drink. As she took a sip of the drink, the rich and creamy texture of the americano hits her tongue, sending warmth all over her body. "Ahhh..." Delilah moaned. "That felt good!"
Trixxie, who bought the same one as Delilah, nodded.
The two of them stood beside the vending machine, trying to finish off their drinks before going off again. Delilah remembered that when she was in Japan, someone once told her to not walk and eat at the same time, as it was considered to be rude. Delilah then thought, perhaps, it was the same thing here.
So, the two women fell into a comfortable silence as they try to quickly finish off their drinks. They did not want to miss their train.
Shortly after, they dumped the empty cans at a nearby rubbish bin and walked faster to the station.
Going down to the subway station, Delilah and Trixxie quickly looked for which train that they had to use and went over to the line.
A few minutes later, the two women were in the subway. Delilah quickly sent a message to her family chat group to tell them that she was off to Jinhae, a town that was a couple of hours from Seoul.
Jinhae was a small town, located in Changwon City, South Korea. It was also a town that was famous for its annual Cherry Blossom festival every spring. Every year, more than 100,000 visitors from all over the world came to Jinhae to witness the beautiful Cherry Blossom festival. It was a magnificent sight to see and take pictures for beautiful memories. To get there, Delilah and Trixxie had to changed more than 4 lines.
After arriving at their designated station, Trixxie went to call for a taxi. They then headed towards Gyeonghwa Station. On their way to the station, the two of them could already see the blooming cherry blossoms on the streets.
The flowers were beautiful, with its soft pink petals fluttering in the air, blanketing the streets and roads in pink snowflake-like. The streets were filled with many cherry blossom trees, where people can be seen standing around, taking pictures.
Delilah and Trixxie took out their phones and took pictures of the flowers, as the taxi drove on. Not wanting to drain her phone's battery, Delilah only took a couple of pictures and just gazed out the window, watching as they passed by the beautiful cherry blossoms.
Shortly after, the two women arrived at Gyeonghwa Station. They paid their taxi fare using their T-Kard and went to the entrance.
There were many groups of people at the entrance whom Delilah assumed were tour groups. Because in front of a group, there would be a man or a woman, holding up a flag with a symbol. The person was probably the tour guide, carrying the flag with the logo of their company. The people there were talking animatedly, looking very excited about seeing the Cherry Blossom.
Going past them, Delilah and Trixxie were greeted with many cherry blossoms decorations and a few stalls that were selling cherry blossom merchandise. Merchandise such as a cherry blossom crown, postcards, hand fan with a picture of a cherry blossom and so forth.
Delilah and Trixxie then walked further in, walking past a cherry blossom archway with a bench in the middle. Apparently, that was a photo booth.
Further in on their left was the Gweonghwa train. It was currently out of service and it was also one of the most beautiful cherry blossom viewing. It seems that there were many people taking a picture with the train. Delilah swiftly walked over to it and asked Trixxie to take a photo of her with the train. She wanted to show it to her nephew who loves trains. Then there were more cherry blossom on the right, where there were also people doing some performances.
It was a lively atmosphere, where families and friends gathered around, having fun, watching the performance. With the petals of the cherry blossom dancing in the air and the looks of the people having fun, it was a picturesque image. Delilah managed to stand amidst the crowd, standing in tiptoes, trying to catch a glimpse of the performance.
A Korean man stood in the middle, wearing sweater and jeans. He was performing some magic tricks, while dancing to a song called, 'Gangnam Style'. His performance was hilarious as there were loud laughters ringing along the crowd.
Once Delilah and Trixxie were satisfied with the pictures that they have taken, they moved on to the next site, Yeojwacheon Romance Bridge or also known as Yeojwacheon stream.
The Yeojwacheon stream was a few minutes away from the Gweonghwa Station, with the use of taxi. It was such a short drive and when they finally arrived, there were lots of people at the entrance.
At the entrance, there were a few stalls selling foods and drinks. There were also many young army men amongst the crowds. This was probably because the army base was nearby the area and they had the day off today to view the sights.
The iconic site of Yeojwacheon stream was made famous when most Korean romance drama were filmed here. It was obvious as to why most romance dramas were filmed here since the place itself gave out a romantic vibe. Especially when there were series of heart archways placed at either side of the stream. And between the stream and the archways, there stood the vibrant and bountiful cherry blossom trees. There were more trees at the other side of the archways.
Delilah and Trixxie bought some hot hotteok before going under the bridge that will lead them to the stream.
Hotteok is a one of the most popular street foods from South Korea. It is a Korean sweet pancake, made from wheat flour. It was typically stuffed with dark brown sugar, cinnamon powder and black sesame seeds.
After Delilah had paid for her hotteok, she blew on the hot food before taking a bite. It was crispy on the outside but sweet and gooey in the inside. The thin and crispy dough tasted plain, without any flavour. But the moment Delilah bit into the pancake, the hot cinnamony syrup oozed into her mouth, sending tingles all over her body. The sweet drizzle of the sugar and powder felt silky and smooth in her mouth. The hotteok was such a sweet indulgence meant to be eaten on any day; be it cold or hot.
Once the two women were done with their pancakes, they made their way to the stream.
When they reached there, there were more people near the stream, taking pictures and selfies. There were also some tour groups, where the tour guide can be seen carrying a flag.
It was crowded near the stream but the two women managed to get lot of pictures until they were satisfied. They had taken lot of pictures with the beautiful cherry blossom as their backdrop.
Delilah also managed to try out a strawberry homemade ice-cream from the vendor there. At first, the stall was crowded where people were queueing up to buy the ice-cream. Apparently, they wanted to buy the ice-cream, not just for the taste but also for the artistic image it gave.
Delilah waited patiently for her turn and ordered one. The strawberries were beautifully decorated on the ice-cream, where it was cut into halves and arranged all around the ice-cream.
After Delilah got her ice-cream, she walked over to the bridge, overlooking the stream and the cherry blossom and took a picture of the ice-cream. It looked quite lovely with the beautiful trees.
An hour later, the two women were done taking pictures at the area and decided to go back to their hostel. But before they went back, Trixxie suggested to stop by at Busan since it was on their way.
So, they had spent a couple of hours at Busan, taking in the sights and eating their late lunch there. Busan was known for its beaches, mountains and temples. And it was also one of the largest port city in South Korea. Hence, the town was also lively where there were people everywhere, rushing here and there, trying to get to their destination.
Walking around Busan, Delilah also took pictures of herself and uploaded it in her Instagram. Seconds after she uploaded her picture and story, one of her cousins replied to her story:
Shay: 'Hahaha! So, did you run into any of the zombies?'
She was referring to the blockbuster movie, 'Train to Busan'.
Delilah replied back. 'Hahaha! Not yet. Probably later!' with a laughing emoji.
The two women were finally at Seoul station when the clock reads 11 o'clock in the evening. And because there were no trains working at the late evening, Delilah and Trixxie had to queue for a taxi to get to their hostel.
Knowing that it was difficult for any cars to get near to their hostel since it was located near the alley, they had the driver dropped them at a station that was near to their hostel.
However, before Delilah and Trixxie continued on to their hostel, Delilah had tugged on Trixxie's sleeve.
Trixxie stopped and asked, "What's up?"
Delilah pointed at a nearby food stall where there was a middle-aged woman, who looked like she was in her mid-forties, selling some street foods. The woman was stirring the tteokbokki sauce, pouring more gochujang into the brewing large pan. The woman was wearing a jacket with a thick sweater underneath it. She was also wearing black fingerless gloves with a checkered pattern scarf around her neck. Looking closer at her stall, she was selling foods such as fish cakes, sausages and tteokbokki.
"I want to give that tteokbokki a try," Delilah said, her eyes gleaming in excitement.
Trixxie just laughed softly and nodded, letting Delilah pulled her towards the stall.
Since Delilah does not know how to speak Korean, she just pointed at the tteokbokki and said to the woman, "One please!"
The middle-aged woman grinned and gave her an okay sign. She then began to grab an empty paper cup and poured some tteokbokki into the cup. She handed the cup to Delilah and gestured to a plastic box, which was filled with money. Apparently, she was implying that once Delilah was done with her meal, she should place her money into the box.
Delilah nodded and began to eat. The rice cake has a chewy texture which seems addictive as Delilah continues to chew. Added with the tteokbokki sauce, the rice cake has more flavour into it as it tasted sweet and spicy.
Eating the tteokbokki in front of the steaming hot pan felt good with the cool air around them. It really made the food tasted better.
As Delilah sips the tteokbokki sauce, the mixture of both sweet and spicy was heavenly. Delilah felt like her mouth was giving off a hot steam yet there was a taste of sugar. The feeling was exhilarating.
As Delilah ate more of the tteokbokki, the sauce further created a burning feeling in her mouth, making her flushed from the spiciness of the food. The spiciness and the sweetness of the tteokbokki were unlike those she had eaten before because it has this two favourite flavours of hers; spicy and sweet.
Trixxie laughed as she watched Delilah ate, her eyes forming a beautiful crescent shape, happiness etched on her face. "You seem very happy," Trixxie teased.
Delilah licked her lips. "Yes, I am!" she agreed. "This stuff here is increDEEble!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TheTalkingCupcake
TheTalkingCupcake I had a fun time, traveling to South Korea. I have managed to tick off most of the foods that I wanted to try. And I was so happy to try them all!
Before going to South Korea, I used to make my own tteokbokki, though, I bought the packaged rice cake.
So, here it is:
https://mykoreankitchen.com/tteokbokki-spicy-rice-cakes/
Have you tried to make one?
Also, please do leave a review if you enjoy this novel. I would appreciate it ?
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