Musings: Korean Food

November 9, 2007 · Filed Under Uncategorized, Musings

I love my camera! Well, actually, it’s a love-hate relationship. I love it because I get snapshots of everyday life and yes, I HATE it because the damn batteries don’t last that long. Anyways, this old friend of mine is nearly reaching the end of its useful life. It has allowed me to document my travels and of course, share them with you. Soon, this cam will be replaced. But that’s another story…

Now, I already admitted to you my weakness of experimenting on foreign food whenever I’m in another country, yes? Btw, this post has NOTHING to do with gaming so bear with me.

In the past couple of days of my stay here in Seoul, I have come across new and exciting foodstuffs. One thing that you all have to remember is that Koreans like it hot. Their staple fair, the Kimchi, is found in almost anything except, I think, ice cream.

Here’s something that I feasted on over lunch at Kintex during G-Star. It’s called “Bulgogi over rice”.

Details after the jump

Basically, it’s just stewed beef with onions and garlic topped on a bed of rice. I love it. It costs 7,000 Won (or around P280). Not bad! The meal itself has Kimchi, soup and these funny-looking-nut-like-things.

Name: Bulgogi over Rice
Cost: Won 7,000
Taste (5 stars highest): 3.5
Busog Factor: 4
Eye Candy: 3

Meanwhile, we took the subway from the convention and tried to explore Seoul. The city is both amazing and confusing. It’s like one big “Ayala”. All the cars are shinny, the roads are wide and the buildings, street signs and neon lights LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME DAMNIT! (pardon my French). If you don’t have a map, you’re bound to get lost.

Walking around the city makes for some fine dabbling in street food.

Korean street food is way different. They look “sossy”. Even the tindera puts on gloves and avoids touching the food with her bare hands. The entire stand is covered with various pieces of dried fish flattened together to form a thin pie. Then, there are dried octopus parts (no kidding) and a weird French-fry-ooking gaggle of strands (fried, of course).

I try out a piece of the dried fish. The tindera puts it on a bed of coals and grills it much like our Filipino street food na dried pusit. She then cuts in into shreds with scissors and gives it to me wrapped in paper.

I give it a try… accck! It’s like chewing slippers.

Name: Dried fish grilled over coals
Taste: 2
Busog Factor: 2
Eye Candy: 2

Maybe some other type of street food will satisfy my craving.

At any rate, I went out last night after being bored out of my wits inside the hotel room. The stupid wifi still would not work and I’m stuck doing nothing but watching TV.

Rounding the bend, I spot a small convenience store… not the 7-11 type but an authentic Korean-style “sari-sari” store. I go in and score the following:

Mysterious Snack Number 1

This one tastes okay. It has a paper-like crust and inside is a hopia-ish concoction of ube and something else that my taste buds can’t identify. Exotic and pleasant.

Name: Cool Korean Hopia
Taste: 3
Busog Factor: 2.5
Eye Candy: 4

I also picked up this thing…

Introducing, Mysterious Snack Number 2!

I was intrigued by the illustration of what appears to be hotdog and spices. Moral lesson? Don’t be fooled by the cover. A marketer like me fell to the oldest trick in the book. Sigh. Anyhows, the darn thing is bread filled with something that tastes like a mixture of Kimchi, catsup and beef jerky. Not what I expected.

Name: The Kimchi-Catsup Bread Filled Madness
Taste: 2
Busog Factor: 3
Eye Candy: 4

And here’s what it looks inside:

Hey, whadyya know? Got carried away and enjoyed myself. This post is becoming long.

To cap it off, here are two other photos

What are snacks without my 2 favorite drinks? Chilsing Cider and Korean Orange Juice!

Another lesson learned. If you can’t find your cigarette brand DO NOT buy the first thing that you see. It’s SUPER LIGHT and feels like you’re smoking paper. Hayyy.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post! Only a few more nights and I wanna come home to Lucky Me Pancit Canton, Skyflakes and Sarsi!

Home Sweet Home!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Comments

3 Responses to “Musings: Korean Food”

Zyn on November 9th, 2007 11:28 am

lolz…. hahaha….
Blackwolf on November 10th, 2007 1:58 pm

Mysterious Snack number one is most probably taro and fish or seaweed. Snack number two is probably what you described it to be. Koreans love tomatoes and chilies together so it’s kinda like ketchup only not. As for the cigarettes, remember that the Koreans and the Japanese have a long history of association so they probably smoke the same shit too. Seven Stars Lights looks exactly like that 88 carton and probably tastes like the farts of a chinchilla Persian cat.
Hotel Reviews and Reservations on December 1st, 2007 4:12 pm

Hotel Reviews and Reservations

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting