TBA
Fooding
Been far too long since last going to Soban, so when Christina suggested Korean soy-marinated raw crab, this sounded like a great plan. Rebecca then suggested Harucake after for cake, and everyone promptly said yes.
Haemul pajeon (Korean seafood pancake) at Soban is unusually good, and like their cooked octopus, it feels like you could eat both all day. The cod roe soup is also superb but that is a bit too rich to keep eating all day, and ditto for their famous raw crab. The crab is succulent and tasty, and not as difficult to extract all the meat as you would think... but it definitely is a lot to eat more than a quarter of a crab, even with a bowl of rice to help soak up all the sauce.
Not to be left out, the ban chan are all excellent in quality. Just beware they can get crowded (they do take reservations online!), and parking, being k-town, is less than ideal. They have a tiny parking lot that doesn't really help the parking situation for customers.
Drove over to Harucake afterward for dessert. Parking there is terrible too, but at least if you only stay in the plaza Harucake is in, parking is cheap/free and it does exist. If you're like me, well, you circled for a decent bit because you planned on other places while in the area.
The line at Harucake is still long, although we only had about a 25 minute wait, which wasn't the worst. Like many new Korean dessert places, they do both cakes, pastries, and a few signature drinks, both coffee and non-coffee. Rebecca, Christina, and Erin seemed to enjoy everything they had (particularly the milk cream cakes), and I can say the strawberry milk was pretty good, if less photogenic than the soosoo latte with its floating decorations. Avoid stirring the strawberry milk too much if you want it less sweet, as the strawberry syrup does settle to the bottom of the cup. Erin also got the dan tat, which looked more like a crazy thick take on a pastel de nata (the Portugese version)-- I may have to try that the next time??
The group split up afterwards, so I took the time for some random car sightnings on the way to my next stop. Lucid Air's are still fairly rare, and the Fisker Ocean One is definitely rare as they're juuuust hitting the market.
Old Ferry Donut was an otherwise quick walk from Harucake. They specialize in creme filled donuts, and the tiramisu one, while not a home run, wasn't bad. Not quite convinced by the choco fudge or the butter pistachio, but might have to try next time?