A brief apology followed by my new favorite food

Sorry to those few proud readers. I have been spending the last 2+ weeks focusing on my lovely girlfriend. We have been going place to place non-stop. I will break up our experiences into several short-ish posts. The first of which is:

JOKBAL!!!

I have had a pig's foot before. It was light on the meat and heavy on collagen. Honestly, it was boring and hard to eat. In fact I didn't like it (that is a big deal coming from me). Jokbal was a world away from that. It was pig lover's heaven. Shit it was heaven for anyone with taste buds. I can't express the emotional response that sprung from me when I put that first slice in my mouth. The concept is simple: salt water poach a pig leg from foot to calf. Serve it with some refreshing and delicious side dishes, and cry with happiness.

My lovely did her homework, and took me to (arguably) the best Jokbal spot in all of Seoul. There is a street in Seoul famous for Jokbal. In other parts of town Jokbal restaurants are often named after the street that we had our amazing pig-splosion. On this street several restaurants claim they were the first. Our spot was one of them. Word on the street is this one was actually the original. No matter the origin this place was simple and better pork than almost anything I had ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of pork. It almost beat out every piece of charceuterie I ever let melt in my mouth. Korea knows pig.

Most restaurants here specializing in a specific Korean dish lack pretension. Which is to say they are not fancy. In fact most of them have a utilitarian ambiance and, for example, the bathrooms are often shared between sexes or are around the block. You are here to eat amazing food, not feel chic.This is not a negative aspect of dining in Korea, but a compliment to the focus on food. God it was good.

Enough gushing, here is a picture of our two pork feat. Skin on; bones to gnaw on. The little old lady proprietor wondered around the restaurant and kept asking if I liked it. Not speaking Korean I motioned to her that I was crying because I was so happy.

Ends and Pieces

Here's some leftovers strewn about the trip so far:

Click this image and you can see just how big the clams and mussels are in these parts. See that man's hand? See how the mussels are as big or bigger than that man's hand? Yup, awesome.

A glorious example of designer fraud in Korea. Only this time they didn't even try. Fake designer clothes are everywhere here. There is are entire markets devoted to the stuff.

The real ddeokbokki experience. Those serious skewers on the left are impaling long folded fish cakes and are served in a spicy broth with scallions as garnish. The middle styrofoam dish contains rice cakes swimming in a semi-sweet, rich pepper sauce. On the end is a rainbow of tempura-esque battered and fried happiness. We have blood sausage stuffed with noodles, a whole hard-boiled egg, squid, shrimp, sweet potatoes and the ambrosial spicy green peppers. We are at a little stand in Amsa Sijang, or the market for Amsa neighborhood.

 

This is a travesty against man. Max is my favorite Korean beer, granted, but BBQ Chicken's (the largest chain fried chicken spot in Korea; there is actually at least one that I know of in the states) olive oil fried chicken, and spicy garlic marinated, chili glazed chicken are a vague semblance of the beauteous fried chicken achievements that Korea has given the world. We will discuss more later. I love fried chicken, and I owe that to my mother's mother's recipe and my mother's touch.

No this is not a baked bean and hot dog restaurant. I was a little disappointed.

In what Koreans call a "Bier Garten" we found a table that was pretty much a freezer inside. Our beers rested in a freon lined cylinder kept at a perfect 32 degrees farenheit. Surprisingly, the carafes we chugged down matched the size of each cozy quite perfectly; to the point where we would have to break the beers free from the cylindrical icebox.

Behold the glory of Korean Sbarro. Do they have those in the states anymore? The novelty of an almost  inedibly large slice of pizza wore off for me in the mid-nineties. 

Very deeply flavored fish stew. Pepper powder similar to paprika is used to flavor the almost overpowering pepper broth. Concise instructions are necessary to eat fish with chopsticks round these parts. None of the bones are removed, and one must know their way around the fish before they eat it -very delicious. 

The accompaniment for our fish stew: Scrambled eggs, scallions and some water in a stone pot. It came out boiling and seemed to be almost a perfect quiche once it cooled to an edible temperature. Tasted like scrambled eggs.

A beautiful albeit blurry example of the very urban parks within Seoul's city limits. Here we are on an island in the middle of Han river. The cement outstretch over the center is a pond full of lilies and minnow sized fishies.

Samgaetang! A soup consisting of chicken stuffed with goodies simmered until tender. This hot soup is eaten in the summertime to cool body temperature. It tastes quite a bit like traditional American chicken noodle soup, but with less salt and more flavors.

And here's what's inside: rice, fresh chestnuts, fresh ginseng(an amazing experience, and a medicine renowned for it's cure-all properties) and dates. I felt like I could conquer the world after I devoured this poor baby chicken (Sun Young was not happy that I was eating a baby).

Spicy pork offal meat soup! So good

\

Offal meat soup in a more intimate setting. We've got pig ear, pig nose, pig intestine, pig tendon, pig blood sausage stuffed with noodles, and a whole lot of peppers and onions. Once again this was fantastic. So many different textures and flavors from one animal. Oh god it was good.

There you have it. Some bits of food and sites that I had yet to share. As you may notice I am loving, by far, my culinary experiences most. People like food here, on the average, more than Americans. Food is sought after more. Food culture is treasured very much here neighborhood by neighborhood. Everyone (and I mean everyone) is excited to share with me their favorite spot to chow down. Thank god everyone wants to feed me. I have many other experiences to share, and I am so excited for the opportunity. Please keep reading, and thank you.

Of Hot Dogs and Hot Dog Soup

Recently I had the opportunity to explore Lotte World. We skipped the tiny outdated amusement park and its  geriatrically overcrowded manufactured lakes complete with claustrophobic fenced-in swan paddle boat rides and headed straight  for the department store.

Shopping was boring so we found the grocery store section. To my surprise there were two hot dog counters serving some very creative dogs.

That's from left to right: Bulgogi, Dok Kalbi, Chicken Breast Bun, NY Chili Dog, Cheese  Dog, Relish Dog and Plain.

Left to right: Reuben Dog, Slaw Dog, Caesar Dog, Cobb Dog,Chili Cheese Dog and Frank Dog.

Earlier in the week we visited Sun Young's friend's newly purchased franchise restaurant Nolbu Budaechigae. 

Nolbu is a chain that takes on several different forms from location to location. The branch we visited specializes in Budaechigae or "army soup". It originated during the impoverished days of the Korean War. Soldiers and locals would combine what they had to offer and came up with this. It's a spicy concoction of instant noodles, hot dogs, bologna (which was referred to as ham), udon style noodles, potatoes, carrots, peppers and more. How to cook a wolf indeed.

Here's ours boiling away.

All in all this was pretty good and I would go back for more hot dog soup over at Nolbu Budaechigae. I am loving all the new and different variations and influences I am seeing of American food on Korean food. Can't get enough. 

-Matt

One of the best meals of my life: Busan's seafood scene

On our way back from Kyushu last week I had a chance to tour Busan. The second largest city in Korea, Busan is located on the Southeast tip of the peninsula. There are very popular beaches for tourists, and Koreans alike, lots of bustling nightlife and some world famous seafood.

Here is a slightly blurry sideways look at Jagalchi Shijang. Sorry, I got tired of trying to format the video.This is an amazing example of what the East Sea has to offer. Badass old ladies tearing down fish from whole in ways I could only dream of being able to do. Everything is extremely fresh, and butchered right there in front of you. This is the most famous fish market in Korea. There were somewhere around 30+ different types of fish here, extraordinarily large shellfish the likes of which just don't exist anywhere I've been in North America, and plenty of other sea life for sale. That stroll was a feast for the senses that got my tummy quite excited.

Later after some walking around town we ended up around the dinner table at a pretty standard seafood spot in Seomyun: Jo Gun Hwan Gun. This was the first time I felt at home in a restaurant aside from all the fried chicken joints I have been frequenting. It was packed full of people, servers were running in every direction and everyone was having a good time. The food was simple: Shellfish served to us raw for us to prepare.

So on these three plates (one of which you can't see) are scallops (shown), mussels as big as my palm, sea snails as big as the aforementioned mussels, huge clams and shrimp. All of it seasoned very lightly. The scallops with just scallions, the mussels with red pepper and a little slightly sweet vinegar and the rest just plain. Some sauce was provided that consisted of tomato and a very bland cheese. which we heated up and stared at.

On the side was sesame oil and chile paste for dippin'. All the seafood was grilled in the shell and promptly poured down my throat over and over again. This stuff was amazing. The texture alone destroyed all my previous shellfish experiences. I could not get enough. Shellfish in the west pales in comparison to any one thing on our table that night. I never knew shellfish could be this delicious. Simple food done right. Keep in mind this place was not anything special in the grand scheme of Busan's restaurant scene. 

I will be returning to Busan before I leave Korea. This meal was one of few in my life that was so consistently delicious. Bye for now, I will attempt to blog on a more regular basis from here on out. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment if you have any questions you would like answered, things you'd like to see or just to tell me how attractive I am physically. 

Kyushu Pictures

So Here are at least a small portion of the many, many pictures that were taken on our $400 Kyushu binge.

The ladies standing front of a lake outside Beppu that's source is a hot spring stream. Every morning plumes of steam rise where the stream meets the lake.

That's right, taco truck in a rural Kyushu mountain village out the back of an Isuzu called "Ethnic Tacos".

Some sweat lodges of sorts. Thatching is laid over steam fissures. Lime stone gravel is then placed over the thatching, and the party begins.

Me soaking in the tub. I was shortly thereafter shoved around a few times and 2 people sat on either side of me in the space shown above. 

Sun Young being forced to enjoy a mineral rich facial. The line here got pretty long so I figured we should all enjoy it while we had the chance.

Hot springs.

In the spirit of self absorbed blogging: I'm handsome.

The view from our hotel in Beppu. It was very humid, and the cloud layer was only about 100 feet above sea level.

All of us digging the windblown look whilst taking in Aso Volcano.

The giant cloud of sulfur dioxide behind us was a bit disconcerting. 

Crazy one-eyed boatman. He sang pretty songs.

Old Japanese freestanding harpoon gun.

One of many amazing trees in one of the many sacred places on Kyushu Island.

If you can't read that it says "Bee's faction and happy time."

Prayers and celebrations and such.

So the story goes: a genius was born here. People tried to use him for his mental faculties so he left his hometown to get away from them. This made him very sick and he died. So we gather here in this sacred space to honor the god of study/knowledge, shop for Miyazaki movie trinkets, chopsticks and brand new kicks.

Sleeping Buddha.

Buddha's feet. Rub a symbol. One for health, one for luck, one for money, etc.

The usual at a Japanese buddhist temple in the mountains.

This faucet looks ancient but is actually about 5 years old. The mineral content in the water and the air beat the living crap out of it.

Japanese future toilet with heated seat and multi-function bidet.

'nuff said

She always takes better pictures than me.

How Not to Quit Smoking

I had heard that Sun Young, her sister, her mom and I were going on a little vacation to Japan at some point while I was in Seoul, but I had no idea that it was going to take place only six days into my stay. A six day tour of Kyushu starting with meeting mom for the first time, hopping on a three hour train ride to Busan and boarding a quasi-cruise ship for a lovely 12 hour ride across the East Sea to Kyushu. So I opted to quit smoking as if I wasn't enduring enough shock as it was.

The train ride was no big deal. Racing towards Busan at 185 kph, sitting across from mom and sis' at a table being sized up for three hours. Mom was extremely happy to meet me, and even packed enough snacks and beer to get us from point A to point B without feeling Seoul-sick. We sat facing each other, mom and I drank some beers and I tried my hardest to stare off into space.

Once we got into Busan we met up with our tour group... Tour group? Dammit. I heard we were going to tour Kyushu but I didn't realize there would be lining up, very inquisitive old people or absolutely no free time save our early bird sleep schedule. On the ship we went in two rows; neat and tidy. Speaking Korean would have really come in handy here, and I'll tell you why:

In our room on board I noticed that there were four beds and not two, or even one. I was meant to sleep next to Sun Young's sister who I met once prior, and her mother who (while I had shared some cocktails with) I had met only hours prior to being bunkmates. I laid in bed awake all night with nicotine withdrawal sweating both physically and the idea of drifting off into bouts of loud snoring punctuated with farts; we had a lot of radish and cabbage for dinner and finished it off with a few beers. The next morning came with little or no embarrassing moments much to my relief. But there was plenty of time for that.

At this point I expected to get on a tour bus, and go to some moth eaten taxidermy museums for 10 hour stints. Not so much on the taxidermy, but we were on a bus for three quarters of the day for the next five days. If I ever see any of the ladies or gentlemen from our tour group again it will be only to cackle loud and drunk right in there face while pushing them out of the way so I can arrive at my destination a full 1/100th of a second prior to them. Perhaps I will take everything they have to offer even if I don't need it, or treat their prized possessions like my own personal petting zoo. Who knows I could even just slap them on the nose saying "NO, WE DO THAT OUTSIDE!" as if I were chastising a domestic animal for not peeing on the newspaper.

I'll leave the sightseeing to later posts that contain a multitude of pictures. The trip was very exhausting, I managed to quit smoking, saw some amazing (and amusing) things and made it past mom.

Back home

After an arduous 5 day trip I am home and exhausted for many reasons. Sorry for the gap in posts (I know it has been painfull), but I was in rural Kyushu for the most part so no internet. Many posts to come about the trip. I hope it entertains. For now I am sitting back, drinking some Guinness and enjoying a new source of entertainment.
Apparently Korea televises videogame matches and treats them like sports matches. I am not so strangely addicted.