Day 2: The First Meal in Jeju

Ok. We're getting back to our Jeju postings...

A 5-star hotel like Haevichi has the tendency to make you want to lie in bed all day, watch TV, sleep & do nothing, just like farm animals. The only other time we felt the same was when we were on the Star Cruise. However, this time around we were not on a ship. So there was no excuse to stay in bed. After all, we were pure blooded Malaysian tourists. We squeeze out as much as we can from our trips.

Jeju and to be more precise, Haevichi Hotel and Resort is located near Pyoseong Beach. This is a very extremely nice place. However, public transportation is a pain. Don't bet on getting around on the bus. We hardly saw any. So we rented bicycles at the hotel for 5,000 won (RM15) each & that's good for up to 3 hours. However, the hotel staff was nice enough to let us use them for longer since there were nobody else around.

We cycled to this little pier which was just about 2 minutes from the hotel. We could have walked you know. But we didn't know it at that time. But anyway, we thought it'd be romantic.

This is Jeju sky & Jeju water. They're all blue.

And then we saw this restaurant which was just next to a police station. Now, that felt like a pretty safe place to be, so we parked our bikes outside & went in.

We were taken upstairs where there was a panaromic window that stretched from the left to the right, giving us a wonderful view of the sea & the pier outside. As it was late into the afternoon, the restaurant was empty, except for the both of us. That's a tip. To avoid crowds in restaurants, go at the wierdest hours.

This was to be our first actual meal on Jeju island. We didn't really know what to expect cos the hotel staff couldn't tell us much about where to go. He just said everywhere is OK & that a seafood meal cost around 100,000 won (RM290) on average. We were wincing hard & at that point, we seriously thought we would be bankrupt at the end of the five days. But we had a secret weapon - credit card.

The restaurant waitress didn't speak English. So we used a combination of sign language, charades, theatrical facial expressions & mime. We found a few English words on the menu that we understood like assorted seafood for 81,000 won (RM240). We thought we could order a seafood set platter for two plus another separate soup ala carte but the waiter was pretty insistant that we don't do the soup cos the set was SPECIAL. So after a few pointing actions, we thought we understood what she meant, that the soup was already included in the seafood set cos it was SPECIAL.

Here you go. The meal started with a variety of side dishes:

The set came with side dishes of all things that you can find inside a fish, and everything else outside of the fish.

Then came 2 different kinds of salad (raw fish salad and the plain soya salad) plus carrot & seaweed side dishes.

Then there was surprise - yummy clam porridge & seaweed soup.

At this point, we could have walked out & it would have been pretty ok to last us till dinner. But then the real thing came out. And every time the food came up the elevator shaft from the kitchen downstairs, there was a doorbell-like ring DING DONG. When we saw this, we were like "Oh... so this IS the assorted seafood. Right".

This was like the clam/shells set. We practically didn't know what we were eating but it was quite exciting. And as we were eating, our minds kept racing ahead & wondering if this was the main dish. We wouldn't know cos there was no point asking the waitress.

When the next DING DONG came, both of us stared at each other. You mean there's more? This looked pretty much like the actual main course, a kind of white fish and this was a huge plate of sashimi.

Then the DING DONG went off again and both of us just did not want to make guesses anymore. This super delicious grilled abalone dropped onto the table.

And even more fish, grilled this time.

At that point, Nee & I were both giggling silly. This has got to be the longest meal ever. We were beginning to dread the DING DONG. And it came again, DING DONG and with it came more stuff, which wasn't really necessary, but they looked so good.

Grilled corns

Do you know what it's like to be full? I think you do. It means there's no room for anything else. It means every single gaps that were there in between the food that has already gone down in your stomach has been filled up. It means that there's no room even for air.





And the train of food kept coming. I was beginning to be worried if they actually keep charging us for every dish that comes to the table until we tell them to stop.

Tempura

So I held up my little finger to the waitress & asked her if this is the last. She nodded her head & we thought we were safe.

Some kind of fried rice

But she LIED to us cos the mother of all DING DONGS came after that. It was the super duper fish soup in a bowl that was bigger than the size of both our faces put together (we measured). And there was a whole fish inside.

Images of grandma & all the other grand aunties that kept shoving food onto our plates came flashing by. I think Koreans have stomachs even up their backs. No wonder it costs RM240.