dalkgalbi

I love dalkgalbi. It is a spicy chicken dish that is cooked in the middle of the table in a large pan. It has cabbage and some other vegetables and lots of spice. Delicious!!!!!

Mmmmm... Meat.

At Mapo Galbi in Hwajeong - they pour egg on kimchi and other stuff in a tray around the grill to cook. Yum.

galbi

This is how you eat galbi, or barbecued meat. It is cooked on a little grill in the middle of the table and cut up with scissors (you cook it yourself, obviously). You take a nice piece of lettuce, add rice, meat (dipped in a salt/sesame oil mixture or other type of sauce) and what ever else you like (onion, garlic, kimchi, etc), hen wrap it all up and pop it into your mouth. It's a bit of a mouthful, but definitely delicious.

a treat

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada, but it is Pepero Day in Korea. I think I've posted about this a few times before. Pepero is basically thin cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. November 11th is Pepero Day because, well, 11/11 supposedly looks like Pepero sticks. How creative. Pepero characters. Pepero songs. Pepero animation.
This year my school was closed that week so I didn't get many of the chocolate dipped cookie sticks.
Almost a week later one of my students did give me some fancy (gourmet) ones.These ones were quite tasty!! :)
The card thing on top says: "Special Gift" "wish you eternal happiness and the bless of health~!!"

Snowboarding in Korea

I went snowboarding a couple of times this winter. I had only been boarding once before, many years ago, so I am still learning. It scares me, but I love it!! (I'm scared of heights and speed!)The first outing (January 25th) was to Vivaldi Park, which is a couple of hours north east of Seoul. As we had someone driving, we left very early and returned the same day in the evening (though in hindsight, we should have made plans to just stay there for the night).The resort was not very busy (due to it being the Lunar New Year long weekend), which was great since 3 of us were beginners. The hill has 12 slopes and the snow was great. It had been snowing so it was all fresh and it continued to snow on and off when we were there.The menu at the cafeteria had us rolling on the floor - the item at the bottom of the menu says, "Squid three dual beam blows". Ummmm. What is that? The Korean says it is Osambulgogi, which is a pork and squid dish. I suppose the "three dual beam" refers to the samgyupsal, which is 3 layer pork belly (similar to bacon but cut thicker).

Everything shuts down for an hour at around 5 for the hills to be freshly groomed before the evening skiing, to mark the end of the half day lift tickets.The evening time was great. With the lights on, it was easy to see and there were a lot less people. Quite peaceful, actually, though they do have Korean music playing all day from loud speakers on the lift posts.
I'm not very good at boarding. I know I don't do it right. I do it my own way. I don't turn properly. Actually, I don't turn at all. Instead, I keep switching my front foot - regular (left forwards) to goofy (right forwards) to regular to goofy, zig-zagging my way down the hill. I tried doing a proper turn once... resulting in a fractured tailbone - OUCH!!!!!! Still getting over that one (couldn't sit or really walk without being in a lot of pain for the first couple of weeks after). Didn't stop me from going again, though. Went straight back up to the top of the mountain for another run. But after that, I decided I should get more comfortable with what I can do on the board rather than trying anything new, since I don't want to hurt myself any more before my big trip. I NEED to be able to sit properly (long flights and bus rides almost every day will not be fun if I can't sit for long) and have to be able to carry my pack and such.The second boarding trip (February 8th) was to Bears Town for a morning of boarding. We got up really early and took a taxi to the hill (because of where we were at the time, it was much easier to do that than to go to one of the bus pick up points). Bears town is fairly close to Seoul, just to the northeast. Bears Town is a fairly popular place for day trips from Seoul.It has 11 slopes and is fairly easy to get to. When we went, though, it wasn't so great. Pretty much the entire hill was ice covered in man made snow, which was pretty much tiny little balls of ice. If you fall, you hit hard, and keep sliding for quite a ways. It is hard to get up as there is nothing to grip. Several times I had to slide a ways down to find a spot to grip. It is much harder to board on ice, as there is no resistance and the board just wants to fly out from under you. My legs certainly got a good workout trying to keep me up!! I fell a lot more this trip than I did the trip to Vivaldi Park. My tailbone survived - when I fell I purposely landed more flat on my back rather than on my butt. I did manage to hurt my elbow, though. sort of hyper extended it. I was feeling that for the following week. It is okay now for the most part.
I wish I could have gone some more but as I'm out of here next weekend, I don't really have time. Too bad. I'll have to wait until next year.

Cutting pumpkin toffee

I always find these stands interesting. The giant scissors are used as both a tool (hammer?) and an instrument (to play along with the background music). Stands like this are fairly common in Korea. The pumpkin candy (like toffee) is nice. A bit chewy, though.

temple food and traditional Korean entertainment

A couple of weeks ago, Sergeja and I went to Sanchon Restaurant in Insadong. We had been planning on going there for a couple of weeks and were really looking forward to it. We were not disappointed. It was so good. Worth the 35,000 per person. It is set menu of 20 vegetarian temple food dishes (I've added my comments in brackets):
1. porridge of the season (plain but sooooooo good)
2. watery plain kimchi (I always love water kimchi)
3. radish, mushrooms, peppers and other vegetables, wrapped in thin vermicelli pancake (Couldn't really taste or see what it says is in it. Tasted like a cinnamony paste in the wrap. yummy)
[#4 in center and #12 bottom right]
4. seven wild vegetables, each with its own seasonings (almost all greens of some sort, some okay, some I can't stand as they have very strong distinct tastes)
5. kimchi
[#7 top left, steamed and seasoned peanuts (#15?) center, #6 bottom right]
6. seasoned fresh lettuce (very good. vinegary with a bit of red pepper powder added)
7. cooked roots of ballom flowers and fernbraken (I really liked it. Apparently fernbraken is great for women's health but is bad for male stamina - say several Korean friends of mine)
8. fried kelp (yuck! so fishy. very dry)
9. steamed beancurd with burdock, mushrooms, carrot (tofu with sauce and such on top - I like tofu but not this sauce as it had some sort of mountain berry with a very strong anise/licorice taste)
10. jelly (fairly plain; always like it; I think acorn or millet jelly)
11. small potatoes glazed with soy sauce and millet jelly (soooo yummy, but only one small potato each)
12. seasoned wild mountain roots (I loved it, Sergeja didn't)
13. special chopsuey made with various vegetables and mushrooms (I always love japchae)
[#14 bottom left, #16 center, (#15?) right, #11 bottom right]
14. three kinds of fritters of fried seasonal vegetable (tuikim - battered and deep fried snacks - long green peppers, lotus root and eggplant. I loved all but the peppers.)
15. seasonal Buddhist monk's favorite vegetables
16. three kinds of pan fried seasonal vegetable pancakes (very good)
17. rice with beans, millet, etc (just a dish of sticky rice with a few things added)
[#8 bottom left, #18 center]
18. soybean stew with mushrooms, radish, red peppers, beancurd, etc (dwenjang chigae - one of my favorite Korean soups that is fairly simple to make- served with a cool bamboo scoop)
19. tea (some sort of grain tea - barley or millet or something like that - nice)
20. sticky rice pastry (yugwa, a puffy rice cake. I got a box of this for the Lunar New Year. I do really like it. light, slightly sweet, fluffy)The entertainment during our meal was great. It started out with a buddhist monk playing a jong (a giant bronze bell; a very deep resonating sound) and a traditional chinese calligraphy demonstration.
Then there was a variety of traditional Korean dance performances (for some other pictures of a variety of traditional Korean dances including some of the ones I'm listing, check out lifeinkorea.com):fan dancedrum dance "Sogo si a small drum used for farmers'music either with or without a handle. Also referred to as maegubuk, it is often used in creating farmers' music and folk dance music" (ureuk.or.kr)something like the Seungmu (?) - "With a strong Buddhist aspect, this dance is performed wearing a indigo skirt, white top, and white pointed hat" (tour2korea.com) followed by an awesome drum performance - Jwago (a barrel drum in a wooden frame)- A few times during this performance, he was drumming so fast you could barely see his hands; and he was not just drumming the center of the drum but was alternating hitting the top edge of the drum and the center of the drum and then the outside edges of the drum with the backs of the drumsticks."Hwagwan-mu was performed in the court for state-level visits or during a joyous national event. Ladies-in-waiting performed this dance for the King. The performers wore magnificent dresses with delicate embroidery and long sleeves that covered their hands and draped down almost to the ground. Originally, the dancers wore flower cornets, but they have been discarded in modern times. The dance has a sense of gravity in all of its movements." (lifeinkorea.com) another drum dance accompanied with another drum anda gong
The restaurant has been in the news and around the net several times (I'll only post a couple):

KOREAN TEMPLE COOKING WARMS THE BODY, SOOTHES THE SOUL
(August 6, 1986) By SUSAN CHIRA (NYT)
DURING his 18 years as a Buddhist monk, Kim Yon Shik grew into an ardent fan of temple cooking, the distinctive cuisine based upon fresh vegetables gathered in the country's woods and mountains. And when, at the age of 32, he left the monastery in which he had lived since he was 14, he decided taht this cuisine deserved a wider audience.
The result is Sanchon, an attractive restaurant offering temple fare for lunch and dinner with nightly samples of Korean dance and music.
Temple cuisine grew out of Korean religious history. Mr. Kim said. During the Yi Dynasty (from 1392 to 1910), Confusianism edged out Buddhism as the predominant religion in Korea, and Buddhist monks were ousted and forced to live in remote mountains. Without much money, Mr. Kim said, monks had to forage for their meals, and they discovered many wild, edible plants.
Temple cuisine's emphasis on fresh vegetables and herbs reflects a tradition in Korean cooking of closeness to nature. Many of the wild vegetables and herbs served at Sanchon are eaten for their medicinal qualities, or because they are supposed to warm or cool the body. Although Korean food is famous for its liberal use of garlic and red-hot chilies, supposedly introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, much of the food served at Sanchon is comparatively mild, a reflection of an earlier tradition of indigenous Korean cooking. Many of the mountain vegetables served at Sanchon are parboiled and lightly seasoned with sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce and toasted and ground sesame seeds. Other dishes - particularly the thick soup, the spicy kimchee and a few of the vegetables and roots - include thick clumps of chilies.
His project has been a decided success. The main branch is tucked in a small alley in the center of Insadong, one of Seoul's antiques districts.
Guests enter Snachon by way of a courtyard filled with stones and large ceramic jars of Kimchee, the fiery pickled cabbage that is a Korean staple. After leaving shoes at the door, one enters a large room with wooden beams and several low tables with cushions. True to Korean custom, the floor is heated from below, a system known as ondol, and it feels toasty on chilly nights. Maps, carved chests, Korean flutes and painted doors decorate the restuarant. ...
[There is quite a bit more but it basically just describes the food and I dont' want to type it all. I've actually typed up most of this from the little copy of the article on the menu from the restaurant, as you can only access the full article on the net by paying for it.]

Sanchon as Asia's 10 Best Veggie Restaurants (September 2007)

shabu shabu

One of the many dishes here that I really enjoy is Shyabu Shyabu. I think it is also a Japanese dish, but the Japanese one is not exactly the same (Sergeja spent 3 years in Japan, so I have this on good authority).
The shabu shabu restaurants vary a bit from one to the other, of course. Some have the gas burner in a hollow in the the table in which they set the big pot/bowl, some bring out a little gas burning stove to set the pot on. They put a liquid broth in the pot and turn it on. They bring out a platter of vegetables, mushrooms, slices of acorn squash and other little things,

a plate of thinly sliced frozen beef,

and a dish with some noodles and mandu/dumplings (mandu is not always there). Add to all that a variety of side dishes - we had kimchi, water kimchi with pickles,

and salad.

You each get your own little bowl and dipping sauce, of course. With everything all together, the table is always VERY full.

Once the broth is boiling, you put the vegetables, mushrooms and such into it. You can cut up the bigger veggies (like big cabbage leaves, lettuce leaves, mushroom bunches, etc) with the scissors that are always present at most Korean restaurants. At some restaurants, they will do this for you, at others, you have to do it yourself. I had never actually done anything when going out for shyabu shyabu, as I have always gone with Koreans that would do it all. This was the first time I had to do everything. Easy as pie. As the veggies start to cook, you put pieces of meat in to cook. You dont' put it all in at once, as it would all be done too quickly. Because it is sliced so thin, it cooks almost as soon as it touches the boiling broth.

You can pick out pieces one at a time or use the scoop to put some in your own dish. It is best to have some meat with vegetables together and dip it and eat it. Mmmmmm. sooooooo good. Once you are almost finished the veggies and meat, while there is still plenty of broth, you put the noodles and mandu in to cook (you can ask for more broth if it starts to get low).

Once they are finished and eaten, they make a little bit of rice porrige with the left over broth, pre-cooked rice, some little added things such as shredded laver (seaweed) and green onions and some egg. It is so delicious.
Sergeja and I went out for Shyabu Shyabu a week ago and ate SO much. And it is so cheap for what you get. It cost us 8,000won each (about 8.50USD or 8.95CAD).

new friends and good food

As the 15th was a holiday here, I went out with Sergeja and her Korean friend that had lived with her for a few months in London.
We started out at a little pizza place in Dongbu Ichon-Dong, near the station. I had been there once before after looking at housing with the boss. A nice little place with thin crust pizzas. Most of the menu items were seafood based, but there were a few that weren't, mostly mushrooms - cream of mushroom soup, mushroom pizza, and mushroom cream spaghetti. The mushroom pizza is great. We then moved on to Hongdae, where we went to a Korean bar/restaurant. We had some lemon soju cocktail and shared Korean green onion pancake and dubu-kimchi (cooked kimchi with tofu).

I had been craving dubu-kimchi for a long time. I LOVE IT!!! When we had had enough of that place (we were all freezing due to the air conditioning being full blast), we moved on to another bar in the area - the Liquid lounge. I knew it was a cute little place to have drinks (I had been there once before during a stagette party) so we went. We had Midori Sour. Mmmmmm. Good.