Korea - Land of the Morning Calm

[Peter Green]

The peanut butter I can sort of deal with.

It's the image of the balloons that's weirding me out now!

I have seen this on TV. It's absolutely true. Just check out the home shopping channel.

The balloon is blue.

←

Oh, great. Now I have this image of The Tick (from the cartoons).

(I promise I'll get Korea wrapped up soon. We've just got some people in from out of town this couple of days, and I've been cooking).

[somemale]

amazing pictures and write ups peter. really great stuff. I was wondering if you do this everywhere you visit?

[milgwimper]

Peter,

Does Yoonhi have any recommendations for Korean language cookbooks? Mom doesn't use one but I would like to have some to practice Korean and to cook out of, although usually I ask Mom first. I have one korean language one which is Very basic that my mother got me, so that I can practice korean, and I have a bilingual korean/english. Hmmm maybe I just need to stop collecting cookbooks! I am tempted by the "Host a dinner on 5,000 won" etc. books but I have no idea if they are any good.

Anyways I can't wait to see the last set of posts.

[Peter Green]

Peter,

Does Yoonhi have any recommendations for Korean language cookbooks? Mom doesn't use one but I would like to have some to practice Korean and to cook out of, although usually I ask Mom first. I have one korean language one which is Very basic that my mother got me, so that I can practice korean, and I have a bilingual korean/english. Hmmm maybe I just need to stop collecting cookbooks!  I am tempted by the "Host a dinner on 5,000 won" etc. books but I have no idea if they are any good.

Anyways I can't wait to see the last set of posts.

←

I'll check with Yoonhi, but a better source will show up in a couple of more days. Some of our old friends moved back here (just up the hill) a few months ago, and she's much more Korean than Yoonhi. She's getting back from Seoul this weekend, I think, so I'm going to bug her (she arrived the day we left).

Hosting a dinner for 5,000 won........I'd blow that just on pears for dessert!

Cheers,

peter

[kbjesq]

I don't want this to end! Wow and Thank You!

Questions regarding the crabs that you saw at the market: Do you eat the entire crab? Is it as hot as it looks? How is it normally served? I really want some of that.

[Peter Green]

Questions regarding the crabs that you saw at the market:  Do you eat the entire crab?  Is it as hot as it looks?  How is it normally served?  I really want some of that. 

←

Those little crabbies. Just crunch your way right through the whole thing.

In terms of heat, I didn't eat any of those ones in the bucket. The bigger ones that we had at Kae Song Jib on October 16 were barely spicey at all, more of a "sweet red" flavour.

When I've seen these, they're a panchan on the side. But they'd be good as drinking food (anju), too.

Anyways, I'd better get back to work our you guys are gonna lynch me.

note: editted to add in the bit about being panchan or anju

Edited November 13, 2007 by Peter Green (log)

[kbjesq]

Those little crabbies.  Just crunch your way right through the whole thing. 

In terms of heat, I didn't eat any of those ones in the bucket.  The bigger ones that we had at Kae Song Jib on October 16 were barely spicey at all, more of a "sweet red" flavour.

When I've seen these, they're a panchan on the side.  But they'd be good as drinking food (anju), too.

OK, now I really want some. You indicated that the ones that you ate on Oct. 16 were raw, while these definitely look cooked. (I have nothing against raw seafood in general, but the raw crab thing just doesn't do it for me). I'll bring a copy of the picture to my Korean market and see if the proprietor can help me with a recipe/directions.

[milgwimper]

Peter,

Does Yoonhi have any recommendations for Korean language cookbooks? Mom doesn't use one but I would like to have some to practice Korean and to cook out of, although usually I ask Mom first. I have one korean language one which is Very basic that my mother got me, so that I can practice korean, and I have a bilingual korean/english. Hmmm maybe I just need to stop collecting cookbooks!  I am tempted by the "Host a dinner on 5,000 won" etc. books but I have no idea if they are any good.

Anyways I can't wait to see the last set of posts.

←

I'll check with Yoonhi, but a better source will show up in a couple of more days. Some of our old friends moved back here (just up the hill) a few months ago, and she's much more Korean than Yoonhi. She's getting back from Seoul this weekend, I think, so I'm going to bug her (she arrived the day we left).

Hosting a dinner for 5,000 won........I'd blow that just on pears for dessert!

Cheers,

peter

←

Oh if you could ask that would be really great. Thank Peter. LOL Yeah I would blow that budget out of the water for the pears also, but someone told me it was popular in Korea, but maybe it is not quite what I want...There is an online cookbook in korean only Yori Naman (aka Food for Net)

[Peter Green]

There is an online cookbook in korean only Yori Naman (aka Food for Net)

←

That was going to be my next recommendation. Everytime we phone Vancouver to check with Yoonhi's family on a food item, they get on the internet (and that site's one of them).

[milgwimper]

kbjesq-

Usually those are raw crabs, but I have always wanted to see if cooked crabs would work too.

If you look a page or two back here on this thread Domestic Goddess posted the recipe for the sweet spicy sauce that goes on the raw crabs. You can use that and see if it works with the cooked crabs. Tell us how it goes. I would try but I am having a harder time sourcing crabs.

Peter-

Yeah I look at Yori (wa) Naman (Food for Net) site a lot too, but I am addicted to having a book in my hands. I do have to say she has some interesting recipes, and a lot of variety. One of my friends tried her baking recipe and really liked it (but I can't remember what she baked), and my first recipe I tried was the kimchi spaghettie which was pretty tasty. I am hoping you can recommend other korean cookbooks though. Please?

[Peter Green]

kbjesq-

Usually those are raw crabs, but I have always wanted to see if cooked crabs would work too.

If you look a page or two back here on this thread Domestic Goddess posted the recipe for the sweet spicy sauce that goes on the raw crabs. You can use that and see if it works with the cooked crabs. Tell us how it goes. I would try but I am having a harder time sourcing crabs.

←

I'm jumping ahead (and I don't have the photo loaded) but we bought a big bag of those crabs crispy deep fried when we passed through Lan Tai on the way home. It's a Chinese product, but there's a lot of hiragana on the bags, so I suspect it's intended for the Japanese bar snack market.

I'll get some pics up when we get to the 23rd!

[Peter Green]

October 21 – Part 2 – Taking It To The Streets

As soon as we stepped outside of the bibimbap place, Jason and I stopped dead in our tracks.

Spaghetti in a waffle cone.

To say our jaws went slack might be an understatement.

Maybe I’m reacting in the wrong way. Maybe this is the new Thomas Keller!

Maybe not.

One of the things I’d been lusting after soondae. I’d seen it on the streets several times. Every time it was covered with plastic saran wrap.

I remember my first soondae. It was in Cheju City (not New Cheju City – which would be a great name for a film), and we were wandering through the old market lanes. I found an ajime gleefully stuffing intestine, twisting it off, and then stuffing the next boudin. I had immediately demanded some, and then took my place on a short wooden bench inside the rickety shack.

Ah, those were the days.

This was a sad, sad echo of those distant days.

Yeah, I know, it looks good. Bits of offal, all that blood. Anyone is going to look at that and just get overcome with food lust.

But this was just way too much rice. It didn’t have the bits and pieces in there, and they didn’t have anywhere near enough blood.

Pfah!

I was not happy.

In retrospect, I would’ve been better off having some of the golpengi in the tub next to it. They were a good size, and there were plenty of toothpicks to use to winkle them out.

Jason dragged us in (well, we actually went quite willingly) to Cold Stone Creamery.

The deal here is a long, ultracold slab of stone that’s used to work up fresh ice creams on the spot, with lots of berries and other things mixed in to your specs.

Plus, you get waffle cones!

Serena heartily approved. (But, why, oh why, wouldn’t she get hers in a waffle cone?)

And, coming right out of there, we came across the bbobgi stand. “bbobgi of the good old days”. Two for 1000 won. It’s just white sugar with a little bit of baking soda. You just “boil” the sugar in a thing like a Turkish coffee pot, then pour the melted sugar onto a flat surface, and then stamp it down flat with the round thing, and then hit the flat thing with a cookie cutter to make an impression.

Yoonhi remembers this. The deal is that if you can get the shape out without breaking it, you get another one free!

Yoonhi says if you do a hundred, you’re lucky to get one.

However, this place lets you cheat. They provide pins.

If you did that in the good old days you’d’ve been hounded through the streets.

Serena was hooked.

But she’s too impatient.

However, that meant we had to stop at every stand doing these (but this is the only one that provided pins).

After that, it was something really neat. Dragon’s Beard.

This is basically yeot. Sticky rice, honey, and nuts and stuff.

They start with the yeot, push a hole in it, pull, and then double over and do it again, getting more and more strands each time.

At the end, you have 16,384 strands, at which time you work in the nuts and stuff part of it all.

I bought a box.

It gets kinda hard after awhile, but it was really good when it was fresh.

Close by was a woman doing spiral cut potatoes. You do potatoes with oil, you want surface area. This works. It may not work as well as the Marge Simpson hairdo potatoes I’ve had in China, but it’s a close second.

Yoonhi was happy with the next stand.

Chestnuts. Fresh roasted chestnuts. And nearby there was more octopus (cup of ‘pus would probably be an unfortunate name), and little tubes full of ginko nuts. And corn, but Jason, Yoonhi and I have grown up on Peaches & Cream and Jubilee from Chilliwack.

That means, “don’t eat corn in Korea”.

Jason described it, and it sounded an awful lot like corn in Cairo.

And then there were those evil deep fried yams.

They were everywhere.

Serena is still traumatized about that.

And then, speaking of trauma, there was a set-up by the Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) detailing what the Chinese government is doing to their members. It’s an interesting topic, and as soon as I showed some interest I was buried in literature.

Extremely interesting material, but I won’t go into it here for fear of being too far off topic.

Also, it would put you off your food.

Don’t expect to see me in Tibet, either.

But, I’m getting too heavy.

Just up the road, I found an old friend.

I still think the Meatloaf scene in Rocky Horror was a great foodie segment.

And then Serena found another bbobgi.

And then, of course, there was odaeng. We’ve hardly talked enough about these fish cakes, always found on sticks in fish broth in carts and 7-11s. Fish flesh ground up with some starch in there to bind it.

Fish balls.

Okay, that’s enough talking about that (you can tell I’m a big fan).

“Hey, I like odaeng! I’ve always liked odaeng” protests Yoonhi.

I’m in trouble now.

Next: More of a very long day

[milgwimper]

"bbobgi" YAY! Ilove this stuff, but no one makes it like when I was a kid. Give you a metal chopstick and a ladle full of hot molten bbobgi and you get some on the chopstick and pull out a strand of bbobgi, and scraped it off the chopstick with your teeth.

Gwi-po is also good roasted over coals! it is snowing here so it would be wonderful if I could get a hot bowl of odeng guk, hoddeok, and all those warm streetfoods. Yum.

Thanks Peter

[kbjesq]

Forgive me, but I missed the part, somewhere, about why the yams are "evil". They look perfectly tasty to me . . . enticing, even.

So what's the problem?

Also, I remain amazed at your capacity. Only once, that I recall, did you mention "hitting the wall", and that was in connection with king crab legs if my memory serves. It's really quite amazing to see how much you can consume, and I'm grateful that you have not only tasted all these wonderful foods, but also taken care to document your experiences and share them with us on Egullet. Bravo!

Regarding Cold Stone Creamery, did they serve the same flavors as one might see in the US?

[Peter Green]

Forgive me, but I missed the part, somewhere, about why the yams are "evil".  They look perfectly tasty to me . . . enticing, even.

So what's the problem?

Also, I remain amazed at your capacity.  Only once, that I recall, did you mention "hitting the wall", and that was in connection with king crab legs if my memory serves.  It's really quite amazing to see how much you can consume, and I'm grateful that you have not only tasted all these wonderful foods, but also taken care to document your experiences and share them with us on Egullet.  Bravo! 

Regarding Cold Stone Creamery, did they serve the same flavors as one might see in the US?

←

It was October 11 when Serena was ambushed by what she'd expected to be shoestring potatoes.

Think of this.

The poor girl was expecting something slightly crispy, but going over to the marginally soggy side after having been out of the oil too long. A taste that too me brings back thoughts of graveyards (I can't say why).

Instead, what she bit into was a stone cold nail of a sweet potato.

You could've driven these through wood.

I'd make Easter jokes, but it's the wrong season.

Hence, shoestring yam fries are evil.

(see, I always have a reason! It may not be coherent........)

As for Cold Stone, I must admit that my trips to North America are few and far between. I suspect that the flavours are similar, as this would be an outlet of the same.

But, I'll pass the mike on that to other, more knowledgeable folks who I know are out there.

[milgwimper]

I actually like the sweet potato fries but I can commiserate with Serena when you are expecting french fries and you get hard as nails sweet potato that could ruin your day.

Hmmm Cold Stones for some reason I can't stand their ice cream. I find their ice cream a little too sweet. We had a Marble Slab near our house in California and I loved their stuff. Hmmm Chocolate ice cream and fruit was my favourite combinations.

Can't wait for more posts Peter. Also I think Naver redid their coking site, and it is much easier to navigate if you want to have a look. Sorry it is only in Korean. Kitchen Naver

[Peter Green]

October 21 – We keep on going

We walked from Myungdong to Insadong. We were hoping it would work off a bit of the food.

On the way, we passed by Chyeonggyecheon in the day, a ribbon of green stretching away through the city.

This also afforded me another reason to curse not having brought the video, as a senior citizen group was on the banks of the stream doing farmers’ dances, as Yoonhi refers to them “the twirly thingy dances”.

Moving from there it was a winding journey through back streets jammed with interesting looking hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Lots of noodles, rice dishes, curries, and “quick meal” joints. You navigate the alleyways by looking for the telltale towers piercing the sky – in particular the Jongno Tower. It may be hideous, but it’s easy to spot.

Approaching Insadong at last, we came upon the Knife Gallery. I kept expecting Rod Serling to come out from behind a picture with a cigarette in one hand and a cleaver in the other.

This was a fine little display. I like knives. They cover the functional, such as the ones used nowadays for cooking, hunting, gutting, and stabbing.

They also cover the historical, with a good selection of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and European and Oriental weaponry. There was one section that went in detail through the forging of the blades, detailing the mud packing used to get the slashing curve on the Japanese sword.

And they cover the ornate, with made to order replicas of blades used in movies.

Yes, there was a lot of Lord of the Rings stuff.

A whole lot.

Insadong is about three things:

1. tourism – lots of shops selling stuff for the foreigners.

2. antiques – lots of shops selling stuff that they claim is old.

3. Art – lots of shops showing and selling stuff that they claim is art

Along with the traditional this and that shops, there is an awful lot of art. A few restaurants, to be sure, and lots of street stalls. The restaurants are generally a bit upscale, restored houses transformed often into one-dish, no menu specialty spots.

But the predominant theme is art.

The street was pretty well packed. We even some a couple of Westerners, not a common sight throughout our trip.

Serena immediately found the toys. No big surprise there.

And we found some stands where we had no idea what they were selling. One place had things that looked very much like my mother’s buttertarts, the ones she only makes at Christmas, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they’re not the same.

But when it came to real art, Serena and I found something pretty close to perfect.

A whole gallery, up one flight of stairs, was packed with action figures – primarily from anime – and piles of old manga.

What a great place that was. They had most of the Transformers, and Nausicaa on her flying board, perhaps a dozen Godzillas, Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and perhaps every GI Joe ever made.

Don’t smirk, the New Tretyakov Museum in Moscow had action figures, too (okay, we laughed outright when we saw them there).

One of the stalls was selling glutinous rice, fresh stuff – the latest harvest – from Boseong. This stuff is steamed (not boiled, as it normally is done here), then it’s half dried so you can carry it around in your pocket and eat it as you travel.

This isn’t a particularly modern thing.

I hate to think what it’d look like after a few days in my pockets.

I had to do it. I had to try some bundaeggi. And I was even sober.

Y’know, I’ve eaten – and enjoyed – a lot of things. Bamboo worms, crickets, deep fried scorpions, congealed bowls of pig blood, bladders, and even those crispy fried tarantulas on the road to Sihanoukville.

But these were just nasty.

I managed one, and then realized that if I didn’t like something, I didn’t have to finish it. Not even my mother would’ve made me finish this.

Maybe.

I ditched it in a garbage can after trying to get one of the others to taste some.

Maybe they’d have tasted better deep fried?

Yoonhi was putting her time to better purposes. She spotted a stall with a line up about forty long, and figured that this had to be worth eating.

She was – as usual – right. Hoddeok. Nice and hot, the dough freshly pulled out of the bucket, and the cakes slapped down on the hot griddle.

There was another, more established Dragon Beard place across the way. It was the same folks, but this one was a proper shop, with seating inside, and the “making of” display up in the front window.

I was really starting to wish I’d brought the video.

Our primary reason, of course, for visiting Insadong was none of the three given a few paragraphs earlier.

We were here because we’d promised Serena that we’d take her to the video arcade we’d seen when we’d raced through here a few days ago.

We’ve now learned not to take Serena to video arcades. At least my ears have learned that.

Once we’d reeled the girl back in, and Jason had gotten in some batting cage practice, we took our hoddeok and headed for Jangchungdong for chokbal. I needed some pigs feet.

Wonjo ilho jangchungdong halmeoni jib. The First Original Jangchungdong Grandmother’s Place (as opposed to the “2nd Original”). Beneath the title it talks about the different tv stations that have talked about them. KBC, MBC, SBS…..

Just back up the street is Fat Grandma’s place. And there were a few other Grandma’s around selling chokbal as well. If you wanted pigs’ feet, this was ground zero.

Original Granny was packed, the place a flurry of knives, bones, ankles, trotters, and people eating a lot of food. We head to go upstairs and wait for a couple of minutes for a spot. At least this gave me time to get my shoes off

Once they’d hosed down the table, we got our chokbal. We were still kind of full from Myungdong and Insadong, so we took it easy and only ordered one large.

It’s a beautiful plate when it arrives. A chaotic mess of pink meat, brown skin, and white bones. We call it “feet” but it really covers from toe to shank.

As you’d expect, it’s eaten as ssum, wrapped in lettuce with fresh green onions and garlic. There were cubes of mu kimchi on the side

and bowls of water kimchi of different sorts. All to be accompanied with chilis and garlic.

Over here, you can get your own darned water. There was a water station back near the cash register, and Jason volunteered to ferry drinks back and forth.

Soju, however, you just wave and they’ll rush over a bottle or three. It’s good to see there’s some preferential treatment still to be had.

Lucky for Serena they had mandu (dumpling) soup on the menu, as she wasn’t too thrilled by the bone fest we were engaged in.

All of this sort of worked up our appetite. Plus, we’d been joined by two of Jason’s friends, and it just seemed way too early to be calling it a night.

Next: Starch!

[milgwimper]

Ahhh jokbal. Why do I torture myself! Although Serena's mandu guk looks really tasty too!

[Peter Green]

October 21 – Part 4 – icha

We piled into Jason’s friends’ car, and hit the mean streets of Seoul.

Heck, it was only 9 p.m.!

We were looking for ddeokboggi. And the best place to do that is in Sindangdong – ddeokboggi street.

Honest, they even had signs up on the way there directing us to Ddeokboggi Street - which was a good thing, as Jason’s friend doesn’t have a GPS either.

“Have you seen the instruction manuals for those things? And they’re all in Hangul! The time I spend figuring it out would wipe out any savings I’d had over not being lost!”

Having found the street, we got off to a bad start. We’d driven to the end of the strip, and pulled into a vacant parking spot. Immediately, the ajima from the place next door tells us we can’t park there, as it’s only for her customers. We probably would’ve ended up going into her place if she hadn’t done this, but as was we moved the car and then wandered.

The “street” is about two blocks or so of pretty brightly lit places, all selling either ddeokboggi, or the fixings for ddeokboggi (and more on that in a sec).

DcDonaldu seemed a little cheeky, as far as signage goes.

Given the overwhelming choice of places (and the fact that we’d eat beondaeggi before we’d go back to the woman who made us repark), we settled on the place that had a picture of a woman with good teeth.

I like to be objective about my choices.

She’s actually on the food maps for Seoul. Mabogrim Halmoni. The grand old dame of ddeokboggi, with three storefronts here, the oldest dating back to 1953 (which must’ve been pretty grim times).

Like the chokbal joint, this place was packed. But we managed to squeeze into a table in the middle of everything, with me perched on my stool. (Nobody else in our groups ever seems crowded).

Don’t expect a lot of choice here, at least in some things. You order however many skillets you’re going to need, and they’re all pretty much packed and ready to go with noodles, ddeok, and eggs.

There were two types of noodles in each pan. Jjeolmyun, which is the pully elastic band type noodle (it has potato starch in it to give it the texture), and good old ramyun, a square brick of it straight from a Shin Ramyun foil pouch, as far as I can tell.

While I admired the fixed menu items, Jason disappeared. He was off to get the extras.

It’s an interesting concept, and one that promotes a certain symbiosis in the neighborhood. This place provides the seating, the heat, and the soju, and the subcontractors out there are free to find a niche to fill.

Once Jason was back, and we’d finished a couple of bottles, we got down to the business of cooking.

I’d like to be able to say that this was “all about the ddeok” but that just wouldn’t be the truth.

I was taken down a bit by this. The idea here is that you get the basic starter, and then top it off with kim mari, deep fried vegetables, deep fried prawns, and anything else that wasn’t spry enough to escape the deep fat fryer.

“But the tempura is all getting soggy in there”, exclaimed Yoonhi.

“That’s the whole point,” said Jason.

Serena, engrossed in her GameBoy, remained imperially oblivious to all of this.

We were playing “spot the ddeok”, as it was pretty tough finding the rice cakes in amongst all of the “extras” that were in there.

Okay, we’ve gotta start thinking about what we have here; ramyun noodles, jjeolmyun (chewy, rubbery noodles), ttwigim (deep fried/tempura) stuff, and rice cakes.

We’re talking starch fest here. After a few minutes it was all breaking down.

Now, I want you to go back through the three other posts of food I’ve put up for this day, and then come back.

Meanwhile, I’ll look at the gim mari getting cut up.

Okay, did you do that? Good. Maybe now you can sympathise with how full I was starting to feel. There was a wall there before me, and I was going to either go over it, through it, or under it via the sewer system.

The sewer system was probably a safe bet.

However, I was saved by the most unlikely (and diminutive) of heroes.

Maggeoli.

At first they said they didn’t have any, and then an older woman (who it turned out was the daughter in law of the granny with great teeth) interceded and sent someone out to buy the Westerner a bottle of maggeolli.

She had good teeth, too.

The maggeolli was what I needed. The tang of it cleared up my digestive tract to the point where I could allow the starch entry, finding a new home to coagulate in my bowels.

However, like when you eat too many pyrogies, it was obvious that we were going to need some serious walking.

So, once we’d walked back to the car (and that woman was out there shooing another potential customer away from parking in her lot) we decided to go check out Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun has changed.

When I first came here way back when, we’d stayed in this area. Back then it was stalls and old fashioned markets that were way too cramped for me to move around in.

When I came back in ’98, it was still much the same, except now it was overrun with Cyrrilic script, and shouts of “nyet, nyet!” everywhere.

But now…..it was…..well….upscale. This area had flourished, in part from the development of Chyeonggyecheon which ran into here, which leant a certain fashionable flair to the district, and also in part due to the inexorable rise in Korean living standards (although this was an interesting debate with Yoonhi and Jason, which I’ll try to cover later).

Okay, it was upscale to the level of MBK in Bangkok, but this was a pretty long haul up the evolutionary ladder from where we’d been before.

It’s a pity.

I’d actually looked forward to buying fabric while I was here. I’d remembered that Korea had a wealth of fun fabrics which would be great for shirts.

Not now. Now you buy everything cut and prepped for the fashion markets.

Except, of course, it’s all cut for Korean frames. Jason had already mentioned that he couldn’t buy anything here.

We did a bit of desultory shopping in the malls, and then headed back outside. None of us needed anything here.

Outside was more fun.

The Dongdaemun stadium was packed about with stalls, stands, and stuff. Said stuff including food vendors, which perked me up a bit.

I asked Jason about the stadium itself, and he told me it was now pretty much a flea market, which is a good sign.

We did the grand tour of the stadium and its stalls. I felt better about things. Heck, as long as there’s stuff on sticks, you know that things haven’t gone too far astray. And then there was the place that was offering fresh made “nice burgers” for 1000 won apiece.

I wonder what they put in a ‘nice burger” for 1,000 won? Yoonhi remembers being surprised by one hamburger that consisted of an inch of cole slaw.

I wonder if they’d make me a “nasty burger” if I brought the soondae and offal?

And then I tried to get Serena to enjoy some shoestring yams.

That might not have been the best idea.

Sleep was beginning to sound like a really good idea.

[SheenaGreena]

I really missed this thread (I've been busy with school).

Unfortunately I just read it on an empty stomach.

hey, about the seafood pics on pg 6. In one of the pictures you mention an acorn like sea creature. I think I had those in Korea in 2003. I believe you chew down on them and they squire in your mouth, then you spit them out because they contain some hard like shell on the inside. I tried to ask my mother what they were, but she didn't know the english name for them. I had them in a soup with lots of other seafood in it. It was very very yummy.

when I mentioned the carp bread stuffed with redbeans, you thought I was talking about a real actual fish? I eat a lot of things, but you'd have to pay me a LOT to eat carp stuffed with sweetened bean paste.

[milgwimper]

Sheena,

I think the acorn like sea creatures are called sea squirts, Halocynthia roretzi are usually the ones you see, and mostly farmed. LOL I guess the zoology class helped me a little in life.

Peter-

I love ddeobokki but man there is barely any ddeok there! Can Serena eat ddeokbokki, or did she get something else to eat?

Oh on the hamburgers, yeah they are pretty interesting, and much better while not sober. I have a recipe if you are interested here. Mrs. Kim's Burger

[Peter Green]

Sheena and Milg,

Continuing the sea acorn squirt topic (which, I know, has the Western world on the edge of its collective seat right now).

Yoonhi's on the phone with Vancouver right now, and we think the Korean name for those things is mi deodeog. Does that ring a bell anywhere?

Sister says this is something she had never seen in the old days. You put it in haemuljeogul (seafood hotput), and, yes, when you bite into them, they squirt.

For cooking websites, she prefers Naver overall, which is the one you'd already mentioned. She says it's by far the best.

An alternate is koreanyori.co.kr it's quite extensive.

But this one requires that you set up a logonid (registered). And, when you're inside, some of the items require you to give a Korean Citizen ID (remember the fun we had trying to buy tickets?).

Okay, more soon.

[milgwimper]

Sheena and Milg,

Continuing the sea acorn squirt topic (which, I know, has the Western world on the edge of its collective seat right now).

Yoonhi's on the phone with Vancouver right now, and we think the Korean name for those things is mi deodeog.  Does that ring a bell anywhere?

Sister says this is something she had never seen in the old days.  You put it in haemuljeogul (seafood hotput), and, yes, when you bite into them, they squirt.

For cooking websites, she prefers Naver overall, which is the one you'd already mentioned.  She says it's by far the best.

An alternate is koreanyori.co.kr    it's quite extensive.

But this one requires that you set up a logonid (registered).  And, when you're inside, some of the items require you to give a Korean Citizen ID (remember the fun we had trying to buy tickets?).

Okay, more soon.

←

Peter I know them as Mideodok. Yeah they are tunicates Styela clava but the ones in your pictures seem really turgid, or maybe all the ones I have seem squirted their last bit of water. The Dokebi clubbed one are also tunicate, sea squirts I think they are also Styela too, I could be wrong on this since it has been awhile since taking zoology.

[Peter Green]

October 22 – Winding Down

This was our last day. And we were even awake at a decent time, ready to sally forth and make the most out of our last cultural opportunities.

I figured another palace would be a good idea. And Yoonhi was fairly certain that the Rodin Gallery was close by. Two sites within close vicinity seemed like a sensible way to get things done.

We surfaced from the subway (CD sales again – 8 CD set in the box) at City Hall, and my immediate reaction was “uh-oh”.

We were at Deoksugung, not Changgyeonggung, which lay further to the NorthEast, balancing off Gyeongbokgung, the main palace we’d visited earlier.

Still, a palace is a palace, and we were here. We could just as easily do this, what was once referred to as the “Western Palace” due to its position relative to the city.

Deoksugung was closed.

This was a setback. Setbacks call for muffins. So while I consulted my guidebook for a way to salvage this, Yoonhi took Srena into Dunkin Donuts for a baked good.

Okay, if we couldn’t do Deoksugung, we could do the Seoul Museum of Art. It was within a couple of blocks, and we could admire the walls of the old palace as we walked in that direction.

Something was in the air, as there were a number of booths being set up, and colourful cloth lanterns littering the street in strategic locations, indicating that the trees were going to be festooned to the max pretty soon.

I kept on waiting for someone to pop out of the woodwork and advise us that we should be here a week later.

At least my navigation was right. The Museum was there on our right, barely an eight minute walk from where we’d started.

It was closed, too.

I took the family on a quick cultural tour of the nearby supermarket, and started considering my options. Yoonhi was starting to get that “lean and hungry look” in her eyes (if not elsewhere – ouch!!!), and it was beginning to look like food was going to be a necessity.

Could things get worse? Let me tell you how things could get worse. The area we were in, right by city hall and the government offices, was devoid of food places.

I didn’t think that was possible in Seoul.

We had to walk for five minutes, up and away into the back streets, beyond the car parks

before I could find something that might work.

In this, we lucked out.

I found the Snack Plaza (‘Sunaek Puraja”) – at least, I think that’s what it said.

Don’t get me wrong. This was not a great place. It was a typical fast food place, specializing in kim bap – with a station and an ajima up near the window, noodles, and chigae.

Yoonhi ordered soon dubu (soft tofu) to get her over her difficulties, and Serena, still hopped up on a chocolate muffin fix, didn’t need anything.

But me? I’m a guy. We got needs.

There was one dish in particular that I hadn’t had yet. One dish that Jason had mentioned that just called out to my gourmand’s soul.

Cheese and tuna ramyun – “chamchi chisu ramyun”.

I had to order it as a special, but I wasn’t exactly going out on a limb here. They did tuna ramyun and they did cheese ramyun, so this didn’t require any Jack Nicholson routines or anything like that.

It was as good as Jason had said. The processed cheese had broken down into a thick backdrop of fat in the broth, and the canned tuna chimed in with the thick feeling it has when you masticate it well.

I wonder what would happen if I tried this at home with some Roquefort?

With food in our bellies, things were a little more stable. We figured we might as well try the Rodin Gallery while we were here. It was only a block away.

In my heart, I knew what the answer would be.

It was closed today, as they were preparing the museum for a special concert that evening.

(This was a pity, as they do have one of the best collections of Rodin in Asia, and I’ve always wanted to see “The Gates of Hell”).

At this point, it was time to get in a taxi and go somewhere else. Koreans believe heavily in geomancy, and it was becoming apparent to me that my karma and this neighborhood weren’t going to work things out in my time frame.

I had the cab take us over to the palace I’d originally intended to visit; ChangGyeongGung – the Summer Palace of the Korean emperors.

Whereas Gyeongbokgung had a fairly good crowd of siteseers wandering through, this palace was close to empty. I was a little taken aback by the lack of people. The extensive entry (which faces East, contrary to most palaces) held we three, two old people, and one Japanese tourist who was trying to make the most of the open views to get some good shots.

Me too, as I’d brought the video today.

It’s a pretty palace, in many ways prettier than Gyeonbokgung, as it wasn’t as badly ravaged by the Japanese, not being as symbolic to the Koreans as the main palace was, and what damage the Japanese had inflicted was restored earlier, back in the 80’s, giving the trees and greenery time to fill in the restoration work.

We came across a couple of school tours, and a number of families with very good English who must’ve been back for a visit, but overall it had a very quiet aspect.

The “Hidden Garden” up behind the palace is considered to be one of the things to be seen, much more of a public park in nature. And the colours were beginning to change.

I bet the place would look quite stunning in a week.

There were a few interesting cultural items buried around the place (Koreans really like to bury things)

but, unlike other sites, they didn’t have an audio guide here, something they were quite embarrassed about when Yoonhi had inquired at the ticket office. It’s a pity, as we could work to some extent from the signs, but the guides had proven to be a good way to keep Serena engaged.

One thing that did strike us, though, was the large number of seniors in the park. Here they’re allowed free entrance, so the benches around the lake and garderns were full of the elderly quietly taking in the day.

ChanggyeongGung connects to the Jongmyo complex, which houses the Confucian ancestral shrines of the royals. When the rest of the city clears out for Chuseok in early October, this is the place where you’ll still find a crowd, with the official rites being carried out in the courtyard of the main shrine here (the longest building in the world when it was first built in 1394).

The weather was turning inclement (probably because I’d brought out my camera for the day), and so we made our way to the front of the Jongmyo complex. Whereas we’d only seen a few tour groups inside, the area just in front of the entrance was hopping.

At first I was wondering what was going on. There must’ve been a few hundred old guys, all clustered about in groups. But when I wandered over to take a look, I hear that sound.

The clicking of clam shells on wood.

This was great. There must’ve been over a hundred separate games of paduk on the go, black and white stones being snapped down onto a variety of boards.

Okay, okay, some were playing changi (Korean chess), too.

Yoonhi and Serena finally dragged me out of the mob, and we made our way down to the subway (which had bowls of white tickets which the seniors were using for free access to the metro).

We were tired by this point, and there were suitcases to be packed. It was getting close to the end.

Next: The Last Supper

[Peter the eater]

Continuing the sea acorn squirt topic (which, I know, has the Western world on the edge of its collective seat right now)

Hey, I'm on the edge of my seat reading along . . . I'm just so freaked out by Korea and Korean food I don't have anything useful to add. On a less adventurous note, I have had P&C corn from Chilliwack.