Bad weather and Pop Corn Juice

Spring hasn't quite sprung in Seoul just yet and it's been cold, windy and rainy for the past few weeks. Today the sky is a weird foggy grey with some hints of red in it. We knew it would be a bad day weather wise so we invited Yerim and her sister over for dinner. Only problem is that we have exactly one very small pot and no other cooking utensils or appliances. So, instead of making some kind of Egyptian feast that we keep promising all our new friends that we will eventually make for them we are going to order Korean pizza delivery.

(I was pretty hesitant to agree to this at first, considering my self proclaimed pizza snobery. But Yerim and M told me not to think of it as pizza and to think of it as some Korean food I haven't tried yet. I'll post all about it tomorrow.)

To prepare for our first house guests we went to our local supermarket (Grand Mart) for some ban chan and desserts and while we were shopping I found a curious looking bottle of what I thought was iced tea. I though it would be tasty considering all of the yummy tea that we've been drinking here. It was about 65 cents so I got it. As soon as we got home I gave the tea to M to taste (I wasn't going to try it first!) and he said it tasted like popcorn juice. And that's exactly what it tastes like - except with a really bad after taste. It's not good and really odd.

Japanese Tapas

Last night Yerim and I went for Japanese Tapas. I've been to this restaurant about three times now and it never disappoints. The food takes a while to come out but its worth the wait. Since the long menu is in Korean and Japanese I let Yerim do the choosing.


We started with what I think was grilled Mackerel. It was really meaty and tender and perfectly cooked. (All of the fish I've had in Seoul has been fantastic so far. I know I'm going to miss Korean food in general but the perfectly executed and ridiculously cheap grilled fish will be especially difficult to leave behind.)

Next up was cooked tuna over shredded cabbage with sesame sauce. The tuna pieces were chunky and not as flaky as I was expecting. The sesame dressing was perfect. You could taste the sesame but also some citrus and maybe honey or something a little sweet tasting at the end.

The fried shrimp was great. I don't think it was shrimp tempura because the batter seemed different than what I know tempura to be. Either way, the batter was light and tasty and the shrimp inside was moist and tasted like shrimp - not like oil. The tartar sauce was nothing special and the shrimp was perfect without it.

Soft Tofu topped with chives and tuna skin came out next. I was relieved to see the small wooden spoons that came with it. My chopstick skills are fine but not soft tofu fine. The tofu was okay but I wasn't expecting it to be cold and it was too soft for me. I prefer my tofu firm and I love it fried.

 The edamame was, well, edamame. It tasted no different than any other fresh edamame that I've had, which is good. But it's eaten differently here than at home. At least it's eaten differently here than that way I eat it at home. In true barbarian style I usually take a piece of edamame in my mouth and chew out the two or three beans (although I always try and flush out the pods with four or five beans before anyone else finds them) and then discard the chewed out pod into the provided bowl. Here, people (although I'm not sure if it's just women) gently split apart the pods and the individual beans are dipped into salt that you pour into your plate. It takes forever to eat and it's kind of tedious but it is more civilized and you get to eat with your hands - and I love to eat with my hands.

We washed it all down with some Sapporo drafts and some Soju.

Su Je Bi

Last night Yerim taught me how to make Su Ju Be - dumpling skin soup. It was easy and delicious. I might even be able to make it on my own. The recipe goes something like this:

For the dough:
A couple cups of flour
pinch of sesame oil
salt
egg

Mix and need all ingredients together and let mixture rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

For the broth:
a few small dried anchovies
a small piece of seaweed bark (bark?)
onion
garlic
hot pepper
potato slices
zuchini
salt & pepper
water

boil the seaweed and dried anchovy for a few minutes then discard both from water. Add remaining ingredients to broth.

take the chilled dough and pull pieces apart with your fingers and toss into the soup. Boil for another 5-10 minutes. top with chopped fried egg. eat.

Herb and Gwang Jung Markets

On Sunday we went to the large herb market where you can get diagnosed and given a herbal prescription depending on your symptoms. Some of the "remedies" we saw were pretty predictable: ginseng, chammomile, licorice bark, dried mushrooms, lots of dried barks and random seeds. The not so predictable list included: large in-tact deer antlers, dried caterpillers, raw chickens feet, impressively large sheets of dried seaweed, and cartoon-like pig heads.

Chicken @$$hole

On Friday night we went to our favorite Japanese place - which turned out to be Korean - with Jason and Sharon. Neither one of us could remember why we thought it was Japanese in the first place but either way the fish, rice and "egg roll" were delish! (I wish we knew the name of the place so we could recommend it to others but I still don't know our address here so I'm not going to beat myself up about not knowing the name of a restaurant.)


Anyhow, afterwards we went out for some drinks and Anjou. Since I ordered at the first place we left it up to Jason and Sharon to decide the next round of food. The first dish to come out was fried tofu. The tofu was almost firm and lightly battered. It was in a thick, glutinous mushroom broth and it was fantastic. I loved it so much that I ate someone else's portion on purpose and I'm not sorry about it. Next came a grilled squid that was flavorful, tender, and easy to eat. A few minutes after we finished eating Jason got up to use the restroom and Sharon told us that she wanted us to try one of her favorite late night dishes but that Jason wouldn't let her order it. Then she told us the dish was chicken @$$hole and that it was a very popular dish. She also said we didn't have to eat it if we didn't like. By this time we were well into our night and were feeling alright so we agreed to try it. When the waitress asked how we wanted it prepared, deep fried or grilled, M and I both yelled FRIED!!!( What doesn't taste good when it's deep fried, right?)
So the chicken @$$hole came and we tasted it and we were really polite about it, but it was disgusting and chewy and it kind of tasted like what I would expect fried mud to taste like. But it was over in a minute and the night went on and we all had a great time. Jason and Sharon are really nice and we enjoy hanging out with them. Our next stop is going to be the fish market to eat live octopus. I'll keep you posted. For now enjoy the pics.

Chicken @$$hole

Rainy Days and upcoming travel plans

The weather has been really crappy lately and we haven't been able to do much aside from going to work.  We did play some darts ( I won) and fussball (M won) and we went to the movies to see Alice in Wonderland. M liked it more than I did - no surprise there.

We are starting to make some dents in our travel plans but it's been very difficult. Most travel sites that I usually use to book trips don't have Asian counterparts and if they do they don't often service Korea for some reason. The websites that do cater to Korean travel are mostly in Korean and where there is english you can't book online. We found an english speaking travel agent in Itaewon (where the army base is) and put in a request for our flight to China. The travel agent was able to reserve us seats but won't know the price until mid March. So we are going but don't know how much it will cost or other small details like what time the flight is and which airport we leave from. It's all very very strange and slow but when in Rome..

 

In other more productive news, Esther and the family (6 in total) are coming to see us in April and we are really excited. We are going to meet them in Beijing and spend about 4 days there. We found what looks like a cute boutique hotel right near Tiananmen Square and we plan to take a day trip to parts of the Great Wall. Afterwards we'll all come back to Korea and spend a few days in Seoul and then a few days on Jeju Island, south of Korea.

 We also booked flights to Thailand for our honeymoon! I'm really excited about Thailand but it's a bit overwhelming. We only have 10 days and there's so much to see and do, and we want to try and fit Cambodia (Angkor Wat) in while we are there.

It's all really quite amazing. Everyday I'm reminded of how lucky I am to be here and to have this experience, and to do it all with M :)

Sorry for the cheese. Here's us playing darts, fussball, and some yummy shabu shabu.
 

 

Jason & Sharon

Listening to Soundbox made us really hungry so we went to find some food in Hongdae. It was about 9pm and the neighborhood was alive and roaring. The first place we went to was packed. The hostess was trying to tell us something but we couldn't understand. The couple in front of us on line turned to us and in english the man said "it's packed and she doesn't know how long the wait is". It was amazing. It's so rare that anyone ever translates for us, let alone speaks to us. We were so happy that we asked him to suggest another place and then suggested that they join us. And they did! They are Jason and Sharon and we had a great time with them. We went to a traditional Korean night spot and shared some food and drink and then went to a "beautiful people" bar where they served large fresh fruit platters. It turned out to be a great night.

Sound Box Rocks!

Last night M and I went to Hongdae for dinner and had some great Japanese ramen. After dinner we heard live music coming from a small park in the middle of Hongdae so we went over to see what it was. It turned out to be Sound Box, a band with about 10 members. They were great performers and talented musicians and most of them tap danced too. When we first arrived there was a growing circle around the band and by the time they were in mid performance the streets were packed. Everyone was out and enjoying the music. There were families with small kids, students, the "beautiful people", I saw several western faces, and lots of cute couples all swinging and clapping to the music. It was a great night and finding the concert was definitley one of the highlights of Seoul for me. Here are a few videos:

Japanese Lunch

We just got back from a huge Japanese lunch with Hung Ji, who was introduced to us by our great friend Robert. Thanks Robert! We ordered a lunch special sampler and the food just kept coming. Some of the standout dishes were the grilled fish (although I have no idea what kind of fish it was), the salmon sashimi, the white kimchi, and the sesame leaf tempura. We paired the food with hot Sake that had fried fish tails in it. It was really amazing. Here are a few pics of some of the dishes we had.

The party's over

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I was just hoping for later. We've been here for about a month with no real responsibilities. Tomorrow all of that changes. M starts teaching and I start my job volunteering at the after school center. It's hard to believe that we've been here for almost four weeks. The time went by so fast and now we've only got 5 more months to go. So sad.