A muffin

This evening Jules and I went out for dinner to on of our favourite meat restaurants just down the road. We've made a decision to eat a lot less meat this year, and so we haven't been out for a 'meaty dinner' for ages.

The restaurant is quite a popular one, has homely wooden architecture and interior and a nice family vibe. The service is always excellent, as are the samgyeopsal (thick bacon BBQ) and dweji galbi (pork rib BBQ).

Our dinner was yummy as usual, and the service great: the waiter BBQed all the meat for us at our table, and made sure we never ran out of any side dishes: one thing I really appreciate about Korean restaurants. Side dishes are "eat all you can" and in good restaurants your side dishes will never be empty.

The cherry on top, though, was when the owner's daughter came over to our table and brought us a big chocolate muffin! What a darling! She looks about 10 years old, and was a bit shy to speak English (despite her mother and the waiter's encouragement) but bringing us the muffin was brave enough in itself!

Kindness and generosity are two characteristics of Korean people which I will remember for ever. Little incidents like this make me appreciate our experience in Korea all the more, and as we start drawing near to the end of our stay here, I am going to try and make a point of 'capturing' more of them.

Thanks muffin girl!

Eating 팥죽 on 동지날

I am now safe for the winter: I went to eat 팥죽 on 동지날 with my colleagues. 팥죽 (patjuk) is red bean soup with glutinous rice balls and 동지날 (dongjinal) is a traditional Korean holiday which falls on winter solstice, the 22nd of December.

Eating red bean soup on this day is an important traditional Korean ritual: it is believed to prevent evil spirits, and protect the people who make it (and eat it) from bad luck and epidemic diseases.

So some of the teachers at my high school invited me to come with them to a small temple near our school where we had red bean soup for lunch. It was delicious! I really like beans and the soup had a lovely rich, earthy flavour. It had rice balls in it, which are called "birds eggs" in Korean. The monks at the temple also brought us kimchi: this was honestly amongst the best kimchi I have tasted. I am not a huge fan of the stuff, but this was rather tasty. Since they are buddhists they don't eat meat and so instead of using fish sauce as the base of the kimchi sauce, they had used pumpkin and persimmon pulp: so much better!

P.S. The picture is straight off the internet. This was another one of those 'surprise' occasions on which I wish I had had my camera, but didn't.

Afterthought:
I am really enjoying being at the high school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I started conversation classes for all the teachers about 2 months ago and it has made the teachers so much more open and friendly towards me. I really feel almost 'part of the family' - more so than I ever expected.

A Fascinating Tea Experience

Last week I had a surprising and wonderful experience. Initially I had the usual 'what's going on here?' kind of feeling which we as foreigners in Korea know so well, but that feeling soon changed to one of curiosity, respect and humility. Mr Shin, one of the senior teachers at my high school - the one who's mother's funeral ceremony I attended - came along on Thursday and told me that his friend at the local court wanted to have English conversation lessons. Thanks to interpretation by the ever-wonderful Mr Kang (my high school co-teacher), it turns out that Mr Shin's friend is the chief judge of the Sangju district court and that he wants me to give him and his staff at the court English conversation lessons. To discuss the details, he had scheduled a meeting for us on Thursday afternoon.

So off the three of us (Shin, Kang, Jess) went to the court. An important-looking place of course, with metal detectors in the foyer and finger-print entrance-security in the corridors. Once we entered the chief judge's office I suddenly felt rather small and lowly: he has a huge office with the usual 'important' couches for entertaning guests - similar to the ones one encunters in other important places in Korea. We bowed our greetings and took our seats.

The judge sat at the head of the table and infront of him the typical equipment for a traditional Korean tea ceremony were laid out. This took me by surprise, but it soon became apparent that this was his way of showing respect to us for agreeing to meet with him, and in no time the tea ceremony was in full swing.

Kang did a fabulous job of explaining to me what the judge was saying about the various pieces of equipment, different types of tea, preparation methods etc. I commented that one doesn't come across traditional tea ceremonies very often, and Kang translated that this had to do with the Japanese occupation which tried to stamp out a lot of Korean traditions. Tea ceremonies are generally associated with people of higher social standing, then and now, and this explains why the judge would have 'treated' us to this: as a way of welcoming us, but also maybe to make us appreciate that we were in 'important' company.

It seems that traditional tea ceremonies in Korea were becoming less and less common, but have recently been experiencing a kind pf 'revival', as a way of relaxing in the formal setting of the workplace, and re-connecting with traditional buddhist beliefs and a healthier way of life.

So the equipment which the judge, Mr Song Bong-Kie, used was as follows: a main teapot (symbolic of the father), a secondary 'teapot', a kind of shallow cup with a spout (symbolic of the mother) and a few small cups without handles (symbolic of the children). The tea leaves - he used early-harvest green tea - are placed into the 'father' pot and then it is filled to the brim with boiling water. It is left for about a minute, no longer, and then the tea is poured into the 'mother' pot/cup. From the mother pot it is then poured into the 'children' cups.

'Dad' teapot - with the symbolically phalic handle, 'Mom' pot in the background (as usual) and the kids lined up next to them.

We were each given a little cup and could drink our tea. The green tea leaves can be re-used three times, i.e. the 'father' pot is re-filled with water three times. I must note that the 'tea set' is very small compared to our western tea sets: the pots and the cups. The tea tasted lovely: a clean, green tea kind of taste which I'm sure I couldn't even fully appreciate.

He told us that he also uses Puerh Tea from China, which he buys in compressed cakes for lots of money. I definitely got the impression that doing the tea ceremony the really traditional and proper way required access to lots of money.

They asked me whether I drink tea: I said yes, but that I drink tea from tea-bags and feel that one can hardly compare the two. I tried to look bashful and I think I communicated myself quite well :) Mr Shin himself is also quite a tea connoiseur and often brings me traditional Korean tea to try at school. But he refuses to try my rooibos tea as it is in a teabag!

Then a friend of the judge's, a buddhist tea mistress, came to join us. She is a highly-respected tea master/msitress(?) and is the one who taught the judge all about tea and tea ceremonies. This appeared to be the really special part as she used some very fancy implements to prepare 'Malcha' tea - powdered green tea of the highest quality.

Equipment for making Malcha tea - powdered green tea. (photo courtesy of 'The Internet')

She used a different kind of pot - similar to the 'mother' pot - for this tea. A special bamboo spatula was used to place the powdered tea into the pot and then a little cold and then hot water was added to it. She then used a very strange looking implement made of bamboo: it looked like a cross between an old-school shaving-foam brush and a whisk.

She stirred the mixture very briskly for a few minutes and it got all foamy and green - a lovely bright colour. We each had a turn to drink the tea straight out of the mother 'pot' and then she made a fresh batch for the next person: it had a very strong, rather bitter flavour, but also very fresh. I quite enjoyed it! The judge then gave me a tea set: this came as a complete surprise to me, and I felt very honoured and humbled. He explained that the tea set was pottery and made in a wood-fired kiln by a well-known monk at a nearby temple.

Mr Shin later told me that I was very lucky to receive that tea-set as a gift as one cannot actually buy them: the 'special' monk who makes them only gives them as gifts. Now the pressure is on - I will have to ask Mr Shin to help me buy the 'right' tea to drink from my unique and precious tea set - and ask him to help me make sure I do it all right. Come on over and I'll show you all how :)

My special tea-set, wrapped in the traditional Korean way.

Post script:
At no point during our meeting did we discuss the English lessons. The closest we came was the judge asking me whether I needed to see a dentist, and inviting us to a dinner meeting with himself and his dentist friend where we would (maybe!) discuss the English lessons further (?). After the dinner his dentist friend would be more than happy to check my teeth! To be continued...

Out and about in Mungyeong

We've just returned from a lovely day-and-a-bit in nearby Mungyeong. It's only about 40 minutes from here by bus and what a lovely place! It seems like Mungyeong City is really pushing tourism - local Korean tourism that is - as there are a lot of things to see and do around the area, even though the town itself is not much to write home about.

The main attraction is a mountain pass that has three large, historical gateways along it. The mountain pass goes up Joryeong Mountain, and was the main connection between the historically significant city of Gyeongju in the South-East and Seoul in the North-west. Most tourists take the direct path up the pass, which is a pretty easy walk and takes three-hours to the top - via three beuatiful, ancient (in varying degrees) gates.

Giovanni, a friend of ours who lives near Mungyeong, suggested we take an alternative route up, via a pretty waterfall and a temple, and which would probably also have less people-traffic and be prettier. Jules and I were keen and so we headed up there yesterday morning, in the calm, confident hands of dear Giovanni. Not knowing that he had NO clue how long or steep the alternative path was, and hadn't brought a map along either...needless to say the alternative route to the easy 3 hour walk took us about 7 hours (of course a lots of steep up and down involved)...and that was only to the 2nd of the three gates as we ran out of daylight and leg-power to reach the 3rd. But we walked through such beautiful forests, with far-reaching and wide views from the tops of peaks and we got to experience the beginning of the leaves changing colours, so gorgeous! Since it was Chuseok, most people were spending the weekend with their families and the paths were lovely and quiet. We almost had the mountains to ourselves - a treat in Korea!

We had hoped to at least reach at the third gate by late lunchtime for the famous Korean-pancakes served there (a kind of pancake with green onion and sometiems potato, kimchi and squid added to it = 파전 = pajeon) and so we had only packed some pears, apples and water for the walk. Oh, how dare I forget, Giovanni had also packed Makgeoli and Bamboo wine!! In true korean hiking-style we had our first pitstop after about 30 minutes of walking - around 10:30am and Giovanni insisted we crack the Makgeoli and bamboo wine. So we were well-oiled for those steep inclines and declines! (Although Julian's empty stomach didn't appreciate the early=morning treat that much and he had to take it easy on the pink brew!)

Now, what is Makgeoli (막걸리)? Good question! Makgeoli is a traditional Korean drink made from fermented rice and sometimes has some other stuff added to it: herbs, fruit juice, ginseng, whatever the local product is. In Mungyeong, the Makgeoli is flavoured with Omija juice, a kind of red grape/berry grown there - nice and sweet! So, Julian and I have not taken much to Makgeoli in the past, which tastes very 'wholesome' as alcohol goes, but also kind of sour and just not that easy-drinking. (A bit like the Zulu 'Amahewu'). But when you add Omija...it becomes so much more palatable! And so it was that on Makgeoli, water and fruit we survived from 10am until 6pm when we finally reached not the 3rd but the 2nd gate and could have our long-awaited pancakes!

That was the start of the next stage of our adventure - we were rather weary and very hungry by this time, and as we sat down to order pajeon and...well, of course, some more makgeoli, we were invited to join a group of Koreans who were just doing the same. It was soon apparent that they had also been digging into the Makgeoli, but since they had taken the 'easy' path up, it had already had much more effect on them - -they were very merry and very friendly! We had a lovely time with them, laughing and drinking and communicating according to an equation something like this: one-quarter Korean + one-quarter English + one-quarter makgeoli = we got along!

They then insisted we went down the hill with them to the town of Mungyeong Saejae and joined them them for real dinner (As if we hadn't just flattened three huge Korean pancakes...) of bibimbap - a mixed rice, egg and veggie dish which is very popular hiking food here. We were a little wary as this could only be a front for the next stage of drinking...which would mean lots of soju...but we were given very little choice in the matter! And so, we weaved our way down the hill, one of them fetched a car and then we had dinner. By this stage I became aware of the fact that the ladies in the party were not having as much of a ripper of an evening as the gents, and when I hinted that Jules and I would like to head over to the 'Pension' we had booked for the night, because we loooved each other (lots of gestures) and wante to stay in the beautiful "honeymoon pension, so romantic"... the ladies agreed and we called it a night. It was great fun- - and a lovely way to celebrate Chuseok as foreigners: with a bunch of very friendly and generous Koreans!

Enjoy the pics, I will write about the lovely 'pension' (guesthouse) we stayed at in the next post.

You can see the rest of the pics of our on the Picasa Web Album here: 'Mungyeong Hiking Weekend'

Beautiful Forests...I'm glad this section of the path had so many young saplings along which one could hold onto, it was steep and Giovanni even went for a bit of a roll-down at one point...

One of the peaks we reached along the path. At this stage we were still oblivious to the fact that we were still sooo far from our destination...

Giovanni showing off with his Bamboo wine on the EDGE of a cliff with a beautiful view of the valley below.

The Korean Crew! The little white bowls were what we drank the Makgeoli out of!

Our very own 'Ajumma'

Ajumma from afar: a 'mild' Ajumma bent over, tending her fields.
I'm still too intimidated to get closer to get some good photos of them...I'm sure my time will come!

One of the most unique things about Korea is it's 'Ajummas'. Ask any foreigner who has spent some time in Korea about their experiences with Ajummas and you are sure to get a volley of amusing and probably annoying stories with the odd gem of kindness mixed in. 'Ajumma' in Korean actually refers to any married women, but amongst foreigners it has become a term specifically referring to older Korean women (usually older than about 55).

They are a unique bunch and are easy to spot: they usually wear very clashy clothes i.e. orange and pink, mustard and lime green, garish florals and stripes, luminous geometric patterns and polka-dots etc. You get my drift. They also almost always have permed hair, thinning badly.
They walk with a bit of a stoop. As soon as a bit of sun appears they usually don their large visors (oversized caps) and often wrap up their faces with various forms of scarves and cloths, and wear gloves to protect tehir hands from the sun.
They are often to be seen bent up behind an old baby pram which is carrying some form of vegetable, cans of water or nothing at all (i.e. being used as a walker).

Ajummas are also known to be beligerent, pushy, and have very little respect for personal space. They are the worst crowd pushers, especially because they generally exhibit a kind of 'herding' behaviour when in groups and public places. They tend to congregate on street corners where they sit or squat on raised platforms of sorts and watch the world go by.

They are by far the WORST starers and have no 'skaam': they are stubborn and have no qualms in continuing staring even if you show discomfort or stare back. They are often seen squatting in public places and smoking: only old Ajummas are allowed to smoke in Korea: it is frowned upon for young women to smoke.

After all this about the Ajummas they seem like a tough bunch of old ladies, which they really are. But if one turns one's mind to the hard life they've had, this is not too surprising.
They've lived through the Korean war, many have probably lost husbands and sons, many of them have been farming most of their lives, attentively bent over their crops for hours on end. They have been unquestioning servants to their husbands: Korean woman do anything and everything required by their husbands, many of whom have drinking problems (the accursed cheap soju). They have prepared and large number of side dishes for almost every meal of their married life and they have born many children.
They have also watched Korea transform from a poor country on a par with many African develpoing countries, to a hugely successful country in the world, somewhere near 12th on economic country rankings worldwide.

All this may well explain the tough nature of the Korean Ajumma! So that was the lead-in to my real story. I feel like we are one step closer to understanding the real Ajumma, as we now have 'our own Ajumma'. Let me explain.

On our way to the shops yesterday evening, we passed a house on the corner. I've noticed this house before: there are often Ajummas in and out, they often play loud, old-fashioned Korean love-songs and there are plenty of pots outside growing all manner of vegetables and decorative garden plants. There is also a little fluffy dog which had puppies earlier in the year, so I have been observing this hosuehold with interest.

Anyway, as we passed by yesterday evening, the Ajumma of the hosue walked out of her front gate and started yelling at us (I don't think Ajummas can speak, they just yell!). All in Korean and at quite a rate: I didn't understand anything: except for the word 'banchan' which I recognised: it means side-dishes (an important word in Korea considering how very important food is in this culture). She was gesticulatong wildly and calling us towards her home and I guessed she wanted to give us some 'banchan'. I was right. She grabbed me by the hand and we went into her home, where she opened the fridge, promptly squatted down on the ground and began hauling out dishes. In a whizz she had a bowl and some chopsticks out and we were squatting down next to her in her kitchen trying her kimchi and other delights!

Our few Korean expressions of 'ooh, delicious' 'thank you' 'I like this' were lost in her constant stream of words (still almost at yelling pace and pitch!) She then decanted some of her treats for us and with that waved us out the door and we were on our way again, with many more 'thanks yous' and 'goodbyes' which I don't think she even heard!

The little exchange didn't last more than 3-4 minutes but it was quite something! Jules felt a bit overwhelmed by the experience - not surprising as we couldn't communicate with one another at all and her pushy, almost demanding, approach made her kind and generous act seem almost intimidating!

But in restrospect I feel honoured and humbled to have been invited into her home. I managed to get her name (Well, I think it's her name) 'Hon-Cha'. (I remembered it because in my mind she was a bit of a 'head honcho!') What a kind, geneours woman to haul two strangers off the street and endow them so generously with her handmade 'banchan'.

I am planning to make some banana bread (in Korean 'banana ppang') and take it over to her when I return her dishes. If only I could learn Korean in 48 hours so I could understand her non-stop chattering! How much more valuable our brief exchange would be then! As if I needed any more motivation to learn Korean: so much language so little time! You know how some people have a 'pudding stomach' and can always fit in pudding - I wish I had a 'language' stomach to always have extra tme and energy to devote to learning Korean.

Well, here's to Hon-Cha: I look forward to many more bewildering and enlightening exchanges with her. From afar she may seem like just another nutty Ajumma but her kindness and generosity warmed my heart!

Kimchi for Breakfast!

It was a momentous occasion when I woke up one morning and felt ready to have my first Kimchi Breakfast. This is one of the things we westerners in Korea just can't get over: that Koreans would favour Kimchi and rice for breakfast over a myriad of other options: cereal, yoghurt, fried eggs and bacon, toast and jam....etc.
Oh well.

So I decided to try it. Kang, one of my co-teachers, had brought us some Kimchi his wife had very kindly made for us. I think she was worried about us not having kimchi as we have not learned how to make it ourselves, and the shop-bought variety is often imported from China (!) and generally not thought of as being good enough for consumption. And a home without is Kimchi is...well, not quite a home.


So...last Sunday I cooked up some rice, got hold of some seaweed sheets to accompany the rice and hauled out the kimchi. I had fun! But I concluded that I did still prefer cereal, yoghurt, fried eggs and bacon, toast and jam....etc.
At least now I know.

Photographic and video evidence below for your enjoyment.

The box of kimchi which was kindly given to us by the wife of one of my co-teachers.
That's a lot of kimchi.

digging in...

Black Blood!

Yesterday I had my first experience of traditional Korean medicine - more specifically Korean hand acupuncture, which is also referred to as Koryo Hand Therapy. It was an interesting experience indeed!
But first, I must explain why I was in need of such treatment.

Two nights ago I had the most terrible stomach cramps and indigestion: I think it stemmed from eating too much rice cake.
How ironic, as just a few months ago I couldn't bring myself to eat the rubbery stuff, never mind enjoy it and indulge in it, and now I have reached the stage where appear to have over-indulged!
Too much doesn't really mean I pigged out too badly: I had about four pieces of it (One piece is about the size of a small kiwi). According to Kang, my co-teacher at the high school, this isn't really much (they love the stuff after all and are forever gorging themselves on it!) And their digestive systems are of course accustomed to it!
So I am not surprised that my digestive system went hay-wire: you may recall my earlier descriptions of rice cake: "I have decided that my least favourite 'Korean-favourite' is the rubbery rice-cake thing I wrote about the other day. It is so rubbery and tastes funny - they love it though and I think I will just have to get used to it."

The offending cake. I will be steering clear of this lot for a while!

So it would seem that my taste buds have got used to it but my gut hasn't!
Due, I presume, to the extremely rubbery and dense nature of this treat, and the fact that I ate more than usual of it, it got jammed in my digestive tract somewhere.
Man what terrible pain I was in! This was compounded by the fact that I had done some rigorous stomach exercises the day before and any movement which affected my abdominal area was excruciating. Anyway, I look some pills and eventually managed to get to sleep.
I woke up the next morning feeling a bit better, but after cycling to school the pain was back. Lucy, my middle school co-teacher, asked what was wrong and I explained, sheepishly, how I had indigestion from eating too much rice cake!

Anyway, she is very caring and I think enjoys the semi-mother-like role she plays in my life, so she whisked me off to the school nurse for some acupuncture: I was all game as the pills I had taken had not had the desired effect and I figured that Korean medicine might just be the ticket to deal with too much of the nation's favourite cake!

So Ju-Ju (the school nurse's English nickname) had me sit on the bed and proceeded to hit the top of my arm with some force. She then whipped out one of those auto-pricking type machines, like the ones they use to test your blood iron levels before you donate blood.
She flicked the side of my little finger quite hard a few times then pricked it. It wasn't really that sore but my blood came squirting out and she and Lucy both went 'ooooh'. Apparently the fact that the blood squirted out so viciously and the fact that it was black (i.e. very dark) means that my digestive system was very out of balance. 'Black blood is very dangerous' Cathy, another co-teacher, told me later. Anyway, so Ju-Ju then squeezed and squirted more blood out with a tissue and then she did the same to another finger on that hand and then to the same two fingers on the other hand.
Afterwards I was given a Korean herbal drink which I had to 'chew' before I swallowed it - chewing on a liquid is a strange feeling!

So that was my acupuncture experience. I actually really felt quite 'cleansed' by the experience and for a few hours before lunch I felt quite a bit better but eating a bit of food got the cramps going again. Anyway, I was brought some Maesil tea, made from a kind of green apricot, which is also meant to help with indigestion.

This experience has highlighted the generosity and caring nature of my colleagues to me: they were all very concerned about my well-being and all offered advice. To someone else this may well have come across as interfering and irritating but I will openly admit that I enjoy attention when I am feeling unwell and it all made me feel a lot better!
Ju-Ju was so kind and attentive and she offered her 'bleeding services' to me anytime - next time I have one of those monster headaches I will definitely head over for some more 'Sooji Chim'.

I think this is a fascinating branch of alternative medicine which I would like to make the most of while I am here. Below is a chart of the hand which is used to treat afflictions of different parts of the body. If you'd like to read more about Koryo Hand Therapy have a look at the website http://www.koryohandtherapy.com/

P.S. 'Blogger' is driving me slightly mad: I can't seem to get the text in this post to the same colour as that in the others, and as much as I try I can't get rid if the 'Arial' font. So please forgove my inconsistent post layout and formatting! I try!

Boxing Day Lunch in Korea: Styela clava

As if it isn't bad enough that I am at school on boxing day/family day, I also got the worst menu item at lunch: mi do duk soup.

So what is mi do duk? Mi do duk is also known by it's latin name Styela clava (Herdmann, 1881) or its common English name the 'clubbed tunicate' or 'stalked sea squirt'.

As hard as one tries, NONE of these names sound vaguely appetising but at the same time, none of them can convey the absolute height of unpleasantness one experiences when one has this creature in ones mouth! It is simply horrible.

It is described on the website of the British Columbia Shellfish Grower's Association as follows:

Distinguishing Features:
- solitary ‘club-shaped’ tunicate;
- Tunic (outer skin) is tough, brown, bumpy, and wrinkly;
- Attached to substrate by a stalk (about 1/3 of the total length);
- Two short siphons. closely spaced, with alternate red and tan bands;
- Often overgrown by other fouling organisms. (Other?????fouling?????)

Here are some pictures of this delightful little animal (I guess it's Mother loves it!):

eeeew, who in their right mind would CHOOSE to eat this thing?? Oh well, we're all entitled to our unique cultures.

To the mouth it feels very rubbery and bumpy, but the worst part is when you bit into one of these poor innocent creatures, the last gulp of sea water in took in before it's death is squirted into your mouth, eeeewwwww! yugh yugh yugh.

Anyway, I now know to avoid this soup: it is just not worth it. I feel I have established myself as friendly and open to trying everything in Korea. I am now moving gingery onto the next phase where I admit that I don't like some of their food: enough lying to please everybody now!

Bar Snacks

The Korean Food advnture continues: in the bars.

Last Friday we went out for dinner and a couple of beers with some of the other English speakers in town - it was quite fun to sample some Korean night life. We ordered beers in large 3L pitchers to share - the beer here is not as good as in SA but it isn't too bad and is WAY better than Soju: that's just poison! It's purely chemical and tastes vile. Really, it should only be recommended for medicinal purposes.

Anyway, so with the beer always comes a bowl of sweet puffed treats - I mentioned these in the Noraebang episode: they are a bit along the lines of cheee puffs but are rings and are sweeeet - probably best used as pacakging??!

Anyway, the funny thing about these fruit-loops-cousins (hey, that's quite a good description actually...) is that most of them (in one bowl) are a pale brown colour. But there is are always one or two pink ones and one or two green ones. Always in that ratio - very odd (you can see thsi in the pic above). I'll let you know when I figure this mystery out!

Onwards... the other snacks one encounters are peanuts, sometimes cooked in sesame oil - quite tasty, small dried fish and a pack of seaweed sheets. The seaweed apparently goes really well with beer (I am told, but am not sure I agree...yet!) and the little dried fish, well, I think they're quite cute, shame! They're very salty and quite edible too.

We also discovered an 'alcohol analyser' in one of the pubs, great fun. Jules went way into the 'maximum' category with this blow!

This is a sample (below) of the sort of funny English one comes across: someome must've strung these banners up without really understanding them (or after a few 'Hites" to open up their minds! -- "Hite up open mind your open"??

Gimbap!

On Julian’s birthday we went to Lucy’s (my co-teacher’s) house to learn how to make gimbap and to meet her family.
She lives on the 13th floor of a huge high-rise apartment block in Sangju: She and her husband (Jeong Cher – an engineer) have a lovely big apartment with huge windows and a great view over the rice fields and hills surrounding Sangju.
Lucy claims he sister is a better cook than she is, so her sister was the chef instructor in the gimbap-making lesson.
Gimbap is the Korean version of sushi: it is a roll of rice covered in seaweed and has various combinations of veggies, seafood and meat in the centre. One then cuts this roll into slices. It is of course, eaten with chopsticks, and usually dipped into soy sauce, soybean and red pepper paste or wasabi (hothothot!).

They had prepared all the meat and veg and rice, so when we got there we just had to roll and cut, well, not JUST…

Some of the ingredients: crab strips (pink), ham strips, some brown root vegetablein strips, and fish meal strips (this is a kind of pancake made from fish meal and cooked in soy sauce, surprisingly tastes quite good!) We also sued cucumber, carrots, pickled radish, and (processed!) cheese for the gimbap.

The rolling is a bit challenging: one has to be careful not too make the roll too fat otherwise one can’t get the gimbap slices into the mouth in one bite! And if one doesn’t roll it tightly enough (one uses a bamboo mat, like a placemat) then it falls apart when one cuts it!

The finished product! The children made mini-gimbaps (in the middles), very cute! :)

So we managed to roll relatively good gimbap rolls and cut them up. We then showed them how to cook a pasta dish – seemed so boring in comparison! – and we shared our meals together. It was a really lovely afternoon. Lucy’s family are such warm, open people and her husband and sister both speak relatively good English: Jules and I enjoyed having conversations with them. Jules sat on the couch with the men watching baseball – a big favouriote here, there’s a very serious national league! Lucy’s niece is a real cutie: her English name is Alice (I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember her Korean name!) and she speaks really good English too: she was very excited to show me her room (they live in the apartment below Lucy’s) and she’s got loads of English books and flashcards: lucky girl! And she really seems to enjoy learning English.

Lucy and Alice with our gimbap!

So gimbap is the first Korean speciality which we have learned to prepare ourselves: we are yet to try it out at home, but will do so soon! It’s really tasty and I think probably not too expensive since all the Ingredients are Korean-made. We have found any food which is vaguely western is very expensive: once we have settled in, we will have to start cooking more and more Korean! I’m sure gimbap will remain a favourite.

Lucy and Jeong-Cher had very kindly bought Jules a cake for his birthday - a real beauty from 'Paris Baguette' a bakery which is a chain/franchise all over Korea and very popular for baked goods, especially these very creamy very decorative cakes - which are more beauty than brains ;) But add fun and excitement to an occasion nonetheless!

This little piggy went to market (and took lots of pics!)

I've been meaning to post these photos since last weekend, so here they are! I've tried to place them in some kind of logical groupings or order...the market is such an interesing place! The live fish and eels are the biggest 'weird' thing...but as I was saying to Jules: on street corners in Greytown there are goats tied to lampposts nd chickens in cages being sold so maybe it's not as weird as one first thinks!

Enjoy!


General view of the market: one can buy anything from chillis and broccoli to clothes and kitchenware and blankets here - all at reasonable prices (but nothing is marked: we will have to learn to ask for prices and be able to understand the responses!)

This lady on the right is making 'Korean Pancakes': A 'street-food' speciality: it is a ball of dough (similar to vetkoek) with sugar and peanuts in the middle. This is then placed on a hot oiled plate and squashed down to make a hot yummy pancake oozing fat and sugar!


And now: the spices: LOADS of garlic and chilli, so much! Apparently the chillis grown in our province, Gyeongsangbuk-do, are amongst the hottest in SK, aren't we lucky! We haven't found any of the food too spicy though, fortunately.



Sprouts!
They LOVE sprouts: with anything and everything!



Acorn Jelly! Hmmm, I'm not a big fan of this stuff, it doesn't taste like very much and has a horrible wobbly texture and horrid brown colour. They also love this and put it into lots of dishes!


Ginseng! This is the No.1 natural health product in Korea. SK is famous for its Ginseng. I haven't tried it but I'm sure one day I will. (Don't actually know in what form they consume it)

Mushrooms and more mushrooms! They have so many shapes and sizes of mushrooms: each for a specific dish or purpose.


Now for the LIVE FOOD! These are the eels. They are remarkable in that they are not only sold live at the market, but also eaten alive! You boil themn your table-top cooker and swllow them wriggling! Can you imagine that sensation down your gullet...gives me the shivers!

On the right are sea squirts. These are also live at the market and go down live!

Live Fish: Many tankfuls of these all over the place: at the market, in restaurats, outside restaurants and even in our local supermarket.

So there you have a brief introduction to shopping for food in South Korean markets. One can buy fruit and veg and some fish at the supermarket but it does seem that it is cheaper at the market. So I guess soon I will be grabbing a shopping bag (my Kanga bag - thanks K!) and heading on downtown to experience this!

Photos of culinary delights: Part 1

So I have finally got some photos of some of the lovely dishes I have been describing in the blog.
To begin, the takeout lunch in Seoul: Enter at left the three boxes and two bowls...

My first Korean meal in a restaurant was kal gug su: a type of soupy noodle dish. The soup contained whole mussles/clams of sort which one fishes out with chopsticks and removes the contents - with chopsticks, difficult! This was accompanied by the usual side dishes: kimchi, cooked rgrass (I don't have a proper name for this yet!), fresh cabbage leaves, etc.

My ineptness with chopsticks seems to be quite a talking point when we're eating in a restaurant: great aught and offers of wooden chopsticks or a fork. Only little kids eat with forks, embarassing!! We now have wooden chopsticks at home to practice with. The metal chopsticks in the restaurants etc are really a nightmare to try and eat with, just so slippery!

This is the dreaded rice cake. This was a stall at the Sangju storytelling festival where they were making ricecake - very proudly so and offering tasters to all passers-by - could not refuse! I must admit that it is slightly better when fresh as it is a bit more tender-less rubbery!- and goes down easier! But as you can see, it needs to be beaten with huge mallets to make it at all edible, this stuff is crazy!
On Sunday (12 Oct) we went out for 'Korean Bacon'. This was really tasty. We had a little cooker/plate in the middle of our table (at which we are of course sitting on the floor!).
We fried the bacon and sliced mushrooms on the plate, then rolled it up in a piece of fresh lettuce with various combinations of soybean paste, garlic sauce, chilli, radish, kimchi (of course!!), marinated beef, quails eggs, 'cooked grass' dish etc. This was really tasty. Topped off with rice and tofu soup. A lovely meal indeed, very edible!
(P.S. The peace/V symbol is important when taking photos in Korea - you can see Jules is leraning quickly! And instead of saying 'cheese' in photos, the Koreans say...well, you guessed it...Kimchiiiiii!)