There are definitely times I miss Korea. Recently, more than ever. Our best friends from Korea, Leah and Andy, are teachers in Minnesota and recently took their spring break on an airplane all the way to chilly Canada. We had a great time showing them around Toronto and learning a lot about the city ourselves in the process.
We went to the distillery district and had a fabulous time walking around amongst the beautiful buildings and old industrial atmosphere. Ian and I had never been there before either, and the four of us loved sticking our heads into art galleries and peeking in boutiques and breweries. The gang had a couple of pints at Mill St. brewery, a famous Toronto brewer and enjoyed our afternoon walking around on the cobblestone grounds.
We packed a lot of fun events into our time with Leah and Andy. We advised them to go to places like Dundas Square and Steam Whistle Brewery and took them to a Jays Game (we had an amazing time! $1.00 dogs and some ziplock bags—inside joke), Kensington Market (Their personal favourite: The Hotbox Café), Niagara Falls, Queen Street West, Chinatown, and some great pubs and restaurants.
We packed a lot of fun events into our time with Leah and Andy. We advised them to go to places like Dundas Square and Steam Whistle Brewery and took them to a Jays Game (we had an amazing time! $1.00 dogs and some ziplock bags—inside joke), Kensington Market (Their personal favourite: The Hotbox Café), Niagara Falls, Queen Street West, Chinatown, and some great pubs and restaurants.One o
f my favourite nights however was when we met up with two other couples that were in Korea with us. Julia and Mark live in Toronto and Anne and Colin live in Whitby. The 8 of us met up at a Dakgalbi restaurant in Korea Town and it brought back so many memories of great times in a great country. Dakgulbi is an amazing Korean dish with chicken, cabbage, sauce and other veggies. To learn more about it, see the link: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_galbi) The restaurant was called Joon’s and we felt ‘right at home’ – Korean styles anyway- again. We had amazing food (I was like “Bring on the kimchi!”) and decided to head out to another bar before revisiting another spot from our Korean past- the noraebang. So we stocked up with wine bottles and soju (Korean liquor) and headed to the bar for a few drinks. It wasn’t long before we made our way to the noraebang.
A noraebang is a singing room (‘norae’ is actually directly translated into the word ‘song’) and South Koreans love them. (And now, so do we!) ‘Bang’ in Korean means ‘room’ and they haven’t different types of rooms everywhere in S. Korea. They have pc bangs (computer rooms) where you can go and buy time to play computer games on one of their computers and dvd bangs (quite obviously a dvd room) where you can go with a group of friends (it’s cheaper that way) and watch movies on their couches and big screen. We did this a lot of the time for the ‘girl’s nights’ we had in Seoul. There are obviously so many other examples, but I am sure you get the idea. So we headed into the noraebang and sang our hearts out… it is even open until 4:00am. We used to sing until 7:00 and not realize the sun had come out in Korea. So this is the next best thing! I still can’t believe that there is a Noraebang in Toronto! It was a fantastic night and a great way to spend time with some of our favourite people before they headed back to the US. We miss them so much, but we were so excited to see them, and so happy they got to see our daily lives and what it is like in Toronto. We can’t wait to visit them now!!!
I definitely suggest trying some dakgalbi to anyone who is interested. It is spicy and extremely tasty! Just writing about it is making my mouth water… speaking of which I need to eat something! Until next time…
f my favourite nights however was when we met up with two other couples that were in Korea with us. Julia and Mark live in Toronto and Anne and Colin live in Whitby. The 8 of us met up at a Dakgalbi restaurant in Korea Town and it brought back so many memories of great times in a great country. Dakgulbi is an amazing Korean dish with chicken, cabbage, sauce and other veggies. To learn more about it, see the link: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_galbi) The restaurant was called Joon’s and we felt ‘right at home’ – Korean styles anyway- again. We had amazing food (I was like “Bring on the kimchi!”) and decided to head out to another bar before revisiting another spot from our Korean past- the noraebang. So we stocked up with wine bottles and soju (Korean liquor) and headed to the bar for a few drinks. It wasn’t long before we made our way to the noraebang.
A noraebang is a singing room (‘norae’ is actually directly translated into the word ‘song’) and South Koreans love them. (And now, so do we!) ‘Bang’ in Korean means ‘room’ and they haven’t different types of rooms everywhere in S. Korea. They have pc bangs (computer rooms) where you can go and buy time to play computer games on one of their computers and dvd bangs (quite obviously a dvd room) where you can go with a group of friends (it’s cheaper that way) and watch movies on their couches and big screen. We did this a lot of the time for the ‘girl’s nights’ we had in Seoul. There are obviously so many other examples, but I am sure you get the idea. So we headed into the noraebang and sang our hearts out… it is even open until 4:00am. We used to sing until 7:00 and not realize the sun had come out in Korea. So this is the next best thing! I still can’t believe that there is a Noraebang in Toronto! It was a fantastic night and a great way to spend time with some of our favourite people before they headed back to the US. We miss them so much, but we were so excited to see them, and so happy they got to see our daily lives and what it is like in Toronto. We can’t wait to visit them now!!!I definitely suggest trying some dakgalbi to anyone who is interested. It is spicy and extremely tasty! Just writing about it is making my mouth water… speaking of which I need to eat something! Until next time…
To check out the distillery district, click on the link: http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/
To check out Mill St. Brewery, visit: http://www.millstreetbrewery.com/
To see where Joon’s Restaurant is, visit: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/joons-restaurant-toronto
To learn more about noraebangs, check out; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noraebang
To checkout XO Karaoke Box, the noraebang we went to, it is located at 693 Bloor St. West (in Koreatown, Toronto), and their phone number is 416-535-3734. Check out the little blurb on it at the following link: http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ne3C6ZDElDsC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=Singing+Rooms-+Koreatown+Toronto&source=bl&ots=5bWMr3ANE1&sig=gYTMQu2bmKyIM2laRapmgysDmB0&hl=en&ei=QhgDSs_sO4qvmQfdw_HyBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
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