Since I am destitute of my own mother's home cooking here I have to cop meals off of my Korean friend's mothers. My friend and co-worker, Kihyun, offered to have her mother cook me some of her specialty octopus...I was quick to accept. A week later she showed up at my door with containers full of octopus ocellatus, rice, and kimchi. A meal here wouldn't be complete without a full spread.
Kihyun said she eats this dish with her family regularly.
The octopus is separated in half - tentacles from head - and cleaned. It's then mixed with an assortment of vegetables - mushrooms, carrots, onions, peppers - and cooked in sesame and a spicy red pepper sauce. It leaves the mouth tingling with delight.
Yes, I always take my meals without a shirt on...it gives me a much more primordial experience of eating. Pictured above is the full culinary ensamble. This photo wouldn't be complete without the unintentional yet aptly placed copy of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
I tried my hand at making the Korean ginger & cinnamon tea that is commonly served here as an after-dinner drink. After eating fermented kimchi, savory soups, spicy red sauce, and cooked vegetables this is a sweet drink to cleanse your mouth. It is served cold and has a nice cinnamon taste to it with a kick of ginger that gets you in the throat. This is why it also good to drink warm when you have a sore throat or cough.
I added jujubes in addition to the cinnamon [kyepi], ginger root, and pine nut garnish. You have to break up the cinnamon stick, peel and slice the ginger, and chop the jujube before adding them to water and bringing it to a boil. Then you let it simmer on low heat for about 25-30 minutes before taking off the range and allowing the liquid to cool. While it is still warm you can add honey or sugar to sweeten [I prefer honey]. I also sliced up some asian pear and added it to the liquid before putting it in the fridge to cool so that some extra fruity sweetness would seep in.
EMart is the largest retailer in South Korea. It is almost the equivalent of the American Wal Mart or Target but not nearly as obnoxious or filled with junk...so, its actually nothing like Wal Mart. EMart carries everything from home goods, electronics and apparel to live king crabs and mechanical pencil refills. They have an expansive food and grocery section in the basement floor that Caitlin and I take advantage of for our weekly restock.
Here is one grocery trip's worth of the typical items we pick up on a weekly basis...you can see that a lot of the same things are available here as in an American grocery store. I also put this picture up to prove to my mom that, yes, they do have eggs in Korea. Gwangju is the fifth largest city in South Korea and is largely developed. However, according to Google Maps, EMart has yet to be built and the now-highly-recreational park across the street is still just tampered soil.
We typically get our fruit and vegetables from the outdoor market, but during this time of year the pickings are a bit slim [nor does the market have a fine wine selection]...
Of course, any trip home from the market would not be complete without utilizing the highly efficient Korean bag-sharing method...
Just one last tidbit of information...while looking up grocery stores on Wikipedia, I found that although many American grocery stores donate their leftover food "the USDA estimates that 27% of food is lost annually." Shameful, yes, but we can all help change the way our food systems work...in the words of Michael Pollan, "Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants."
Here is a glimpse at Caitlin's awesome granola-making skills. I like to think of her as being in perpetual gatherer mode because her dietary intake consists mainly of leaves, nuts and berries. Whenever we go hiking, I often have to stop and wait for her to finish gnawing on the local flora and fauna before moving onto higher ground.
The general uncertainty of Korean ingredients and overall lack of oats and grains in the food system has brought Caitlin to a whole new level of nutritional self-sufficiency...
The Lunar New Year is an important time of the year for Koreans to migrate to their hometowns and spend time with their families. The Korean New Year is celebrated on January 26th and we were given both Monday and Tuesday off in recognition of the holiday. While everyone else is with their families and departing the large cities, the foreigners (us) took the four day weekend to trek it up to Seoul to enjoy some good food, diversity, and relaxation.
Caitlin's school had an extra day off on Friday so she took the bus up early to hang out in Incheon where there is a ceramics village and hot springs. I came up with the Avalon crew the following day on Korea's high-speed rail, the KTX. This high-speed train hits a maximum of 350 kph [217mph] but is not allowed to go more than 300 kph [186 mph] with passengers. They display the speed on a video screen inside the cabin and I only saw it hit about 284 kph [176 mph] at the max.
Although its not the fastest train in the world, like the French [574.8 kph] or Japanese Maglev [500 kph], it only took 2.5 hours to go from Gwangju to Seoul. This trip usually takes 3-4 hours, depending on weather and how much soju the driver has had. The train was quiet, comfortable and quick. They also do it right with their service here; you can get a beverage or snack on board for the same price [1W] as you would in a bodega. A bottle of water doesn't cost 6 bucks like it would on a train or airline in the states. The cost of this train rides is 38,000W [$ 27 USD].
The train ride up was snowy and felt like the Polar Express as we whizzed through a snowy Korean countryside. I was waiting for Tom Hanks to come through, punch my ticket and whisper something magical in my ear. Instead, I watched music videos with Lisa [including one of my all-time favorite animated shorts, Pixar's Boundin' ], read Matt's copy of the Economist, then fell asleep. Arriving in Seoul, the weather was about 10 degrees colder than Gwangju and a bit windier, similar to the 4-hour climate difference between Philly and Syracuse.
Pixar's Boundin'
The priority for the weekend quickly became food. We started with lunch, dinner, and the following breakfast with Mexican. For those of your visiting Seoul, we went to Dos Tacos in Hongdae [Hongik University metro stop] and On the Border, just one stop to the east. Later that night we went to Black Sheep, an "organic" Italian fusion restaurant. The food was good, but a bit costly and the service was poor. They also didn't have the first two things that I ordered, pasta and chianti, so half of the menu choices were eliminated. Buuut, they did give us a deck of Guinness playing cards on our way out.
The next day we sought out [Caitlin sought out] a place to get brunch in Itaewon. Because of her clairvoyant navigational senses, we were able to find the Flying Pan. Run by two Korean sisters, this cafe/restaurant makes its own bread and serves up some of the best eggs, french toast, pancakes, salads, herb-infused sausages, and decadent cake I have ever tasted. This was not only the best restaurant I went to in Seoul but perhaps one of the best restaurants I have ever been to. It was so delicious that Caitlin and I went back that night for dinner before heading back to Gwangju.
If you want to find the Flying Pan restaurant, take the metro to the Itaewon stop. Stay on the left-hand side of the main drag and make another left just after the Hamilton Hotel. The restaurant is below ground on the right, just keep an eye out for their sign...
We explored a bunch of new places we had never been to in Seoul and managed to find some worthwhile nooks [Gwangju wouldn't even know what to do with a nook if it knew what one was]. We went to a cool Japanese Sake restaurant, a tea house that has birds flying around inside, and a bar small enough for ten people called Vinyl that serves their drinks in plastic bags. They have cheap mixed drinks, excellent wheat beers, and good music.
The lax public drinking laws in Korea are exemplified by Vinyl's drinks-to-go takeout window.
Vinyl
From the Hangik University metro stop, head up towards the main gate of the university and make a right. From there, walk down 5 minutes or so and you will see Vinyl on your right [it has a big robot].
At the bird tea house, you can get your own little cubby and sit amongst chirping little finches while sipping on warm jujube tea. A cup of tea runs about 6,000W but is definitely worth the flavor and environment. The bird cafe is located in Insa-dong, [get off at Anguk metro stop on the orange line] it is called The Old Cafe and is located down a little alleyway. You just have to keep an eye out for a sign with a bird on it.
We also managed to see a techno fashion show, dance our faces off in an 70s urban-chique owl club, try seven different kinds of canadian-brewed beers, and watch a Manchester United match on our hotel room [I don't have a TV in my apartment, this is huge].
All-in-all we found some of our new favorite hangouts in Seoul. Although the city is massive [metropolitan population of over 10 million], it is easy to navigate as long as you are savvy with the subway map.
The rest of the photos from our Seoul extravaganza can be viewed here.
...Aaaand, if I haven't bored your face off already and you are suffering from bad air quality in your office cubicle, here is some more web content to petrify your skull.
I crave pretzels, soft and crunchy-sourdough, more than anything else here. Sometimes I daydream of covering a warm, braided soft pretzel with mustard and sharing it with no one. Selfish, yes, but they are the perfect snack and the best lunch substitute known to my mouth.
Fortunately, my brother Ryan and his delicate-lotus-flower-of-a-wife, Jen, sent me a package containing, among other things, a 1.5 pound pack of Amish Pantry Dutch Soft Pretzel Mix. This is enough to make anywhere from 6-10 soft pretzels, depending on your rolling technique and size preference. Caitlin and I made the dough and rationed half of it into the freezer for later. We managed four delicious pretzels: one salted, one garlic, another Italian-seasoned, and the last was brushed with a mix of warm butter and salt.
We could tell that this was the real thing because, after saving one for the following day, the pretzel got doughier and crinkly (just like those from downtown) after sitting through the night. The salvation to my Philly-cravings:
This is our little toaster oven. It can manage small baking jobs, bagels, toast, roasting nuts, granola, vegetable melts, and the occasional nacho plate.
The little gangly one that looks like its out of a Tim Burton flick is mine, the nicely-proportioned and well-seasoned guy if of Caitlin's doing.
Bam! Finished product
A week after making these I went back to the foreign grocery store and picked up The Six Pound Bag of mini pretzels. The last bag we got lasted about two months...we will see how long this one sticks around.
Caitlin and I took a trip to Seoul this past weekend to meander the art galleries and to see Miso, traditional Korean stage. While in the largest city in South Korea, we took full advantage of the foreign food presence. It was a gift to the taste buds to eat something that did not taste like fish, sesame, or cabbage. On Sunday night before coming home, we ate at the Taj Restaurant. We ordered the Tandoori Chicken, Dal Makhani (black lentil curry), and Tandoori Khumb Aloo (vegetable and yoghurt stuffed mushrooms and potatoes).
Before getting on the bus home, we stopped in the foreign grocery mart to pick up, to us, what are a few pantry rarities - black beans, pita bread, hummus, wholegrain cereal, cumin, cloves, chick peas, lentils...but I have to add that my favorite pickup was a freshly-picked batch of cilantro. This is my favorite herb and I have been pining for that robust scent it gives off when you slice into the leaf. I brought my own seeds to grow the herb but I have to wait until the spring to cultivate them because they would otherwise fail indoors.
So, the first thing I did when I got home was pick up four avocados and get to the guacamole-making...
Mmm..fresh dirt still on the leaf.
There is nothing like a break from Korean food than a big ol' bowl of Guac to get you through the week. I know that the avocados are not in season and they probably lost a little bit of their luster on the shipping journey from New Zealand, but I could not resist a familiar taste. I know its a sustainbility sin not to buy local, but I can guarantee that I get my spinach from the patchwork just down the street.
A petition for creating a national sustainable food and agriculture policy can be found here.
Since I am destitute of my own mother's home cooking here I have to cop meals off of my Korean friend's mothers. My friend and co-worker, Kihyun, offered to have her mother cook me some of her specialty octopus...I was quick to accept. A week later she showed up at my door with containers full of octopus ocellatus, rice, and kimchi. A meal here wouldn't be complete without a full spread.
Kihyun said she eats this dish with her family regularly.
Yes, I always take my meals without a shirt on...it gives me a much more primordial experience of eating.
Pictured above is the full culinary ensamble. This photo wouldn't be complete without the unintentional yet aptly placed copy of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
