Landing in South Korea

It is Tuesday, July 5 where I am, but maybe it is Monday where you are???? Anyway, it is pouring rain outside, so I decided that it is a good day to check out the gym at the hotel (just OK) and to stay inside and write about the two days here so far. 

This post will just be about first impressions. The second post will be my experience using the Subway and a few other things.

It is odd here.... but all of the signs are in Korean and I can't read them. I guess it was that way in Greece also, but English is an official language in the Philippines which is made up of 7000 islands and lots of very different dialects. They need one unifying language. It is not so with Korea. The Korean language works quite well here, but not English. I am surprised at how few people speak much English. Often you do find someone who can translate for you, but we have been to many shops and restaurants where there is no one to explain things.

My experience with Greece was similar. I could not read the signs, but I think that more people spoke some English. At least it seemed that way.

To start.... the food on Korean Airlines was weird. We had a choice between seafood and a Korean dish with vegetables. We chose the Korean dish, but we had to watch our neighbor sitting near us to know how to eat it. 


There was a little container that the stewardess opened and poured hot water into (soup?) and then there was a dish with some assorted stuff on it that we did not recognize.  There were 6 things... I think I could identify 2. There was a packet of Sesame Oil and a tube of Korean hot sauce. There was also a salad (I recognized that).

It turns out that the stuff in the middle of the bowl that they gave us was noodles and you empty the packet of Sesame Oil on it and then put in what hot paste you want on it (none in my case) and then stir it around and eat it with chopsticks. I thought it was OK. I let the stuff in my soup dissolve and then tasted it, but decided one new dish was enough for this meal.














It was amazing that we even got a meal since it was only a 4 hour flight! 

From the airport we took a Taxi to our hotel. It was about an hour drive. The striking thing is that the view of the city from a distance is so different than other places I have been. As we got closer I think that the reason is that multiple high rises are built in the same style next to each other so that you get a view of a lot of parallel high rises. I could not take a picture that adequately illustrates that. This image from http://editorsitinerary.cntraveler.com/korea/ sort of illustrates it.

Anyway, after a stomach problem and so much strange food I decided something that I never do in a foreign country..... I wanted to go to McDonalds!  or any place without pictures of strange food in bowls. 

After unpacking, Steve and I went searching for American-style food near the hotel. He had looked online and there was a Subway. I have seen McDonalds in EVERY country I have been in, so I am pretty sure there are multiple. We saw 7-11 and Starbucks, but they aren't usually too good for a meal.

Finally we decided to forage in a 7-11 and it was not easy. A good deal of what you can find in a 7-11 here is like Ramen (instant noodle bowls), honey flavored potato chips or other stuff I did not recognize.  We finally agreed on string cheese, crackers (we had bought them in the Philippines), apples, and wine. I was quite happy to dine on things I recognized and told Steve that I would be more open to South Korean food after that meal and it is true.  


In the morning Steve went hunting for something to eat in the room for breakfast. It was Sunday morning and many places were closed. Almost every other shop in this area where there are two colleges is some sort of coffee shop. Finally he found coffee and some bagels.  Can you tell which one is the onion bagel? The onion was pretty mild :-)

Later that day Steve went to his meeting and I went to the shop next door and got lunch. It was a lovely chicken sandwich and fries with a half corn on the cob and salad. I topped it off with Mango Ade which was delicious.

Our hotel (Ever 8) is nice. In the hallway the rooms look like bank safes. There is a really industrial feel. Inside the room is pretty nice and there is a kitchenette AND a washer/dryer (one machine that does both???-more on that after I try it out). There is a microwave, full sized refrigerator, hot plate and dishes! I think that there are many Ever 8 hotels in Seoul.

Filipino Food

If my Mother was reading this she would want to know what I have eaten. This page is dedicated to her and to Shiff the Chef our ancestor from whom some of us in the family (not me) inherited talents with cooking. 

Let's start with breakfast. Every morning at the convent where we were staying they prepared a very nice breakfast for us. Breakfast is a full meal. There was always rice and then three choices. One was some sort of meat, another was some sort of fish or egg and one was vegetable. The vegetable choice was very limited. 



However, the meal started with fruit and there was amazing fruit. Some mornings there were various types of mangos, other mornings there was a huge slice of papaya, and sometimes there were also bananas. In the Philippines there are a lot of different types of bananas. Our Filipino friends feel sorry for us that we have to get those long bland tasting bananas, but they are the only ones that can survive the transportation.

See this Article on banana varieties from the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eatingwell/cavendish-bananas-tropical-race-four_b_809327.html

It seemed to me like lunch and dinner were both very similar. There is rice, some sort of meat or fish, and vegetables. We did eat out for lunch and there were sandwiches and salads and pancakes. Several lunches eaten with others included some sort of fish soup. There is a pretty clear looking broth and big pieces of fish including bones, clams in their shells or shrimp.

Often meat is adobo. All kinds of meat can be prepared as Adobo. According to Wikipedia Adobo come from the Spanish adobar which means marinade. Meat, seafood or vegetables are marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. This is then browned in oil and simmered in the marinade. We have had mostly pork adobo.

Some sort of seafood soup has been common with most meals that we have eaten. One lunch we had some sort of fish in broth, at another was a sour soup with another kind of fish. Yesterday we had a soup of clams with the shells and everything in it and later we had soup with shrimp in it.

Here are some things that were new to me:

• Jackfruit-It was served as part of a main dish cooked in coconut sauce and eaten with rice.
  
• Avocado is considered a fruit! Even though I saw them growing on many trees and for sale in markets I don't think I  ever ate any here. In one place that we went at the beach there was an avocado fruit shake. Betty Rae's Ice Cream has an avocado ice cream, so I guess they are on to something.
• A snack is something totally different than I pictured. At one of Steve's talks there was a break and snack for everyone. Below you see a picture of the snack. I am not sure what it is called. It was sort of a rice porridge with half a fried egg, some pork adobo and some pieces of tongue. It came with lumpia, which was described to me as filipino fried spring roll. 
• A Filipino (and probably other locations) delicacy is the head of the prawn. My friends debated about cooking the prawns with the heads on or off and decided to leave the heads on. 

Prawns with heads

Filipino Snack
Lucky for me I was trained well to try everything and did not make a scene, but the food was very different for me.

One breakfast I had in a restaurant I decided to order yogurt and fruit. It was a huge plate of really nice looking fruit cut in bite sized pieces and on the side was a container of yogurt. It was delicious



One evening at dinner I ordered "Asian Fried Rice and Chicken" (or something like that). I pictured that I would be getting a stir fry of sorts with rice and bits of chicken and some vegetables. What I got was a bowl of rice and a plate with a large piece of chicken (bone- in) sliced and dipping sauces. I think what is difficult for me is the number of bones and all of the seafood that I am encountering.

A talk about Filipino food would not be complete without mentioning JollyBee, the Filipino version of McDonalds. Filipinos LOVE JollyBee!  






We had a bacon, egg and cheese between two pancakes instead of muffins. Our friends had sausage, eggs and rice.

At another time we had a rice patty and fried chicken. I hear there is one in San Francisco (and probably in most cities where there are Filipinos).