Makchang

I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime “associates,” food, for me, has always been an adventure. 

-Anthony Bourdain

Korean food, some fear it while some crave it. For me, it's a hit or miss. But the Korean place that I will definitely go back to time and time again is this, Makchang Restaurant located beside Robinson's Place Manila.

Having watched many a Korean drama, I have come to know samgyeopsal. Pork belly barbecued over charcoal while drinking soju always done at night, and always after a heartbreak. because of the dramas I have watched I have seen samgyeopsal as something as a comfort food where you turn to when you find out that your lover is your sibling or when you discover that you chaebol boyfreind's mother is against your associating with her son. But makchang changed my perception the minute I walked in.

There were a lot of people, groups of people who were laughing and talking and quickly I found that Makchang was a place to meet friends in, to hang out in. Luckily I came with two of my best friends who i dragged to the restaurant on a spur of the moment decision. 

Menu board

The server started off by taking our orders then setting up the charcoal grill. There was a vent which sucked the smoke but still you are guaranteed to smell like barbecued meat once you walk out of the restaurant. Next served are the banchans or side dishes. Side dishes are unlimited by the way. I especially love their soup which I eat before the meat finishes cooking. They also give you lettuce, garlic, sweet potatoes, doenjang (fermented bean paste) and chilies so that you can make a lettuce wrap if you wanted to.

Our table

The green stuff is really yummy too

We ordered 1 serving of samgyeopsal, and 2 servings of pork galbi. The samgyeopsal comes with sesame oil with salt and the galbi comes with a sweet soy. The samgyeopsal costs 250 pesos per serving as does the pork galbi. Which I think is value for money considering all that comes with it. We ended up spending 750 pesos for our meal that night which we split between us three so the average cost per person when eating at Makchang is 250 pesos. 

Samgyeopsal

Pork galbi

The fun part in eating at Makchang is the grilling ang the assembly of the wraps. We chose to grill our own meat but you can ask some of the servers to help you cook the food seeing as they are the experts and all. We also put the garlic, sweet potatoes and chilies in the grill. There are no rules in cooking the food here, do it as you like since you will be the one eating it. 

Personally we liked the galbi more but maybe that's just because we are not drinking haha. They also serve noodle dishes though we didn't get to try during this visit, maybe next time we will. Another thing to remember is that the place fills up easily. There are two dining options either dine inside on the first floor or on the balcony upstairs. To get to Makchang traverse the rows of Korean groceries on the department store side of Robinson's (sorry I'm bad with directions) and just look for the orange signboard and a server fanning charcoals on the outside. 

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

-Virginia Woolf

Hong Kong: Part 1

  “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money”.

 – Unknown

When I was still 12 years old I had always known that I will NOT have a party for my 18th birthday unlike other girls who envision their debut at a very early age. Frankly, we don't have the money to throw an extravagant birthday bash and it will take too much time and effort to set up a decent birthday party. And I don't want my party to be dissed cause I'm shallow and insecure liddat.

Anyhooooo, on to the main subject of this post which is my trip to the beautiful (state?, province?, country?, special administrative region? dunno what to call cause its part of China) HONG KONG. I was on this trip with my two best friends (no adults just us 3). It was the first time abroad for the two of us but the first time in Hong Kong for all of us so we DID NOT know what to expect.

THIS TRIP HAPPENED ON JUNE 2- 6, 2011

After extensive research, I booked with a travel agency (searched on sulit.com) and the total cost of our trip was around 24k pesos inclusive of roundtrip airfare, 3 nights stay at the Panda Hotel in HK, 1 night stay at a hotel in Macau (forgot the name AWFUL hotel), buffet lunch in Macau, tour in Macau, tour in HK, round trip ferry tickets from HK to Macau and Macau to HKIA, shuttle services (HKIA to Panda hotel, Panda to ferry terminal in HK, ferry to hotel, hotel to ferry), and breakfasts (except for last day in Macau). I'd say it was a pretty good deal seeing as I was still unfamiliar with booking tickets and the logistics of it all (all of which I will become familiar with on a later trip to Thailand). Looking back I still would have purchased the tour package even if now I could arrange for it all by myself. I am a firm believer in trusting the professionals in doing what they do best. The only quip I have with travel agencies is that they list possible hotels for you to stay at and in the end your hotel is not on that list. During this particular trip we got lost in Macau (our tour bus left us with our bags and passport and stuff in it, but that's a different story) and not knowing which hotel we would stay kind of made us nervous for a bit.

For us Filipinos we think of Hong Kong first when we want to go on a trip abroad. It's popular, cheaper than SG and relatively near PI. For me, I chose HK because the travel deals were hard to ignore and the exchange rate is very appealing at 5 pesos to 1 HKD.

Day 1: Arrival and Lantau Island

I did my research as I have mentioned before. With the help of tripadvisor I searched for the top attractions in HK and included them in our itinerary. So I decided (haha, yes I did not consult my travelling companions) that we will go to Disneyland the first day, Ocean Park and tour the second and Lantau on the last whole day. However plans do not always go smoothly. We were supposed to arrive in HK at 9 in the morning but ended up arriving at around noon because our flight (Hong Kong Airlines) got delayed because of a VIP in the airport or something and we went for a change of plans and decided to do Lantau the first day.

Upon arrival i was awed by the beauty and just general awesomeness of HKIA, and I shall not compare it to NAIA in this post just because. We got off the plane, went to the bathrooms (super clean and awesome), and then boarded the shuttle(?) that will take us to the arrival gate. But we changed our money first fearing that we will not have anything to spend once we are out of the airport (big mistake). 

We arrived at the hotel (Panda) which was a little far from Mongkok and the other big shopping districts but was a 10 minute walk away from an MTR station. Hotel was pleasant enough, room was clean, nice housekeeper, good airconditioning, thin walls, comfy comforter (ha!, hard bed), flat screen TV, BUT awful awful toilets it has broken flushing system or something. The first floor of the hotel has shops which we didn't get to explore but I spotted SaSa in there.

Hotel signage

Toiletries

After resting (for like 10 minutes) in the hotel we set off to go to Lantau Island and see the Big Buddha. There are cable cars going to the Big Buddha BUT just our luck it was closed for maintenance that month so we ended up taking the bus (1 hour ride) through winding mountain roads to get to the Big Buddha. 

First thing you see

When we came here there was a cow roaming in this area and the tourists took pictures of him, the cow didn't seem to mind.

A steep climb up to the Big Buddha

The view on top

The Big Buddha really is impressive and it is worth the trip to go here. Under the Big Buddha is a museum of sorts where you can go in and explore.

This statue is the world's largest Buddha statue, by using bronze, it's 34 metres tall and weighs 250 tonnes, empowered in December 1993.

The Big Buddha up close

 Offerings to Buddha

Around the Buddha are also statues holding different kinds of offerings to the Buddha, I'm no Buddhist so I can't really tell the significance of this. The view up in here is also gorgeous. 

Aside from the Big Buddha there are other attractions here as well. There is the Po Lin Monastery, Ngong Ping 360 cable car and village. 

 China cablecar

 Ngong Ping Village

 Empty because it's past closing time

 Village with Buddha in the background

Po Lin Monastery

Inside was open space and I remember seeing a lot of gold, to get here you have to pass a hall with Buddhas in it. I heard that vegetarian meals are also served in here but there are certain times that it is available. 

We went by MTR and then by bus but there are other ways to go to Lantau. Here are some important information when going there:

Monastery Opening Hours: 09:00 to 18:00

Big Buddha Opening Hours: 10:00 to 18:00

Vegetarian Meals Serving Hours: 11:30 to 17:00

Enquiries: (852)2985 5248

Transportation:

1. By travelling on the cable car "Ngong Ping 360", it takes only 25 minutes to travel from MTR Tung Chung Station to Po Lin Monastery. It is the fastest and most convenient way to see the Big Buddha.
2. Take the MTR Tung Chung Line to Tung Chung Station (Hong Kong Station to Tung Chung Station requires approximately 35 minutes), then take New Lantau Bus No. 23 to Ngong Ping (approximately 50 minutes)
3. From Central Pier No. 6 (near Central's Star Ferry Pier or MTR's Hong Kong Station), catch a ferry to Lantau Island's Mui Wo (Fast Ferry takes 40 minutes, Normal Ferry takes 60 minutes). At Mui Wo, take New Lantau Bus No. 2 to Ngong Ping (approximately 50 minutes)

When taking the bus, take note of the last trip so as not to get stuck there, I didn't see much taxis passing there when I went so be safe and be on time and check the bus schedules.

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

 – Andre Gide

Headed to Mongkok after Lantau to grab a bite, and look for the H&M store. We ate street food that night. Curried fish balls, Crab claw in skewers and skewered meat. Dinner that night cost around 12 HKD for the streetfood that we had. And being that we are in HK we opted to try their milk tea. And us being us, we chose a place whose name is completely in Cantonese (I think) and where the owner does not speak English and only has to point and point so I don't exactly know what we had that night all I know that it was awesome and was better than chatime (which we had the night after that).

The street where we bought food

 Owner pointing out this and that, the shopgirl called the owner after learning that we speak 0 Cantonese

Glorious milk tea

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.” 

– Daniel J. Boorstin