Seoul Food

This post is actually about Korean food in general; food in Seoul is not that different from food elsewhere in the country - but Seoul food has a better ring to it, don't you think? When Ben was in town last weekend I had another chance to introduce a guest to this tasty, healthy cuisine. It's hard to know where to begin to describe the food; if you really want to know what it's like, you should come visit, too! But using this picture as a guide, I'll try to explain a bit about a Korean meal. (Once again, the photos are courtesy of a friend - thanks, Ben!)


The Korean traditions of eating and sleeping on the floor are becoming less common, but in a lot of restaurants you do still sit cross-legged on floor cushions. It's really gezellig (cosy, for any non-Dutch readers out there), especially in the winter when the floor heating is on. Here's a Korean family that was in the same restaurant - looks like a gezellig way to eat, doesn't it?

Many people think of Korean food as spicy, and a lot of it is - note all the red in the dishes in the first picture (I think Ben said several times, "Man, they really like to put this hot sauce on everything, don't they?"). Koreans do use gochu-jang (pepper paste) in a lot of their food, and also slice HOT peppers into many soups and stews. Most people also think of kimchi when they think of Korean food - and indeed, no Korean meal would be complete without it. I like it now, but the appeal of this spicy, fermented cabbage is definitely an acquired taste. In this picture, the kimchi is in the top left corner of our table. Most Korean meals include a number of side dishes; here we had a couple varieties of kimchi, tofu, a sort of layered-omelette egg dish, and some kind of seafood smothered in - what else? Hot sauce.

Our main dish at this meal was bulgogi - a favorite among foreign visitors to Korea. Bulgogi is thin slices of beef marinated in a mix of ingredients including Asian pear juice, then boiled or grilled. You often eat it wrapped in lettuce leaves; in addition to the meat, you can add other greens, garlic, rice, and bean paste to the wrap. The bulgogi is in the steaming dish in the center of our table; you can see the guy behind me putting together a lettuce wrap.


We also had taenjang jigae - a spicy stew of tofu, squash, and onion in a soybean-based broth. Paired with rice, this is a great meal in itself - especially in winter because it's served in a hot stone pot (the steaming black bowl next to the bulgogi on our table). A number of Korean dishes are served that way, and Mom, I often think of you when I eat them - they're great for people like you who can never seem to have their food hot enough! It starts out much too hot to eat (for me, anyway), but it's nice that even your last few spoonfulls of soup never get cold.


I look forward to introducing my next guests (Kirsten, Mom, and Dad - I hope you're working up your appetites!) to Korean food. Crystal and I followed a day of shopping yesterday with sushi for dinner - and that also got me looking forward to the culinary adventures Kirsten and I will experience in Japan. Those of you who know me well know that I love to eat - and I think that trying different foods is one of the best parts of traveling. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to post about Korean food!

Seoul Scenes

One of the things I love about Seoul is the mix of old and new. These are pictures from a quaint neighborhood of hanok - traditional Korean homes - that I explored with Sun Young and her girls last Friday. I think the juxtaposition in this first picture gives a good sense of that mix: stone walls, paper windows, and curved roof tiles contrasted with the car and motorcycle on the street and the modern buildings in the background.

The girls and I sat down on this front stoop to finish our ice cream and have our picture taken.

Here are Joo Yun and Na Yun, then Sun Young, Na Yun, and me posing by the chimney of one of the hanok.

After ambling through the alleys, we stopped to recharge at this tea house, which wraps around a serene garden and has a fantastic view through a wall of windows of one of the mountains that surrounds Seoul. While Sun Young and I chatted, the girls created their own renditions of the hanok we'd seen. They were both excited about the tiny tea pot and cup that Sun Young's tea was served in, and they took turns filling it again and again from the thermos you can see on the floor and then pouring it into the cup. (Kirsten, this tea house has been added to your Seoul itinerary. You'll love it!)

One of these days I'll buy a digital camera, and then I'll be able to post pictures more frequently. Those you've seen on my blog so far are from kind friends who share their photos with me. Thanks, Sun Young and Eric!

Take me out to the ballgame

I went to my first professional baseball game in Korea last week. On his first night in town, Eric and I saw the visiting Lotte Giants defeat the Doosan Bears 7-2 in what, for the most part, looked very much like a MLB game in the States. Other than a disproportionate number of left-handed batters (switch hitters was Eric's guess), the game is basically the same; the whole baseball experience, though, has a Korean twist.

One difference from the States is that pro baseball teams in Korea are associated with their corporate sponsors rather than the cities they play in - you won't find Lotte or Doosan if you look for them on a map of Korea. The Bears are one of the two teams that play their home games at the stadium used for baseball at the Seoul Olympics (though baseball was only a demonstration sport in '88). I should ask some Korean friends about team loyalty; I'd assume that people root for their hometown team, but I'm really not sure. The Giants are a Pusan team, and they certainly had lots of fans at this game.

Another difference is that there are cheerleaders here - not only the girls with pom-pons that we're used to seeing at football and basketball games in the States, but also guys dressed in team uniforms who stand on platforms in front of the baseline crowds to lead them in chants and songs. Our seats were in left field, and we had a good view of the Giants cheerleader on the third base line. He was a wildly gesticulating conductor who displayed endless enthusiasm and used blow after blow on his whistle to get the fans to chant the name of the player at bat or to sing team ditties like "Lot-te, Lot-te, Lot-te, Lot-te" sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. And sing they did; fans here really, really get into the game.


As you can see, snacks at Korean baseball games are also a bit different. Instead of popcorn and CrackerJack, fans here eat kimbap and dried squid - which admittedly looks rather funny but actually tastes quite good, especially once you dip it in hot pepper paste. It goes well with beer, which they sell in cans here; apparently Korean fans are better behaved and less likely to hurl them onto the field than some of their rowdy American counterparts might be.

I'm sure it was a shame for many of those in attendance that the home team didn't win - but for two American fans it was just fun to be out with the crowd, enjoying a familiar pastime on a warm spring evening on the far side of the Pacific.