back in seoul: insadong

after a few days in the countryside, we headed back to seoul. although the city is pretty amazing, there are a lot of places that tell a different story of anyone who doesn't belong in the wealthy minority. i recently met w/ a friend who just came back from korea and told me how hard it is to make it out there (unless you're a foreigner).

sign for a laundry place.

from there, we went to insadong, an area famous for its many shops that sell artwork and antiques. i got a painting framed here for 40 bucks...only to break the glass at the airport and get a new piece fitted here for 60. >_<

and of course, there's always some street food vendor hustling. this lady was selling some kind of custard filled "bread" (can't think of really what to call it). what was funny was that she had a picture of lee myung bak on her cart, ordering some of her goodies. they weren't very good though.

after walking around a bit, we stopped by for a drink at a tea place.

all homemade.

i ordered sujunggwa, a cinnamon punch, which was the strongest i've ever had and woke me right up.

and some snacks on the side: i'm not sure what the stuff on the left is called, but its a thin puffed up piece of yut (malt) and on the right, some candied ginger.

as we were leaving, we saw a group of young pups tryin to make a dollar, singing jason mraz. check out the drunk man in the back as he dizzily swayed and clapped his hands to the music. if there was a caption for the second kid on the left, it would probably say, "wtf?"

happy sunday yall!

yahtzee! another food pornapalooza palazzi!

while my korea posts have been severely lacking in food pictures, i hope this one partly fills the void.

i can count the number of times i've had fine dining on my hand(s?), so i was lucky to add one more finger to my rather large collection of experiences when i got to eat at chaegundam. we heard that it was a vegetarian restaurant, but they did offer meat.

you can choose among fixed meal sets, and we opted for the lower priced ones at 33k and 45k won, around 30 and 40 USD.

to start, we had a cold jellyfish dish in a light mustard sauce.

a green salad with lotus chips in a delicious berry dressing.

jap chae, a noodle dish made from yam starch

i didn't like the pickled lotus too much because they put in cinnamon, which was a weird combination for me.

refreshing white radish kimchi

a black sesame porridge

arrowroot jelly with some mixins

soy sauce shrimp

some "nigiri" was given out as service. first was dolagee (bellflower root)

along with mushrooms.

to drink, we had some makgeoulli

traditionally drank in a bowl. this one overall was average...it wasn't that great, but still drinkable.

some kind of beef wrap

a very thick mushroom soup (stew?). i think the broth was made from soy beans.

at this point, taking all of these pictures started to feel like a bloody chore, which is probably why i'll never do a sushi post, at least in the foreseeable future. big ups to kirkk on his ridiculous three part urasawa post as well as kirbie's recent post on her gaslamp tasting extravaganza.

gujeolpan, thin pancakes in which you took some of the veggies(traditionally nine, which is what gu means) and made a wrap. we were ready to throw in the towel here. belts were loosened, bellies clutched, and groans let out freely, yet still the food kept on coming

galbi jjeem, a korean pot roast type thing.

fresh out of the fryer tempura: jujubes, orange zucchini, and ginseng (?!)

mushroom and green dduk (chewy rice cake) skewers

then, as if to rebuff any thoughts that the joint wasn't legit, the traditional rice and dwenjang jjigae (soybean stew) was served.

along with a myriad of banchan. as the old man in my yoga class hooted last night "oh lordy lordy lordy!"

the rice was cooked in a dolsot (stone pot) and scraped out, leaving a thin hard crust. tea was poured in afterwards, and you eat it as a soup. (as anyone who's been to a korea tofu house probably knows).

at last, dessert was served. some dduk that was filled with red beans and pine pollen, which really tasted...piney

along with watermelon and a light fruit tea. produce was really fresh here but also quite expensive.

overall, the food was wonderful and i really enjoyed being able to experience a new dimension of korean cusine. stuffed, we decided to walk it off

to the hotel. but still bloated, we walked across the street to a buddhist temple. i really wanted to take more pictures but my camera battery died shortly after. this had to be one of my favorite places i got to see at seoul. with all the hustle going on 24 hours a day in the city, i really felt like one could find some peace and quiet here.

the more pictures i take, the more i realize the difficult challenge of trying to capture everything i felt during that particular time. still, doing the food blog has awakened an interest in photography and its self taught lessons freely given with the growing pictures i snap (yo bagels). holla.

seoul - south side

before this trip, i had only been to korea once around 15 years back. I have some memories of the month I spent there, but Seoul was nothing like I remembered it to be. After parting ways with the tour group, we were free to explore on our own. The first place we went to was a few minutes away from our hotel by taxi, which is a cheap option for transportation w/ the starting fare around 2.50. But sometimes it was pretty scary to be in the backseat. While I find bad drivers in America to be characterized by their egotistical selfishness and ignorance of their surroundings, the drivers here speed around with a recklessness that only shows a disregard for all life, including their own.

But by the grace of god, fresh bread, and everything else holy in the world, we arrived at the Kim Young Mo Bakery, the first organic bakery in Korea.

plenty of free samples to try. lots of european and korean goodies on display.

for myself, i picked up a strawberry ice cream sandwich. the outer layers were more of a cake than cookie, and the inside was more of a sorbet.

there are so many businesses here, stacked upon one another. i wondered how they all survived. (the minimum wage here is 2500 won, a little under $2.50).

minsokchon was a traditional folk village park that showcased the old ways of life. it's also a place to drink soju in sd.

all that walking around was definitely tiring.

we also visited gyeongbok palace and changgyeong palace. one thing i loved about seoul was that the modern coexisted with the old, something you don't really see in the U.S. since it is relatively new (with the exception to the indigenous).

also loved that you were free to drink outside. here's the classic combo that will have your head spinnin. have a happy 4th everyone!