Monday, April 23, 2007

A water shed event.

Just one more day of work until I leave for Cambodia, so I'll offer this little story to tie everyone over until I get back. Things are going pretty slow when this is all I have to offer, but I thought it was amusing. Little things happen all of the time that would never happen back home. Nearly everyday I see something that I would never see back home, and this story is one of those odd things that could only happen in Korea.

To give this story a little background, here is a picture of the restaurant that I frequent with my friends from work. This is a kalbi restaurant that I've been to probably 50 times since I moved into the neighborhood. For those not in the know, kalbi is barbecued rib meat. There's a grill in the middle of each table and a slew of side dishes, not to mention two different soups. We grill meat, wrap it in lettuce and add various vegetables and red pepper paste. The guys at work usually get together here once a week and have dinner together. It's really a nice tradition. Note: the "Kalbi 101" entry from January 2006 was shot in this restaurant and goes into further detail on the meal.
For our next exhibit of a neighborhood regular hangout, I present my friend Hoki's bar, "Tok's!". I've spent many an evening here with friends, and plenty with Hoki. Last summer I watched many world cup games here, often staying all night. Hoki's mom would cook me food--they've always been great to me. Sadly enough, the bar is closing in one month as Hoki's mom is retiring and Hoki is changing professions. It should save me some headaches during the week, however. I'm hoping to have a last hurrah before they close and do a piece on it, but I can't control the future.

Anyway, after that round about it's time to get to the story. About a month back, we were in the Kalbi restaurant (damned if I know the name of it) and we were having our usual meal. This evening it was only our new employee Mike, Haji, and myself, but we received the usual great treatment. They know us here and go out of their ways to service us. It had been three weeks since we had eaten there, as we tried some other places. The nice lady who serves us brought a bottle of water that she had kept in the refrigerator and gave it to us. Haji understands Korean, and he informed us that Sacha left it there the last time we were in... they held on to it for nearly a month. We said that we'd give it to him when we saw him and thanked him.

After dinner, we went to Tok's and had a little soju. When I got home that evening, I had realized that I left the bottle of water at the bar. I was a little disappointed because I knew I'd get a kick out of giving it to Sacha and telling him how the restaurant had kept it for three weeks and were beaming when they returned it to the people who left it. Oh well, it was just a bottle of water. Well, two days later Hoki calls me and says that I left my water in the bar and he kept it for me. I picked it up a week later.

Here we have the grateful owner of the bottle, happy to have his prized bottle back in his loving arms after a painful month apart. The funny thing is that Sacha didn't even buy this water. It was merely a used bottle that he filled up with filtered water from the office, as he does every night. Why anyone would think to hang on to this bottle for three weeks is beyond me, but it is indicative of the kind of service a loyal customer receives in this strange, yet hospitable country. On a different note, I'd like to wish everyone a good week. As I said, I'll be in Cambodia next week and certainly won't have a blog next Monday. I'll tell all about it when I get back, however.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Spring has sprung.

It's finally springtime after a dull, but reasonably mild winter. Talk of the spring in these parts is always followed by talk about the cherry blossoms. "Oh, you have to see the cherry blossoms". "Spring is so great because the cherry blossoms are in bloom." "Cherry blossom blah, blah, blah". Forgive my synicism, but I don't see what the big deal is. They're white and pink flowers on trees. That being said, I did go to a cherry blossom festival in Yeoido. Yeoido is an island in Seoul on the Han River. The 63 building (the tallest building in Korea) is located on this island. I made the trip with my friends Caine, Gina, Barb, Marie, and Shannon. On a quick side note, I had attended a professional baseball game with this group the previous evening and caught my first ever fly ball. Truthfully, I didn't catch it. I bobbled it, batted it, and dove over three rows before I snatched it from a Korean. I then stood up and showed the ball to the crowd, who cheered my feat. This was easily the coolest thing that happened this particular weekend.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at the game... but I did take a picture of this obnoxiously crowded subway station at Yeoido. At this point it dawned on me that the idea of seeing cherry blossoms on this island was a popular one. It was stiflingly packed with people, even by Korean standards.
Here is a picture of the crew after exiting the station. We were ready for a day of adventure looking at overrated flowers in an incredibly crowded forum. Just my type of thing.


Next we get to the meat of this entry. By meat, I mean foul-smelling boiled silk-worm larvae which is called bondaegee. This stuff was everywhere on this day, and the air reeked of it. This might be the strangest food in Korea, and that's really saying something. Kids eat this stuff out of ice cream cones and love it. I tried it one time (a person will eat anything after a couple of bottles of soju) and it actually tasted grosser than it smelled. Throw in the crunchy bug texture and you've got a truly revolting snack. The Koreans love this stuff though. Go figure.


Finally, I've included a shot of the rows of magnificent, majestic, and overwhelmingly beautiful rows of cherry blossoms. (note: sarcasm) So now I figure my six readers are thinking: "This is the best he's got after taking a month off". Not to worry, spring is here and activities abound. As many of you know, I'm taking a trip to Cambodia in a couple of weeks, so I should have plenty to talk about. The next installment, however, will be a feel good local piece involving a bottle of water. Stay tuned, and enjoy the springtime!