Kongguksu, I heart you

It's pretty much impossible to designate any Korean dish to ultimate favorite status - they're all so damn tasty - but I've recently determined that kongguksu (콩국수) ranks pretty high on my list. The above photo comes from a recent visit to BSD Dubu House, but I've yet to try anything better than Myeongdong Gyoja / Myeongdong Gyoza (명동교자)'s savory version. I'm sorry, kongguksu, for being so late to realize your outstanding qualities and potential.

I've also been craving some really good curry after having eaten mediocre Thai. As the song goes, if at first you don't succeed, then dust yourself off and try again, you can dust yourself off and try again, try again. Unfortunately, this motto applies to my appetite more than I'd like it to. (If you're curious, we randomly picked out a Thai restaurant on the 5th floor of I'Park at Yongsan Electronics Market, a few steps away from the Marks and Spencers store. It wasn't anything to write home about.)

Mmmh... Thai or Indian, anyone?

20 years of Pixar

This weekend, Eunice and I checked out the Pixar exhibition at the Hangaram Design Museum, but it was a bit of a disappointment. I guess I was hoping for larger-than-life sized, huggable Nemos or something. Anyhow, we still had fun taking pictures outside the exhibit (photography banned inside), and learned a thing or two about the complex processes of animation genius!

I'll share more of the randomness (+ dim sum!) once Eunice sends me her photos. I ran out of memory!

Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul Arts Center

14,000 won (20% discount for KB card holders)

Line 3 Nambu Bus Terminal Station, Exit 5

http://www.sac.or.kr/eng/

Bigger eyes, surgery free

After hearing word that color lenses are a ssul-ssul-free way to making your eyes look bigger (no joke that one of my nicknames is String Eyes), I totally caved in and bought my first pair from a shop called Over the Rainbow in Sinchon. It's amazing how easy (and cheap!) it is to get a pair of contacts or glasses in this country. I paid about $30 for my new set of purple eyes, which will last me anywhere from 6-8 months. Granted, it looks a bit freaky with flash photography and I have been likened to a cat, but it's really not all that bad if you stand outside my comfortable personal space boundary (3 feet?), and it's a fun change. They make your eyes pop as the iris area is enlarged. I'm thinking grey next? Blue's a little creepy and I'm not willing to dye my hair.

Flash closeup. Bad angle? Hehe.

No flash, few feet away.

Yeah, I know I still got them string eyes...

She might kill me but...

I think this is the cutest photo. ^^

(She's chowing down on this.)

Korea will miss you, Annie. : (

No R's allowed

Fresh outta Beantown, Henry's now in Korealand and already gracing the pages of GQ.

Me: Let's take sticker pics!

H: I'll give you a Korean tip. You have to get rid of your Rs. SticKUH. Not sticKER.

As a creature of habit, I have a relatively difficult time pronouncing 외래어, or loanwords, i.e. American words adopted into everyday Korean speech. I try my best, given the fact that oftentimes, ordering in vanilla ice cream juseyo fashion will result in huh, what did you say, can you repeat that please confusion. Oh, you mean the bahneelah aiyeesoo kooreem? Why didn't you say so in the first place, silly?

Don't get me started on trying to order a chicken buh-guh (버거), using the computuh (컴퓨터), or adjusting the temperature on the eh-uh-con (에어컨). 

Stateside, this is similar to suggesting a night of karaoke to folks not accustomed to the Japanese language. Say what? Karaoke. Come again? Ohhhhhh, kaah-ree-oh-kee.

Or telling them that I used to practice karate karadee.

I suppose practice makes perfect and eventually I'll get accustomed to buh-guh's.

Nope, still a little awkward.

That's #8

Here's your spoiler, Dad. ^^

Go USA!

Phelps with eight gold. Wow.

Face paint

Living in a country ranked #1 in the world for "most beauty products used," you'd think by now I'd have a better grasp of the subject. (I don't.) Luckily, I recently came across a wonderful collection of Korean/Japanese makeup reviews from Lotus Palace. It's a little overwhelming, brimming with lots and lots of info from BB Cream to lipgloss to sheetmasks (my only facial indulgence in Seoul so far), but I look forward to being educated. Something tells me I'm going shopping tomorrow!

I'm sorry, you're ugly

So the ridiculousness from 미녀는 괴로워 (aka 200 Pound Beauty) happens in real life too?



After seeing a feed from Ask A Korean, I read this news article from the BBC. More about it here, and here, and here.



Sigh.

Olympic video

They've been taking video off of YT like lightning... Here's the same amazing 4x100 relay from yesterday, BBC style.

*update* I didn't want to embed the video any longer as it automatically plays each time... you can search for it on sportstrick.com!

More good quality video for those outside the US, including Phelps' 3rd gold win, can be found on www.sportstrick.com. Hopefully the site stays up!

Happy Birthday Imo - Eel, cake, puppies, and movies!

Dad, show this to Mom and Samchon, please! ありがとう. ^^



Here's the photo play by play...

For Imo's birthday dinner the night before, she wanted to eat eel, but was concerned I wouldn't eat it and then tried to come up with a million other options, including getting fried chicken delivered to the restaurant. I didn't want her to worry so I promised to try a few bites. Sure, it tastes fine, but I still have a problem trying not to think about squirmy-slivery-water-snake-creature-shapes so don't count on me adding unagi to my list of regular eats just yet. ^^;;







There was wine and cake but no corkscrew! ㅠㅠ Should have pulled out a screw and hammer... oh well.







Birthday breakfast... I always eat well with Imo. ^^









We also took a trip to the mall, chomping on junk food...



...and saw a movie, 눈에는 눈 이에는 이 (Eye for an Eye). I suppose it's worth seeing if you're into action crime flicks... Here's the trailer!

In and around Daehangno: Andy, Kraze Burgers, and POG!

Straight from the Coffee Bean: POG! That's Passion Orange Guava for the non-Hawaii folks, and one of my favorite juice blends. It's not quite Hawaiian Sun, but the $6 version's a refreshing treat if you're willing to shell out the cash.



Anna and I decided to scope out Daehangno (대학로), in an attempt to do a little bit of research on musicals. We walked by the theatre showing Polaroid, and saw a bunch of girls waiting outside with their cameras. I figured they were looking for one of the show's stars, Andy, a singer turned actor who's been enjoying increased popularity due to his part on the well received "reality" program 우리 결혼했어요 (We Got Married).



Well, we had swung by at the right time, and got to see him for a good 3 seconds as he walked out of the theatre and into a darkly tinted black SUV. Truthfully, we were a little disappointed it was a Kia, haha. Perhaps I'll see the show one day; I've got another week or so to buy tickets. But I've also seen ads for Grease, and I would never turn down the chance to see a Korean Danny Zuko!



In our quest for dinner, we ran into one of those cocktail-in-a-plastic-bag stands on the street. I've yet to try one, but I imagine it's one of those things you do once just to say you did it. It doesn't look very appetizing, but where else can you get a $4 cocktail in this city?



We ended up at Kraze Burgers (pronunciation closer to kra-jay than craze). It was my second time there, and I ordered the same thing I had before - the K.O. chicken sandwich. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as good this time around, but I still enjoyed it.



Anna ordered the philly cheesesteak and chili cheese fries, but judging by her "eh" expression, she didn't seem very impressed with it. The "steak" turned into a hunk of meat that resembled a badly thrown together burger, and the chili cheese fries, as you can tell in the picture below, lacked a staple ingredient - cheese.





What I'd do for a Gardenburger these days...

Dark Knight, airport food, and Outback Steakhouse

On my trip to Incheon airport last week, we decided to have our last Korean family dinner with JJ. Despite the fact that it was his last chance for a "real" Korean meal in Korea, he wanted to eat cream spaghetti from the food court. Go figure.



Since we were there, I finally got to eat a salad, though it was covered in honey mustard gunk. Koreans sure like their dressing! But this was nothing compared to my aunt's tuna-corn-cucumber-iceberg salad drenched in green kiwi dressing. She actually uses the entire bottle so it's more like a "salad soup" but I don't have the heart to say anything. Whenever I come over, she tells me with a wide grin, "I'm making the salad that you like!" as if she won the key to my stomach.



Hyun also had spaghetti that night, which meant he was planning on eating again. You see, for a handful of Koreans, if you don't eat rice, you're not really eating a meal, and Hyun is one of those people. We once ordered pizza, and after three slices, he decided to heat up some leftover rice and kimchi jjigae. So it was no surprise that he after we drove back to Seoul, I was treated to dinner #2 at Outback Steakhouse and the Dark Knight. ^^







Well... the overall outcome? The boys said it was surprisingly better than they thought it would be, and gave it the thumbs up! I agree.



On a side note, I feel like I've been getting a bit of crap for the types of movies I've been watching here in Korea. ㅋㅋ I wouldn't under normal circumstances watch these movies in the States (well, Batman's an exception), but in my defense, I don't really have much of a choice when it comes to foreign films in Korea. Quite obviously, most of the time only blockbusters (or blockbuster-ishes) make it through, which tend to lean towards the action/superhero/fantasy genre. Looking at the Megabox website, the only American movies currently showing are the Dark Knight, Nim's Island, The Mummy 3, and Wall E. So cut me some slack! ^^;;

On the subway

Despite the fact that I've been in Seoul for over seven months, my relatives still don't think I understand the subway system. I can find my way to my aunt's new apartment in Suwon without an address by bus (which is more confusing, especially if you don't have Internet Explorer and can't access the city's interactive bus map), yet she wants to make sure I know that on my subway ride way back to Seoul, I should take X train and transfer at X station, etc. I know, I know. It's cute. They care. But it's still amusing.

Anyway, I thought I'd start taking more random videos of this wonderful city so here I present my boring subway ride back home. I don't particularly enjoy subway rides, especially during rush hour when the ajummas are in full force and ready to attack (i.e. bump, whack, knock you over the head, and step on your toes). But mostly it's because subway rides (in any city) tend to be dull, offering little to look at other than a bunch of other restless, bored, or tired souls punching away at their cell phones in zombie-like fashion. I'd much rather take the bus. Sure, it's a bumpy ride (hold on if you're standing, and I say that in all seriousness), but if you've got a seat, at least there's something to look at!

This video is taken from Line 2 as we cross the Han River (going south to north). You can see the parliament and 63 buildings in the background.



The rail to the airport, however, I enjoy. It's clean, quiet, usually people-free, and offers beautiful views of the water in Incheon.





Happy traveling!

Korea will miss the little guy

Little JJ and fam are now in Hawaii.

From Incheon Airport...



To Waikiki...



P.S. Onni - Samchon and Sukmo don't want to come back to Korea, I hear. Samchon says he's in love with our lanai and could turn that into his room since it's the size of my Korean "apartment," which is really true (and kind of sad) when you think about it!

Watching the Olympics in Korea...

It's definitely a different feeling, watching the Olympics away from home for the very first time in my life. I'm not quite sure how to articulate it just yet.

Yesterday, I saw 박태환 win the gold for the men's 400m freestyle swim. While my future uncle patiently sat in the car for a good 20 minutes waiting to take us to the movies, 수정 언니 refused to leave the house until she had a chance to see this race. American Larsen Jensen was competing in the same event. Hmm, I thought silently, first and second, preferably with America on top. That would be perfect. Jensen ended up third. The crowd - 서정 언니 - went wild.

We also watched Phelps take the gold and set a new world record in the men's 400m individual medley. Woooot! Everyone else let out a somewhat nonchalant, "Cool."

I sent this text message to my friend Annie shortly thereafter. "친척들이랑 올림픽 같이 보는게 진짜 웃겨. (Watching the Olympics with my relatives really makes me laugh.) Who do I cheer for? Identity crisis!! ^^"

To which she responded: "ㅎㅎ 그럼 완전 다른 나라를 응원해라. (Then cheer for a completely different country.) Go Argentina!"

Haha.



I suppose you can call it a mix of "Kick Ass, USA!" and "It'd be pretty damn cool if Korea and Japan could win too." The cool thing about watching the Olympics here is that you get to see it live. But a lot of the coverage obviously focuses around Korean athletes and the events they're involved in, which makes it difficult to catch an event in replay, if a Korean isn't involved in it. (NBC is blocking all streaming video to people outside of the US and I haven't figured out how to deal with the proxy stuff to get around it... if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!)

The closest thing I found to the America's amazing comeback in the 4x100m freestyle relay was this, shot off the television:



And the win is analyzed by the NY Times (with dorky graphics that we all love) here.

Go USA! ^______^