box of Jack

I was going to enumerate every single thing I ate on this trip but I realized I didn’t take photos of it all. So instead, I’m just going to post photos in chronological order and write a little bit about each. Eat with your eyes and whatnot. Note that I don’t know the Korean names of most of these things so feel free to enlighten and/or correct me in the comments. I have a higher-than-average blog audience of Korean women.

First night: Huge Japanese dinner

Diana’s father took us out to Fuji-san, a Japanese restaurant he likes to haunt. For about US$35 per person, they give you three or four courses of Japanese food. I can’t remember it all but I recall that the salmon was out of this world. There was like a fried fish that was very tasty and the tempura was fluffy and perfect. Eating whole fish always makes me wonder why Americans are so afraid of anything that isn’t a fillet. There are so many other tasty parts of the fish if you’re willing to deal with some bones. It’s like only eating chicken breast, blech.

Spicy pot of seafood in Insadong

This soup was just on the edge of spiciness. Drinking the soup would cause a little bit of discomfort but the seafood and vegetables inside were flavored beautifully. Diana had to double check if I could deal with the spice but I think she got sick of it before I did. You know you are eating well when you break out a sweat, I imagine runner’s high must feel like this.

You can also see some of the little side dishes that Koreans enjoy with their meal. It sure beats a basket of breadsticks. You’ll also note the metal chopsticks that Koreans prefer. It makes a lot of sense in terms of hygiene and heat resistance but they are harder to hold as they are slimmer and heavier.

Street food outside Yonsei University, Shinchon

Street vendors in Shinchon have it pretty cushy. They set up these tables and tents and invite people to sit down similar to a lot of noodle/ramen shops. A lot of the street food I saw centered around fish cake. Or maybe I should call it fish paste. Whatever, it’s fish meat mixed with filler and herbs and stuff. There’s also like a spicy broth with chewy hunks of rice cake in it, it’s almost like pasta. I wish I knew the names to these things.

Marinated beef short rib, cooked at the table

South Korea is currently undergoing a big thing about beef right now. A lot of people are upset about allowing US beef imports and it’s more about politics than it is about public health so I think I’ll just leave it at that.

This is neither here nor there because most beef you will find is Australian or Korean. Tastes fantastic to eat it straight off the grill, not to mention being utterly immersed in the smell. They provided lettuce and sesame leaves so we could make little wraps. Not pictured was our second course of buckwheat noodles submerged in an icy broth. We poured some mustard and soy sauce over the top and slurped it up.

A Twosome Place, Shinchon

A Twosome Place is a Starbucks-style chain in Korea. Starbucks and many other clones can be found all over Asia. What stood out for me was that coffee is a little pricey here. Where most food can be found for cheaper than what it is in America, Starbucks-style drinks will cost you a little more. Perhaps there is some sort of tax involved in pretending you are a Westerner. Much like how Westerners are asked to pay exorbitant prices for anything that feels remotely foreign.

Korean-style shabu shabu

More cooking at the table and communal food-sharing. This meal was a delicacy to me. Basically we cook all our beef in the spicy broth. Once the beef was all gone, we add more broth and cook some udon and more vegetables. In the third and final stage, we pour out the excess broth and cook fried rice in the pot, scraping off anything that’s stuck to the bottom of the pot. This was just too much fun for me and I could barely contain myself. Also, there was beer.

A French cafe in Itaewon

If you get tired of Korean food or just get homesick, there are plenty of McDonald’s and Pizza Huts around. Failing that, you can head to Itaewon where all the foreigners are. I’m doubtful as to exactly how French this cafe was but the menu was in French and Korean so I was very happy to remember some of the French I learned. I saw a lot of other cuisines represented in this part of town: Italian, Japanese, Iranian, British, American, etc.

Business Class on Asiana Airlines

Thanks to the miracle of overbooking and the unattractive pricing of airplane seats, we got upgraded on our Seoul to Hong Kong leg. Three courses of ok-ish food, decent wine and my favorite photo of Diana double-fisting two full-bodied dessert wines. This was followed by lots of jokes about pretty flight attendants and double-fisting. We put the “class” in “business class”.

Seafood dinner in Hong Kong

I forgot the name of this district but there’s a big seafood market where you order your live seafood and then sit down in the restaurant next door to have it prepared. The smell of old fish everywhere did wear on my appetite but I can’t blame them because it was a stinking hot day.

I loved the pissing shrimp, scallops, crayfish and clams but I question the crab cooked in egg and the too-chewy sea snail thingies. Crab and egg is not a combination I would encourage and the texture of the snails was a bit too real for me to deal with. I’m not saying there’s a Right Way to cook these things but it did not appeal to my personal tastes.

Our last meal in Hong Kong

Amy took us to one of her favorite Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong’s Times Square. While the interior was very lovely, the food didn’t quite compare to the Japanese dinner we ate in Seoul. I ate it all though and I loved their skewers and shrimp salad.

Our final meal in Seoul :(

A simple and hearty way to bid farewell to Korea. Chicken, vegetables, rice cake thingies and the omni-present red pepper paste all cooked at the table. Sides of a cold seaweed soup, kimchi and pasta salad.

In conclusion, while I learned none of the Korean language (except the ubiquitous -sseyo and -hamnida endings to sentences), I feel like my taste buds learned a lot. While there’s certainly many more volumes to study, it’s opened my eyes to another distinct style of Asian flavors. Korean cuisine is something I’ve been completely ignorant to for the longest time and it’s a very, very good way of being introduced to the country. Now that I’ve left, I feel a new nostalgia in the pit of my stomach. A yearning for those happy days of cooking at the table, eating to excess and working up a good sweat.