Segment 1: Noryangjin Fish Market (live octopus) — Guide: Chef Hu-nam Kim

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 2: Fermented Bean Paste, Fermented Skate, Changgukjang Jjigae (“Dead Body Soup”) — Guide: Soo-jung Kang

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 3: Chu-eoTang (live loach soup) and more soups, Korean Barbecue — Guides: Terry Rah, Richard Choi, Robert Egbert, Julie Yi

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 4: Kimchi factory, Street Food — Guide: Soo-jung Kang

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 5: Blogger outing with Turtle Soup, Blowfish and Grilled Eel — Guides: Daniel Gray, Eun Jeong Lee, Eun Hak Lee

Click here to view the embedded video.

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(SEOUL Magazine, May 2009)

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We’re reaching the end of the hype week for the South Korea episode of “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.”

This has all been in the works since we first got the call to help with the show back in August 2008.  I don’t think I have another Bizarre Foods post left in me.  By now, I think they’re scattered all over the place.  So I’ll link all the Bizarre Foods Posts here.

Remember to

• subscribe to the ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal to keep up with latest food happenings in Korea
• Join us on Facebook
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• browse the photos and
• keep up with ZenKimchi in the media (woo hoo!  videos!)
• If you use Google Earth we have comprehensive bookmarks for downloading, including a Bizarre Foods Pack
• Listen weekly to the SeoulPodcast for stories of living in one of the quirkiest and most exhilarating cities in the world
• Want to contribute an article, restaurant review or just a rant? Do so

Behind-the-scenes with Bizarre Foods

Part 1: Scouting Locations – We help come up with foods, restaurants and ideas for the show.

Part 2: Getting Folks on Camera – Finding Koreans to speak English on TV is hard.

Part 3: Noryangjin Fish Market – Chef Kim and Andrew wander a wonderland of seafood

Part 4: The Blogger Outing – ZenKimchi’s time to represent

Behind-the-scenes Pictures

Food

100 Korean Foods You Gotta Try

15 Strangest Foods I’ve Tried Thus Far

Gobchang Gui – Grilled beef intestines

Hong-eo – Fermented skate

Cheonggukjang – “Dead Body Stew”

Gamjatang – “Potato Soup” but really pork spine soup

Haejangguk – “Hangover Stew” with pork backbone, similar to Gamjatang

Beondaeggi (Silkworm Larvae) and Roasted Crickets – at the end of the video

Bog-eo – Blowfish

Corn Ice Cream

Baechu Kimchi – Cabbage Kimchi

Hui – Korean sashimi with live octopus

Jokbal – Pigs Feet

Sundae – Gelatinous Blood and Noodle Sausage

Budae Jjigae – “Army Base” Stew, traditionally including hot dogs and Spam

Haemultang – Seafood Soup

Chicken Galbi with Live Octopus

Grilled Pork WITH SKIN (Ggeobdaegi Ogyeopsal 껍대기 오겹살)

Smothered Raw Crabs

Korean Fried Chicken

Kids Love Squid

Acorn Jelly Salad

SundaeGuk – A big bowl of nasty

Crunchy Baby Crabs

Spicy Chicken Feet

The Meat Buffet

Andong Soju

Yogurt Soju

Strange Finds

Other Links

Bizarre Foods Video Central – Whatever videos we find, we post here

“In Defense of Bizarre Foods” – My rant in response to a Village Voice blogger’s tirade against the show

The Official Site for the South Korea Episode

UPDATE: The South Korea episode is now available for purchase in iTunes.

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I was busy with work the rest of the week, so I didn’t hang out for anymore shoots until Sunday, but I kept tabs on what went on.  So far, it looked like people were having a good time.  On Saturday, they went out to Chamsutgama for the charcoal sauna scene and went to Mapo-dong for the barbecue act.  They had a problem with a broken camera, and the B-roll footage of Noryangjin Fish Market (the parts without Andrew or Chef Kim) had to be reshot early in the morning on Saturday.  In fact, all of the B-roll on that camera from the first night to Noryangjin had to be scrapped.  Raymond was totally on top of things and tracked down a replacement camera for the rest of the week.

Scott almost had a confrontation with a drunk guy who tried to grab his camera, and Andrew bumped his head while getting out of the van (I think that was the story).  That’s why he has a red spot on his head in the South Korea and Japan episodes.

As the week progressed, Eun Jeong got more and more nervous and tried many times to back out.  I think her friend Eun-hak’s presence helped her courage.

We met that morning at Seoul Station.  I saw Richard outside, and he said they were filming promos inside.  Eun Jeong and I waited at the Pizza Hut for Eun-hak.  While we were waiting, Sue called.  She had just confirmed their outing the next day with Kel.  She still didn’t know what to do or say.  I told her to look at my brief history of kimchi post and the one I did on fermented skate.  I was confident she’d do fine.

We met Eun-hak and Daniel Gray (Seoul Eats), and we headed inside the main terminal, where they were shooting season promos.  Heh, heh… again they put me in charge of watching the equipment.  During a break, a group of college students from Taiwan asked what was going on and got Andrew’s autograph.

After everything was set and Andrew changed shorts, we piled into the mini-bus for the first restaurant.  There was some complaining going on with Andrew and the crew about the day’s lunch choice, a Korean-style Italian restaurant in Seoul Station.

Eww…

Italian restaurants don’t have the best reputations with foreigners in Korea.

Andrew spent some time getting to know Eun Jeong and Eun-hak.  We got the Lamb Land in Mapo-dong, the same area where I scouted for restaurants a few weeks earlier.  I didn’t know Lamb Land was there.  It was just outside the area I was looking.

This sequence was the most debated of any other–what story to use, who to put into the shot and which foods to try.  The foods switched a few times.  One was an emergency switch.  We were supposed to go to a grilled quail restaurant, but they were very hard to find.  Every single one was closed on Sunday.  A grilled eel restaurant was the back up.

Now, you’d think we’d be going to Lamb Land for lamb, right?  I mean, that’s pretty exotic in Korea.  Actually, lamb galbi has started to become a small trend in Seoul this past year.  But the reason for this excursion was Jaratang 자라탕 (Turtle Soup).  They’re specifically soft-shelled snapping turtles that live in muddy rivers.  The soup is a delicacy in certain areas of the countryside–but not near where Eun Jeong grew up.  She knew nothing of it until we started researching it.

Lamb Land is a fairly old restaurant by Seoul standards.  It was the first lamb galbi restaurant, and there are layers of gamey-smelling grease in all the nooks and crannies.  The Olympics were playing on TV, and we watched it with Andrew while everyone was setting up.  Everyone was curious about the turtles bought for the shoot at over 100,000 won a piece.  Two turtles were made into soup, and the other two were stunts for the cameras.  It’s a long-stewing soup, so we didn’t have time for them to make it from scratch.

Everyone got their mics set up.  Scott, Andrew and Kel talked about the opening shot.  Kel had an idea for a “Charlie’s Angels” intro.

We went outside to start the intro.

Then they did the establishment shot of Andrew walking in from the outside then walking in from the inside, with the three bloggers already sitting at the table.

He did a spiel about South Korea being wired to the internet and that bloggers are the food writers of tomorrow.  No telling what was going through Eun-hak’s mind.

(“Joe, I’m supposed to be a blogger.  What should the name of my web site be?”)

It’s TV.  Suspension of disbelief.  Don’t fight it.  Just go with it.

Eun Jeong tried her best to explain what she could about ZenKimchi.  Dan, of course, was totally on the ball.

Served.

None of them had ever tried this before.  Both the women were nervous beforehand about trying anything too strange.  This would turn out to be the strangest one of the day.

But they did fine.  The waitress in the background stood there watching everything.  Kel asked Raymond to ask her to pretend she was doing something.

Andrew said that he really enjoyed turtle and learned to like it while in China.  It has a muddy flavor.  Eun Jeong didn’t particularly like it.  But we had to go for the money shot.

Oh look, Andrew got a little head.

They ate the soup until it looked like there wasn’t much more to talk about.  Then it wrapped.  Kel got a twitch in his eye from no sleep, it seems.

Remember, they had to get up early that morning after doing that day trip and late night BBQ shoot to recover the pick up shows at Noryangjin Fish Market.

Here’s Eun Jeong’s leftover soup.  (Typical food blog, showing everyone their leftovers like they care.)

I got to try it.  It was very muddy, slimey and full of tiny bones.

Eun Jeong posed with the head.

The next stop was in the same general area.  It was at one of the places I had taken pictures of during my location scouting.  It’s Haemul Nara 해물 나라 (Seafood Country) on Mapo’s gentrified food street.

This was unique because it had one of the few female sushi chefs trained in working with blowfish.

Her father owned the restaurant, and he trained her.  Poor girl never smiled the whole time.  The restaurant had a second floor, and a few of us were upstairs with the owner working out details.  Raymond, I think, was working out the finances of the shoot.  The father dressed in his traditional sushi master garb and looked very proud.

I’ve heard that women can’t be good sushi masters because their hands are too warm.  That’s news to me.  Most of the women I’ve known have had freezing cold hands.  But we all know that just reeks as an invented excuse to keep women out of the profession.  Nonetheless, she had a bowl of ice water standing by, which she regularly dipped her hand in.

The shoot started, and everyone gawked at the gorgeous blowfish.  There was a small break in taping.  Eun Jeong continued to eat as Andrew and Dan took pics.  The camera Dan’s holding is the one he later donated to me when my trusty Pentax died.

So they went back to taping.

The spicy fish soup came out.  Then Eun Jeong did something unexpected.  When something is good and spicy and makes you feel good all over you, make a gutteral sound–like hawing a loogie.

Andrew stopped what he was saying and asked Eun Jeong to repeat it.  She explained why she did what she did, and Andrew had her train him on how to do it correctly.

I remember at this point a family member of the owners came by with a baby, and they were working on keeping the baby occupied and quiet until the scene finished.

The last stop was south of the river.  We finally had some time to talk at length with Andrew.  Of course, I had to ask for any details on what Anthony Bourdain was like.  He gave good advice on food writing and working on your brand.  I felt stupid most of the time because I just couldn’t relax.  There was a lot of I knew I wanted to ask and say.  You know, career advice–fanboy talk–I had just forgotten everything.  But I did do my usual schtick of mumbling jokes (SeoulPodcast listeners know that side of me well).

Dan mentioned that “Diary of a Foodie” was coming to Korea soon.  The next month, Daniel’s head almost exploded with the stress of setting up that one.  With both of these shows, along with the New York Times bit the year before, he and I have had on-the-job training as Korean food media fixers.

The bus stopped, and we piled out.  The eel place was down the hill.

It was a typical scene in Korea but is still fascinating–restaurants that double as aquariums.  Real actual aquariums–the ones you pay admission to–are the strange places.  We’re too used to seeing fish in aquariums and assuming that they’re for restaurants.

Richard got some footage of the eels in the tanks while Jane did the lights.

Andrew, he of the reputation for loud shorts, ribbed Kel for his footwear (“Come on, Kel.  Socks with sandals?”).  He actually was wearing the slippers for the restaurant.

Cables were laid out and places were set up.   Kel sort of “invented” on the spot what he called the “Table Cam.”

Out of the three restaurants, this couple seemed the most excited to have the crew.  And it’s the one restaurant I didn’t get information for.  I hope someone has it around so I can post it later.  They serve a mean eel.

He welcomes the group for the entrance shot.

I huddled in the back with Jane and Raymond, squeezed against the wall.  Note Eun-hak’s microphone pack on her waist.  Heh, heh…

Andrew regaled Eun Jeong with a story of his childhood and catching eels in the river.  He has a special fondness for them.

After the intro was done, there was a break while the eels were prepared.  Andrew took it as a chance to lie down on the floor and get out some of the soreness in his back.  He closed his eyes a bit, and I walked by him to go outside for the eel prep.  He opened his eyes.

“Hi Joe.  Whatcha know?”

We talked a bit, and I found out that Andrew has likes and dislikes like the rest of us.  I know, of course he does.  But you get the impression on the show that he just likes everything.  He distinctly can’t stand Durian.

“Why, with all the great tropical fruit you can get in Southeast Asia, would anyone eat durian?”

He also boldly stated, “If there was no alcohol in wine, would we really have wine snobs?”

I had never seen this method before, but I don’t get to go to eel restaurants that much.  So they put the eels in a clothes hamper and electrocuted them with a rod.  There was no zapping sound.  Just the eels writhing wildly and slowing down.

Pretty fast.

By then the  owners had introduced us to their bokbunja-ju 복분자주–Korean raspberry wine–which they kept in a water cooler.  Andrew didn’t drink any.  He quit drinking in his thirties, he said.  But the rest of us took advantage of it.  The owners went ahead with prepping the eels when some of us noticed this:

What’s going on here?

It’s pretty cool.  The syringe pulls out the bile so they can use the bones to make a soup.  The bones are pulverized with some seeds.

The soup was smooth and hearty.  I would have loved it during the winter.  The eels were grilled with different styles.  I tried some of the leftovers at the end, and I could really taste the difference with fresh eel.  It’s clean and oceany.

And that was pretty much the wrap.  I asked Andrew to sign some stuff I had in my bag, including a can of Beondaeggi 번댁기 (Silkworm Larvae), some pine-flavored toothpaste, a tub of Ssamjang 쌈장 and a sushi knife I bought when we were at the fish market.  That knife was targeted as a Christmas present for my brother, Chef Ben.

We got in the bus for one more stop–a dog soup restaurant.  A last minute approval had Raymond scrambling to find a dog soup shop open on a Sunday night.  We stopped by a restaurant that looked like a converted house.  They went inside.  After a while, they exited.  It was too empty, and it just looked creepy to have Andrew sit there by himself eating dog soup.  So in the end, the whole dog thing was a no-go.

I should address this now that I have your attention.  Really, dog meat is hardly popular in South Korea, especially these days.  It’s more commonly consumed in China and northern Vietnam.  So all those dog meat jokes–aim them at China from now on.

Scott and Richard proceeded to check if the sample soju bottles we got from one of the restaurants was poisoned.  That had to check the whole bottles.  Raymond made sure all the release forms were signed.

The soju worked its effects.

Scott pontificated on his new love of soju.

The bus dropped us all off at the Ritz-Carlton.  Andrew took some pics with us and bid us farewell.  Kel and Scott talked about strategy for the next day’s shoot and business in general.  There was talk of extending the night to a Korean-style fried chicken hof, but the lack of sleep from the early morning fish market shoot and the spector of the next day’s final act kinda made everyone think twice.

That was the last I saw of everyone in person.  Monday night, Sue called me while driving back from her day with Andrew and the crew.  She had a good time going to the farm, kimchi factory and eating the fermented skate.  She said she thought she was goofy, and she had never had to interpret on the fly like she did that day, especially on camera.

Andrew, Scott and Richard went to Japan on Tuesday.  Jane left.  Kel was the last to go, and he called me while he wandered around Gangnam looking at camera stores.  He noted the oddness of the Korean business model of opening the exact same types of stores next to each other.  He arranged for Raymond to pay us all for our participation and headed to the airport.

Of course, I wasn’t too involved with post-production other than answering a few research questions, telling how to pronounce some foods and looking up some restaurants whose names were lost.

We had a great time working on the show, and it gave us more experience in the food media business.  Dan went on to help “Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie.” Arirang TV in Korea did a feature on ZenKimchi a couple of weeks later (video here).  We also got to meet Chef Kim through this adventure, a relationship that has already strengthened in the past year.  We went to his restaurant for FoodBuzz’s first “24, 24, 24″ event (video here).

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Promo:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Noryangjin Fish Market:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chu-eotang 추어탕 (Live Loach Soup)

Click here to view the embedded video.

UPDATE: Looks like the whole show has been posted in segments.

Segment 1: Noryangjin Fish Market (live octopus) — Guide: Chef Hu-nam Kim

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 2: Fermented Bean Paste, Fermented Skate, Changgukjang Jjigae (“Dead Body Soup”) — Guide: Soo-jung Kang

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 3: Chu-eoTang (live loach soup) and more soups, Korean Barbecue — Guides: Terry Rah, Richard Choi, Robert Egbert, Julie Yi

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 4: Kimchi factory, Street Food — Guide: Soo-jung Kang

Click here to view the embedded video.

Segment 5: Blogger outing with Turtle Soup, Blowfish and Grilled Eel — Guides: Daniel Gray, Eun Jeong Lee, Eun Hak Lee

Click here to view the embedded video.

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• bizarre food videos

[Picture gallery is here.]

So on the fly, they decided to bring Chef Kim in as the guide for the Noryangjin act.  Andrew had flown in, and the Noryangjin shoot was scheduled the next morning.

I’d had a busy week with work.  I was planning to go down to Noryangjin that morning, but I was too exhausted.  For some reason, I woke up three hours earlier than usual and couldn’t go back to sleep.

“Ah, screw it.  I’ll go.”

I got dressed and got to the subway to head to Noryangjin, which was a bit of a ride.

When I got there at seven, the summer air was thick, and the humidity felt like rain was coming eventually.  The air on the outside of the fish market was rank, but once inside, it smelled kinda clean.  The entrance from the subway is on the second floor.  I wondered how I would find everyone in this, one of the largest fish markets in the world.

A-ha!  I’d know those orange shorts anywhere.  I made my way down there, where I was recognized by crewmembers who weren’t absorbed in shooting the show.  They had been shooting for a few hours by then, including the fish auction.

I hung out in the back so as not to disturb anything.

Despite being early in the morning and just off a flight over the Pacific, Andrew was full of energy.

Even though I had introduced everyone to Chef Kim, I hadn’t met him in person myself.  So that’s what he looked like.  Andrew was a kid in a candy store.  As well traveled as he is, there were still many things that he had never seen before.

The crew was just as interesting to watch.

Jane took pics for the Bizarre Foods web site and promotion.

The octopus lady bags their catch. Chef Kim tells her to put it in a clear bag in a styrofoam cooler. Andrew compliments that he’s a chef who knows how to get his seafood.

After that bit, Andrew and Chef Kim went aside to discuss things.  Kel introduced me to Andrew as the guy who set up everything.

“Oh, you’re the guy that I hate,” he joked.

They went back to another aisle around some shellfish to continue the act.

The market was very noisy, and I really zoomed in on my little Pentax point-and-shoot.  Man, I miss that camera!

I couldn’t hear what they were saying amidst all the noise in the market.  They were trying this one thing that I thought was sea urchin but may have been a sea squirt.  The web site says it was “mungae” (door dog?), but I think they meant monggae 몽개, which is sea squirt.

Nonetheless, he ate it.

“Eating shellfish in chili sauce is the perfect way to start the morning.”

Andrew also found this tiny wooden box that was used for something he knew of.  I haven’t seen the show yet, so I don’t know if that was included in the cut.

They moved on to more shellfish.  Chef Kim brought his friend, who was a photo designer in New York City for eight years and could help him with his English.  I got to know him pretty well.  Chef Kim and Andrew looked at more shellfish, with both of them picking out their favorite.

Always whip out your handy knife when shopping.

He likes it!  Hey Mikey!

“You should try this.”

Then they got to the ki jogae 키조개, which translates strangely as “pen shell.” It’s a giant triangular black shellfish with meat similar to a scallop.  Andrew had to try this one out.  I don’t think his pocketknife was up to the task, so the lady opened it for him.

“It’s a gorgeous monster.”

That’s a massive lob of meat in there.

Munch, munch, munch!

The last bit, I think, was the jeot 젖 section of the market, which specialized in all those lovely stinky fermented fish products that are the base of much of Korean cooking–a common feature in many world cuisines, especially in southeast Asia.  The ancient Romans and even pre-Victorian British were fans of fermented fish products.  That’s actually the origin of ketchup and Worcestorshire sauce.

Oh, ADD set in again.  Where were we?

Oh yeah, look at all this stuff!  And they have toothpicks out to sample.  It smells raunchy, but the flavors are complex, deep and disturbingly addictive.  Andrew went around getting the crew to try samples on his toothpicks.  He particularly loved the spicy salted pollack roe.

That’s really good stuff if you know what to do with it (I don’t).

Oh, here are our friends the penis fish.  Uncircumcised.

These are such a mystery to not only foreigners.  Korean friends are puzzled by these things.  They’re called “gaebul” 개불, and they’re really a species of marine spoon worm. Urechis unicinctus.  One day, I’ll eat one of them.  I’m afraid I’ll cringe in inappropriate places if I see them being prepared.

ouch…

They picked a live red snapper for lunch, and the fishmonger swiftly transformed it into sashimi.  Andrew whipped out his camera to shoot some golden photos.

**WARNING**

**LIVE FISH EVISCERATION COMING**

The fish was very active and flopped around during most of the carnage, even when the head was hacked off.  Check out that knife.  That’s something a Klingon could love.

Gutting.  Still flopping around.

Fascination.

Happiness.

And we’re all wrapped up.  This… was… fast!

Everything was tagged and bagged, so they did the “walking off to the restaurant” shot.  Raymond made sure to write down and pay for every little thing eaten there.

It was then that I lost everyone.  I don’t remember how.  I think, oh yeah, I found a tinker–you know, a knife craftsman.  Gorgeous knives there.  When I came back out, I couldn’t find anyone.  After some looking, I eventually found Richard and Kel.  Kel, after all the hype, wanted to see one of those fermented skates for himself.  We looked around, and I asked a lady.  She obliged.

He leaned over to sniff it and jumped back reflexively.

“Yep, that’s it.”

He took a few snapshots for the show.

Smile!

The restaurant wasn’t ready yet, so we waited outside.  I got to finally shake hands and get to know Chef Kim.  I also helped out with translating some of the fish they encountered.  That’s the weird thing about my Korean.  Since my obsession is food, I’m more likely to know the name of a fish species, even though I still have no idea how to tell a hairstylist how to cut my hair.  There actually was a small kink.  The restaurant had set up a small private room.

Too small.  Too private.

Andrew wanted customers in the background and activity all around them.  Yet it was a bit early for customers.

As they set up for them sitting in the main dining room, a few of us retreated to the air-conditioned bus, specifically Jane, Kel, Andrew and me.  Andrew was really excited about his new fisheye lens on his camera and showed it off to Kel.  We hung out and talked about stuff.  I wish I remembered what it was.  Must not have been important.

They opened the restaurant, and we entered.  As mentioned before, Andrew wanted customers and activity with the open kitchen in the background, but it was a bit early for the lunch rush.  The crew worked on setting up the logistics.  They recruited the floor manager to be in the act to welcome them.  Kel said that if no customers came, he’d want my back sitting at a table in the background.

There was a lot of waiting.  I remember someone asking me to translate some stuff on the menu.  Then the time finally came to do the shot.  Everything had to be done perfectly so that the octopus was still wriggling for the cameras.  Richard went into the kitchen to get shots.  By the time it started, I was stuck in the original private room with Jane, where I had stretched out on the floor.  The lack of sleep was catching up.

Since they had started shooting, Jane and I were trapped in the back room.  So while they were shooting this.

From the Bizarre Foods website

We were just beyond that door to the left.

We watched what was going on through the reflection on the beverage cooler.

During a quick break, we escaped.  Andrew used the opportunity to get in his own bit of food porn.  They had all the side dishes out.

Oh yeah, this is the cool thing about Noryangjin.  The surrounding restaurants don’t really do much seafood cooking.  They make the sashimi in the market, and you bring it over, where they have side dishes and drinks all ready.  The only cooking they may do is turning the leftover bones and head into soup.  If you don’t have any sashimi on you, they’ll just yell out an order to the market.  That’s fresh!

The octopus was ready.  FAST!

They got the octopus.  I’m afraid it was kinda pooped and didn’t put up much of a fight, but it still moved.  Andrew picked up his first tentacle.

And the reaction.  Now with modern cooking shows, they usually cut to get the food porn money shots.  This is “Bizarre Foods.” They gotta cut to get the “Andrew playing with his food” shot.

When that bit was done and there was still some wriggle in the octopus, they got some teaser clips, where Andrew improvised lines about what he was eating “next on Bizarre Foods.”

“Coming up: Food so good, it literally jumps in your mouth.”

By then the octopus was down for the count.

Kel and Jane still got their turns to try some.  The consensus?  Chewy.  That’s always what people say, and that’s it.  It doesn’t have any flavor and is like chewing rubber bands.  But it’s fun in its own sick way.

Oh, Raymond’s looking.  Say hi!

The soup came out, and there was more fun.

Andrew took out the fish eye and shared it with Chef Kim.  By then, the clock was ticking for me, and I had to head back to Anyang to start my workday.

NEXT: Part 4, The Blogger Outing

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The advertising for the Bizarre Foods episode in Korea has started on the web site since it’s now the next premiering episode.  They have four internet-only clips of Andrew talking about his experiences with highlights from the show PLUS a public service announcement about barber poles.

Andrew and Eun Jeong get ready for some turtle soup

[Behind-the-scenes with Bizarre Foods #1 is here.]

When last we left, the folks in charge of the Seoul episode of “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” had hooked up with me to help plan out their show.  I went around and scouted a few locations.

From there, it became regular to get onto Skype with Kel or have them call my cell phone while I was out to throw around more ideas.  I had sent them a list of food I felt would be interesting.  They held meetings with Andrew Zimmern, and he chose which ones sounded TV worthy.  Some of the ones that I was disappointed to have rejected were Dotorimok 도토리묵 (Acorn Jelly), Gobchang 곱창 and Makchang 막창 (small and large intestines), Budae Jjigae 보대 찌개 (basically Spam and hot dog soup) and Dalk Bal 닭발 (Spicy Chicken Feet).  The Travel Channel execs from the beginning of the series stated a list of foods that they felt were over the line for American audiences.  Dog meat was on the list.  So that was out.  Fortunately, some stuff still made the cut, including Hong-eo 홍어 (Fermented Skate), the blowfish, Haejangguk 해장국 (Hangover Stew), and Changgukjang Jjigae 창국장 찌개 (Stinky, Stinky Soybean Stew).  Ddong Dwaeji 똥돼지, which is supposed to be pigs who are fed human feces, turned out to not really exist in Seoul and was more or less a marketing ploy.

I know, I know.  Only in Korea can you use poo-fed pigs as a marketing gimmick for pork–and people will come.

The next step was to find people to be “guides” for Andrew on camera.  They originally wanted me to be on the show, but they had a dilemma.  An American guy had already contacted them earlier about the show, and they had agreed to put him on.  Travel Channel’s policy, I found, was that they wanted as few non-natives in a show as possible.  Kel tried to lobby to get me on the show, but we joked that they had already hit their “whitey quota.”

He then got the idea to tangentially put me on the show by getting my fiancee (now wife) Eun Jeong on the show instead.  Eun Jeong was deadset against it.  She didn’t want to speak English on camera.  This was a problem I was going to have with many Koreans I talked to.  She said she was not a food person.  That you’d know was a lie if you had ever tasted her food.  This just wasn’t her bag.

But she did it for me–I mean, the Food Journal.

Kel had this idea for an act where since Korea was such a wired nation, Andrew could restaurant hop with some food bloggers.  Again, the trick was finding Korean food bloggers who spoke English.  Of course, my friendly food blogging rival Dan Gray of Seoul Eats could go into the mix.  I stress friendly, as we’re good friends, and it’s a positive rivalry.  At the time, though, I was a bit disappointed about a then recent New York Times article I had worked very hard to help the writer and set him up with the right places and people basically cut me out and made Dan the center of the story.  Dan was ethnically Korean, so he could pass the quota for the show.  Wish I could have said the same for Jen Flinn, who spoke better Korean than any of us by far.  She didn’t make the cut.  So the trick was to find a third Korean to fill that last space.  In the end, we got Eun Jeong’s old tour guide friend Eun Hak, who had recently changed careers to be a healing massage therapist.

Okay.  Good.  We got the three bloggers.

They still needed people for the other acts.  They had the American and his girlfriend for the sauna act.  Daniel had found some people for the soup act.  They needed guides for the kimchi/fermented skate act and the Noryangjin Fish Market act.

I got back in touch with an old friend from my early days in Korea, Soo-jung.  She had recently gone through some culinary certification and was the person who introduced me to fermented skate–and her English was good.  She was also closer to Andrew’s age in an episode where it was turning out to be mostly people under 40.  Her only reservation was that she didn’t know what all to say.  I told her to just go on my web site and read what I had already written about kimchi and fermented skate.

The Noryangjin Fish Market one was the absolute hardest.  They were going to use someone from the soup segment, but they didn’t like repeating guides between acts.  I tried to get our old friend Injoo involved, but he was on vacation in Japan.  I also contacted my journalist buddy Gwang-lib.  He was very hesitant.  He knew the market a bit, but he wasn’t a foodie.  He also was wary of the message of the show–that it would make fun of Korean culture.  I reassured him that it wouldn’t, that the premise of the show was to, in a way, educate people that what they think is gross may actually taste good.

He agreed to be our back up if we couldn’t find anyone.  But he refused to eat live octopus.

I went to the end of my Facebook networks, email lists and cell phone directory.  I then got a reply from Cathy (SeoulLife.net), saying that our mutual friend Jennifer Lee (Between Pee and Kimchi) had introduced them to this amazing restaurant called Star Chef.  The guy was amazing.  He knew fish.  And he spoke some English.  I contacted Jennifer, and she asked her husband.  They tracked down his information, and I got Eun Jeong to call him.

By this time, the crew was already on their flight to Korea.  We were really cutting it close.

Chef Hu-nam Kim, at first, had no idea what we were talking about.  But Eun Jeong explained everything, and he said he’d be happy to do the show.  I contacted Kel.

“How’s his English?”

“A little shaky.  But he’s a real Korean chef, and you don’t have any real chefs on this episode.”

The question was left up in the air.

The crew got in town.  Andrew was coming later.  I met them that evening in Mapo after work.  I got Kel some dried squid and the rest of the crew some chilled green tea as a welcome gift.

I got lost in trying to find out where they were eating, though.  They were having some great grilled beef at an upscale restaurant that was popular with famous Koreans and every Korean president.  I met everyone, including the director Kel, the vice president of the production company Jane, the famous videography bad asses Scott and Richard, and the Korean fixer Raymond.  They were being wined and dined by the owners of this restaurant.  The wife was getting thoroughly sloshed and was starting to look like she was having fun ordering her servants servers around.  She then started flirting heavily with one of the crew members (whose name will be withheld for the sake of blackmail).

After dinner, we piled into a van, and the driver took us a little roundaboutly to the place where Mike and I ate samgyeopsal.  They got out and explored.  Scott and Richard started taking videos.  Drunk ajosshis tried to get in on the act as Raymond shooed them off, and I tried to in my pidgin Korean.

The question of the Noryangjin guide was still up in the air.  I suggested that they at least meet Chef Kim at his restaurant.  Since it was relatively near their hotel, they ate dinner there the next night.  They were so impressed by his food that they decided to take a chance and have him be the guide for the Noryangjin act.

NEXT: Part 3, Noryangjin Fish Market

Incoming search terms:

• are Korean pigs fed human poop?

The bridge week between July and August was my vacation. I recorded one last episode of the SeoulPodcast before our month-long break. I then got an email from Mama Seoul saying that a researcher for “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” had been talking to her, and she contacted me for suggestions.

Bizarre foods? That’s my specialty!

I emailed the researcher, Carrie, and introduced myself. She wanted to call me directly. She and the producer, Kel, called me early Friday morning as Eun Jeong and I were boarding the bus to catch the subway to catch another bus to go on a rafting day trip. I gave them my ideas and helped them with questions. The conversation was highly productive.

For the next week, I was regularly on Skype with Kel (a bit of trivia: Kel is cousins with the Nelson brothers) and exchanging emails about different aspects. For one thing, they were planning a barbecue act. They had a Korean “fixer,” who worked in the film industry in Korea. He was looking for restaurants and other locations for the show. Yet they were not totally thrilled with the pictures they were receiving of barbecue joints. They looked too upscale and sanitized or just weren’t visually interesting.

That Sunday I just emailed Kel and said, “I’ll go scout locations.”

I first went south to my old neighborhood of Ansan. There was a gobchang place there that flambeed their cow intestines in soju.

Visually interesting, I thought.

It was a blisteringly hot day. Ansan had totally changed, and not for the better. All the good places I knew were out of business. All the bad places I knew still thrived. It didn’t look like the gobchang place was still in business, even though many more gobchang restaurants popped up in that location.

So, Ansan was a bust.

I took the subway back north into Seoul, specifically the Mapo neighborhood just north of the river. I had heard many times that Mapo was the place to go for meat. I also knew my buddy Michael Hurt lived in the area, so I called him. He helped me find a few spots while on the phone, and we agreed to meet for dinner.

The area he directed me to was a little off the beaten path. These were the restaurants that the locals went to. A little grungier. No pretention. Just honest food. This was on the south side of the subway station that bisected Mapo, near Gongdeok Station.

I went to the north side of the station, where giant office and apartment towers loomed. I found the official “Mapo Restaurant Street,” which was a lot more gentrified. Nonetheless, it smelled great. I snapped a lot of pictures there.

One place was obviously touristy (hint: English and Japanese signs), but it offered YukHui, Korea’s steak tartare. I went inside and double-checked. The staff was very brusque and asked why I wanted to know, speaking to me in banmal. I told them it was for an American TV show, and suddenly they were all nice and helpful.

Even though gentrified, Mapo’s restaurant street was a good find. Too bad I don’t live in that area.  They didn’t have just grilling joints, they had a good many restaurants.  I took note of this sad looking fish place that served Bok-eo 복어 (blowfish) and took a few pics.

So I went around and took pics of restaurants (link) for Kel so he could pick and choose, along with Google Earth bookmarks (download) of the locations.

Mike and I met, and he wanted to show me one of his favorite Samgyeopsal 삼겹살 joints.  The thing was, the building was being renovated.  Some asking around found that the place had moved to a larger location.  When we found it, Mike noted in relief that it still had its classic character.

This was pretty much like all other neighborhood blue-collar grill houses but for one innovation.

They poured egg into the well of the pan that’s normally used to collect rendered fat.  Ahh… so that’s why Mike asked me to get a pack of cheese beforehand.

We laid down strips of cheese and kimchi on the setting eggs.  It pretty much was a variation on the classic bacon and eggs.

The pork was also really good.  No frills.  Sweet and juicy.  Our friend Jennifer Flinn of Fatman Seoul joined us.  While she was trying to catch up with us in her pork intake, the family next to us asked Mike if he could use their camera to take a picture of them.  Now, Mike is a professional fashion photographer, so he just couldn’t resist whipping out his camera and doing some cool shots, along with a business card.

That night I sent everything to Bizarre Foods HQ in Minnesota.

NEXT: Part 2, “Getting Folks on Camera”

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• bizarre foods locations
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• bizarre foods seoul locations