Samarkand: Uzbekistan Food

Cahyo and his family....we're having a diner at an Uzbekistan restaurant.

More friends and their families

All kinds of Uzbekistan food spread outbon our tables.

Muntaz...our youngest member to Indonesian families also came along.

Ibu ibu RT Sangwolgok...^^

Kids...will be kids...^^

Freya couldn't let herself afar from the baby.....! 

Just...look at the difference. While others were glued into the the smartphone....Freya set her eyes on the baby.

Mas Khoirul...the host for the night.

Thank you for inviting us...and sekali.lg...

축하드려요, 카이룰 박사님!!!

Samarkand:Uzbekistan Restaurant

We're having a thanksgiving dinner...

At Samarkand restaurant at Dongdaemun...

..to celebrate Mas Chairul...

..on his PhD. Yup he did it.

..that's why...we all gathered here...

To celebrate the occasion.

All friends along with their families...

...ftom KIST and other universities came.

We got a chance to savor Uzbekistan food.

...right in the middle of Seoul.

..well..who would've thought that a Central Asian cuisine we found in Dongdaemun could this tempting.

...I managed to take some shots of the alley where we had our dinner.

...hmm..dumplingw yoghurt to dip.

...poat-dinner time. It's a really warm night.

Selamat mas Chairul...Dr. Chairul!

International Food Festival (part 5): Friends Who Invited Me into Their World

Aigerim and Elmira (not shown on picture) were the first friends who got me aware of this event. Kakaotalk-ing with me a week ago...to make sure that I could come and be a part of their annual festival. 

Let's take a moment to celebrate, Aigerim. 

One of my best friends, Jobirson. Well, We were at the same campus, HUFS, when we're still learning Korean language back in the 2011 and 2012. 

Now he's studying at KDI. 

A nice attire, Jobir. 

Then, ...what would a picture be without Felix (the guy on the right) from Ghana. Just like Jobirson, Felix used to be at the same university (HUFS) with me until he--also--started his study at KDI. 

Then..off we went again..with Jobirson from Uzbekistan.

Again with full-fledged smile on our face.:-) 

Last but not least, what would it be without photo with friends from Indonesia an other Southeast Asian countries. 

Thanks for inviting me, my dear friends.

House warming or jibteri

It is a Korean culture to invite friends and relatives to one’s newly built or rented house or homeJ So, we did, too.

We invited some friends to come over and have the food that we prepared and see where we live. Most of them were my friends from other countries who happened to be studying in Korea.  As the pictures show, our friends Laos (Changmi), Ghana (Felix), Uzbekistan (Jobirson), Japan (Chika & Akane), Kazakhtan (Ilya), Cambodia (Borey), China ( Arin & Iwol), Algeria (Maya), Indonesia (Wawan), and our family. Others were also coming afterwards to have dinner with us. 

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The house did become warm since lots of us came and sat together in one place. I thought that the house was big enough to hold all of our friends...but....then....it felt like so small...but that was the whole point. Being one in a two-room house would make the house warm.

Ansan Trip (again)

This was the second time that I went to Ansan--a 1-hour-5- minute-trip from Seoul by Metro. Indeed, a tiring trip as it was, still it never failed to lure me out of my den in Seoul to crawl away from the bustling life in Seoul to a seemingly not-Seoul-like outskirt town of Ansan...simply to have  a taste of --nothing else than--Indonesian food, since of course there are numerous Indonesian restaurants that dotted the streets there.

Maya, Jobirson, Felix, Wawan got Lost in the Market

This time around....I was lucky enough to have Wawan and other friends of mine: Felix (Ghana), Jobirson ( Uzbekistan), and Maya (Algeria). They agreed to go along with us since they wanted to have another taste of food. So, we went to Barokah restaurant (again) where we ordered rendang (the number one food in CNN food survey:)......hmmm Felix and Jobir loved it so much that they wanted to order the same dish again....., then we also had sate, nasi kuning, ayam bakar, tahu isi (that they loved so much) and of course....Teh Botol Sosro. ^^.
After doing some prayer at the Mosque, we had time to do some shopping. Ansan is notorious for its cheap stuffs, especially those of second-hand stuffs.
Well, we did do some shopping like crazy.
Maya, in particular, was so delved into the world of vegetables as she loves making salad. She found her heaven there since the prices were so way cheaper than those in Seoul.
We 'ransacked' shop after shop to find the bargain stuffs!!!

winter coat and two fluffy dolls

I had this winter coat for my wife, and also a big fluffy doll for my daughter.
Then, since it was about 4 in the evening, we got to catch the train to Seoul.
Oh, I managed to meet my colleague (Chrisna) with her husband, too.
Then, off we went to Seoul by Metro.
Before going....we took time to take a token of memoir in front of Ansan station.