Dim Sum Girl

I have to admit.
I might have an unhealthy obsession with "dim sum".

I lived in Hong Kong for 3 years and how much dim sum have I had? Maybe too much. If you're one of my good friends in HK, you're probably sick of me asking to eat dim sum every Saturday, every Sunday, and pretty much everyday.

Since I've moved to Seoul, Korea in March 2015, I would get random dim sum cravings, especially over the weekend. I've had legitimate reasons for visiting Hong Kong once in a while, but dim sum definitely weighs heavily on my decision making. My latest visit to Hong Kong was in May 2016 for a quick weekend trip to see my mother before we embarked on our Seoul trip together. 

I recalled going back earlier in the year of 2016 and trying out a NEW dim sum restaurant that opened up near Soho, Central. It was absolutely, mouth wateringly delicious! Though, I was a bit skeptical. I can't be sure if I'm being objective or if I'm just so dim sum deprived that it tasted better than it really is. 

As a result, on this trip, I decided to take my mother here so the both of us could judge the quality of their food. We arrived in central station exit D and took the moving escalators up to Soho. It's located near Elgin Street but in a side street, so it can be somewhat hard to find. 

We ordered some of our favorites including soup of the day, shrimp dumplings, turnip cake, spare ribs, a vegetable side dish, and lastly Malaysian sponge cake. My mother spent 10-15 years of her life in Chinatown New York City and consumed dim sum on a semi regular basis. By the end of the meal, she was convinced that it was one of the best dim sum she's had in years! We both looked at each other and nodded in agreement that the dim sum in the states is nowhere as authentic or tasty as the ones in Hong Kong. I mean, to be fair, it is Hong Kong style dim sum.
Moral of the story: if you've never tried dim sum, you're missing out!
If you've had dim sum before then you're probably hungry like me right now...nom nom nom. 

Perhaps, I should make it my mission to find yummy dim sum in Seoul.

Address of the dim sum restaurant in HK:
Ding Dim 1968 
14 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong

You can also check out reviews of Ding Dim 1968 on TripAdvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294217-d6739503-Reviews-Ding_Dim_1968-Hong_Kong.html

If it's your first time trying this out, here are a few of my favorite dim sum choices for your reference: 

Chicken feet - 鳳爪

Fried sticky rice - 糯米飯

Malaysian sponge cake - 馬來糕

Pork siu mai - 燒賣

Roast pork buns - 叉燒包

Shrimp dumplings - 蝦餃

Spare ribs - 排骨

Steamed soup dumplings - 小籠包

Turnip cake - 蘿蔔糕

Yes, it's Poo-Pourri!

When I saw this Poo-Pourri commercial about a year ago, I honestly thought it was a joke. How can such a product actually exist? Though I did literally LOLed when watching it.

HILARIOUS REAL Commercial: Poo-Pourri with BETHANY WOODRUFF 

However, when I had my layover in the Seattle airport on the way back to Seoul, I encountered an exquisite little arts and craft store called Fireworks. It has the cutest and most unexpected things; a great place to buy gifts and souvenirs!

What do you know? There it is, on the counter next to the cashier is the Poo-Pourri product that I’ve always wondered about. I read the description and it is indeed the same product that was in the commercial. I couldn’t resist and purchased a few, some as funny gifts to friends and the rest for myself.

I tried it once out of curiosity and I can now say, my poo smells like roses, ha!

 

Literally, Sleepless in Seattle

After over a year of being in Asia, I was finally able to visit my family and friends back in New York City. I spent 2 weeks in the states with a jam packed schedule of coffee, lunches and dinners follow by a 4 day vacation in San Diego and Las Vegas. It was fun but also tiring!

Needless to say, there wasn’t much sleep involved in my 4 days in SD and Vegas. My flight was also Monday morning 630AM back to NYC so I pretty much stayed up all night. I arrived for a final family dinner before my early 7AM flight from JFK to Seoul the next morning. I had a layover in Seattle and when I got on the Delta flight from Seattle to Seoul, something unexpected happened. I’ve had about 25+ flights in the past 3 years and this has never happened to me before.

About 4 hours into my 12 hour flight back to Seoul, the pilot said there were some sort of malfunction technical difficulty and we had to return back to Seattle. Everyone was shocked and freaking out a little bit on the plane, myself included. This 8 hour flight to nowhere was definitely not a fun experience when you’re traveling alone. To top it off, the 2nd backup plane that was supposed to arrive at 10PM to pick us up also had a malfunction which didn't help with the paranoia. Eventually, it was decided that we had to wait till 10AM the next morning for the next flight out to Seoul. They put me at a nearby airport hotel for the night and I managed to sneak in a tiny bit of rest before another early morning flight. 12 hours later, we finally landed safely in Seoul.

This pretty much summed up my sleepless week. I shall now sleep like a bear- zzz