Spring Come, Rain Fall - Antique CoCo

There was this restaurant making Japanese style food wonders in Hapjung Area, Seoul. I went there last spring with a co-worker to try their salmon and was swept away. I wanted to go again soon, but time passed and I never got the time. It's only a few month later that I ended up going with a friend. 

To knock my face on this. 

So apparently the place has closed down. I can't tell if they are planning on opening again, but it didn't say so I have my doubts. They were in a good spot, not too far from the station, and had a nice building with 2 floors, with very simple layout of cement and wood. The food was amazing and I had wanted to try their desert and coffee (I'd been full the first time so I hadn't).

I am so sad.

So we went to another place in the open underground area around the station, and walked around the area to a Chocolate store called Antique Coco (안티크코코). I never knew Hapjeong had so many nice places to see for window shopping. This is partly because I have only really been there in the evening or at night for that time with my coworker, and the recording of my friend's CD track Black Skies last year. Wow. Time flies.

As usual, my idea that "Seoul, the more you know the less you know". 

 So this place had wonders. They make their cakes - that look amazing, but were too much for us having already shared 3 full course plates between two people a few minutes previous to entering - and chocolates. 

The store was a tiny opening in the side of the building, with an inviting patio and storefront sign, but they also had the whole basement on one side, so there were lots of seated spots, and they had their indoor restroom (+1 on coffee shop chart yay!).

They had this black chocolate ball filled with sweet (but not crazy sweet) red wine of which you could drink from with a straw and then break down the chocolate with a small heavy hammer (which we totally failed to do - the employee took three strong quick swings at it and broke it in 5 seconds...)

You can see on the picture how the chocolate on the inside has been dyed with the wine. It was not gooey at all, as I had slightly feared, but just soft and fragrant. It was even better than the wine, who by the way had been really well chosen to match the chocolate. They told me the name of the wine but I fail to remember it. They apparently usually had 2 types of wine filling but they only had this one when we went.