More about being a tourist in Korea

Since Diane was leaving in the afternoon we decided to go to the Namdaemun Market. We were able to get around easily with the subway. Since I was going to be there several days I bought a card that I could refill with money when I needed to. The subway is cool and clean and pretty easy to navigate. There are signs and pictures everywhere guiding you to where you need to go.

One thing that we enjoyed about the subway was this stairway that actually played like Piano Keys. 

The subway has glass doors and walls that keep people from falling or committing suicide on the rails. On the glass they have poetry of famous people written on the glass. Korean money pictures poets and artists.

The market was crowded and went ON and ON. There were areas to buy different types of things. There is a jewelry area, an electronics area, a clothing area and others. We must have entered in the paper and party goods area, so I bought a few interesting things. I got a centerpiece that I can make for Miriam’s first birthday, Origami paper, and a few other things.

We ate lunch with Diane and Dan and then they took off for their Vietnam trip.

In the afternoon we went on an adventure with Sung Soo. He took us to a Buddhist temple. It was beautiful and we had tea after looking around. Sung Soo was disappointed with the temple and really wanted us to see one up in the mountains, but we never had time or energy to drive out and see one. We also saw the Bukchon Hanok Village. We walked all over this village. It was an area where people actually lived, but their homes were on display so there were always people walking through the streets.

After that we walked down Itaewan, which is a shopping district created especially with foreigners in mind. It is supposed to be arranged in a way that we like. Actually, we would rather go to the Korean market and see what shopping is like for real people. There was actually more interesting art and clothing in this area. For dinner we experienced a very popular type of restaurant here – chicken and beer. I talked about that in my food post. http://notageektravels.blogspot.jp/2016/07/seoul-south-korea-food.html

Seoul, South Korea: the Food

I bet you, my wonderful readers have been worried about what happened to me and concerned that maybe South Korea is not safe. Good News!! We are fine!

I am sitting right now in the lobby of our hotel, writing this blog while waiting for a taxi to the airport and then a flight to Japan. I figured it would be a good use of my waiting time to try to remember and write down what has happened since I last wrote (July 5).  Today is the 12^th of July, so a lot has happened and most of it was pretty interesting.

I think that the best way to organize what I have done and seen is by topic rather than chronological. I will start with food. I was surprised that there were many types of Korean food that I enjoyed.

This first picture is of Steve and I with our friend Dan eating Korean BBQ. First you choose which meat you would like to eat and then they bring you lots of sides. In the middle of the table is a large grill and the meat is brought over and the waiter comes by and puts the meat on it, turns it over and cuts it into pieces. You can eat it sort of like a burrito, but with lettuce instead of a tortilla. So, you might have a piece of meat, a piece of garlic, some rice and some kimchi (fermented cabbage) rolled up in a lettuce leaf. You are supposed to pop it all in your mouth and eat it in one bite.

Korean BBQ is tasty. One of the main things that people eat is Pork Belly, which sounds bad, but it really means bacon. So, you are given thick strips of bacon to grill at the table.

Another popular type of food here is Chicken and Beer. There are restaurants that sell just Chicken and Beer. You get a whole pile of fried chicken and order beer to drink. It usually also comes with some radishes. The chicken comes in different flavors. We chose Original and Honey, but there was also Soy sauce and Spicy. It was delicious, but mainly because of the fried coating!  We had this twice.

Then there are many other traditional Korean restaurants. Steve enjoyed eating Bibimbap which is a collection of vegetables, rice, seaweed, tuna, egg that you mix together and eat. I liked Bulgogi which is very thin slices of beef that is usually eaten with rice. When you go to a restaurant like this the first thing that they do is bring you a large number of side dishes to share. I don’t know that I could tell you what they all are. There is always Kimchi. 

Usually there was also some other pickled radish. Sometimes there was onion or sliced garlic. Often there were unidentified greens (probably seaweed). Once there was a green onion pancake. It tasted like maybe it had rice flour cooked into it. Almost every time there was some sort of soup. In this picture you see sprouts in a soy broth, but we often had miso soup.

There were also many places to get more recognizable food. This was lunch for me one day. A chicken basil sandwich, half cob of corn, French fries, salad, sauce, pickles and mango aid.

Meals in Korea are served with chopsticks and a spoon. Forks and Knives are unusual.

Oh, yes, and there is the time that we went out to have ice cream for dessert. We used the pictures on the menu to help us decide what to order. Steve ordered a nice looking ice cream sundae which turned out to be an affogado (a scoop of vanilla ice cream with caramel topping served with a separate shot of espresso which you pour over the ice cream.  It was delicious. I ordered the sundae pictured next to it which looked to me like ice cream with chocolate sauce. It turned out that it was shaved ice piled on with a red sweet bean-adzuki bean, sprinkled with nuts, topped with a scoop of ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and served with cream to pour over the ice. It was huge. The picture shows the two things we ordered. The menu did not show the size difference. The shave ice with beans and ice cream is a favorite summer dessert here and after that I often saw it pictured at different restaurants. I don't know about you, but I don't usually consider beans as dessert.