One thing you get used to seeing a lot of in Seoul is traffic. Not even traffic jams, per say (although, there are plenty of those), but just the sheer number of vehicles that pass you by as you stroll down any street. Two Thursdays ago I spent part of the evening photographing passing vehicles that I found particularly interesting. I’ve always been a fan of the small utility vehicles and anything with two (or three) wheels. Here are some of the standouts:
교통 (kyo·t’ong)
Okay, I’m not sure when this turned into a food blog, but I just can’t help myself.
My latest Korean culinary adventure took me no farther than my own backyard. On the bus home from class this evening I became convinced that if I looked hard enough I would be able to find a good traditional Korean restaurant hidden somewhere between the corporate office towers of my Digital Media City neighborhood. As it turns out I was right, and in no more than five minutes off the bus was I seated at a nice establishment on the second floor of an LG building.
Most Korean restaurants have one or two dishes that they specialize in, and I was a little thrown off when I didn’t recognize any of the items on the menu board. Before I had a chance to pull myself together and use my go-to “what would you suggest” phrase, the waiter told me in Korean (with bits of English mixed in) that he would serve me their “delicious” house specialty, chueo-tang (추어탕). After he brought the food out we spent several minutes consulting my phrasebook and the internet trying to find the English description of what I was eating. We determined that chueo-tang is a soup consisting of fish stock (from the loach fish), soybean paste, cabbage and turnip leaves, served sprinkled with pepper and ash seed powder and mixed with noodles and rice. It had a very different flavor from anything else I’ve eaten here, but it was fantastic. According to the waiter this soup is good for stamina. I’m not sure if it was the soup or the excitement of trying a great new dish, but I felt like I could run a marathon after cleaning my bowl!
LEARN KOREAN – What’s in that dish?
저 음식에 뭐가 들어있나요? (chŏ·ŭm·shi·gé mwŏ·ga dŭ·rŏ·in·na·yo?)
I have tried many Korean dishes since I’ve been in Seoul, but sometimes you can’t really appreciate a dish until you order it yourself, as opposed to having it ordered for you by your Korean friend or professor. This was the case for me with doenjang jjigae. I have tasted this delicious soybean paste stew a number of times as an accompaniment to a barbeque dinner, but I hadn’t ordered it on my own (or known quite what was in it) until last week. It is basically a spicy soybean paste broth with tofu, veggies, and small shellfish, served in a stone hotpot. It has the kind of savory flavor that makes your mouth water just thinking about it.
Since ordering doenjang jjigae early last week I’ve had jjigae on the brain, so on Saturday I went to Hongdae to try a different variety. I went to a place called Nolboo (놀부) that specializes in budae jjigae. I ordered it with beef, which consists of sliced beef, sausage (sliced hot dogs), ham (spam), tofu, rice cakes (pressed rice dumplings), baked beans, macaroni, udon noodles, and veggies. All of these ingredients were cooked in a stainless steel wok at my table and served with rice and side dishes. I have to say that this was a little more unusual than the doenjang jjigae, but no less delicious. The portion was enormous for one person, and for the price of 7,000 krw, but I gladly ate it all.
Another meal I had this week that is worth mentioning was a dinner of pig’s feet with some friends. The restaurant we went to is supposed to be one of the best places for it, a little ways south of Dongdaemun Stadium.
LEARN KOREAN – That was delicious!
맛있었어요! (ma·shiss·ŏss·ŏ·yo!)
After returning to Seoul last Wednesday from an excellent trip to Beijing, I have spent the last four days recovering from a cold that I picked up there. I’m a little bummed because I had planned to use the rest of my fall break to explore some parts of Seoul that I have not yet visited. The semester is more than halfway over now and I want to make sure I get as much out of Seoul as I possibly can. One thing on my to do list is to hike up Bukhansan, the tallest mountain in Seoul. I’d like to do this before it gets too cold, so I’m going to shoot for next weekend.
Aside from catching a cold and some unusual weather, Beijing was a great time. Highlights of the trip included staying at the Commune by the Great Wall with a sunrise hike to the wall, visiting Olympic Park, wandering through the hutongs of central Beijing, shuffling through Tian’an Men Square and the Forbidden City with thousands of Chinese people, boating around Beihai lake, and climbing to the White Pagoda on Jade Island. Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip:
LEARN KOREAN – I’m sick:
전 아파요 (cheun apayo)
A week ago I finally got around to purchasing a Korean phrasebook. I was getting along okay without one, but I was quickly growing tired of having to point at pictures when ordering food at restaurants. A week later I still don’t speak Korean, but I do know a couple of phrases and, more importantly, I can now read Hangul (Korean script). I never thought learning the Korean alphabet would be so easy. All it took was a couple days of memorization, and then a few days of trying to make sense of a handful of the thousands of signs I see around me every day. I can definitely see how the emersion method is the best way to learn a language.
So what good is it being able to read a language that you don’t understand, you ask? Well, I see it as a good starting point. Even if I don’t wind up learning a whole lot of Korean while I’m here in Seoul, I can at least read menus and signs and look up their meanings in my phrasebook (or type them into my iPhone using the Korean keyboard and running them through Google Translate when I have an internet connection). One of my favorite things to do now is to read signs that are written in both Korean and English, and then compare the two. I usually wind up having to look up the Korean version, but sometimes it turns out to be a phonetic imitation of the English version (Konglish), which can be quite humorous.
Another benefit of my new phrasebook, besides now being literate, is the opportunity to try some of the Korean food that I would not normally order, either because I wouldn’t know where to start, or I didn’t know it existed. The first phrase I learned is, “What would you recommend?” Yesterday I put it to the test at a small Korean restaurant in Hongdae, and it did not disappoint. I was served with a delicious grilled mackerel, rice, soup, and an assortment of side dishes. Looking forward to trying it again soon! Here’s a pic:
LEARN KOREAN – what would you recommend:
추천 해 주시겠어요 (chucheon haejushigesseoyo)
Autumn’s arrival in Seoul was clearly marked today as the seeds from the female Ginkgo trees began to fall. As romantic as this may sound, this phenomenon is the reason why female Ginkgoes are not planted in the United States, as the fleshy seeds are tainted with rancid smelling butyric acid. Fortunately, waste management is out in force sweeping up the seeds, which look a lot like crab apples, but certain parts of the city are bound to get a lot smellier in the next week or so.
In other news, today is the beginning Chuseok, the three day Korean harvest festival. Koreans compare it to our Thanksgiving, and it is a time to be spent with family and enjoy the fruits of a good harvest. Happy Chuseok everyone!
LEARN KOREAN – ginkgo nut:
unhaeng
I’ve been in Seoul a month now and I’m quite settled in. There’s not much that surprises me here anymore, but every now and then I’ll come across something that just blows my mind. Last Friday it was the hardware market in Euljiro.
I decided to break away from the group for a day and see some of the city on foot. After walking from my apartment in western Seoul to Hongdae I decided to take the subway to the old city. I wanted to explore the area around Insa-dong (the main market street of the old city) so I got off the 2 line at Euljiro 3. When I emerged from the underground and got my bearings I found myself surrounded by open storefronts selling nothing but hand tools, power tools, fasteners, air compressors, HVAC ducts, and pretty much anything that could be used during the construction of a building. At first I thought maybe it was just one block of shops dedicated to the building industry, but as I walked north I found that the shops were spread across an entire district. Each shop carried its own specialty, and each block catered to a different trade or niche of construction. Some stalls carried nothing but a single item, like fire extinguishers, the rollers that go on conveyor belts, or WD-40. Couriers on mopeds buzzed in and out of the area picking up items for delivery, and there were crews of them sitting around on their lunch break. Business there was fast paced even during the lunch hour. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in the way as I walked through, as if I were on an actual construction site. This was by far the most surreal experience I have had to date.
LEARN KOREAN – architecture:
geonchuk
The hike yesterday greatly exceeded my expectations, both in terms of the difficulty of the climb and the value of the experience. My classmates and I were led 338 meters above Seoul to the peak of Inwangsan by our history professor, Hyungmin Pai. Much of the climb was at or greater than a 35 degree rise, up giant steps carved from solid granite. Along the way there was the occasional place to take a brief rest and catch a glimpse of downtown Seoul. As we ascended, each stop offered a wider and wider view. It wasn’t until we reached the very peak that we were given a full 360 degree panorama of the city of Seoul, its other surrounding mountains, and the endless sprawl of apartment high-rises.
Over 20 million people reside in metropolitan Seoul, and since most of them live in high-rise apartments we have been looking very closely at this building type these first couple of weeks. Soon we will begin designing housing projects of our own that rethink the way housing is done in Korea, or at least offer nicer looking alternatives to the slab and tower eyesores that clutter the city today. Each day that I explore a new part of the city or learn something new about Korean culture I become more excited to get started, and feel like the decisions I make in my work will be better informed. After yesterday’s hike I feel like I’m ready to begin.
Here are a couple shots I took from the top:
LEARN KOREAN – excuse me:
sillye hamnida
As is to be expected, I have been keeping very busy here in Seoul and have found very little time to update the blog. Here is a brief look at some of the experiences I’ve had since my last post:
An evening at Namdaemun Market
A tour of the apartment complexes in Jamsil
A studio dinner at Professor Kim's apartment
A walk down the redeveloped Cheonggyecheon River
A visit to Gyeongbok Palace
A drive to Paju Book City and Heyri Art Valley
I have a great class schedule this semester and there are lots of field trips planned. Tomorrow our Korean Architectural History professor is taking us on a hike up one of the mountains adjacent to downtown Seoul so we can get an aerial view of the old city. Photos will come soon.
Almost forgot…
LEARN KOREAN – thank you:
gamsa hamnida
It’s day 7 in Seoul, and after a tour of Yonsei University, a visit to downtown, and a proper introduction to Korean cuisine I am starting to feel more at home. One of the highlights of the last few days was a walk through the Deoksugung Palace grounds. The palace is nestled into the heart of downtown Seoul next to Seoul Plaza, and there is quite a contrast between the wood and terra cotta palace halls and the steel and glass hotels and office buildings that surround them. Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the visit.
Just before the palace visit my classmates and I (with the help of a nice english-speaking Korean man) found a restaurant that serves “traditional” Korean food in one of the alleys just south of Seoul Plaza. I was introduced to a common Korean dish called Bibimbap, the basic ingredients of which are white rice, sauteed veggies, chili paste and beef, topped with a raw egg. The meal is served in a steaming hot pot and stirred just before eating to cook the egg. It was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here, and I think the American dish that it most closely resembles is Jambalaya.
Classes start this week so I’m about to get a lot busier, but I’ll try to squeeze in a post mid-week to share what I’ll be doing this semester.
LEARN KOREAN – goodbye:
annyeonghi gyeseyo (to person staying)
annyeonghi gaseyo (to person leaving)
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