Coffee Brown, Hongdae, Seoul, South Korea

Hongdae before noon? Forget it! We got there early, like before 10am early, thinking we would have the whole day wandering around this funky little area close to the Uni. Well, there was a lot of wandering, and peering into windows of little shops & cafes that were not yet open... But then we turn a corner and spot life, a little balcony above us, with wide open windows and a few people looking down onto the bare streets.



Coffee Brown is a little take-away coffee shop downstairs, which has a narrow stairwell leading to the up-stairs open seating area. We perch ourselves at a big wooden table in the window and recline back into the tiny chairs (or perhaps we're quite big in Korea;) and order a few chilled caffeinated beverages. Kim has a shaken black coffee, which comes with a nice layer of frothy crema.



And moi, an iced latte. We sit and watch, but don't see much.. a few delivery trucks and some uni kids. We head off on foot fueled with caffeine, and intend on heading back later in the afternoon.

Sipping latte's in Tokyu

We're winding our way up through the escalotors of Tokyu Department store, Sapporo. We're on the lookout for relaxation massage on the 10th floor (my neck is killing me) but we don't make it past the 4th floor. There's a sign at the turn for the 5th floor draging us both in ...... It's that of a delicious looking chocolate pudding, with a pumpkin cream centre. Even though my neck is quite sore, we're both immediately dragged towards Cafe la Mille.



It's full! We don't mind waiting a few minutes and just scope around. Kim does however notice that there are no other males within the cafe. It does definately seem to be a shopping lady's pitt stop (mind you, we late noticed Tokyu department store is mainly for older women). Nevermind, we head on in. We order one of the chocolate pumpkin pudding. It was slightly warm, rich dense pudding revealing a creamy and sweet pumpkin filling.



We also have a piece of chestnut cake. Delicious and fluffy, with layers of sponge and chestnut cream and a few toasted walnuts on top.



We both try a Hokkaido milk coffee, which is a mild roast latte topped with hot, creamy, delicious Hokkaido milk.



As we depart, we know we may be joining the latte sipping lady's on the 4th floor again soon ........