{서울} of 한식 & 슈주 part two

i promise you the best parts have yet to come... it was so surreal to be able to experience suju's individual personalities in person! 

FINALLY, the moment of truth..

the tasting session ::

i was keeping my fingers crossed that they'd enjoy my food and hoping it'd be yummy. okay fine, i didn't actually try my food while i was making it >.< because there wasn't a spare spoon i could use so i was definitely a tad worried about the flavors.

regardless, here's what i thought are some of the memorable snippets during the tasting session::

o1| when the mc asked leeteuk what he thought about my creation of kimbap-shaped bibimbap {김밥 모양의 비빔밥}, he said 정말 맛있어요! that translates to 'really delicious!' the mc translated for me but i could understand that phrase with my basic knowledge of korean. it's what he said after that i couldn't catch but since i have the video, i will figure it out!

there was always that possibility they were trying to be polite and nice since it was a publicized event . but.. good thing that i was reassured when leeteuk and sungmin returned to my dish for seconds ^^ i mean...it had to be pretty tasty, right? :)

o2| i was feeling nervous and excited when donghae & ryeowook came over to my end to try my food! (mostly happy since hae was a lot closer to where i was!) :D *contended sigh*

that was shortlived cos it was definitely a *facepalm* moment when the kimbap fell apart as wookie tried to dip that piece in the gochujang sauce >.< thanks to the master chef's lesson from school food, my kimbap will not fall apart again! just wished i learned the tip before i finished making the first two kimbap rolls..

o3| donghae really liked the namul rice pizza {나불 라이스 피자}, the dish made by yuiko (which i have tasted and yes, it was yummy!) since he kept looking at the dish and pointing to it. plus, he reaffirmed my instinct at the press conference as well >< in fact, there was a time when everyone was almost done with tasting, i noticed him reaching out to get more of the dish but stopped himself since the everyone except sungmin placed their utensils down. i snickered at how adorable that was..

taken from sup3rjunior.com [credit:: chosun] sorry hae - not exactly a flattering picture of you but i still think you look cute

i have to admit, i was a tad disappointed he didn't think the same about my dish..although he nodded slightly at ryeowook while he was finishing up that huge bite of kimbap (but i don't even know what that means hehe..)

o4| speaking of sungmin, he finished his tasting with a second piece of my kimbap! :) [actually so did leeteuk] when i rewatched the videos, i realized that as min was taking his last few bites, leeteuk and eunhyuk was staring at him as if silently telling him to be done with the tasting cos he was the last one to be done eating. it was soo funny in a cute way ^.^

o5| one of the coolest parts of the day was when eunhyuk tried melika's freestyle paprika dalkalbi {프리스타일 파프리카 닭갈비} and the MC from arirang tv asked him to perform a freestyle rap about the dish. he gladly obliged and managed to get some laughter in the room - definitely livened up the event! he is definitely a charmer, this guy. <3 oh, btw 닭갈비 is eunhyuk's favorite korean food! how perfect :)

taken from sup3rjunior.com [credit :: chosun]

o6| hyukmin moment! :) sungmin offered a taste of nhung's take on fusion japchae {퓨전 잡채} as he served a chopstickful of noodles on his plate to give it to eunhyuk. this reminds me of how close their relationship with each other are ^^ LOVE! one of the reasons why i love super junior so much.

taken from sup3rjunior.com [credit: NEWSis]

o7| donghae really looked like an adorable kid, when the five were prompted to try the dishes in front of them, he looked at the other members before poking a spoon into peyxen's secret patbingsu {시크릿 팥빙수}. i read that he isn't a huge fan of sweets - as evidenced by his reaction to this dish as peyxen was watching for his response towards her dish. he was very apprehensive at first - nervously taking a small spoonful of the patbingsu - tasted it and nodded with a slightly surprised look on his face while taking another spoonful of it. i guess he liked it.

then, the leader and the 'eternal magnae' (the oldest and the youngest) tried the dish out together while whispering to each other and up till today, we are still not sure why ryeowook giggled twice while tasting her patbingsu although we might have some speculations. hyukkie and min (they both have sweet tooth) seemed to enjoy it the most :)

{p.s. just to clarify :: i know that kyuhyun is the real evil magnae of suju, henry is the magnae of sjm and wookie is the eternal magnae ^^ }

taken from sup3rjunior.com {credit :: chosun}

08| melika told me that the one time she caught leeteuk's eye during the event, he mouthed "i am leeteuk" in german which made her laugh. probably one of the few phrases he knows in german. ^^

o9| the best and worst moment for me during the event involved donghae.

the BEST memorable moment: during the tasting, 동해 noticed melika, nhung and i were snapping photos of him that he paused, turned towards us and smiled for MY camera! (yes, mine!! haha ) <3 *swoooooooon* i think my heart skipped a beat when he smiled! and it took my breath away....

the worst part : i had my polaroid camera in hand, all ready to take the picture that i wanted the most all day...

....when i realized i ran out of film, right at THAT moment...(what are the chances? =.=) my heart immediately sank and i went into panic mode, searching for a new pack of film >.< but by then it was too late. :(  *smacks forehead hard* [yes the BIGGEST facepalm moment of the day #3]

thank goodness, melika and nhung salvaged the moment for me (love you girls and i owe you two big time! <3) but throughout the rest of the trip, i felt sooo upset but at the same time happy, reminiscing this short three second period during the event.  

after the comments from the officials and the chefs which i had no clue what they thought about the food since everything was in korean language (the organizers did apologized in advance that due to time constraints they can't translate most of the event - they tried translating as much as they could), it was time for us to "shine" at the prize giving ceremony (our imaginary 5 minutes of fame haha)

i was secretly hoping that donghae would be the one who gave me my prize but yet again i was disappointed... it was leeteuk again which made sense since the same suju member who sat in front of our food who ended up giving us our gift bag..(not that it was bad or anything - just that i wished it was my bias and i'd get a picture with sweet hae!) however, there was an exception! i'll let you know what it was in a bit. btw, i'm only sharing my trophy ceremony pictures since i am not sure how thrilled are my friends are if i posted their pictures on my blog >< sorry!

the interaction between leeteuk and me definitely felt awkward - blame it on the height difference or it was just naturally THAT awkward between us. even the semi-hug (if it can even be called that) was clumsy. it was so awkward that the other girls were having a good laugh about it for a couple of days. they even joked that we had a 'cute awkward connection' and that i should switch my bias to teukie >< "wait...what?" GAH! (NO! i shall not stray away from donghae!) he was pretty nice though, i thought. in contrast, the interaction between sungmin and nhung was a lot more natural and sungmin was such a sweetheart - he hugged nhung after giving her the prize and it looked so adorable imo :)

now here was the exception :: so after melika, nhung and i received our prizes from the chairman of the korean food foundation and super junior members (eunhyuk, sungmin and leeteuk respectively), it was peyxen's and yuiko's turn. peyxen was next and we were hoping for her that it would be her bias, ryeowook who would come out to give her the gift..well, it was a 50/50 chance...

taken from supe3rjunior.com [credit :: @daksu20]

we literally cheered (almost too loudly) when wookie came out cos we were so happy for her! it was supposed to be hae (MY bias) but instead it was wookie so we were absolutely thrilled for her.  why was it him instead of hae? i dunno but we guessed that he might have noticed his picture on the front cover of the huge mr simple album that peyxen brought with her to event.. THAT or hae wanted to give the gift to yuiko since he loved her food! or it could possibly be both. i rewatched the vid of the award ceremony and noticed the boys were also stifling their laughters in the background (maybe they saw melika and me laughing so excitedly for peyxen and thought it was funny.... "-.-)  as wookie gave the gift bag to peyxen.

taken from sup3rjunior.com [credit :: @_myeunhyuk] OMG eunhae moment <3

what also intrigued me was what they were giggling about throughout the trophy ceremony. we could see them whisper at the corner of the room to each other and chuckling... that definitely perked my curiosity as to what they were gossiping about but it was definitely a priceless moment to watch! ^^

shortly after, it was followed by a media photoshoot. peyxen offered to switch spots so i could stand next to #donghaemydonghae but i had to regretfully decline cos i knew i had to stand behind where my food was on the table... the consolation was that i got to hear leeteuk repeatedly congratulating me in his own delightful(?) way ;) LOL!

when we first found out that we won the contest, we were so excited when we read that we were going on a lunch date with the boys but we learned on the day itself that it wasn't happening which was a TOTAL bummer. however, we were told that we could converse with the boys for a few minutes but since we had to take a round of winners' photos, we barely had a few seconds to even interact with them in any way - which made me even sadder. i think yuiko's and peyxen's moms both spent more time talking to them than we did, five of us combined :(

i guess i was still mildly satisfied that i managed to say 'hi' to donghae and 'nice to meet you' coupled with a handshake (except he didn't seem like he was totally there) that was a bit awkward cos i felt so embarassed and shy ( i suppose that is natural when you have a major crush on a person ). the best thing i could take away was his autograph on my trophy ^^ don't ask me why i didn't ask to take a photo with hae - that was because i was dumb and my mind just blanked - i am still mad at myself for that! can we get a redo of the event pls? cos i would have done a lot of things a lot differently!

these were some of the other things in the gift bag :) besides the trophy, the cd was the most valuable and important item! :)

as they were ushered towards the press conference which was apparently held on another floor in the same building, i quickly slipped a gift to the boys via donghae (which i don't even know if they took it with them). since we were just waiting around,  i took photos with our sweet and friendly organizer/representatives of the event...

about 20 minutes later, we received news that our favorite idols were having lunch in the restaurant across from us. once we knew, we rushed out towards the front of the restaurant and waited for them out in the cold while peeking through the entrance to check if they were done with lunch. to cut the story short, we asked organizers to ask them if we could take individual pictures (me with hae and peyxen with ryeowook ) but we only managed to get a group picture since they were in a hurry to get to their next schedule.

to make my day complete, as the boys were getting ready to leave, donghae walked towards the nearest side of the van to slide the door open which he quickly realized that someone was already sitting on that side. he stood there, staring at the guy (might've been sungmin) with a smile while discussing - perhaps negotiating to ask him to move over to the other side. a few seconds later, hae closed the door and had to walk around the front of the vehicle to get in on the other side. i thought that was so freaking adorable. #donghaemydonghae totally made my day without even having to try <3

although the day wasn't perfect and there were a few things i was hoping would have worked out differently, i am still blessed and glad that there are so many amazing memories to treasure (albeit a few bad ones to the point i wished for a do-over cos it did get me a lil upset) which i can reminisce and share laughs about with my four new girl friends from different parts of the world.  precious friendships forged through the rare opportunity  to meet our beloved guys of super junior (i pray i can meet them again in person one day in the future - esp hae, even if it was at a concert! )

thanks korean food foundation for this very special opportunity :) and the beautiful memories for keeps!

here is another video with english subs (a different video from the first) ^^

well, here ends part 3 of my korean trip. more stories and entries to come about the places i visited in seoul and all the FOOD i tried! it's not about suju but it's still gonna be a pretty delicious read, i'm sure :) ㅋㅋㅋ. till then!