Amandier

There are lots of bakeries in Korea. I was surprised when I first got here, because I was expecting a world that was devoid of ovens, yeast and all things good and wonderful. Ok. Maybe I wasn't expecting something quite that bad, but I also wasn't expecting to see an adorable bakery on every street corner. I was quite excited at the prospect of this, because when I looked in the window, the baked goods looked amazing. 

Then the day came when I went into a bakery and purchased some things. Some of it was pretty good. Some of it was just plain weird. It was unsettling to have something that looked familiar taste so utterly foreign. Croissants had been glazed with a sticky, sweet syrup. Cheesecake had no cream cheese in it, and it had a light, spongy texture that was... well.... cake-like. The flavors didn't seem to be as intense, the textures were much frothier, and a lot of the bread just didn't have a strong yeast flavor. 

Now that I'm 16 months into this thing, I've developed an appreciation for some of the Korean baked goods. But still, they just aren't the same and don't always satisfy that baked good itch. I had resigned myself to this state of affairs, and continued to seek out ways to improvise with ingredients and oven settings to make things in my own kitchen. This was until Thursday. Because on Thursday, I discovered that I'm a mere 20 minute bus ride away from Amandier. 

Just like it says, Amandier is a cafe, boulangerie and patisserie. Yes, those are all French words, and normally, they have connotations of flaky, yeasty wonderfulness. But I see those words on a lot of bakeries. The only thing that made me notice this cafe was I have a friend who has told me it was pretty good. So after our tour of the palace on Thursday, we decided to go check it out. Oh. My. Word. 

These were the first thing I saw when I walked in the door. See how the tops are cracked like that? It means that they are dense and fudgy, with a little crust on top. Just like they're supposed to be. I started to get excited. 

This is chocolate sandwich bread. I didn't bring any home with me, but I'm intrigued by the idea. What kind of sandwich would you make with chocolate bread? A nutella banana sandwich? Thoughts?

They had these American cookies that weren't really American style at all. 

Real pastries with an egg glaze to bring out the buttery flavor. 

They had a lot of chocolates and candies as well as the baked goods. 

The cakes looked like they were actually cakes. Again, Korean cake is something that will grow on you... But it isn't what I would consider cake. It doesn't have any body to it, and it is covered in mounds of sweet whipping cream frosting. This cake though, it had ganache. 

I love the rows and rows of colorful macaroons! You can actually find these at a lot of bakeries, and most of the time they are pretty good. 

You could get little pizzas heated up to eat in the cafe. 

I got one of these to take home with me, and it was amazing. There were real apples, the crust was flaky, and it generally tasted like you expect something like this to taste. 

I ordered a cup of tea and sat down to eat the best pain au chocolat I've had since I was in France. It was everything that it should have been, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable, if somewhat dangerous, discovery. All in all, it was a good end to a day of sightseeing. 

Things I've Seen and Done, Part 5

This has been one of those weeks where it seemed like I was always busy, but not much got accomplished. I didn't actually go and do much, so I consequently didn't see much either ;)

The aftermath of a baby shower I threw for Stacy last week. We ordered a lot of pizza, because normally when I order pizza for groups they involve men and women. It's amazing how much less you need when it is just a group of women. 

Last night I went over to Itaewon to see a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest", the Oscar Wilde play. It was quite well done, and an all around enjoyable evening. 

On the way to the play, my friend and I walked past this street food vendor. If you click on the picture to enlarge it and look closely at the dish on the left corner of the table, you will see that it is steamed or roasted pig snout. Delicious. 

A small section of Seoul at night. My friend and I were walking, and we decided that since we couldn't see any stars, it was at least a good thing that the lights were pretty. 

The moon was really beautiful that night, so we tried to take pictures with our phones. They didn't turn out so well, but this one amused me because it looks like the moon is part of a street light. 

It is getting close to kimchi making season, so there are lots of piles of cabbage popping up around the city. 

I got back from teaching classes on Friday to find this on my desk. I guess this makes it all official that I have a big girl job and all of that good stuff....

While we were walking back to the subway from the palace earlier in the week, we saw the Johannes Brahms cafe. It pretty much made my day. It is interesting to note that there are lots of cafe type places that sell coffee and alcohol together. 

A closer look at the door reveals that they not only sell coffee and cocktails, they also serve the ever mysterious "bear drink". 

Changgyeong Palace

I went to one of the palaces in Seoul with some of my friends today. The original plan was to go on a 4 mile walk to visit all 5 of the royal palaces in Seoul, but we ended up having to change our plans so we only got to see one palace. There is a garden here that is also lovely, but we got there too late to go to the garden. 

While Sarah and I were waiting for Thomas to arrive, we saw this sign. We decided to go check it out. There was this adorable little old lady who ran a tourist information place in her free time.

We were impressed because this was in six languages. Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English, French and Spanish. The Korean and English are fairly common translations, if there is going to be a translation. Chinese and Japanese are common in certain parts of town. The French and Spanish was what really made us happy. We hadn't seen anything French or Spanish in a very long time. 

She gave us a map and pointed out some spots that were really interesting, and she gave us adorable little cups of tea. 

Thomas showed up as she was walking us through the places to visit. After we drank our tea and visited a bit, she asked us if we would make some cards to hang on her wall. She had cards from all over the world. So, we added Indiana, Tennessee and Texas respectively. 

We finally made it to the actual palace.The fall foliage was still mostly nice, although it is getting towards the end of the fall season. It was a little overcast as well, but it wasn't too cold, so we were thankful. 

This is the main palace. I guess it would be something like the throne room? We weren't really sure what most of the buildings were for. There aren't any helpful signs in any language on these buildings. 

I'm always amazed at the detail in these palaces. Everything is painted and carved so beautifully. 

There are also random faces that pop up everywhere, like this guy on a set of steps. 

This is inside the throne room. It is quite opulent, especially since this is an old dynasty palace. 

The color scheme of the palace definitely went well with the autumn leaves. 

There were lots of cool doors and gates that I kept taking pictures of. This was one of my favorites. 

Some more examples of the ornate work in these palaces. 

This is Sarah, and she was part of our palace-going trio. 

Thomas rounded out the trio. 

There were lots and lots of walls throughout the palace compound. They were all pretty cool!

This reminded us of the entryway to a fancy hotel somewhere. 

This was another section of the palace compound. We don't know why the color scheme changed, but we all liked the more austere look better.  

Since I matched the palace walls, we decided we should pose together. 

*no friends were harmed in the staging of this picture.

These are persimmons. They are quite delicious, and they seem to grow all over this country. I'd never eaten a persimmon before I came to Korea. I think I'll miss them when I eventually leave. 

This little building was off by itself. I have no clue what it was for. But it was quite tiny, and quite pretty. 

The doors and hinges were pretty cool too. 

All in all, we spent about ninety minutes wandering around the palace. The day didn't turn out quite like we'd imagined, but it was still nice.