Flavor Boulevard

While in Seoul, I stayed in Hongdae for 5 days and Myeondong for the next 5 days to experience different areas of Seoul. Since I was in a hostel at Hongdae and raw eggs and bread were provided, I never had to worry about breakfast. However, moving into a hotel in Myeondong meant that I would have to start going out for breakfast.

I was worried because it seemed like nothing in Hongdae opened until 12:00pm (except for Cafe Berlin and a few other cafes that opened “early” at 10:00am). Luckily, just down the road and across the street from Hotel Astoria is a little cafe called Cafe Beati (카페 베아띠) that is opened at least before 8am (I am not sure when it actually opens but when I stopped in it was already open at 8:00am).

The owner of the store was one of those people who absolutely refused to speak to me in Korean despite my not using any English. This is probably good news since this means that it’s a pretty accessible cafe for non-Korean speakers, but it definitely made me self-conscious about my Korean skills!

The great thing about this cafe though is its sandwich special. For 5,000 won, the special comes with a sandwich and an iced coffee. Seeing that coffee (especially iced coffee) is usually more than 5,000 won (a little less than $5 USD) alone, this is a GREAT deal!

Like most cafes I’ve been to in Seoul, Cafe Beati is super cute and the  shelves have all kinds of interesting knick-knacks displayed.

The first sandwich that I got here was a take-out sandwich as I had to get to my conference location at Seoul National University all the way across the Han River. I took it back to my hotel room and it looked so cute in the wrapping paper!

As to what the sandwich actually was, I saw on the list of sandwiches that were offered (egg, ham and egg, and Elvis) the “Elvis.” I totally blame this on my own apparent lack of knowledge of American culture, but I had no idea what an Elvis sandwich was, so of course that was the one I ordered. All I saw was that there were bananas in it and I was in the perfect mood for something sweet for breakfast. Anyways, so for those who don’t know, the Elvis Sandwich is named for Elvis Presley’s favorite snack that consists of toast with bacon, bananas, and peanut butter. I’m not sure why I’ve never heard of this sandwich before, but I’ve honestly never seen this on any menu anywhere in the US! I’ve had banana and peanut butter sandwiches before, but bacon is something that I never would have thought of adding to this sandwich… but as a person who sometimes has weird food cravings, I can definitely see the appeal.

The Elvis sandwich at Cafe Beati, however, doesn’t have bacon. In fact, it’s just a perfectly good banana, peanut butter, and chocolate sandwich!

(Notice the iced coffee in the background.) The bananas are nice and fresh and the peanut butter is super subtle – even though it’s spread across the top I couldn’t really make out the flavor that much. It’s really more of a banana and chocolate sandwich. The chocolate layer on the bottom is ADDICTING; it reminds me a bit of nutella but without the hazelnut taste. The grilled sandwich, the warm bananas, and the delicious chocolate sauce (the sandwich was also sprinkled with some chocolate powder on top) made for perfect bites of sweetness. This definitely satisfied my sweet tooth and while it doesn’t seem to really be all that true to an Elvis sandwich, I found it amusing that the first time I heard of this sandwich was while I was in Seoul!

I went back a few days later to try a savory sandwich – this 5,000 won deal is just too good! This time I had the egg sandwich; I was expecting something like an American breakfast sandwich with a cooked egg patty, but it was actually an egg salad sandwich.

Unfortunately this sandwich wasn’t anywhere near as good as the Elvis sandwich. The egg salad is on the VERY top (a very thin layer) followed by cucumber, a LOT of lettuce, and American cheese. It was very bland – all I could taste was the lettuce and cheese. It wasn’t very tasty at all and I should have gotten the egg and ham instead, which would probably have given more flavor to the sandwich.

If I’m ever in this area again, I would definitely go back for the deal though; it’s just too good to pass up. And that Elvis sandwich was pretty delicious too!

And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll check out that 섹시 크럽 (Sexy Club) across the street.

On the left is a Hass avocado from Peru, on the right is a Hass avocado from California.

Hass avocado is a cultivar of avocado, and it has a cute history. In 1925, Mr. Rudolph Hass, an amateur horticulturist, bought a small 1.5 acre avocado grove in La Habra Heights, Southern California. His plan was to graft old Fuerte avocado branches – at the time, Fuerte was the best avocado cultivar – with young saplings grown from some avocado seeds, which were sold at a local nursery. Those seeds were cross-pollinated many times by nature, and the grafting did not go well for one of the young trees [little stubborn sapling!], but per his grafter’s advice, Mr. Hass kept that sapling to see what would happen anyway. When the sapling was only over a foot tall (some time in 1926), it bore three fruits [d’awww!].

Normally, the Fuerte cultivar would take at least five years to produce fruits. Not only the odd stubborn young tree grew faster than the Fuerte, it also grew straight up and did not spread as wide, so it was more land-efficient (more trees per acre). Most importantly, its fruits tasted the same, if not better than the Fuerte. Hence, the Hass avocado became the most popular varietal, making up 95% of all today commercially grown avocados. [Moral of the story: don’t cut down your tree even if it refuses to do what you want at first. 🙂 ]

Back to California vs. Peru.

Both of these are Hass avocados, and they’re roughly the same size (the Peruvian ones are slightly bigger). At Berkeley Bowl, the Peruvian Hass avocados were sold for 89 cents each. This is insanely cheap, considering the Californian ones (labelled “XX Large Hass avocado”) go for 1.69 dollars each. [How can imported produce be so cheap? I feel bad for the Peruvian farmers!] While I’m loyal to the Cali ones, I also love cheap things to try new things. I bought four of each type.

Appearance: Cali: smooth skin, Peru: bumpy skin.
(Now I understand why avocados are also called “alligator pear” – although I’ve never heard anyone say that myself).

Convenience: Cali: knife easily cuts through the skin, Peru: I basically had to saw it open [same knife, in case you wonder]. So yes, the Peruvian skin is much thicker.

Taste: Cali: normal buttery, Peru: quite bland.
More concrete comparison: I always mash avocado, add some sugar and chill it in the fridge –> instant dessert (like ice cream). For the Cali avocado, 1 teaspoon of sugar is enough. For the Peru one, I add 2 teaspoons of sugar and it’s still bland (like a potato).

Texture: Cali: soft, Peru: hardy and stringy.
I couldn’t even mash the Peru one. Not because it’s not ripe. It was actually so ripe that the meat already darkened, but it was somewhat unyielding like a waxy potato. I also had to pull strings out of my “ice cream”, this avocado was so old a tree would grow out of it the next day.

I’m not going to preach locavorism or anything, but it’s clear which one is the better choice. (Supermarket fruits are always picked unripe to survive the transportation, so I have doubts that the Peruvian avocados are actually inferior to the Californian ones, it’s just that they were transported from much further away, it’s a wonder they managed to preserve any flavor at all.)

I never expected to eat Italian food while staying in Seoul, but according to my friend, it is one of the more popular cuisines here. Since she is a vegetarian, my friend also said that she likes eating Italian food while living in Korea because most of it is vegetarian-friendly. While Primo Bacio Baci was friendly towards vegetarians, the server was definitely not friendly towards hungry eaters!

The story is actually pretty funny. My friend and  I were definitely hungry, but as a food  writer/blogger, I also like to order a lot of food  just to have the opportunity to try different  items across the menu. And with a restaurant  like Primo Bacio Baci (the location in the linked  blog  post is Hongdae, but the one my friend and  I ate it is located in Myeondong, a popular  tourist shopping area), where I am not sure  when I will be able to return again, I definitely  wanted to try a lot of their menu!  Well…apparently this type of ordering doesn’t go  over too well in this restaurant. My friend and I each ordered an entree and then we decided to  try an appetizer and a pizza. The waitress, shocked, said “4 items???” And we said, “Yes, 4 items.”  After she took our order, my friend spotted her whispering to another waitress with something  along the lines of “Wow those girls ordered 4 items!!!” with a hand gesture indicating the number “4.” Whatever, I just shrugged it off and we polished off the entire meal. No way will I ever be shamed by having a large appetite and a penchant for trying different menu items!

Somewhat rude service aside, the menu is pretty easy to navigate and really cute as well (actually the entire decor of the restaurant is super cute – I love how the photographs on the walls convey a sense of comfort to the restaurant). There probably are many tourists who eat here because each menu item is photographed and the ingredients are all written out in English.

Garlic bread is complimentary and my friend warned me that Korean Italian restaurants like to add honey to their garlic bread. I love the taste; it was not weird for me at all. The sweetness matched well with the garlic and I love honey so I gobbled down the bread pretty fast!

Another quirk about Korean Italian restaurants that my friend warned me about is that pickles are always served alongside pasta dishes because Koreans find pasta sauce (particularly creamy ones like alfredo) to be too rich to eat on their own. It makes me wonder why not just eat kimchi alongside the pasta. I love pickles though so this didn’t really weird me out too much except that I didn’t really understand how pickles came to be representative of Italian cuisine! These pickles were mild and slightly sweet and went along well with my pasta, but first I’ll talk about the appetizers!

We started out with a caprese salad, which came with its own side salad. My friend said that this is the best mozzarella she’s had in Korea, and while I haven’t eaten mozzarella in Korea up to this point (or for the rest of my trip), I could definitely see that being the case. The cheese and tomato were super refreshing and while I normally don’t like the taste of balsamic vinegar, I found this sauce to be very complimentary and pleasing to the tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. I didn’t really understand the extra cheese on top as it didn’t really add anything to the dish. The side salad was pretty forgettable.

We also ordered a gorgonzola and honey pizza to share. I wouldn’t really call this a pizza, but they do have more traditional red sauce pizzas that probably tasted more like pizza. I loved loved loved this dish – it totally satisfied my craving for sweet savory foods! The crust on the pizza resemble more of a cracker than anything and with the lightly melted cheese and drizzled honey, this was one addicting plateful of food. And before I knew it, we had eaten it all!

My friend ordered an alfredo pasta which I didn’t get to try, but it definitely looked addictingly rich and creamy. It’s also vegetarian friendly!

I don’t remember the name of my pasta but it had tomato sauce, bacon, and spicy pepper inside. The peppers were a little too spicy so I ended up leaving them behind on the plate. Pasta was well-cooked, but the tomato sauce was a little too sweet for my taste and the bacon was soggy. This dish tasted good with the pickles though as the pickles definitely helped to refresh my palate. I wasn’t too impressed with the pasta dish, but if I do go back, I definitely want to try more of their pizzas! They are also famous for pasta bread bowls, which I almost ended up ordering. I decided not to because I was afraid of falling into a food coma that I wouldn’t be able to awake from (bread + pasta + cream sauce is a little too much!), but I ended up in a food coma after all, so next time I’ll be braver!

Our dinner ended up with a complimentary mango sorbet, which really was more of a mango ice because of the texture. Delicious and soothing, I didn’t think I would be able to eat anymore, but I ate all of the sorbet too. I can’t even begin to imagine what our waitress thought of us!!! Not only did we order way more food than she thought we were capable of eating, but we finished it all too!

Lastly, Primo Bacio Baci has puppy toilet paper. That is just ridiculously cute.

Short films are the best, because sometimes I get cravings in the middle of the night and there are no restaurants open (I wish something opened between midnight and 5 am, a rice porridge stall or a noodle soup vendor would be nice).

1. Omelette – by Madeline Sharafian. (Copyright CalArts Films)
Simple and sweet.

2. French Roast – (Oscar Nominated Animated Short 2010)
It’s coffee, not really food, but still…

3. Love Recipe – by Felipe Pizarro S. and Frédéric Bajou
Glamourous and vibrant, also kinda meaningless.

4. Taste of Nostalgia – by Raymond Lau (Aniboom Animation)
I cried.

Bonus: Crayon Dragon – by Toniko Pantoja (CalArts)
Not food, but it’s so bittersweet.

Since Hongdae is where I stayed in Seoul, this is where I had most of my meals. In this post I’ll spotlight 4 restaurants that stood out to me mostly because of the dishes that I had there. These include: Korean-style onigiri (rice balls), kimchi mandu (dumplings), vegetable and meat pancake, and gamjatang (potato soup) without the gamja (potato).

#1 Kong’s Riceball

It was my second day in Seoul and I was still very overwhelmed with being in South Korea. I had a pretty big lunch at the museum cafe in the War Memorial of Korea and on my way back to my hostel, I wanted dinner but just a small dinner. I remembered passing by this restaurant the day before when my friend was showing me around the area and figured today will be the perfect day to try it!

The interesting name, the brightly colored bowls, and the nice ahjumma who stuck her head out of the window to call out orders all drew my attention right away! Plus it was right next to Hongik University on the main road in Hongdae AND it offered take-out, so convenience and shyness made this the perfect stop (at this point I was still too scared to order or dine alone in a restaurant, but that was quickly overcome once I couldn’t resist the food).

An onigiri would be the perfect meal since I wasn’t too hungry. After looking, I decided to go with two of what looked the most delicious: spicy marinated chicken thighs (닭갈비, dalk kalbi) and stir-fried kimchi (김치볶음, kimchibokkeum).

Stir-fried kimchi rice ball

Marinated chicken riceball

Little did I know – these are giant-sized riceballs! They took up an entire cup each! They were so delicious though that I ate both of them in the comfort of my hostel room. I expected something hand-held, but I had to use a fork with this one – luckily my hostel had utensils because when I tried taking the rice ball out of the cup with my hands, I ended up making a mess. The flavors were delicious and so comforting: both the chicken and kimchi were really spicy but I loved it since the rice and seaweed balanced out the spice. If I were a college student at Hongik University, there would be no doubt about it, I would be eating these rice balls all day long. With the most expensive one costing 3,000 won (less than $3 US) and the stir-fried kimchi one costing 1,500 won (less than $1.50 US), these are great!

#2: 빚은 만두 뽑은 국수

I wish I knew the translation for this restaurant name, but I don’t…the only character I recognize is 만두 (mandu), which means dumplings. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only word that I need to know! My friend and I met up here specifically for their kimchi dumplings…she’s on a quest to find the best kimchi dumplings in the area, so we came here to test out this restaurant. It’s on the main stretch of road bordering Hongik University (the same street as Kong’s Riceball and Cafe Berlin); if you keep on walking down this road, you will eventually end up in the popular Sinchon area, which also has a ton of universities.

I should probably admit something embarrassing at this point…I have never had fresh kimchi mandu before. I’ve only ever had the frozen packs that I buy at Koreana Plaza in Oakland. When I say that this is the best kimchi mandu I’ve ever had, it’s probably not saying much, but these were the best kimchi mandu I’ve ever had! The filling was extremely fresh (which stood out to me since I’ve only had the artificial tasting dumplings) and deceptively spicy – I found myself drinking more and more water as I ate! The steamer that comes with the dumpling is so cute too. I don’t remember the price right now, but I think it was around 3,000 won (less than $3). I loved how well I can eat in Seoul without spending a lot of money! The dumplings also come with banchan that included pickled yellow radish and a clear soup that tastes like the kind that are served in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. Overall I was super impressed with this place, but I don’t know how it stacks up with other kimchi mandu restaurants.

#3 The Pancake Restaurant

This actually isn’t the name of the restaurant, but I don’t remember what it was called. All I remembered was that it was a rainy day in Seoul and I had just finished touring the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum (commonly referred to as the “Comfort Women Museum”), which addresses the history of the women who were drafted into sexual slavery under the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII (an issue that many Japanese politicians and textbooks deny) as well as their ongoing legacy and attempts to fight for justice and reparations. Needless to say, it was a very difficult museum to walk through and combined with the rain, I was definitely looking for some comfort food. I happen to walk right past this restaurant on the way back to my hostel, and could not resist the smells. This is some perfect rainy day food.

This restaurant is pretty much the definition of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I think they probably serve more take-out than sit-in diners and I was the only one there that day. The prices looked pretty expensive compared to other food that I’ve eaten in Seoul so far, but that didn’t deter me from ordering the meat and kimchi pancake (김치고기전, kimchi gogi jeon) for 10,000 won (a little less than $10 USD).

The owner of the restaurant (the woman with the glasses) was super friendly and I think she felt a little bad for me when she asked if I was eating alone and I said “yes.” I didn’t mind though, particularly as she started to cook my pancake on the little electric stove and the smells came wafting towards me. This is definitely made-to-order food!

Pictured here is the pancake (I didn’t take a picture of it but I got some banchan as well). It was a little greasy, but it definitely hit the spot. The meat was a little flavorless on its own; I couldn’t tell if it was pork of beef – it tasted like burger meat to me. The kimchi though was full of flavor – this was the most pungent and sour kimchi I have ever eaten and I loved it. The overall flavor of this pancake rings “sour” more than anything else, but I love some fried kimchi pancake and even though after my first few slices I was wishing for a little more sweetness or spicyness to balance out the sourness, I definitely had my craving for kimchi pancake satisfied. I was able to end up eating half of it before I was full, but I took the rest of it back to my hostel.

The owner was so incredibly sweet also; she kept on talking to me and made sure that everything was to my liking. She also complimented me on my Korean, which was really affirming for me to hear since I am super unconfident with my Korean language skills. However, I was actually able to have a conversation with her (even if it was a little bit awkward and I didn’t quite use full sentences all the time), but it is definitely a good confidence boost to actually almost understand someone completely in Korean! Not only was the food excellent here, but the service is quite good as well!

#4 The Gamjatang Restaurant

This is another restaurant that I forget the name of; I think it is a chain restaurant since I saw one in Myeondong as well (the one that I ate at is in Hongdae). The logo consists of an animated potato head. Actually, here is a blog post on the restaurant; it is called Onedang Gamjatang. Fun fact: the hostel that I stayed at is right above the Plan B bar pictured in that post.

Actually, one of the first things that I did before leaving for Korea was to Google Maps (can I use this as a verb?) my hostel location. To my delight, I saw that it was right next door to a restaurant that read “gamjatang.” I was super excited because I love  gamjatang and this place is literally two steps away from my residence.

What I failed to realize though is that the entire area surrounding my hostel is full of restaurants and shops, but I still made it to the gamjatang restaurant on this trip despite the numerous options.

One of the first things that I noticed about this gamjatang is that it did not include any gamja – or potatoes – in it. While I had read on Wikipedia that gamjatang actually commonly comes without potatoes, the logo of this restaurant features a potato head so that was a little weird. However, once I tasted the soup, I couldn’t care less about not having potatoes. For only 6,000 won (a little less than $6 USD), I got a massive amount of food – I fished out 3 giant pork bones. The soup was so rich and full of flavor and the pork just melted off the bone. I ended up eating all of the banchan as well – it included kimchi, raw onions, and some pickled carrots and spicy peppers. I also polished off an order of rice and all of the pork AND the soup. I love how for 6,000 won I could eat so well. And it was perfect that my hostel was just a step away – just in time for me to collapse in bed with a massive food coma!

If you know me in person, you know that my only hanging-out activity is eating with friends. I like it to a sin. Now, recently, First We Feast published a list of “great places to dine alone in NYC“. I find the connotation somewhat unfair against introverts, myself included. Why do we treat “dining alone” as separate from “dining”? EVERY place is a great (or mediocre) place to dine alone. What makes a place great (or mediocre) are the food and the service, NOT the number of bodies you sit with.

In college, I noticed that all of my roommates shared a common habit: they ABSOLUTELY had to call someone to go eat with them at the cafeteria, if they couldn’t find someone, they curled up in the room with mac ‘n cheese or some takeout. Recently, a friend of mine felt stressed out, I told her to treat herself to a nice dinner, but she said that wouldn’t work because eating out alone would make her look pathetic. It’s not just her either. You rarely see a table of one at nice restaurants. Somehow, eating out alone is considered sad, awkward, something to “get used to”, especially for the ladies. It shouldn’t be. The company at a meal can boost the experience, but it is NOT a necessary condition to eat out. The party-of-one experience is not to be approached with the mindset of “how to do it right”. You don’t think of how to correctly eat s’mores or drink hot chocolate on a rainy day, right? Party-of-one is one of the most relaxing and carefree activities, right up there with hot chocolate and pajamas on rainy days. Here’s why:

1. No need to think of things to say. Dinner conversation can make or break a dining experience. With no dining companion, you don’t have to worry about the awkward small talk, the touchy subjects, how not to bore your company to death (or pretend that you’re not being bored), and the green onion on your teeth.

2. Perfect time to read. Or pretend to read and eavesdrop instead. Or observe people, including the kitchen staff.

“Party of One” by Anne Teigen
I stumbled on this painting while reading an Art of the Soul blog post. Just look at the lady in this painting, there’s an air of sophistication and charm around her. When I see a lone diner, I often see an art form that I would want to capture on paper. Thank you Anne Teigen for permission to show the painting here.

3. Eat all you can. I’ve long passed the point where I eat only a small amount to appear like a delicate little lady (not sure if I ever did that at all, although my mom used to remind me not to eat like a piglet every time I went out), but really, we’re all conscious of how much we eat, depending on who we eat with. Eating alone gives you the full freedom to indulge, and that means I can order 5 different dishes for myself (and take home most of them, if I like them). Eating at a restaurant should be a self-indulgent event, where you can eat delicious food without preparing and cleaning, so why not enjoy it to its fullest?

4. Enjoy the meal at your own pace. It’s awkward to let my food sit around to cool down a little when my friend already works their plate. It’s awkward when I finish before they do and stare at them eating. It’s also awkward when they finish before I do and stare at me eating.

5. Eat anything you want to. Dining with company means that, to some degree, you have to be considerate of your company’s food preference, or sacrifice your own preference. If I tell people I don’t want a certain type of cuisine for dinner, but they like that cuisine, I feel bad. If I don’t tell them and we go somewhere that serves that type of cuisine, I’m stranded. I’m also the sort that likes to share food at the table, so no matter how much I want the stuffed squid, I won’t order it in the presence of my vegan friend. I can order anything when I eat alone.

6. Eat when you want to. Just wake up, get out of work, don’t feel like cooking, or have screwed up your cooking experiment completely? Going to restaurants on a whim, whether for lunch at 3 pm or dinner at 10 pm, is an unparallel liberation.

7. No messy scheduling to arrange a dinner with friends. The more people you plan to share a dinner with, the harder it is to find a time that works for everyone. And that’s not counting the food preferences (see #5).

8. Quick to get seated. There will always be room for a party of one.

I’m not bashing dining with company. Sharing food with people you like is undoubtedly enjoyable, but for a culture that preaches independence as much as the American culture, it’s baffling that dining alone is such a taboo. There’s only one reason that makes enough sense to me: I once read that servers don’t like parties of one because fewer people means less tip, a very American issue but still understandable, so I was a bit taken aback. Now, every time I eat out alone, I make sure to order at least 3 courses and tip well. Then I crawl home like a python after swallowing an elephant, a happy python. 😉

Mai has written quite favorably about Musashi in a past post but I have to write about a particular dish that has been about the best thing I’ve eaten in a restaurant lately.

That dish would be the chirashi sushi ($20) listed under the donburi menu items. This is by far the freshest, tastiest, and best-valued chirashi bowl that I have ever eaten. A win-win-win!

The bowl generously comes with at least 2 slices (some fish came with 3 or 4 slices) of tuna (two different types that were raw and one type that was slightly seared), salmon, mackerel, hamachi, raw scallops, octopus, shrimp (not pictured since the chef forgot to put it in the bowl but gave us the order on the side), a glorious piece of uni, squid-wrapped cucumber, tamago, and a dollop of salmon roe. All of this came on top of a huge mound of sushi rice, which was perfectly cooked. I would definitely recommend sharing, as this is way too big of a dish for one person to eat alone. Each piece of fish was so fresh that it was hard for me to pick one that I liked over the others. However, the true standout of the bowl for me would definitely be the uni. So rich, so creamy, and it just melts in your mouth with just the slightest hint of the ocean. This is the perfect example of how fresh uni should taste like and besides, how often is it that a chirashi bowl actually gives you a big fresh piece of uni?

For only $20, this is a dish that is well-worth the piece. I recommend getting one to share with someone else in order to make room for all of the other yummy dishes that Mai already covered in-depth. This is by far the best chirashi bowl I have ever had and the next time that I crave sashimi, I’ll head over to Musashi!

Berkeley is known for many things.

The protests, the hippies, the arts, homeless people, the diversity and the acceptance of that diversity (you can literally see every type of people and every type of activity in this city, and anyone who has actually lived here would stop seeing them as different types of people, just as people).

Berkeley also has the best public university in America, and actually the only public university that ranks above the Ivy league schools in many disciplines. (Public universities usually suffer in rankings not because of the students’ quality or the teaching quality, but because of the professor-to-student ratio, which is lower than those of private schools. Why? Ask the government about funding for public schools.) UC Berkeley was the reason I came to Berkeley, and for a while I hardly thought of the city as anything but the school. For a while, the academic life was my only life, and what I had planned for was a straight path into academia (and never out of it). But things change, and on some days, I feel lost. This is when I find that the city of Berkeley is more than the university it contains. That it has people who want to make change, who actually do it, who are willing to teach others how to do it, and some that are all three. Perhaps even more importantly, it hosts the environments where I can meet those people.

The dinner event that HUB Bay Area organized last week is one of those environments. Originally, I was hesitant to go, the official name of the event is “Innovate Berkeley: Sustainable Economic Development – East Bay Social Innovation Dinner”, and its list of participants include CEOs and founders of companies, architects, scientists, people who have not only ideas but the experience of doing something pertaining to the economy, and what do I put in the register box? “Student”. I was hesitant because I didn’t have anything to bring to the table. In the end, I went.

HUB dinner buffet – prepared by chef Hugh Groman and his catering staff. Baby lettuce salad with plum, goat cheese, pine nuts and sweet poppy seed vinaigrette; potato salad with celery, red onion, sweet pickle and egg; lentil salad with sundried tomatoes, radish, carrots and scallions; and lovely fried chicken (I’ve been craving fried chickens for some time, too…)

The evening began with some beer drinking and mingling. The ice breaker is a casual handshake and “what brings you here?”, followed by “why not, right? there’s free drinks!” with a chuckle. (I don’t drink, so I chuckled along with my glass of water.) Arriving on the earlier side would make it easier to get into groups, and you would get more time to talk to people, so you get to know more people before breaking up into tables for dinner. (Guess who arrived late?) The dinner is accompanied by a presentation. This time, it was an incredibly inspiring and engaging talk by Dr. Mike North about innovations, how they can be born and how they can be useful. After the talk, everyone moved around again, some grabbed desserts, most started or restarted discussions about ideas, careers, business, community developments. Serious topics. By the end of those conversations, business cards were exchanged.

Although I didn’t have anything to bring to the table, it was alright to be on the receiving end, at least this time. I learned from Barbara Hanna about computer vision, from Mike North and Jaki Levy about engineers and entrepreneurs that get together on the weekends to build communication systems for communities in Gambia, or foot brace for children in Nicaragua. Their projects connect professionals of different fields and materialize their ideas together. I listened in on a conversation among a landscape architect, a software architect and an environmental study post-grad, the topics ranged from business management to insurance policies on buildings. There were artists too, not just tech people and businessmen, and there were talks of practical art projects. The age difference was hardly any barrier: the accomplished people in their 60s were generous, and the start-up owners in their 20s and 30s were confident.

Those conversations, the people and the dinner as a whole represent Berkeley as a city, where every idea is welcome, and everyone is open to new ideas. But unlike the usual social events, these people weren’t playing nice. If you’re wrong, they tell you that you’re wrong, and they explain. Isn’t that how innovations come about, and how Berkeley is a hub for innovations?

Over the course of three hours, I felt completely intimidated, but also motivated. My line of work is one of the farthest way you can remove yourself from humanity, both spatially and chronologically. (I study light that came from outer space 30-40 million years ago. For comparison, homo sapiens appeared about 0.5 million years ago. The folks who study dinosaurs at least still stay on earth). You can imagine the impact I make in people’s lives today: it’s non-existent. The knowledge I have about solving human world problems? Also non-existent. How can I fix that? Where do I fit in this innovative crowd? I haven’t figured it out. So I’ll keep thrusting myself into this type of event until I figure it out.

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I’ve published a less personal version of this post on the Daily Cal, not as an abuse of my editorial power (although it may appear so 😉 ), but because I believe that there are other students who would like to know about this type of event.

Logistics: HUB Berkeley Innovation Dinner is a monthly event organized by HUB Bay Area. The dinner is hosted at HUB Berkeley, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. Early Bird tickets cost $31.74 each.

While figuring out where exactly I was staying in Hongdae, I printed out the map on how to get to my hostel from the limousine bus stop. The map was marked with restaurants and cafes to use as landmarks while navigating through the backstreets of Hongdae. To my surprise, on this map a location was marked as “Hello Kitty Cafe.” I’m not the biggest fan of Hello Kitty, but there is something about themed cafes that really excites me, so I knew then that I had to go. (Or okay maybe I am a LOT excited about Hello Kitty…)

It is PINK in here. It was a little blinding, but I felt so happy once I stepped inside! The music consisted of club dance music too so that definitely contributed to the upbeat atmosphere. I couldn’t decide what to order at first since all the cakes and drinks looked super cute and yummy, but I decided to go with the prettiest treats because how often is it that I get to go to a Hello Kitty-themed cafe?

After ordering, I made my way to one of the many seating areas in the cafe (all of the cafes in Hongdae seem to be ridiculously large with multiple floors). How cute is this?? The chairs were ridiculously comfortable and so cute with the pink bow! I settled into my large chair after snapping this photo and began to read some books about the Korean War…maybe it wasn’t the most appropriate reading to do in this setting, but I was in Seoul to present at a conference on my research after all! There is free wireless here – I wish I had known that so I could have brought my computer. Note: pretty much every cafe in this area has free wifi and it is FAST. I will definitely keep that in mind the next time I go back to Seoul because while my hostel internet refused to work consistently, I never had problems with wireless internet at the cafes.

After a pretty long wait (about 30 min) because of the amount of people in the cafe, I finally got my order. I had the sweet potato latte – so cute! Unfortunately I messed up Hello Kitty’s nose while bringing my tray up to my seat, but the rest of the outline stayed pretty much intact. I liked the subtle sweet potato flavor, but otherwise the drink tasted like hot milk and was a little boring. Of course being the Hello Kitty Cafe, the drink was pricier that usual (I think 8,000 won or a little less than $8) and way overpriced for my standards, but I saw it as a one-time splurge.

I also ordered a strawberry cake (this cake comes in vanilla and chocolate as well with matching colors), but I had to order the pink cake because why not go all out while in an all-pink cafe? I really didn’t expect this cake to taste good, but I ended up really enjoying it. The inside of the cake was very fluffy and moist with layers of sponge cake and strawberry mousse (the strawberry layers inside were made with the some material as the outside of the cake). It really felt so light and like I was eating a cloud.

Apologies for this somewhat scary photograph, but the layering of the cake was just so perfect that I had to show it! The icing around the edges was so soft and fluffy – I like how the cake was also not too sweet. The whiskers and eyes are make out of chocolate, which added a nice complimentary taste to the strawberry and spongecake.

While the Hello Kitty Cafe isn’t somewhere to go to get great drinks and food, it’s a great stop to make as a tourist, and while the drink wasn’t good (which seems to be all too common from my experiences at Seoul cafes), the cake is worth a trip to this cafe.

Friday. Nancy messaged Kristen and me that we should meet up early the next morning for breakfast at Jodie’s. We love breakfast. “How early, though?”, I asked.
– I could pick you all up… Mai at 7:45, Kristen at 7:50 ish…
– I have to say, this is insanely early, maybe I would just skip sleeping…
– Well, it is a TINY place next to a salon, I believe. It only seats eight at a time. The shop opens at 8 AM… There is the possibility of going later – 10 ish – but we would have to wait for “turnover” and wouldn’t be sitting with each other…
– …
– They have a table outside… it might be cold… They said they can’t predict if there will be only a few people or a lot… so we could always go a little later, but then we might have to wait for the table, but at least when that happens, we could still all sit together… Shall we try for 8:30 then? A bit of a compromise 😉
– 7:45 or 8:30 are the same to me, so let’s do 7:45. 🙂

Now, I’m an astronomer and a student, those two types of creatures don’t wake up early in the morning, they stay up into the morning. Which is exactly what I did. I stayed all until 7:50 when Nancy and her husband Ken picked me up. Then we swung by Kristen’s apartment. Kristen looked wonderfully bright and lively in pink pants (it might have been a salmon color, but after working the whole night, my color perception has reduced to that of a guy). During the drive, the conversation in the car was actually quite lively too, at one point we talked about male favoritism in ancient Chinese culture, but I won’t dwell on that now. The point is, boy was it the right idea to meet at 7:45, because by the time we arrived at Jodie’s (a bit before 8:30), 4 seats appeared filled. We took the remaining 4 seats.

I felt somewhat bad for the folks who came minutes after us. They were regulars. In fact, everyone there that day was a regular except the four of us. But someone left to wait for someone, 2 seats freed up, they filled in, the conversations started. Nancy and Ken, being long time residents in the Berkeley – Albany area, had no trouble connecting with everyone through stories of local high school principals and colleagues that somehow everyone (but Kristen and me) knew, while Kristen studied the walls of menus and photographs, and I snapped photos of those walls.

A huge mish mash of color papers, some faded, some laminated, covers the wall facing the customers. On each of those papers prints the description of a dish, its name, its number, and its price. I don’t know how long it would take to really read all of them, I lost track after a few panels and focused on taking pictures instead. There’s a normal menu on the counter behind the fruit preserve jars and sauces, too.

Jodie’s has a staff of two: Jodie, and a young guy who works the stove. The young guy hardly spoke. Jodie is a likeable man, he strikes me as a grandpa who would sit at the porch chewing out grandkids and neighborhood kids in a pretending-to-be-mean but loving voice, and no one would ever be afraid of him, he’s someone who makes you feel at home just by saying hello to you. He told us that the stuff in the counter menu are not on the wall, and the stuff on the wall are not on the counter menu. So I stopped reading both altogether.

Nancy knew what she wanted, and she also ordered for Ken after confirming with Ken that she knew what he wanted. So that went quickly. Kristen was up next. I know grits was involved (Kristen likes grits, and Jodie’s is famous for grits), but Kristen couldn’t decide between so many different delicious-sounding combinations, which she told Jodie, and Jodie chewed her out in his pretending-to-be-mean but loving voice. I heard some gigglings and “I don’t know”s, but I was running circles in my head trying to figure out what to get myself.

Then it was my turn. Like I said, I had already given up on reading the menus, so I just started listing what I wanted on my plate: hashbrown, pancake, sausage, scramble eggs. I wanted English muffins too, but Jodie stopped me before I said muffin, “then why don’t you get the Jodie’s Special? It has everything you said.” “Oh… okay.”

Either then or a little before, a lady stepped into the staff area behind the counter, so now Jodie’s has a staff of three. Jodie retreated out of view to prepare portions for each order. The lady took more orders (the line of customers was spewing out the door) and poured coffee. The young cook slapped bacon strips and hashbrown patties onto the sizzling platform. I don’t know how much time passed until we got our food, I alternated between gawking at the bacon and hashbrown browning and scanning the photos that covered the back wall. There were funny quotes, hundreds of pictures of Jodie’s regular customers, some sports photos. Old tattered photos make the place look more run down then it already is, but I can’t imagine decorating this place any other way, they embody too much memories and too many bonds among these people. Jodie’s wouldn’t be Jodie’s without the photos.

The lady told us to taste our food before adding anything to it. Nancy took a bite of her pancakes and grits, then reached for the salt and pepper (or some kind of condiment). Jodie flew out of his prep station into view, “Have you tasted it?” “Yes… !?” “Okay.” Jodie disappeared into the prep station again. [UPDATE: Nancy explained what actually happened: Nancy was going for the syrup bottle, but she had to move the salt and pepper out the way.]

I tried a nibble of Ken’s corned beef, more than I should have of Kristen’s “Jodie’s Special with a Y” (I’m sorry Kristen, it was too good and too close to me, and you were too nice), and I wiped clean my plate. Funny though, I’m not a fan of grits and Kristen’s not a fan of pancakes (which is why she ordered grits and I ordered pancakes), but we were both impressed by the other’s dish. The grits was anything but bland, it has an indescribable flavor that possibly comes from the grease on the griddle (or maybe just years of bacon smoke in the air?). The pancake was fluffy and buttery, it didn’t even need syrup. The bacon was thick and crunchy. The scramble eggs were creamy. For Kristen and me, Jodie’s has raised the bar for breakfast.

For Nancy, Jodie’s changed something else.
– I’ve been ribbed about having a coffee facebook theme…
– Why coffee?
– It kinda came from being at Jodie’s, although I never have coffee at diners… I’m always disappointed… But yeah, every one was having coffee in those diner type cups… made me nostalgic for my youth – going out for breakfast and having coffee. That’s back before any Starbuck’s and there was only one Peet’s in Berkeley. It was hard to get good coffee…

I think Jodie would be happy if he heard that. 🙂

At Jodie’s, one very early morning in July.

Jodie’s is located at 902 Masonic Avenue, Albany, CA 94706. (510) 526-1109. They’re open 8 am – 3 pm Wednesday through Friday and 8 am – 4 pm Saturday and Sunday. Visit Jodie’s website.