A Day in Insadong

Let's get back to the blogging then. This is a post about an exciting day I had when I went to visit Insadong, located in Seoul, Korea. It's home to perhaps the highest concentration of gift shops in the world centered around one street, as well as art gallerys littered along the sides of the primary street. I knew I wanted to visit some art gallerys as well as pick up some art supplies.

My bus left at noon. I was waiting outside of the terminal when I checked my phone for the time. It was 11:51 so I figured I should get on the bus, though this was the last time I would see my phone for a while. I was looking through my pockets for it once the bus left, and found no sign of it. Oh no! More on that later.

I made it to Seoul and to Insadong fine, but my day was hindered by thoughts of whether I would ever see my cell again. I looked around a few gift shops looking for paper lanterns I could paint, and ran into a Korean man I had met before. His name was Jacob and he remembered me from a birthday party we both went to in Seosan, though I didn't remember him right away. He and his friend David invited me to lunch with them. I said no because I wanted to see art galleries before they closed, but these guys didn't take no for an answer. They said they would find the gallery I wanted to go to and then go to lunch from there, so I agreed.

The whole area was really nice along the side streets that contained the art gallerys.

The one I went to is called Kyungin Museum of Fine Art, which is a complex of about five buildings housing galleries with a nice courtyard and some sculptures.

We went through only one of the buildings and they were hungry enough that we decided to leave and look for food. We went to what turned out to be really great dok bokki. For anyone who doesn't know, this is cylindrical rice cakes in hot sauce, which my little sister likes to call fire noodles. The restaurant even had a great mascot:

"What's for lunch? Oh....my head. Well, let's dig in."

The dok bokki had some shellfish and noodles in it as well as the rice cakes. It was really really good.

A picture of Daniel:

And Jacob:

And me. We got to wear nice red aprons because the food is so sloppy.

After lunch we walked down some more of the streets in the Insadong area. It was super scenic, and we walked to the area where the president of Korea lives, The Blue House.

Here is a picture of what the main street of Insadong looks like on a Saturday:

I bid farewell to my new friends, and I was finally able to do the shopping I wanted. I picked up a few paper lanterns from a souvenier shop, and I also found a really great art store that had canvases, paint, and brushes:

So it was a nice day in Insadong, but there was still the matter of my phone. I got back to the bus station in Seosan at about 9:30 and started (trying) to ask around for a lost and found. This involved something very similar to a game of charades, but with real consequences. After being shown a bank of pay phones, I was led to an office around back of the station. The guy there let me call my phone to see if I could hear it, but nothing came up. He then thought of an old desk where some items like this are kept, and luckily the cell phone was in one of the drawers. Sweet relief!

Korea can be a great place because people tend to be honest about things like this and not go and make a dozen phone calls to Nigeria or something. So thanks to whoever picked up my phone!

What Do I Eat?

So I write this blog describing various aspects of my life here in Korea, and I figure that many at home may be thinking, "what does he eat?" And "please, just tell us more about what you eat." And so on. Well, the short answer is take-out, lots and lots of take-out.

The long answer is that I have about four different restaurants that I frequent for my various meals throughout the week. Generally on a weeknight I will just get take-out for one, and then on weekends I'll usually go out with friends for chicken, pizza, or whatever.

It turns out I pretty much never cook a meal unless it's breakfast and I warm up some toaster pastries or something. So does this get expensive? The answer is, not really. My meal from night to night ranges from about 3000 Won to 6000 Won. That translates to about $2.50 to $5.00 American. Oh, for lunch I usually just eat at school or pick up a cheap rice roll or something.

So talking about the food I eat isn't so exciting, and I figured I would delve into a plethora of pictures to illustrate just how good some of the food I can get here is.

The first place I'll talk about is called Sushi & Roll Fusion Restaurant. I guess it's fusion because it's a mix of Korean and Japanese, but I'm not 100% on that. This is the best sushi I've found in town, and it's a little expensive. My favorite one is called the crunch roll which is only 6000 Won.

The crunch roll, it has shrimp and little crunchy things on it.

A salmon roll, this is more expensive, but it's really good.

There's also a place near my house which I like called Sushi 990. They have a little bit cheaper sushi and then some different soups and cutlets. I'll eat here about two times a week. The family which runs it is super nice, they always want to bring out fruit or whatever while I'm waiting. One time the wife, who cooks the meals brought over this little towel and started pretending to wipe the table and saying something in Korean. It turned out she wanted to give me a gift, a towel that she stitched a little flower onto. It was super nice.

This is a cheesy chicken cutlet. It costs 5000 Won and comes with rice, pickles, mixed fruit, coleslaw, and cream corn. It also comes with some broth to drink with the meal.

Another favorite restaurant is called Hanudong. This place makes great food but it's a little more expensive than the Sushi 990. They make excellent cutlets and also these great rice dishes.

This one has octopus in it along with vegetables. It's very hot and comes with a side of kimchi. 4500 Won.

Korea is of course well known for the street food, and a staple of street food vendors is the dok bokki. This is basically a bunch of rice cakes in hot sauce, very very hot sauce. It also has these little noodles and an egg. One day I ordered this and a woman behind me said "you like dok bokki?" And I was like yeah, of course. She basically thought it was very strange that I was not Korean and I was able to enjoy spicy food. It's racism if you ask me. Very very mild racism.

Mmmm, dok bokki, 3000 Won

This one comes from this little tiny pink van parked about a block from my apartment. The guy spiral cuts potatoes and deep fries them in front of you and dips them in powder.

Spiral potato, 1000 Won

The last food I'll mention is from a restaurant called Toastour, which is also a block from my house. You can order many different things cooked on a griddle between two pieces of bread, though I only know how to order two different sandwiches. One is the standard egg and ham and cheese. The other one is called the pizza toaster, which is excellent. Its got egg cooked with a pepperoni and pepper in it. On the other piece of bread is some cheese and pizza sauce. Delicious.

Pee ja to su tu, 2200 Won