The cinnamon scone

The cinnamon scone.

Hello folks. Long time no blog. Sorry 'bout that.

We've been giving some Korean love to our Brisbane friends Simon and Jules who have been visiting for the past fortnight. It's been lovely hearing the Aussie twang and conversing with some normal westerners (most teachers here are a special breed of human)!

Hangook turned the weather on after some beautiful warm days where we didn't even need our coats. Saturday was a finger-numbing maximum -4 degrees with a windchill of -12. It was a little horrifying.
Lots of coffee was ingested (Jules sends out a big hey-ya to Starbucks, which stocks the only soy milk in Korea!) as well as hot bowls of noodles.
I found this delightful cinnamon scone at the Starbucks in Myeong-Dong, which really did warm my cockles (I just asked Wes what "cockles" were, but we're both not sure - I just know it's a good cliche. Hope it's not rude - I can't remember).

Coffee and soy milk puts a smile on Julie's face, though her excitement was difficult to catch on camera as she loves to blink when the camera shutter closes! (Thus slightly blurry picture but nobody felt like persevering after three attempts. And just after waking up, pre-coffee hit.)

So I've been inspired by some fantastic food blogs I've discovered (including one called the Food Pornographer where a woman blogs photos of everything she eats....some things are actually scary looking, but strangely alluring) and have decided to indulge myself in the description of this western treat - the scone. (Keep in mind I eat Korean 24/7 so this really was a special moment, I'm not just a loser. Ha!).

Well, of course we had no jam and cream, though you probably wouldn't want to adulterate the coffee/cinnamon combo. It was nice and warm with a firm crust and dotted with biscuity crunchy bits of cinnamon sugar on the inside. We cracked it open with our forks and after it was all gone I squished all of the crumbs onto my finger and then tried to scrape up every granule of cinnamon sugar that had glued itself onto the plate. Gosh I love scones. And cinnamon. And coffee.

The way home. Notice the Korean peace sign I'm giving. This is at the newly renovated Seoul Tower which has the most unbelievable 360 degree view of the city. It made you realise very quickly how so many people live in Korea. Packed in.

Say cheju (Korean for cheese) and look like you're not freezing your ass off. Plesh.

It's only 8,375.53 km. Wes ponders doing a run for it.

The tallest frozen yogurts in Korea. What a marketing technique. This photo was taken moments before gravity claimed Julie's yogurt and it hit the road. Quite literally, that is.

Sim and Jules taste-test the best food Korea has to offer, I reckon - Sogalbi, with plenty of side dishes - kimchi, sprouts, steamed egg, cold Kimchi soup, Kimchi pancake and tofu jjigae.

Over and out.

cha. ciao. annyeongi keseyo.