Mabang

♩♫♪It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday ♩♬♪.... 

Who doesn't look forward to a Friday... I sure do! 

I love that S.' all ours for the weekend. He helps out sooooo much... ♥ Having him around makes my weekends feel like I'm on vacation. : ) 

So, the day we went to Farmland (you could see the post here), we had lunch in another great traditional restaurant just outside Seoul. 

❊❊❊ Because the post is big, the images come out small on the post. If you want to see them better, click on them and they open up on a new window as a slide show.  

This Restaurant is called Mabang, or Mabang Jib... not 100% on this, the website HERE, is in Korean. It's located in Hanam, just outside Seoul... about a 40 minute drive on a Sunday with no traffic. 

On our drive, through the suburbs east of Seoul. 

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

At the entrance a big sign welcomes you... I'm guessing it says something like "Mabang Restaurant"... maybe "Welcome"! 

I like guessing... If I get it right, I can pretend I'm learning Korean. If I get it wrong... hey... I don't know Korean! : )

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

As I walked it, I had a "Time Slip Dr. Jin" moment... It's almost as being transported back in time. 

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

The waiters greet you at the entrance and walk you to the area where you will eat. 

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

It's divided into individual dining rooms...each party getting their own. 

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

While S. went to get ours, I wandered a bit to take pictures.

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

All the way in the back, they have the Kimchi pots...

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

I loved the traditional feel.

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

Like at most restaurants in Korea, you take your shoes off... 

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

You could also have the option of eating outside... 

We got a small room on the inside part. Since we have the baby, I'd rather be in a closed area so I could let her crawl around. : )

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, family friendly, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

& there is S. in our spot...

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, boricuas en Korea, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

& Marky was very exited...

Some complimentary barley water or rice tea...

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, boricuas en Korea, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

& we made our order. The menu is the picture frame S. is looking at. They had, kimchi jjigae, doenjang jjigae and Bulgogi, beef or pork.

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, boricuas en Korea, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

We got beef bulgogi and doengjang jjigae. As usual in Korean restaurants you get your good amount of little side dishes.... they are called banchan or panch'an.

mabang restaurant, Hanam, South Korea, Korea, korean food, boricuas en Korea, traditional korean food, Mabang, Bulgogi

At the end of the course they give you nurungji. 

If you are from PR, you will know what this is. It's basically pegao'... Here, they have it as a snack while on the crunchy state, or as a after meal rice tea adding hot water. 

As it turned out, this place was not far at all, we drove and ate in a matter of two hours. We were done so early, (it wasn't even noon) that we just decided to get creative and picked randomly what to do after.

That's how we ended up in Farmland. 

Another great meal, another great experience & another great day!

xoxo,

T. 

Today is your Birthday!

To Markus;

Happy Birthday my sweet boy, today you turn 3!

Not one day goes by, that I don't thank God and life, for blessing me with such a healthy, happy, beautiful, SUPER funny & incredibly sweet boy. You make days brighter with your smile, sweeter with your love, funnier with you craziness...

Olivia is 100 days!!!

Today is Olivia's 100th day with us (Baek il).  It's Korean Tradition to celebrate a baby's 100th Day of being born.  I have to admit, I love all these extra excuses I get here to do a little celebration! : )

When Markus turned 100 days, we went to NY (we lived in PR).  His Mom & Sister threw a little dinner party to celebrate & have the rest of the family meet him.

preparing the food for the Baek il

How cute Marky, he was so little!

The food was delicious! baek il

The rice cake. Baek il

A regular cake.

111 Days, because we did it a 11 days late : ).... pretty cute!

100 Days celebration

Even though we're not having our family over & we won't have 100 people to give rice cakes to  (hopefully she will still have a long life). We will most definitely celebrate! She has been such blessing & brought so much joy to our life. <3

Happy 100th day Olivia!

Happy 100 days Livy, we love you! I will try my very best, to do something special, just for us. I hope I can make my Mother in Law proud. I'll post pics over the weekend : )

xoxo

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everybody!
We didn't do anything special. We just watched the current Korean Drama we're on. We stopped it ten minutes before midnight, turned TV on MBC, and watch the countdown. Nothing special, It was over so fast.




Did some "Skyping", with my siblings & Mom, a friend from college... "Yeayyy for all of this". Don't get to Skype with my Mom to often, since there's no Wi-Fi where she lives. (country side, think rain forest).




I haven't had time to do any posts lately, but I will do some this week. Markus started preschool Yesterday & Olivia has been waking up every two hours again... grrppp....

first day at school in Korea

She must be going trough a growth spurt. I am exhausted.
Sean takes care of Marky on mornings, (I do Olivia all night) but now days, I have to wake early too.  Make Oatmeal, Olivia feed, dress Markus, her, 20,000 layers.... myself, like a crazy lady, since I'm already late, walk him to school (at the 2 year old pace) drop him off, wonder around for two hours (the first week), come back, deal with "sir-cries-a-lot", feed him lunch, Olivia feed, a little argument for Marky to go to nap, Olivia nap, start dinner, Markus finally on a nap, She wakes up, feed, Marky up, feed him & so goes on..... I feel I'm always hungry & never have time to eat, only on weekends when Sean's around.....
The worst part is the two hours I have to wait for him. It's not enough time to do anything. If I walk back home, by the time I'm here, I have to go back. If I walk to Shinsegae (mall), same thing. If I take a cab there, because of traffic, by the time I'm there I have to come back again. I have to just sit at a cafe, I guess is the best option with this cold weather, but I feel is such a waste of time. I guess I should enjoy my two hours of quiet, but I'll be honest, I miss his loud voice, always singing, always whining, always telling me no, for everything. Well that's him, and I love him. : )
I'm sure next week will be easier. Looking forward to it!

xoxo

Hwaseong Fortress

 A couple of weeks ago we went on a little road trip and ended up in a town called Suwon, the provincial capital in Gyeonggi-do. The only remaining completely walled city in South Korea. It's known as The City of Filial Piety... to respect ones parents and ancestors. 

We looked what to do here on our "i Tour Seoul" app. & the first thing that come up was the Hwaseong Fortress. Not gonna write the whole history, but I'll put the links to wiki-it' on the labels.

 We only got to see about 1/4 part of the Fortress, because we decided to hike up the mountain first, by the time we got down, we were exhausted.  But there was so much to see on our way up that I was satisfied with our little adventure. 

We tell Markus all the time; "Let's go on an adventure"... he loves it. Now when he's bored he tells me; "Mommy we forgot to go on an adventure, let's get the car".

Como dicen en Puerto Rico; "salio paticaliente y andariego": )

We parked right in front of these steps, so we decided to hike up first. 

the stairs aren't gonna do...

we have to say hi to the cat...

wow...

WOW... again

that's one big Buddah...

Buddhist temple

Inside the temple...

Buddhist temple

Buddhist temple

We noticed the use of the Swastika symbol all over Seoul.  It's in signs, buildings, even in cars. In the beginning I wondered what it meant here. I needed to find out, since my ignorant and judgmental self first thought was; Nazi?!?  Know I'm happy to know it is a symbol widely used in indian religions, like Hinduism, Buddihsm & Jainism, as a tantric symbol to evoke "shakti" or  good luck. 

I must be getting smarter by the day here.... lol

Swastika

Fresh water

The idea of fresh mountain water seems nice, but, do we really have to share cups with the world...   Sorry, I pass..... my germophobic self got hers at the vending machine.

After all that...

Still all of this.... 

Poor Sean, Marky gave up, he had to carry him up.

I guess no matter on what side of the world you are, people are mostly the same...  No one reads or follows instructions.  Sorry, but to say the truth, they will push you down before moving to the side. No apology either.

 Po-po-po... I got a lot of stories on pushing, shoving, touching... You'll get a laugh at that post when I do it.

Almost there, almost there...

We did it!!!! 

Suwon

After I caught my breath...

Suwon

The view of the city.

Suwon

This...

Must be that... If you know how to read Korean.

             This reminded me of  " El Morro" in Old San Juan...

Oh... to stare at the sky...  Not trying to get all "strawberry shortcake" on you, but it really was a pretty view!

See... Beautiful!

Left, left, left, right, left...

Suwon, City of Suwon, Korea, Fortress

The wall that surounds the City of Suwon.

Well, that's it for this post. You don't want to see the pictures after these. Two grouchy parents,  a tired & even grouchier boy and a hungry baby.  If you have kids, you know how it goes from there...  straight home : )

xoxo