Chill in urban Hongdae

By popular demand (actually just by You) – and it’s a fairly reasonable demand in that – I’ll start this blog off with something closer to home and more recent. This happened just one week ago.

Korean food in Hongdae.

The fear for the rise of a second wave of the coronavirus infections had people escaping the lively streets of Hongdae (홍대), an area mostly famous for its nightlife and artsy culture, for the lesser crowded areas, more south towards the Han river. However, still ignorant of that news, we drove to the centre of Hongdae to have our Saturday night dinner.

To our surprise, many of the usually busy restaurants were empty, and the restaurant where we ended up dining was occupied just by us. This also meant that the restaurant owner was only serving our table, making sure that every part of our meal was cooked perfectly – that kimchi fried rice was faboulous, I apologise if you are hungry while reading this.

Hip cafes in Sangsu-dong.

After dinner we decided to hang out at our usual cafe in Sangsu-dong (상수동). Despite that Sangsu is not the most known neighbourhood in Hongdae, it sits right next to Hapjeong station, and certainly more people had come over to Sangsu that weekend than usual.

Luckily, the place we went to still had some seats free. Yri cafe (이리카페), located here in Sangsu-dong, is a place I really can recommend to visit. Its name is inspired by the book Der Steppenwolf written by Hermann Hesse, with Yri (이리) meaning wolf in Korean – and with its 10 years of history in Hongdae, this cafe definitely has somewhat of a mythical status amongst artists and writers.

In this cafe, I always order the plum tea: it’s called maesil cha (매실차) in Korean, available hot and iced, and they make it with real syruped plums. The cafe is a great place just to have a casual drink and hang out with friends, but its atmosphere makes it ideal to read a book, or get creative and work on a project.

Nonetheless, bars and restaurants nearby were filled, and evidently – peeking through the windows at Yri cafe – makgeolli ahjussi, Hongdae’s own makgeolli uncle, was still found on the streets of Sangsu-dong.

In the morning.

After stepping into our car, the night came to us both, transporting us just in time. Morning had come, and the people had dissapeared. This came unexpectedly, as we were planning to head home instead.

However, trying to turn this incident to our benefit, we decided we couldn’t let the morning pass and arrive home without getting a great cup of coffee. We waited until the nearby showroom of Dukes Coffee opened. With just enough room to sit six customers, this cafe must be one of the smallest in this area, however, it has become one of my favourite places to taste coffee.

The beans they use are roasted in the Dukes Coffee roastery in Melbourne – a city renowned for its coffee culture. They use only the most refined roasting techniques, and meticulously sourced coffee beans through their relationships with some of the best coffee farmers and producers around the world.

Every barista knows well how to play with the flavour notes of each of the coffee beans. Every time I’ve been there, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each cup. Moreso, the baristas are such kind people, and always happy to have a friendly chat. Their passion and love for coffee shines naturally in each cup.

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