Eclectic Trips

Seoul is one of those great cities you can keep on discovering for weeks on end and never tire of. It has so much to offer, so many different neighborhoods and districts, parks, shopping, a huge variety of  food, and…….. kimchi! I always thought Kimchi is  fermented cabbage, but in Korea I discovered that Kimchee can be made out of cucumbers, raddish, fish, or apples, and that it is considered National Treasure.

The Korean barbecue is big in Seoul. They are everywhere- sometimes 2 on each block. And then there are streets that are dedicated solely to this type of establishment. If there was ever a vegetarian spy that needed to be tortured, it would suffice to bring them here, and force them to walk the whole block. They would instantly give up whatever political secrets they were harboring .
The images on the large plaques in all the windows, or on top of restaurants are of various types of raw meat that is being served here. This is a very interesting cultural difference between Korea and USA. We advertise the prepared food, and they advertise the ingredients. I think if McDonald was to adopt this Korean strategy and take pictures of their uncooked burgers they were serving,  they would not stay in business for too long.  Here however, since you will be preparing the meat yourself at your table, it is extremely important how it looks prior to preparation. Perhaps I am the only one who finds this fascinating, but I certainly did ponder it a lot.

I love how you get 10 different tiny plates with all kinds of goodies you didn’t order before you get your meal in pretty much any Korean restaurant. Kimchi is a staple, then there is seaweed, some type of pickle, some veggies, several things that look completely indistinguishable, and upon tasting them remain indistinguishable. So much more fun to eat this way. Very non-committal- a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You get so full from all these tidbits that sometimes there is no room for main course.

My favorite Korean restaurant moment- my husband and I went to the famous Restaurant row in Insadong. We walked down alleys and sidestreets for awhile, befire setlling onwhat looked like a very authentic Korean restaurant. It was lovely and rustic inside, we sat down, and looked over the menu for a while.  When the waiter came my husband ordered “kings seafood”. The waiter said “No maybe not so good-a little spicy”. My husband who always liked spicy food, and turned into a total spice maniac in Korea said, “oh it’s ok, I like spicy” to which the waiter replied. “Sorry i must say it different way-I don’t mean a little spicy, I mean VERY VERY spicy. It’s for Korean client only”. So he basically forbid us from ordering that particular dish. He didn’t think our delicate palette could even close to handle it. “For Korean client only” need I say more?

Funny enough my favorite thing to eat in Korea was pizza. It’s seriously comes close to being as good as Italian pizza. Thin flaky crust, really yummy tomatoes sauce and some cheese very similar to fresh mozzarella in abundance.

They don’t make kimchee pizza though-that would have been fun

Not sure what this was- something similar to a calzone