the multiple dessert fail

we’ve been quite gluttonous in our diets thus far and went bonkers in japan with desserts after almost every meal.  we took a small break from sweets once our ramen ingestion increased in tokyo but seoul has so many dessert cafes with some amazing looking pastries and pies so we caved…

on our way back from our pork belly dinner in hongdae, we passed a coffee shop serving up fist sized slices of chocolate mousse and earl grey cakes.  you should’ve seen haha’s eyes, they looked a dog’s when you flash a treat in front of them.  we walked up to the counter and both of the girls working did their best to avoid eye contact with us when we were the only people standing within a 15 foot radius.  we eventually got the attention of the cashier and she was nice enough to take the time to explain which cakes were which.  as we ordered the earl grey cake she politely told us that we would need to find a table before she would sell us one.  umm, what?  so we walked to the back of the cafe and while there are a couple seats open however all the girls nearby had their purses and jackets sprawled over them.  we left a little disappointed but things all worked out as we were able to catch the kpop dancers a few blocks away.

a few nights later we tried our hand at mafia dessert, a two-floor store in the back alleys of itaewon (and only a minute from our place!).  the first challenge was finding the way into the shop.  there’s a big wooden door on the front facade but no handle.  the side doors have handles but are locked.  we can see people upstairs so we know that it’s open.  pushing and sliding the door doesn’t work at all.  what. the. heck?

and straight out of a horror movie, the door moves on it’s own.  it’s a swivel door except the host who pushed it open from his side opened it wide enough to make eye contact with us and then he closes it immediately after without even asking if we’d like to come in.  we make our way inside and ask for a menu when they interrupt us and tell us to find a table before ordering.  FOR F@#&$ SAKE.  so we get a table upstairs, wait a few minutes and nobody has come by to take our order.  we take a hint and make our way downstairs to order something from their hugely complicated 3-item menu.  this literally took me five minutes to communicate with the 20-something year old whose english was VERY broken and i was able to place an order for one millefeuille and a tea, which would have come to 21,000 won (~$25 cad).  i present him with my credit card and he stares at me like a lost puppy.  what else do you want?

“well, please order two”

“but, i’m not hungry enough and i can’t finish two”

“please order two, we require”

holy effing christ.  so there’s a minimum order per person.  i have pork bone soup up to my adam’s apple and this kid is forcing me to eat two desserts and two drinks.  i try my best to ask how much extra we need to pay for the seat since we aren’t that hungry and he proceeds to stare at me with those retarded puppy dog eyes of his.  $50 for one dessert seems a bit steep so we pushed our way out through the revolving door and didn’t look back.

i’ve come to a few realizations over my stay in korea and one that i’ve learned to accept is that the city is not 100% compatible with me.  maybe they need a younger or smarter revision like a jojo 2.1 beta to work out the incompatibilites