travelandthings

[travelandthings]

More food!!! Yesterday with a Korean student from Ewha Womans University, my friend and another friend from Boulder, we all traveled to a tiny restaurant to have lunch. the total cost for each person was about 5,000 won. It seems like if you really want to eat your food wisely, and not let any waste, the best option is to get 3, or 4 people to get together and eat the ginormous amount of food provided. That way the banchan and main dishes are usually empty by the time everyone leaves. That makes for a pretty cheap $5 meal or so :) 

순두부찌개- (Sundubu jjigae) spicy tofu soup

계란찜- (Gyeran Jjim) steamed egg dish with scallions eaten as a banchan (side dish)

제육볶음- (Jeyuk bokkeum) hot and spicy pork dish

김치찌개 - (Kimchi jjigae) Korean kimchi stew

[travelandthings]

Seoul at night from the 12th floor of Gonzaga Hall. Classes start tomorrow ahhhh!

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Sogang Dormitory Room

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Our meal on our way to Korea with the father of the children I tutor who offered to drive us from 인천 공항  to 서울! We stopped at the restaurant of his childhood friend from middle school, and had some wonderful food. We had both 불고기 (marinated beef) and cold noodle soup called 냉면 (Naengmyeon). Again, the servings were gigantic. At most every Korean restaurant side dishes or 반찬 are automatically served with the meal, and sometimes refilled if they run low. They seem to vary from places to place a little bit, but different kinds of kimchi are always in the mix. I really love the cold noodle soup. There was hard boiled egg in it and the broth is very flavorful even when it is ice cold! There is a tradition of drinking hot beef broth to prepare your stomach for the cold of 냉면. One also adds vinegar and spicy mustard to the soup before eating. I added a little bit much on accident :)

an article on side dishes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banchan

and one on traditions of eating naengmyeon:

http://www.kimchiandbasil.com/naengmyeon-%EB%83%89%EB%A9%B4-cold-noodles/

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Drinks in Korea! The flavors for yogurt, smoothies, and really anything fruity are quite different from the U.S. Kiwi, grape, grapefruit, and melon are common flavors for yogurt and such. These smoothie looking cups with straws are actually grape and strawberry yogurts, in smoothie-like containers. Cass beer is a common Korean beer manufactured by OB (Oriental Brewery). There are only a few manufacturers of beer in Korea, and getting brands outside of the country, like Guinness can cost upwards of 10,000 won when local beers may be around 3,000! The Korean word for beer is  맥주 pronounced maekju. Above also is a picture of the coffee I had, at a restaurant on the way to Seoul. There are coffee dispensaries with pre-made coffee. The sugar, cream, and coffee all mixed together and prepared. And it's surprisingly tasty :)

Korean beer history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_South_Korea

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I was walking today on campus and came across these flowers which my friend pointed out look like the national flower of Korea, the Rose of Sharon. Called 무궁화 pronounced mugunghwa. From what I've found out, even in ancient Korean history, during the Silla period ( 57 BC-935 AD) the Silla kingdom called itself mugunghwa country, named after the Rose of Sharon which was thought to be a heavenly flower.

Here's an article from a website on the culture and traditions of Korea:

http://www.koreaaward.com/kor/288

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This pictures aren't really much, but near the small soccer field on campus there are pretty bird lamps, they have little LED type lights in them and look like eagles taking off for somewhere.

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Our first night in 인천 we got 막걸리 or Makgeolli a traditional drink made by fermenting boiled rice and wheat water. It's sweet and tastes a little like beer. We mixed it with sprite which was a nice addition :) Apparently it used to be called 농주 or farmer's liquor. Very cheap here the whole amount of makkoli and two sprites was about 5,000 won and the 막걸리 itself was only 1,500. No one gets carded either. The legal drinking age is 19, and being 20 I shouldn't have a problem, but they still never request an ID, so pretty much anyone  who looks like a teenager can buy alcohol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli

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Super humidity! It doesn't seem like there ever is no humidity, even on 90 degree days. Woot. Better get some serious braids here or I'm going to look like a lion that's let himself go a bit. I guess this is the most humid time of year here, from July through August or even September is monsoon season. I'd like to try the Winter here also.. Much more dry and cold.

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We went to a tiny restaurant  on the 3rd floor of a building in Incheon (the one in which we couldn't open the glass door) but after getting in, the food was very much worth it! We had SO MUCH FOOD, and there was only two of us eating. This seems to be a common thing at sit down restaurants of medium price range (I'm thinking like $$ like in Yelp restaurant ratings). We payed 38,000₩ for the whole meal, and probably had enough to feed at least two others. The sad thing is you cannot take any of it home. since I've been in South Korea, I have not yet encountered a sit down restaurant that will allow you to take leftovers. we asked about a box and the waiter shook his head and walked away. No box, yet so much food to eat and not let waste. I wish I had a whale stomach...or like four cow stomachs maybe. I'd like that. As it is I have a puny one which refuses to expand to its capacity of 2-4 liters. For real. Stomachs are sometimes bitchy like that. There was a buffet with sushi, naengmyeon, (냉면: cold broth with noodles in it) and kimchi. We also ate beef shabu shabu, (샤부 샤부) a traditionally Japanese dish, but had the Korean take on it.

An article on shabu shabu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu

and a video from Crazykoreancooking.com:

http://crazykoreancooking.com/recipe/korean-style-beef-hot-pot-beef-shabu-shabu

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So sliding glass doors are deceiving. Yesterday in Incheon I went to a restaurant with my good friend and we found ourselves quite stuck outside the entrance, looking through the glass doors at the waiters who were giving us a once over and probably wondering what we were up to. We pretended to look at the menu on the wall, all the while talking in low tones about how to get through...I was considering knocking for assistance, when a small boy of about six went up to the door, pushed a mysterious, and very hidden, metal button...and walked in followed by his family. So there it is. mystery solved. Sliding glass doors often have a button that needs pushing in order to enter, they're not always motion sensor entrances. Above is the beauty of the sliding glass door button magic happening for reallies. And another just because. I swear the button was not this obvious.

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There are little entrance rooms for people to remove their shoes in many places. In Hotel Queen in Incheon near the airport they had slippers for us to wear in the room! Very nice, but then I proceed to wear my shoes everywhere by mistake anyways :) in Korean it seems this entrance can be called 현관 and the Japanese equivalent is Genkan or 玄関. The second picture is a typical Japanese entrance way to a more populated or commercial place, rather than a private home or hotel room.

Two articles of interest which I found my sources from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genkan

http://insidetaekwondo.com/2012/01/08/wwp-41-hyeongwan/