Korean Food

As Momma and Poppa Wood are arriving in Korea in less than two weeks, I've written this post especially for them; to inform and in some cases warn them of what's in store.

First of all to dispel a popular myth: everybody eats dog in Korea. When I first arrived I admit that I expected to see puppies lining the shelves at the supermarket and filling the meat section of the menu. I pictured myself ordering a medium rare Alsatian with a side order of fried Labrador. On the contrary, I haven't seen dog on a single menu, I haven't been served it at lunch time at school, and they don't sell dog ready meals at the supermarket. Some Koreans do eat dog, but it's a speciality; it's only sold in special restaurants and it's only eaten for special occasions. I'm told it's served as a soup, it smells terrible, and is extremely good for the skin due to it's high collagen content. Yum.

Fish and pork are the most commonly eaten meats in Korea. Most of the beef is imported from Australia and is extremely expensive. 

 This is pork galbi. Delicious marinated pork that you cook yourself on a grill in the middle of the table. Galbi is eaten by wrapping the pork in lettuce with onions, garlic, and samjang sauce.

Beef galbi. Pork galbi's inferior, less delicious brother.

 Korea is a country of sharers. If you like your own plate with your own personal dish I suggest you go elsewhere because in Korea meals are a free-for-all. An excessive number of side dishes that you have neither ordered nor want, will be brought to the table and placed at random.

This is hanmari, chicken and onion broth. Very bland. Also cooked at the table on a built-in stove. Korean's are big on making you cook your own dinner even in a restaurant.

It's hard to survive in Korea if, like me, you don't eat fish. There are so many seafood restaurants around, almost all with tanks of live fish at the front. Odeng (fish curd) is in everything. You can also order a live octopus and eat it still wriggling at the end of your chopstick... if you like that sort of thing!

Ddokbugi - glutinous rice cakes in spicy sauce.

Patbingsu is somewhere between dessert and breakfast. Crushed ice, milk, sweet red beans, cereal, tinned fruit and rice cakes. It' not bad, but give me a piece of toast any time.

 Bondeggi - tastes like what you imagine bugs to taste like!

Perhaps most important for my parents: BOOZE! From left to right:

• Beer. You'll generally only find lager in Korea. Max, Cass and Hite are main brands. These big bottles only cost a couple of quid but they go flat within minutes and generally taste terrible. You can find IPA's and dark ales (mainly in Seoul) and they're likely to cost a fortune. In Cheonan you pay over £4 for half a pint of IPA.
• Makoli. Rice wine. Comes in different flavours: nut, strawberry, etc. I can't stand it, Ric loves it. I find it tastes both chalky and tangy. #shudder#
• Soju. I once heard a comedian say that a soju hangover feels like you've drank all the evil in the world distilled through the devil's arsehole. I tend to agree. It's a 20% proof spirit that is ridiculously cheap to buy. It's almost flavourless and does the job of getting you drunk pretty quickly. The next morning though... my Lord!  No wonder Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world!
• Raspberry wine. Korean wine is bad. Very bad. Like normal wine mixed with golden syrup and Ribeana.
• Cass red. Beer. Extra strong.

Korean tasty bits:

• Jayukbokkum - spicy pork and veg, my favourite school dinner.
• Mandu - dumplings. Possibly the best food in Korea.
• Paajon - Pancake made with spring onion and carrots. Yummy. But sometimes it has scary squid tentacles in it.

Not so tasty Korean bits:

• Kimchi - whoever decided that rotting cabbage fermented in vinegar and chilli should be Korea's staple dish deserves to be shot in front of their family (Jeremy Clarkson style) 
• Tentacles - disturbingly common: as a dried snack, in soup, in pancakes, deep fried in batter...
• Full fish heads - my least favourite school dinner. Why would anyone want to eat fish heads??
• Cold noodles - noodles good. Noodles served in a bowl of iced vinegar baaaad!

Happy Minday

Last night we belatedly celebrated our friend Min's 21st birthday. It was an action packed night full of typical Korean shenanigans. 

First was Disco Pang Pang. A ride where you're spun around, shaken and bounced up and down whilst listening to cheesey pop music and casually being insulted and tormented by the Korean DJ. There were no seat belts, no emergency stop buttons and today my arms are aching after clinging on for dear life. It was fun for the first ten minutes, after that I had to beg the DJ to let me off before I was sick everywhere. 

Disco Pang Pang

 Next we went to Hindustani and ate delicious Indian food. We had a competition to see who could make the most Min puns, my favourites included: Min Tonic, Mindustani, wait a Minute, this is so Miningful, this portion in Minature.

Birthday boy enjoying his dinner.

After food we headed out to find a bar, but not before spontaneously going into a sticker booth and making some wacky photo stickers!

This is Alex, the Disco Pang Pang DJ said he was handsome like a model,
so he modelled the sticker booth for me. 

Min showing off our creative masterpiece.

 Randomly in the sticker booth place we saw these two couples wearing ridiculous cute matching jackets. I'm thinking of getting some for me, Ric and my parents when they come to visit.

Then Alex found his Korean twin brother.

We eventually made it to a bar and ordered some soju cocktails made with real fruit. 

Exciting.

Becoming true Koreans with our black rimmed glasses.

Happy Minday Min, thanks for being so special!

Jindo: Chuseok Backpacking Part II

From Mokpo we took an intercity bus to the island of Jindo, just over an hour away. Jindo is Korea's third biggest island yet it still feels a world away from the main land.

The river at Jindo Eup

The bus took us to Jindo Eup, the biggest city in the centre of the island. There doesn't seem to be very much there, a pleasant enough river runs through the middle and there's a dog centre where you can go to look at Jindo dogs which are native to the island.

We'd read a blog that raved about Seomang beach, in the South-West corner of the island. The lesson to be learnt here is to never go somewhere based on one person's blog. Seomang was a smelly fishing village and the beach was average at best. The sun was beginning to set and we were faced with a dilemma;  stay in the ugly fishy village or set off walking into the sunset with our heavy bags in search of a better option. We chose the latter and I'm so glad we did. Just east of Seomang we found a pebble beach that was almost entirely isolated. The only access to it was a narrow lane through some woodland. We skinny dipped in the sea, watched the sunset, made a fire, and spent a second night in our pink tent under the stars.

Fish on the washing line... as you do!

The 5* Hotel

Sunrise over Jindo Island

Not a bad view to wake up to.

The next day we were keen to make amends for our failure at Seomang. Back at the bus terminal we chose our next stop at random from a map. Kakyey beach is on the East coast of Jindo island and was much nicer than Seomang. The beach is long, the sand is golden and apart from a couple of fishermen at the far end, we had the beach to ourselves. It was great to enjoy the sun for the day as winter is fast approaching.

Kakyey, golden sands at last!

The funny thing is, the bus driver that took us from Seomang to the bus station in the morning (an hour journey) got off the bus and onto another to drive us from the station to Kakyey (40 minutes north-east)! I suspect there aren't too many bus drivers on Jindo island!

Similar to Oeyeondo island, I feel that Jindo could be so much better if a bit of money were spent making it more tourist friendly (cleaner, more accessible), but on the other hand, it is nice to go to these places knowing that they're totally unspoilt.

Mokpo; Chuseok Backpacking Part I

For the Chuseok five day weekend Ric and I went on a mini-tour of South-West Korea.
First stop: Mokpo. 2 hours and 45 minutes away from Cheonan on the high speed KTX train.

Yudal Beach
Don't go. It's tiny, barely big enough to build a sandcastle on! The trip to the beach wasn't entirely wasted however, as it did lead us to getting slightly kidnapped by an over friendly Korean man named Leon. He offered us a lift to one of the islands and, keen to seize the moment and save bus fare, we accepted. Unfortunately, Leon had other plans and tried to take us across the country to some place 6 hours away. When we tried to make our excuses and escape he begged us not to leave him alone and forcefully invited himself to join us camping in our tiny tent! Slightly creeped out, we left Leon looking heartbroken and set off up Yudal mountain.

Naff beach, but there is a bar...

Yudal Mountain
The mountain has two peaks, we climbed both with all our backpacks and camping equipment on our backs because we are that badass. From the highest peak you get a 360 degree view of Mokpo and all the islands that sprawl out towards the horizon. Be warned though, the summit is nothing but a couple of rocks and it's windy up there! Unlike the Koreans who hiked to the top, took a photo and then hurried down, Ric and I stayed there for ages, hogging the small space, drinking gin 'n' tonic and playing cards - may as well make the most of the view!

Stopping for a rest half way up the mountain.
Nuff baggage.

View from the smaller peak

View from the highest peak

Sunset from our camp

Mokpo's famous bridge impressively illuminated

Mokpo

 Camping
Just 100m down from the summit of the mountain we found a cave that made a perfect camp for the evening. We assembled our crumby tent, made an awesome camp fire and watched the sunset with a beer and a picnic. The cave made a perfect place to camp, so much so that we slept for almost 12 hours!

Koreans sharing their lunch with the sweaty Westerner

Tent, fire, picnic, gin, beer.

Sunrise over Mokpo

Old vs. New
Around the train station and mountain is known as Mokpo old town, most of the buildings are traditional one-storey shops, homes and restaurants. On the other side of town, a 10-15 minute taxi ride away, is new Mokpo. This is where all the cool bars and trendy restaurants are. It's really worth visiting both just to get an idea of how different the two areas are. The new part has the "Ocean Dancing Fountain", a water display with music and lights.

Mokpo Ocean Dancing Fountain

Mokpo was great, camping was serene and getting kidnapped... well it's funny in hindsight. Don't talk to strangers kids!!

• Sleeping: we stayed two nights, the first we camped and the second we stayed at F1 Hotel. It's in a rather seedy yet excellently located area behind the train station and is gorgeous inside: 42 inch plasma TV, huge shower, remote controlled mood lighting. All for 50,000won (about £27) - bargain!!
• Transport: the number one bus conveniently served all our needs: bus station ~ train station ~ beach. 

Mt. Taejo Hike

Another day, another mountain...

Up behind the big Gakwonsa temple and Gakwonsa temple you'll find a spider's web of hiking trails frequented by Cheonan's large population of middle aged hiking enthusiasts. Me and Ric decided to give it a go one sunny Saturday at the end of September.

Just what you need half way up a mountain, exercise machines and a hut complete with toilet roll!

Chair shaped tree: like.

After an intense but mercifully brief 25 minute climb we reached the starting point of four or five hiking trails which sprawled out in every direction. Deciding the right was as good a direction as any we headed off into the trees.

The path continued for around 3km, up and down the ridge of the mountain until we reached a clearing in the tree and a stunning view over Cheonan. I particularly enjoyed Mt. Taejo due to the lack of steep inclines (much kinder on the thighs!). It was a beautiful walk and it smelt of pine trees and autumn.

At the top of Mt Taejo

Deciding once again to descend down the other side of the mountain (we'll never learn), we discovered a whole new part of Cheonan that we didn't know existed. First we came across the main offices for Kyobo life insurance! Half way up a mountain seemed a pretty random place to build your head offices but I must admit the view was great! Further down and yet more random Korean attractions: Taejosan park, a park exhibiting war planes, tanks, a sculpture park, pond, football pitch, badminton court and even a derelict artificial ski slope!

Random Taejosan Park

How to get there?
To Gakwonsa and the start of our Mt. Taejo hike: take to 24 bus from opposite Shinsegae, get off at the last stop and walk up the hill.
To Taejosan Park: Take the number 15 from outside Shinsegae or the number 51 from Cheonan station and get off at the last stop.