We have been in Seoul for just a couple days, and already we feel at home and really like it here! We had decided to include South Korea in our 2013 trip after we stayed at the Korean Temple in Lumbini, Nepal because we learned enough about Korean Buddhism to be curious about it and because we were pleasantly surprised by how tasty the temple food was. It's spring in Seoul, with magnolia and cherry trees blossoming along with the azaleas.
Knowing us, you won't be surprised that our first posting is about the food! We're not sure why we hadn't tried Korean BBQ before, as there are a number of restaurants in San Francisco. It's great! We ate pork belly that we grilled at our table along with garlic, onions, and chilies.
Throughout the meal, the owner watched over us and made sure that we had everything grilling properly and that we ate things the correct way. Even as Pete took control of the grilling process, she would inevitably come by and put things back the way they were. She showed us how to dip the pork in a mixture of salt, pepper, and sweetened vinegar before wrapping it with the garlic, onions and chilies in shiso or lettuce leaves. So simple, but the flavors were wonderful.
Here's the wreckage after the meal. Pete wanted to be lying on the floor for this one.
Here is bibimbap, a hot pot stew of rice, octopus, mushrooms, lettuce, bean sprouts, onions, carrots and seaweed. Except for the rice, the ingredients arrived at the table raw, so we stirred them against the hot stone pot so they would cook evenly. Koreans don't serve "breakfast food" as we are used to, so this was our breakfast.
We ate mandu-jeongol stew of beef dumplings, noodles, mushrooms, greens and onions. Again it was cooked at our table so we could watch the savory broth simmer and enjoy the aroma. The dumplings were the size of a small child's head!
Here's what it looked like after it was cooked. We are wondering why isn't other Korean food available in the US? It is delicious!
The meals have been large so we are eating brunch and dinner with a street food snack in between. These "donuts" are called hatteok. They are made of glutinous rice with a sweet center of sugar, cinnamon and nuts that carmelize as the donut is fried. And yes, they are delicious!
Here's a picture of Buddhist temple food, which is all vegetarian and doesn't include onions, green peppers or garlic (because it's believed their heat causes distraction during meditation). We didn't know what many of the vegetables were. This cuisine developed after Confucianism became ascendant (14th to 19th century) and the Buddhist monks were no longer supported by the community. The monks had to fend for themselves and turned to foraging. Hence the use of roots, weeds, and what might've been bark in one dish. It was surprisingly tasty, though.
During the meal we watched a traditional dance performance. It featured about 7 or 8 different dances, costume changes, and traditional Korean music. Thankfully, audience participation was forbidden.
All the meals seem to be served with 5-15 side dishes called banchan. The banchan always includes several fermented dishes like kimchee, which tastes so much better than any kimchee we've eaten before.
Seoul has over 100 museums, and most of them are privately run. We gravitated to the food museums. At the Kimchee Field Museum we learned about the 3,000 year history of Korean pickling and saw the pottery containers used for making kimchee.
They had plastic models of over 80 types of kimchee. We were surprised to learn that napa cabbage has only been used since the 19th century, and that kimchee has four times the lactobacillus cultures as yogurt (making it a great digestive aid). Here's a picture of perilla leaf kimchee (we know it by the Japanese name, shiso).
They encouraged photos at this museum, so Kristina took advantage of the opportunity to ham it up. When Koreans pose for a picture and smile, they say "kimchee!" Here Kristina is trying to eat the kimchee rather than say it.
At the Tteok and Kitchen Utensils Museum we gained an appreciation for Korean "rice cakes". Tteok is not the dry version of rice cakes sold in the US, but instead it's like Japanese mochi. It's traditionally included in major life events like weddings. Here's a display showing a 60th birthday feast. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish our friend Tina-Darling a very happy 60th birthday!
The pounded rice can be steamed, fried or boiled and flavored in a multitude of ways. After the museum, we stopped for tea and tteok at the cafe. Pictured here are plum with red bean paste and pumpkin which had pumpkin seeds too. Tteok is less sweet than we are used to for desserts.
We also went to the Leeum Museum, which had a big contemporary art collection. We especially enjoyed the temporary exhibit entitled "Good Labor Bad Art" by the Korean artist Gimhongsok. This piece called "Canine Construction" looks like it's made of garbage bags, but it's actually made of bronze; Gimhongsok is forcing the viewer to confront pre-conceived ideas about whether ordinary materials can be art, and asking the question: if the piece is made from expensive material does it validate the art?
We are looking forward to returning to Seoul as there are many other places we want to visit, including several museums with Buddhist art collections. And there are a few more unusual museums we hope to check out: there's a museum devoted to chicken art (all the art is about chickens, not made by chickens), and the TrickEye Museum has 3D models of famous paintings that people can pose with or modify in other ways. We also learned that the Buddha's birthday will be celebrated May 11th and the temples are already decorating for the event.
Knowing us, you won't be surprised that our first posting is about the food! We're not sure why we hadn't tried Korean BBQ before, as there are a number of restaurants in San Francisco. It's great! We ate pork belly that we grilled at our table along with garlic, onions, and chilies.
Throughout the meal, the owner watched over us and made sure that we had everything grilling properly and that we ate things the correct way. Even as Pete took control of the grilling process, she would inevitably come by and put things back the way they were. She showed us how to dip the pork in a mixture of salt, pepper, and sweetened vinegar before wrapping it with the garlic, onions and chilies in shiso or lettuce leaves. So simple, but the flavors were wonderful.
Here's the wreckage after the meal. Pete wanted to be lying on the floor for this one.
Here is bibimbap, a hot pot stew of rice, octopus, mushrooms, lettuce, bean sprouts, onions, carrots and seaweed. Except for the rice, the ingredients arrived at the table raw, so we stirred them against the hot stone pot so they would cook evenly. Koreans don't serve "breakfast food" as we are used to, so this was our breakfast.
We ate mandu-jeongol stew of beef dumplings, noodles, mushrooms, greens and onions. Again it was cooked at our table so we could watch the savory broth simmer and enjoy the aroma. The dumplings were the size of a small child's head!
Here's what it looked like after it was cooked. We are wondering why isn't other Korean food available in the US? It is delicious!
The meals have been large so we are eating brunch and dinner with a street food snack in between. These "donuts" are called hatteok. They are made of glutinous rice with a sweet center of sugar, cinnamon and nuts that carmelize as the donut is fried. And yes, they are delicious!
Here's a picture of Buddhist temple food, which is all vegetarian and doesn't include onions, green peppers or garlic (because it's believed their heat causes distraction during meditation). We didn't know what many of the vegetables were. This cuisine developed after Confucianism became ascendant (14th to 19th century) and the Buddhist monks were no longer supported by the community. The monks had to fend for themselves and turned to foraging. Hence the use of roots, weeds, and what might've been bark in one dish. It was surprisingly tasty, though.
During the meal we watched a traditional dance performance. It featured about 7 or 8 different dances, costume changes, and traditional Korean music. Thankfully, audience participation was forbidden.
All the meals seem to be served with 5-15 side dishes called banchan. The banchan always includes several fermented dishes like kimchee, which tastes so much better than any kimchee we've eaten before.
Seoul has over 100 museums, and most of them are privately run. We gravitated to the food museums. At the Kimchee Field Museum we learned about the 3,000 year history of Korean pickling and saw the pottery containers used for making kimchee.
They had plastic models of over 80 types of kimchee. We were surprised to learn that napa cabbage has only been used since the 19th century, and that kimchee has four times the lactobacillus cultures as yogurt (making it a great digestive aid). Here's a picture of perilla leaf kimchee (we know it by the Japanese name, shiso).
They encouraged photos at this museum, so Kristina took advantage of the opportunity to ham it up. When Koreans pose for a picture and smile, they say "kimchee!" Here Kristina is trying to eat the kimchee rather than say it.
At the Tteok and Kitchen Utensils Museum we gained an appreciation for Korean "rice cakes". Tteok is not the dry version of rice cakes sold in the US, but instead it's like Japanese mochi. It's traditionally included in major life events like weddings. Here's a display showing a 60th birthday feast. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish our friend Tina-Darling a very happy 60th birthday!
The pounded rice can be steamed, fried or boiled and flavored in a multitude of ways. After the museum, we stopped for tea and tteok at the cafe. Pictured here are plum with red bean paste and pumpkin which had pumpkin seeds too. Tteok is less sweet than we are used to for desserts.
We also went to the Leeum Museum, which had a big contemporary art collection. We especially enjoyed the temporary exhibit entitled "Good Labor Bad Art" by the Korean artist Gimhongsok. This piece called "Canine Construction" looks like it's made of garbage bags, but it's actually made of bronze; Gimhongsok is forcing the viewer to confront pre-conceived ideas about whether ordinary materials can be art, and asking the question: if the piece is made from expensive material does it validate the art?
We are looking forward to returning to Seoul as there are many other places we want to visit, including several museums with Buddhist art collections. And there are a few more unusual museums we hope to check out: there's a museum devoted to chicken art (all the art is about chickens, not made by chickens), and the TrickEye Museum has 3D models of famous paintings that people can pose with or modify in other ways. We also learned that the Buddha's birthday will be celebrated May 11th and the temples are already decorating for the event.
