Seoul "Soul" Food Day 5: O'Sulloc + Sashimi + BBQ & Soju!

Our only full day in Jeju, so we had to be productive!  Breakfast was included in our hostel stay at Rainbow in Jeju, which I highly recommend.  The staff was lovely and we got to meet a lot of new friends which made Jeju even more memorable. So with full stomachs and high spirits, we set out!

One of the famous foods produced in Jeju are Hallabong oranges.  They're very big (bigger in size than Texas oranges) and mildly sweet.  The taste is sort of a cross between an orange and a tangerine.  Our new friend got us a box to try =)

The first food stop was the O'Sulloc Tea Museum.  On the website it sounds like a fun, interactive museum where you can learn more about the tea culture and taste tea, but in reality, it was just a really big O'Sulloc store with a cafe.

O'Sulloc Tea Museum entrance

The museum part didn't really hold up to expectations, but the food should at least, right?!  We ordered their green tea ice cream mixed with yogurt, green tea cake, iced green tea drink with red bean, and green tea latte.  Unfortunately, almost everything we ordered was a disappointment.  O'Sulloc's green tea is very, very mild in tea.  I know nothing about tea, but when you taste O'Sulloc's green tea, it feels very half-assed, like the leaves weren't roasted to their full aroma and then hurriedly packed into a box.  Some may appreciate light tasting green tea, but my personal preference is one with more flavor and aroma.  

Iced green tea with red bean drink

Green tea latte

I thought that green tea and red bean is weird, but my friend liked it.  If you like sweet drinks and the taste of red bean, you'll probably enjoy it  This and the green tea ice cream mixed with yogurt were the two items that I enjoyed the most.  You can find better and cheaper green tea latte at Holly's Coffee or another coffee shop chain  Would not recommend wasting your precious time in Jeju at this place!

We were still starving at O'Sulloc, and because Jeju is an island, tasting the seafood the island has to offer is a must!  Having Korean sashimi (hwei in Korean) is typically very, very expensive.  As in $50+ expensive.  We chose the cheapest option, which was 48,000 won (~$48).  You pay a pretty hefty price, but you will be served a lot of food and eat like a king.  Here's what came out first:

 This was my first time having hwei and in general, I'm not much of a sashimi eater, but I do know that it's expensive!  So inside I thought this is all that we had ordered and the big round dishes in the middle was the main entree.  Noooooope, I was totally wrong.  All of that above was just appetizer.

THAT^ was the main entree.  And with it came another plate of seafood plus a soup and more seafood.  @_@  I don't remember all the different types of seafood that we were served, but unfortunately none of it was seafood that was special to Jeju (that fish option was double the price and a bit too deep for our pockets).

Dinner was Korean BBQ.  We were still stuffed from lunch, but couldn't resist eating more!

 Don't really remember which type of meat this was, but it was amazing.  And a trip to Jeju wouldn't be complete without...

Hallasan Soju! lolll.  I thought it was decent soju but according to our Korean friend, it's not as good as Choeum soju.  It's only sold in Jeju, so make sure you bring the bottle back as a cheap souvenir :)

Koreans rarely only have one dinner when you're hanging out as a group, so we found a random place for round two and ordered this crazy pitcher along with more food because I was still hungry ^O^  Note: Never order nachos in Korea.  They're terrible.  Period.

Hite beer is South Korean and a really, really light beer comparable to Asahi light. Cass, another Korean brand beer, is heavier in taste though still lighter than typical American beers.  When you're a lightweight, you definitely embrace Asian beer because it's light, fizzy, and you feel a tiny bit better about your ability to drink.  And that was our full day in Jeju!  Though I didn't get crabs (what I wanted to eat the most), I think we did a pretty good job of hitting Jeju food highlights.