Seoul Food: The Neighborhoods (1st in a Series)

Previous installments:
1st part: Seoul Food: The Neighborhoods
2nd part: Seoul Food: Markets & Munchies
last part: Seoul Food: My Favorite Foods

There are a few things that surprise me about Seoul. First, is that the subways are always, always full, but they’re at their most crowded at 10.30pm. (Apparently, people here are quite the night owls). Secondly, Koreans seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in cafés – don’t they have school? Or work? Then again, their cafés are so eclectic and unique, it’s no wonder they’re always jam-packed. Seoul is, after all, the world’s second largest metropolitan area bustling with over 25 million people.

Downtown Seoul. The 237-meter N Seoul Tower in the distance appears nestled in the Namsan Mountains.

Located between Sinsa-dong and upscale Apgujeong, Garosu-gil (literally, tree-lined street) and also known as the Europe of Seoul, melds the hip with the traditional. A stroll through this half kilometer promenade enchants with its boutiques, cafés and restaurants.

Everybody was eating trendy smoothie bowls topped with açai in this superfood café.

While here, snazzily dressed patrons sipped coffee amidst flower-filled interiors.

At Lady M, a chichi New York import, we enjoy a slice of their famous crepe cake – ethereally light – and their earthy marron torte. I find it odd that the server places both cakes on a single plate. “Perhaps labor’s expensive,” my Bin comments cheekily.

Of course we go to Gangnam. Gangnam Station is the busiest station in all of Seoul, serving as a vital transfer point among subway and bus lines. Throw in a massive underground shopping center and it’s just wild in here.

Several large companies have their global headquarters in Gangnam, including Samsung. The buildings are beyond impressive, the roads extensive.

Off the main streets of Gangnam lie arteries of smaller alleys bursting with people and the places that feed them.

Stealing away from the chaos of Gangnam to stop for a patbingsu (also, bingsu). Impossibly fine frozen ice? milk? sprinkled with aromatic kinako, toasted soybean powder. Digging into this icy dream, a revelation: chewy cubes of injeolmi, sweet rice cakes like those crowning the hill of red bean above. It’s minus 1°C outside and here I am eating this.

A dynamic balance of the ancient and the new, Korea offers tranquility amidst the hubbub. At the Gyeongbokgung Palace, we partake of peace while pondering our next meal.

The rain today has made the day blustery and gray. After visiting the Palace, my Bin and I make a pit stop at a café with a cute name: Daily Brown.

Inside, it’s blessedly warm, I can feel my hands again. We enjoy cups of coffee and hot chocolate, the heat floods through our numb bodies, as does the sweetness of the soft, thick toast laced with honey and cream.

A stroll away from Gyeongbokgung Palace is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Seoul, Samcheong-dong. It’s a hilly neighborhood housing restaurants, galleries, and boutiques located in an area called Bukchon.

Bukchon is the representative hanok (Korean traditional home) residential area in Seoul, and here, there are many hanok-style establishments, as seen above. The diversity in architectural styles from exposed brick to wood and stone is astounding.

Pretty Plates, Pretty Places

Cafés as beautiful as the food they serve.

I don’t usually take photos of the places I eat in, it’s just not my thing for several reasons – the privacy of other patrons comes to mind; and I often get lost in the food anyway. But the following places are so thoughtfully conceived and well-designed that I can’t help but take photos. When ambience matters, these places will please.

Café Shibuya
Absolutely nowhere near me, coming over here entails military-like precision and planning. I hate that because I like it here so much. Just like Caffé Bene, Café Shibuya is a paean to thick toasts.

Of course I’m immediately drawn to the cluster of chalkboard art.

A kitchen with equipment evocative of its fare: rolled, topped, served.

The Original Shibuya Honey Toast, the regular (P175) version, because who am I to get the baby portion (P145)? As purist as can be, and a pleasure it is. The toast is exceptional, feather-light and blissfully buttery, a pillow on which the honey and vanilla ice cream come to rest, then melt…

Another of the things they do well here, the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Latte (P145). Technically, this is a mocha but who cares.

The poached egg arrives overdone on the Shibuya Benedict (P255) but they willingly replace it with another (wetter) one.

In Manila, the best Japanese hamburger is found at Arafu Café but Café Shibuya does a comparable version.

Scarsdale
Scarsdale was the name of the diet that I was on in high school. I don’t remember much about it except that I was ingesting large amounts of yogurt and cheating on cold mangoes. Go figure.

Anyway, this Scarsdale is much better. An ode to resident Chef Carlo Miguel’s time spent in Scarsdale, New York, and a glamorized re-do of GoNuts Donuts. The bakery-café’s interiors are cleverly designed, and there are many well-lit nooks perfect for positioning and picture-taking.

Flowcharts and diagrams – gustatory guides of sorts.

They serve brunch but today I’m just having the specials: the croughnuts and donuts.

You can take GoNuts Donuts out of the mall but it’s still the same donut. It’s gummy and wrong, texture-wise. The server is kind enough to nuke it for a few seconds though, upon request, and it’s slightly improved.

I much prefer the croughnuts here. There are the little bites and the regular sized specimen here is their banner Carlo’s Favorite. My favorite cronut is the one from Yamato Bakery but this comes second – on the condition that it’s freshly cooked which this one is. The dulce de leche filling gushes out gloriously, a contrast to the crisp and crunch of the pastry’s spiral layers.

Toby’s Estate

My coffee guru friend Zarah and I are in Toby’s Estate on the day they open last March. We have the place to ourselves and we love it. I’ve been back once since then but I’ve yet to try their food. Still, no one can deny how understatedly stunning this place is.

This is how it looked when food wasn’t served yet.

On that first day, we’re taken behind the bar and shown how this Italian Stallion of an espresso machine works. It’s painfully gorgeous to look at. And touch.

Nowadays, everyone knows about the off-menu Gibraltar, and the deeply chocolate Hot Chocolate. But I’ll still swear by the Americano any day. Because I’m a purist.

This is an incredible place with truly superlative coffee.

~

Café Shibuya
G/F UP Town Center, Katipunan, Quezon City
Open daily from 10am.
On Facebook & Instagram: CafeShibuya

Scarsdale Artisanal Delights
514 Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City.
Open daily from 9am-9pm.
On Twitter and Instagram: @scarsdale_ph.

Toby’s Estate
3rd Level, Century City Mall, Kalayaan Avenue corner Salamanca Street, Makati

125 L.P. Leviste Street, Salcedo Village, Makati
Open daily from 7am.
On Instagram: TobysEstatePH

Come For The Coffee, Stay For The Toast

The food is better than the coffee at this café.

I’m always on the lookout for a good coffee shop, and even if it’s far from me, I’ll make the effort to go; all in the name of coffee naturally, and breakfast, my favorite meal of the day.

Caffé Bene has been on my radar for some time now, having opened last November. A Korean import, it’s considered the Starbucks of that country with over 800 stores to its name since its inception in 2008, not counting those in China and the US. It’s blindingly popular for its coffee, signature toasts and waffles (more on this later), and it’s emblazoned in the minds of Koreanovela fans everywhere for being the café where the show, the Secret Garden, and its famous “crème kiss” scene was filmed. But that’s all I can tell you since I’m no K-pop fan unless it’s about the food.

Caffé Bene’s Eastwood Walk location is somewhat “frumpy,” like a woman who’s let herself go to seed. And today at 9 am, the harsh morning light does nothing to glam up her surroundings. But Caffé Bene is its own beacon, comestibles and caffeine for the hungry and the place itself is gorgeous. Expansive and accented in wood, it’s a space to savor and to savor in. The lighting makes everyone look lovely whether they’re supping or slurping or staring at the vintage clock, a focal point that seems to be its own force field (everyone seems to want to sit near it).

I have a consuming fascination with coffee house merchandise and it’s there where I gravitate to even before the counter. With the exception of a rare few, most cafés will neglect this aspect of their marketing but not Caffé Bene. Their selection is well-curated: it’s not many places that will offer a gooseneck kettle, slick and in stainless steel (top shelf). This particular item is quite rare and is usually only seen in third wave coffee shops.

Speaking of coffee, Caffé Bene reputedly uses only the top 2% of the world’s best coffee beans. They’re roasted in the company’s own roasting plant and meticulously tested. Whether it be a fault of transport or handling, I can’t say much for the coffee here. I’m a black coffee drinker because I like to taste the purity of the coffee. Milk clouds coffee’s intrinsic flavors but I’ll concede that there are times when a latte (P130 / P145) is in order. This is one of those times especially since the motherly, super friendly barista can’t recommend it enough. It tastes more like hot milk with a whisper of coffee somewhere. My Bin, who doesn’t drink coffee, has the green tea latte (P135 / P145), and it’s alright, a mere shadow of the more strongly flavored ones offered elsewhere.

Relentlessly searching for more coffee within each sip, I abandon the latte and order an Americano (P105 / P120). Sans milk, I revel in the familiar coffee smell I love but when it comes to taste, this coffee is watery and under-extracted. Caffé Bene takes pride in its medium roast coffee as opposed to the more commonplace dark roast. A good cup of coffee – whatever roast it may be – highlights the beans’ nuances — a cup is a serving of vitality, but today the espresso shots are off.

I will say this, however. The cups themselves at Caffé Bene are a masterpiece. Appropriately dubbed the kiss mug, each one is crafted so that the cup’s rim resembles a (lower) lip. It’s bizarre to say that taking a sip from this cup reminds me of having someone else’s lips on my own, but yeah, that’s about right. A lip to lust for.

Every Korean coffeehouse delights in their thick toast offerings, an almost-pastry to partake of with one’s posse. They are stunning and righteously so. While one is workable and a pair is daunting, my Bin and I take two for the team. The savory brick toast, as I call these super slices, is the Garlic & Cheese (Php165). Smells swell on waves of cheese punctuated with bursts of garlic enveloped in a colossal crumb.

The sweeter toast comes in either Choco Banana or Caramel Cinnamon (P145), and I have the latter. A beehive of cream ponders its fate, perched as it is on an expanse of buttered bread licked with caramel. The amber streaks catch the morning light, glistening as they glide down the toast. The bread is thoughtfully sliced into squares for easy eating, and is a shade shy of being over toasted. It’s crackle-crunchy at first and then dense and soft as it soaks up the cream lovingly. For those as macho as my Bin and I are, I do recommend getting a savory and sweet toast as the pair play off one another very nicely. We enjoy the toasts so much that we’re genuinely surprised when we suddenly see two empty plates staring back up at us.

The Liège waffle is another Caffé Bene specialty. Named for the Belgian city from where it originates, its caramelized exterior offers audible crispness with every bite, a contrast to its compact chewiness. There’s a trove of toppings but I like the Red Bean & Green Tea Gelato topper. As the gelato sits, it melts into the waffle and softens it, a perfect base on which to smear the red bean. It’s an inspired and inspired combination. The cream cheese gelato (I never heard of such a thing!) is quite good here too.

When you come here, you might want to try the Bingsu, a Korean halo-halo of sorts . It sounds like just the ticket with its fruit and cereal flakes lavished with milk and shaved ice, but maybe not this early in the morning.

~

Caffe Bene
Eastwood City Walk
Eastwood, Libis, E. Rodriguez Road, Quezon City
www.caffebene.com.ph
CaffeBenePH on Twitter and Facebook.