Hosive

somewhere kyuboem lee, grace choi and regina lee ahn are smiling. back in college, i would give the koreans on campus a hard time about their culture including their food. hard is understatement. i was scathing….terrible…merciless. i told theresa that if she heard me talk in college, she would never have married me. so when my korean classmates heard that i was marrying korean, they must have seen that as god’s galactic justice. going to korea for a few weeks? even better.

what will he eat? will he eat? will this be a 24/7/12(day)super-size me experiment? or super-shrink me?

i did not eat a single burger and only ate at one american place for the heck of eating some fast food korean style. for 99% of the time i ate korean food. most days we ate like this. at home. simple little dishes with rice…pickled this and that. small plates of meat. and i ate what was served to me. there was always something that i could eat and only a few things that i declined on.

we had jiajen mein once but only once…which most of my korean buddies would see as a cheat since its really a chinese dish even though i had the korean version. this was really good with hand made noodles.

at the korean folk village, i had this noodle in broth, kalgooksoo, with some korean bbq pork. it was a chilly morning so this was a good warm up. i slurped up these noodles as theresa nervously watched. all of theresa’s family was nervous as they had heard that i did not enjoy korean cuisine. theresa’s mom had called theresa’s aunt to brainstorm about foods i could eat and that she could cook. but i was doing fine.

we had a little bit of street food….as theresa has already noted, we were full almost all the time and didn’t have a lot of room for street food but here theresa’s aunt insisted on some sweet red bean cakes. she shared some with curious westerners unwilling to shell out the 1,000 won(1 dollar)on the bags. or maybe they were nervous about the whole buying food in the streets without authorized government health inspected blah blah blah.

i really enjoyed this: its a whole chicken stuffed with herbs, seaoning and rice in a light broth. it was also the first of many restaurants we went to where we sat on the floor. shoes were left outside, sandals and slippers were used for indoors and cushions for our booties were standard.

here’s my one american fast food indulgence. we had kfc in beijing so we designated this our official western food joint for asia. a little disappointing since the original recipe was not that herbs or spicey. the menu selections were rigid and i had to get cole slaw with this meal. and of course, it was overpriced. it was fun but don’t think i would do kfc in korea again. especially not with the other fried chicken options widely available.

bring on the bbq! after almost a week in korea, i wondered how many of these places i would get to see. theresa mentioned south koreans didn’t eat that much meat and going out for bbq were for special occasions. i’m guessing my arrival was special because we did go out for bbq….first, pork ribs!

…then the next night was beef…which is much more expensive and even more of a luxury! here’s some yummy marble-ly rib eye, my favorite cut. theresa’s family was really hospitable, generous and celebratory for our arrival.

with the help of theresa’s cousins, we found some bonchon chicken. this is the made to order stuff that is double fried for maximum crispness and minimum greasiness??? we were warned that it takes up to 25 minutes per order which is about an hour less than what it took in nyc our first experience with this magical chicken. but you know what else was less? the price! that’s what happens when you have original korean food in korea. the wings were amazing!

really, really good! we tried to find another one of these on our trip but it turns out this would be the only time. on the way to the airport for departure, i did see a kyochon chicken truck on the highway out for deliveries as if to taunt me.

at lotte world, an indoor amusement park, we had “typical” theme park food…korean versions. i had the pork cutlet with omelet wrapped rice. theresa’s nieces opted for the more american spaghetti. after the rides, we had some(i am not joking)booty jigae which is ramen, spam, sausage slices in broth. look how my sweet t loves the booty(jigae). i also love the booty(jigae). i cannot lie.

at the dmz…that’s right, the demilitarized zone between north and south korea, it was back to more familiar fare with bibimbop and bulgolgi suited for american tastes as the tour was run by the uso and the majority of attendees were westerners. i had a great time and unlike with kfc korea, i would go back to the dmz for more eats. maybe it was the thrill of possible nuclear annihilation or the potential threat of invasion that made the food taste so good.

we found another korean fried chicken place that we hear is really popular these days. it was different than the bonchon/kyochon stuff. again, the two kinds of familar flavors: garlic and the nebulous spicy. different but very, very good. strangely i found that the “spicy” in korea was much less spicy than the insane nuclear flavoring in the states. i prefer the spicy in korea….which might make me more authetic korean than my american korean counterparts.

another piece of korean food evidence…..the pangchon, korean pancake….is made with less seafood in korea(probbably due to expenses). i always choked on the tentacle saturated version i was served in the states and i always commented that the pancake would taste better without the overflowing seafood to which my korean american friends would scoff: who makes it like that? real koreans do! you ignorant korean wannabees! its your nightmare come true….I maybe more korean than you!

i won’t bore(or salivate)you that much longer. we made a detour to south south korea to visit theresa’s uncle on his farm and we had my first soondaboo of the trip, which is falsely rumored as the only thing i’ll eat. clearly i’ve been eating a lot of things and a lot of different things. though my favorite was clearly still bbq!

folks, i ate a lot. i think i gained weight.

somewhere kyuboem lee, grace choi and regina lee ahn are smiling.