BonVivant

Korean new year food. Rice cake soup, dumpling soup and potato noodles with vegs. A platter of stuff. Based on this meal called Gujeolpan (platter of 9), like the photo in the book. I used chives, enoki mushrooms, daikon cress, shimeji mushrooms, Hokkaido squash, smoked tofu, salmon roe, chard ribs. Pancakes are in the middle. Fun to eat.

I was in the pub and taking a break from reading my book. Old food mag has something about Schnitzel but nothing new and interesting to me. Some tips and info. No air pockets then no Schnitzel. Might check out this place when I go to Vienna. Want to try a properly made Schnitzel at the source.

^^ No cut of meat is more photogenic than pork belly! I'd forgo all other meats but let me have my pork belly! I don't eat a lot of meat but when I do it's usually pork belly or some kind of Speck! It used to cost more than most meat even back in the (late) Middle Ages! And whilst I'm around, this was my recent dinner. Prussian veal meatballs.

OK, so I said I wouldn't make anything remotely Korean until summer. Guess summer is here! Rice sticks 2 ways. The version with soya sauce and vegs precedes the red-sauce version. The latter is absolutely everywhere. In Vienna it's called "Butterschnitzel", everywhere else "meatballs and mash". Gotta have some greens because you know, health. Maatjes herring, beetroot potatoes and confit yolk. My Olympic watching weekend is complete. New routine to be planned according to Olympic schedules.

It could be either fillets or whole. Does it look like this? It's not called "carp Schnitzel", however. Official name in this region is "fried carp Franconian style". It contains beer, egg, flour. I had something similar in Czech Rep. but not a whole fish like this. It's a speciality of Franconia (a region in Bavaria state). I ate it in Dinkelsbühl (in Middle Franconia), a beautiful little town, a small version of stunning and super touristy Rothenburg ober der Tauber. Dinkelsbuehl is proud of its fish/carp. The crust is nice and crunchy. How it's made (using fillets): wash the carp halves and pat dry. Stir flour, beer, oil/butter, egg yolk and spices in a large bowl. Beat the egg whites until firm and lift them under the dough. Mix everything well, so that it creates a slightly liquid dough. Turn the carp halves well, place in the heated butter and fry until golden brown.

Schnitzel light reading (links). I ran it through Google translate and can confirm it does a good job with the translation. Click on the word "translating..." to load translation. Wiener Schitzel. Making Schnitzel the proper way. There's even a Schnitzel price index in Austria: Where in Austria is Schnitzel most expensive? Personally, I prefer "(faschierte) Butterschnitzel".

I meant to say Ireland. Ireland! Want to make something Scottish that is similar to farls with leftover potatoes. Also, I think Vietnamese Banh Cuon has more mince. But hey, at least you got basil. Shropshire Blue is nice but the 3 year-old Comte is extremely hard to find outside of the Jura. This is the first time I ever saw it. My favourite cheesemonger* finally got hold of it and alerted me. (*Yes, I have favourite and not so favourite cheesemongers)

Austria meets Scotland. All from leftover bits (save for the cresses). Based on the original dish mac and cheese from Switzerland "alpine macaroni". Apple compote alongside, the way it is served at the source. I used Comté. A big "fry-up". Potato puffs. Smoked herring, hot-smoked salmon bellies, fried assorted fresh roe. Made the apple sauce myself, always. Grated horseradish in the crème fraîche.

Battered hake pieces from the fishmonger. I ate half of it standing in front of the market stall, the rest was lunch the next day. Made a bunch of confit yolks recently. The seasoning: sesame oil, Korean chilli flakes, tamari.

There's nothing anyone can say or do to make me eat rice or kimchi now. Simply fried potatoes with Speck and Brussels sprouts. Maatjes herring and North Sea shrimp (Crangon crangon). The 2 lumps are potatoes and some beetroot peel cooked together. Leftover smoked sausage and potatoes. Green shreds are chard. Pseudo "Bun Rieu" noodle soup with leftover prawns. SV confit yolk at 64C, 45mins.

^^ In a bun. (Mind!) (Where is Quedlinburg)

Must be sold online and not in China. I would probably use this:

DIY lunch at the meat market. Sirloin and chuck flap tail. Half way through now. Couldn't take anymore garlic unless I could grill it. Nice soya bean and tofu soup with "brisket point" (see menu above). I'm a slow eater. Everyone is long gone.

At another market stall. Plain rice and bean porridge. Mung bean pancake. Seen from where I sat. This place has everything else, too. It's a very atmospheric market.

Lunch at the market. "Sausage" filled with rice, blood (and noodles?). Hot broth in a paper cup and salty shrimp sauce for dipping. The stall. Chicken feet, instestine stew, blood sausages. Koreans laugh in the face of winter! Even food stall benches have heating. Outside it's cold, inside everywhere it's boiling hot. Blasting heat comes from under the metro seats, floor heating in the house or room is on full blast night and day.

Bimbimbap with beef tartare. Two plates of lettuce, both with Korean dressings. Everyone was slurping this beef rib soup. I tried 1 of these later. Fillings are in the containers in right corner. Vienna is capital of all things breaded and deep-fried, Korea is capital of all things deep-fried (probably). Chewy dough filled with sweet potato noodles, onions and scallions. There's also a kimchi version.

Fishmonger is selecting my snails. Snail sashimi. The snail (4 in total). Fish sashimi. My abalones. Abalone sashimi. Grilled abalones.

I enjoy eating at cheap, homely restaurants and good thing they are common here. All it takes is to walk inside and see what the people are eating. Not all places have photos of the food. And forget for a moment you are a clean freak and perfectionist. (FYI, I haven't gotten sick yet in my 10 days here in Busan) The set-up here is first you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the table. The view from where I sat. Don't think I've seen men in the kitchen. A son or husband who brings food and clears the tables but never actually does the cooking. My filling and satisfying meal for 4 euros. Contains no meat, the delicious sauce has fermented fish in it. I was looking around to see how Koreans eat this meal and an elderly customer at the next table showed me how it's done. Dump the side dishes over the rice and mix everything up really well. That's why the rice bowl is big. It's mostly barley with some rice, and barley broth in a separate bowl to wash everything down with. They bring you another bowl of barley broth when you finish the first. Well, I prefer not to carelessly dump the side dishes on top of the rice.

Saw this creature in Hokkaido, Japan and now I finally tried it. First photo is live ones in water. Innards removed and served raw. It's like eating a live toad. The exterior is tough, the interior is jelly-like. Has a strong iodine smell. I had something similar in Chile but it's the dried version and no blob (look up Pyura chilensis). It could also be eaten briefly steamed. Ate 1 oyster with Gochujang, the rest the way I like it, plain. Blood cockles are usually big here. Sashimi because you are in Busan to eat fresh seafood. Seaweed soup with bones and bits leftover from your fish. Fishmonger's stall is directly in front of my table. You select what you want to eat and they prepare it for you behind the stall. First the booze. Korean pensioners at the next table.

There are many restaurants at the market and this is one of them where I had rice soup with pork, a lot of it. (Took me quite some time to remove most of the scallions.) An employee gestured these tiny fermented, salted shrimp should be added to the soup and I did. Notice the round chopsticks? Well, they do exist, just not as prevalent as the flat ones. Still it's easier for me to spear my food with any type of chopsticks. Restaurant looks much bigger from outside. Also, it's quite common to see many male pensioners who eat alone. This meat goes in the soup. Kitchen is outside. Broth is being cooked. Everything that goes in the soup comes from this:

Lunch at a market near my lodging. Since I know very little about Korean cuisine almost everything looks and tastes good to me. Ate some typical Korean dishes such as sweet potato noodles, fish paste on skewers, rice rolls and braised rice cakes. The stall where I ate: Enjoying myself immensely here in Busan. If you'd asked me 5 days ago "what's your favourite country in Asia", I would have told you "Japan". Now I am not so sure anymore!

A live octopus for lunch. A bit of a struggle to pick up the pieces with chopsticks as they wiggle constantly. One tentacle gets itself between the metal chopsticks in this photo. The tiny suckers also grip the plate so some strength is needed again if you want to eat it. Another octopus goes into a pancake, a speciality of this city Busan. The fish was alive 10 minutes ago... The most important shellfish in Korean aquaculture industry and they come from here in the south. My octopus is not amused to be picked up, it however finds it amusing to squirt water at me. According to the fishmonger this fish is in season at the moment. It's my sashimi now. Korean eat a lot of oysters. I also. --- Another lunch before boarding my train to Busan: "hangover stew with congealed blood". I am a vampire. Bibimbap with beef tartare.

First meal in Korea. One cuts the kimchi with a pair of scissors. Turnip kimchi and tender pork belly. This restaurant's speciality is mudfish soup. The fish in the soup (in a tank outside the restaurant). I'm here to compete in 2 Olympic events.

Thanks for your compassion. The roe is salmon. I have been eating all of this pretty much every day this week, actually. The oysters are on sale this week, coincidentally. I eat a massive amount of cheese every week anyway. But I will be without my best food (cheese) for 2 weeks (starting today)!