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I love food. During my time in Korea, I have been collecting recipes and anecdotes about Korean food. I also have been working on survival techniques for westerners living in Korea.

In this journal are recipes for cooking Korean food in Korea or abroad and recipes for recreating western food with Korean ingredients.

But mostly, it's about enjoying life.

SUBJECT KEY
Christmas Chronicles - Trying to celebrate Christmas in Korea
Drink - Imbibe me
Event - Special events involving special Korean foods
FFF (Food for Foreigners) - Recipes for foreigners living in Korea
FP (Food Porn) - Pictures for stimulation
Fusion - A mixture -- or clash -- of cultures
Junk - Junk food
KFC (Korean Food Concept) - A blog entry explaining a type of Korean food
Kimchi - Something about kimchi
KR (Korean Recipe) - A recipe for Korean food, duh!
Miscellaneous - Stuff, stuff, and stuff
News - Korean food in the news
Out There - What others are saying
Rest (Restaurant) - An entry about a restaurant in Korea
Street Food - An entry about a street food concept or adventure
Tip - A survival tip for living or visiting Korea
Video - A summary of a video on the site
WTF - A feature on anything unusual that has to be investigated further

Sunday, July 23, 2006

(Event #3) Sh-wing in July

The first gathering of the ZenKimchi 식 Ruffians met Saturday at Sh-wing for wings and beer. On the way there, I found that Domino's is now offering Satan's pizza.

Even though I was late, I was the first to arrive. Sh-wing was empty, and there was a late middle-aged lady there. I explained to her in my bad Korean that friends were coming, and we both set up the chairs and umbrella outside. If one can sit outside at Sh-wing -- do it. Half of the Sh-wing experience is the wings and beer. The other half is the people watching of Apgujeong denizens.

Sh-wing, we found, is under new management, and the all-you-can-eat special that was a staple for years no longer exists. They do have a 60-wing bucket for 43,000 won deal, but we made our disappointment known to management before ordering. Brant was there, along with Yeong-jun and Cathi, the proprieter of the Seoul Life blog.

The wings are still good. The cheeseburger and fries are still great. The service is actually a little better. Yet remember to order your next batch of wings fifteen minutes before you need them. They take a while.

The people watching was better than usual. The styles on the scantily clad plastic surgery-enhanced young ladies and men were not disappointing. Event the mannequin across the street showed a little for us.

At one point, the leggy singer Son Ji-yeon stopped in front of Sh-wing. She seemed to be waiting for people to notice and gawk at her. When people did so, she promptly walked away. I didn't get any pics because I was in the bathroom at the time. (Darn you, beer!)

After Sh-wing, Brant, Cathi, and I went to my other traditional Apgujeong spot, Gustimo. It's an amazing gelato establishment. Until recently, the flavors were only written in Korean and Italian. But now there is English in small letters by each flavor. The flavors are also designated by real life versions of their ingredients. The cheese gelato has a package of cream cheese on it. The coconut gelato has a coconut. The black sesame seed as a jar of -- black sesame seeds.

They always have new interesting flavors. Sometimes I get the diablo, which is a spicy gelato. This time, I found they had a white wine flavor. Of course I got that one, along with dark chocolate and tiramasu.

Brant got the velvety chocolate and... I forget.

And I totally forgot what Cathi ordered. You'll have to check her blog for that info. She also took pictures that I missed, such as the menu for "Calm Chowder."

We did see a Hello Kitty fan. It brought up the subject of the Koreans' urban myth that if you sleep under a fan, you could die. So that makes this model one killer pussy.

On the main street to Apgujeong's south, a TV drama was filming. See the boom? The scene took place in the back seat of a car driving off. The blurry guy in the suit was one actor. The fruity-shirted guy was the director.

I was trying to get a good shot of the actress in the car when other actors told me to stop taking pictures. Brant said to me, "It's a public street. You can take pictures."

But I really didn't want fruity-shirted director guy to chase me down. I mean, he had a car.

The other significant find in Apgujeong was the cigarette bar. This made me think of Tony Bourdain (I'm glad he got out of Beirut). This is the future.

People will no longer be allowed to smoke anywhere except this depressing cigarette bar. And it looked like there was nothing else they served there but cigarettes. I can understand a cigar bar. Cigars have a woody aroma that can be intoxicating. But a cigarette bar would smell like an old person's breath. Also, was that guy following my camera?

Labels: Event

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

(Video #3) Lost in Japan, part 2 - Dotonbori: The Food Street

I have finally gotten around to editing the second in a series of three or four videos of my week long trip to Osaka almost a year ago.

This picks up where "Part 1: Kyoto" left off. I had a hard time getting to Kyoto because there was little to no English on any of the signs. The only English at the Information Booth was the word "Information." I took the slow trains up there and figured out that I could have been taking the express trains all along.

So an early departure ended up in a late return. It was night by the time I returned to Namba Station in Osaka. Kids were breakdancing in the courtyard. The streets were buzzing with locals and tourists looking for fun, food, and robot clowns beating on drums.

This, so far, has been my most fun video to put together. There were a few inside jokes and some bad, bad jokes in there. I eat some blowfish and survive. I had more danger eating Takoyaki, fried octopus balls. Those buggers come out hot!

Labels: Video

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Friday, July 14, 2006

(Rest #5) Sloppy Joes at the Smokey Saloon

The hunt for a decent burger in Seoul has led me to the Smokey Saloon in Itaewon. It's to the right behind the Hamilton hotel, underneath Chakraa Indian Restaurant. I went there with the gang on one of my mega-eating tours. I had already eaten a steak and Guiness pie at Gecko's, and the Smokey Saloon was our second stop before taking a taxi to gorge on wings at Sh-wing in Apgujeong.

What made me stop there was the allure of the Sloppy Joe they advertised. Considering the fate of my name, this dish was frequently cooked in my home while growing up, along with the obligational puns. Yet I really like a good Sloppy Joe. I usually eat them face up with a knife and fork. In recent years, I had started garnishing them with cheese and onions.

The Sloppy Joe at the Smokey Saloon is done sandwich style. It's a bit pricey, as most Western food is in Korea. You pay for the burger itself, and fries are a la carte. It's dressed with some melted cheddar and a pickle and tomato on the side.

The sandwich itself was great. The bun was butter grilled, the meat filling had a heavy chili flavor, and the sandwich lived up to its name. It was goopey.

The Smokey Saloon serves other mammoth-sized burgers as well.

This is a burger with BBQ sauce and something else. I forget. It wasn't my burger.

This was another eye popper. Fried onion rings piled high on a thick juicy grilled hunk o' meat.

Those were the best burgers I have had in Korea -- but there's another one that is running pretty close. More on that later.

Labels: Restaurant

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Saturday, July 08, 2006

Join Us for Some Food -- and Mischief

Trying something new here. We're starting a bit of a food group called ZenKimchi 식 Ruffians. It's a play on the work "sik" in Korean, which means "cuisine" but also sounds like "chic" or "sick." "Ruffians" is the term used for fans of Anthony Bourdain and his eat-life-to-the-fullest philosophy.

If you live in Seoul or will be in Seoul at some time, please sign up for this group. It's safe. Your information will not be shared with evil spammers. What I do is just insert your information into the ZenKimchi eVite account. When an event is coming, you'll receive an eVite. From there, you can RSVP and get details on when and where things will take place.

There's no club fee or anything like that. We just get together and split the bill.

Our initial event will be a small get together at Sh-wing for some chicken wings and beer. Our first big event will be Dog Day. Our friend Young Joon is an expert on dog meat (I call it "dork," like pork but with dog). He will set us up with a good dog restaurant with some famous Bosintang (dog soup) and steamed dog meat. It's the same stuff pictured on the top banner of the web site. Tentatively, it will be the first Saturday in August, which coincides with many English teachers' vacations. Don't know if that's a good or bad thing. But it will be a hot, hot day.

A good day for some dork soup.

Labels: Miscellaneous

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ZenKimchi Exclusive!

The ZenKimchi 식 Ruffians is a group dedicated to finding the sublime meal in Korea. "식" (Sik) is the Korean word for "cuisine." "Ruffians" is the term used for fans and followers of Anthony Bourdain's philosophy of experiencing the most a culture has to offer through its food.
Sign up now to join us on the next outing.
Note: Most all events right now will be in the Seoul area.

UPCOMING EVENTS
Sign up to get invites to new events
2/24 Joe's Birthday at Hooters
--PAST EVENTS--
Hockey and Dong Dong Ju
Foreigner Chuseok
Sh-wing in July