Breakin' Bread

Since I spent my time describing the Mexican comida in this city, I figured you might want to hear about the other eatable options here. Seoul's culinary options aren't as diverse as most big cities I've been, but there are options if you make an effort.

As far as I know, the place to go for international cuisine is Itaewon. This is an area flooded with foreigners and GIs, but also has a lot of decent options for food and drink. I don't like the crowd that most places attract in this area; however, there is an alley behind the KFC and Hamilton Hotel that has plenty of quality options for casual dining and stiff drinks. I think some call it "international alley." Two of my favorite spots are Bonji and Bricx. Bonji is an excellent spot for tapas --small plates-- and wine. Upstairs, soft pillows and low tables set a great mood for a relaxing evening of lounging on the floor. Most of the food I've had here is very good and reasonably priced.
As any typical night progresses, I follow Bonji with a few cocktails at Bricx. It's a dim-lit basement bar filled with more comfy seats and couches and always has quality, down-tempo beats playing softly in the background. This is quite possibly my favorite bar in Seoul. It's not for everyone, but if you like to sit back with some friends and a cocktail in a mellow environment, it's the place for you. The only drawback is the amount of smoke. This isn't California, and you can smoke in bars.
A recent discovery is Bar Nana. Just around the corner from Bricx and Bonji, it provides yet another relaxed atmosphere with quality djs spinning music from all over the world. I might get a dj job there.
I won't describe all of the international food, but there is a nice Greek, Spanish, French, Indian, Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian food in or around Itaewon. They aren't the greatest restaurants in the world; they're good enough to curb your cravings though.

One thing this city does have a lot of is Korean food. Go figure. I've become quite fond of some Korean dishes; my favorite might be the Sam-chi-guey (I think that's how it should be spelled). It's a white fished lightly battered and grilled. A small bowl of soup, traditional side dishes, kimchi, and rice usually come as sides, and it costs about five dollars all together. A major bargain. Some other favorites of mine are the jigaes (soups or stews). At a decent tofu house, it will cost you about five or six bucks to get a stew with your choice of tofu, meat, or seafood and a vast array of side dishes. A side of rice is always served with them, and at the nicer places, they come in these cool stone bowls. These are great for a healthy lunch and won't burn a hole in your pocket. That's what I like about a lot of the food here; it isn't too expensive and is usually very healty. Of course, fried chicken is on just about every corner and will keep the love in your handles.

A lot of the restaurants you find here specialize in only one dish. For example, I went to lunch today at a restaurant that only serves a huge bowl of chicken soup cooked in the middle of your table. As far as I could see, it was the only option on the menu. It was a great meal though. The waitress would pour extra broth into the bowl when needed and she even added some noodles towards the end of our meal. Machesoyo! This is quite typical at most restaurants; there is only one option for everyone.

I should mention the kimbap restaurants too. The food is cheap, there are plenty of traditional Korean dishes, and there are plenty of ajummas cooking it for you. I frequented the kimbap places a lot when I first arrived, but have gotten sick of a lot of the food lately. Most dishes seem to have the same ingredients and are almost always cooked with the same red pepper paste. The food is good, but I get sick of it easily.

Korean restaurants don't cater to the picky eaters. Knowing that, some of you may wonder how I survive. My only real limitations are that I don't eat red meat or pork. I will eat almost anything else. Sure, I can't go to most beef or pork restaurants, but I can always find a delicious option somewhere.

So if anyone has any knowledge of good options for dining in Seoul, go ahead and respond to this blog because I'm still discovering this city, and I’m always open to suggestions.

The Food

I miss Mexican food. I was okay for the first few months here, but I'm having some serious withdrawal now. I think it's been worse because I've been trying to find some decent Mexican here and have had not been too impressed. I kid myself, though, and pretend that these Korean versions of burritos are satisfying. I even found a place that has refried beans (I realize refrieds are made with lard and, thus, conflict with my dietary restrictions, but I choose to ignore this). Still, by my real standards, all of the places in Seoul are way below par; though I was spoiled after living in San Francisco's Mission District for two years. They use kidney beans that surely come from a can, there is no salsa, and the cheese they use tastes and looks like cardboard. Overall, it doesn't taste bad; it's actually good. But it just isn't the same as the stuff that helped me keep those excess pounds that make me so lovable. It's like giving methadone to a heroin addict. It curbs the cravings, but it will never replace the real thing.

I've tried to make some Mexican at my house and have been somewhat successful. I found Old El Paso taco kits at Costco and had a field day with them. The seasoning was good enough and the sauce helped tie the ingredients together, but hard shells just don't do it for me anymore. I miss a small corn tortilla with some refrieds (no lard in them at Pancho Villa or Papalote), chicken, and salsa (some call it pico de gallo). It's such a simple combination that gets me going every time. What really puts things over the top is the complimentary chips given at every taquerilla I've ever been. You can use them for scooping excess meat and filling from your taco or burrito or just enjoy them with a side of complimentary salsa. Nothing except free Coca-Cola is complimentary in Seoul taquerillas. Because I can't have it my way, I will continue to convince myself that I can get a good fix of my drug of choice. I just hope that I can maintain my sanity without the real thing.

Too Much Work

I've been ridiculously busy the last few weeks which is why you have not seen a new post for a while. When I do get free time, my brain is too fried to focus on writing anything that is somewhat comprehensible. I'm even having a hard time focusing now, but I have a few funny stories that I feel need to get written down before I forget them.

The reason for my exhaustion comes from a winter intensive schedule that has me teaching, at times, ten classes within a twelve hour period. While I do have breaks, they aren't nearly long enough to do anything significant. I could go on for a while about my feelings about this and other cultural differences involving the workplace and work ethics, but that will just piss me off and set my week off on the wrong foot. I'm dealing with the tough schedule fairly well and actually enjoy most of my classes, especially the extra ones. I'm teaching an essay class in which I'm the only teacher (that means I don't share time with a Korean teacher), and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with some of the brightest students in the academy. Also, this schedule is only for the month of January; when it's over I'll go back to working no more than seven classes within a six hour time frame. Not a bad deal.

One of the girls I teach managed to point out four separate physical imperfections within two class periods. First, I walked into class and was told, "Teacher, you're fat." This kind of thing is not uncommon in the classroom. The young ones have no qualms with tearing you apart. Later in class, she was calling me a name in Korean which I assumed was something insulting and came to find out later that she was pointing out my double-chin. As if this wasn't already enough to ruin my self-esteem, the next day, as I was helping her with a written assignment, she stopped me mid-sentence to say as she touched the crown of my head, "Teacher, no hair." Immediately afterwards, she grabbed my unusually thick eyebrows and pulled on them. Not only do these kids see me as a fat slob with a double-chin, they also point out my balding scalp and bushy eyebrows. The funny thing is I've lost weight since I've been here. I've gotten used to these comments and can only laugh when they're said. All I can say in my defense is that everything is relative. Compared to a lot of Koreans, I'm a little more round and bald, but for white man standards, I'm pretty average. Because I have a little more tact than many people here, you won't see me making fun of size issues in the gym locker room...

Another one of my students had me completely weak with laughter the other day. He came into class late and began a test immediately. While he was diligently working away, I noticed a strange patch on his jeans. When I moved to read it, I found it to say, "Too drunk to fuck." I asked him if he knew what that meant, and he just gave me an honest stare that told me he had no clue. I had to show other teachers. When I passed one of my supervisors, I showed her expecting her to give some sort of punishment or tongue-lashing, but she just laughed instead. Had this been written in Korean, I'm sure he would have been in major trouble, but inappropriate English words and phrases just don't bear the same meaning here. I've talked about this a little before; people often wear clothes with English words or phrases on them without a clue about what they might mean (I'm sure the Chinese symbols tattooed on more than half of all American women's backs make total sense though). This kid had absolutely no clue that his patch meant that he was too intoxicated on alcohol to engage in sexual intercourse. I wasn't going to be the one to tell him either.

Hook Em' Horns

I was lucky enough to finish my morning classes in time to see one of the better college football games I've seen in recent years. I don't know if it compares to the Miami v. Ohio State championship game from a few years ago, but it sure was exciting. I had the front desk teacher, or receptionist to you and me, order me a pizza to arrive immediately after I completed my essay writing class. Mr. Pizza was on time. Side note - why does a place named Mr. Pizza have a slogan on every box that says, "Pizza made for women?"- Anyway, I sat myself in front of the TV in the break room and gorged an entire cheese pizza and 8 ounce Coke. I managed to catch the entire second half of a classic game. The Texas Longhorns' Vince Young is unbelievable, and while I'm still riding this emotional high from the game, I'm willing to say he's the best football player I've ever seen (that's a compound-complex sentence for all of you English buffs). What a performance! He ran through a USC defense that looked a bunch of Pee-Wee players trying to tackle a giant. I don't necessarily like Texas or anything that comes from Texas, but I'm now a huge fan of Vince Young.

While I enjoyed the comfort of the break room at school, some of the bus drivers joined me for the game and provided wonderful background noise. I've never heard snoring that loud. It sounded like a sick rhino stuck under an elephant's ass. I don't really know what that sounds like, but I'm sure it's loud. Some of the drivers stayed awake, but I couldn't help but wonder what they thought of the game. Koreans, and most other people outside of the USA, don't understand American football. Keeping that in mind, it does seem like a ridiculously silly game when you look at it from their perspective. There are so many rules, breaks in play, and different positions that it must confuse anyone out of the “know.” I even know plenty of Americans who don't fully understand the game. I could list countless times that I've been in a room where someone was trying to explain the rule for a completed pass or legal forward pass, so what is the real appeal to the sport? The rest of the world lives and dies by soccer, yet we prefer a much more ridiculous and confusing sport on which to waste all of our money. Why can't we just get on board and start appreciating what everyone else rightly calls football? I don't know, but I do know that I'll probably spend the rest of my life watching teams other than mine win championships while I stew in the mediocrity of the KC Chiefs.

I brought my Chiefs jersey to Korea with hopes of being able to wear it for playoff games and, quite possibly, the Super Bowl. Yet again, I have watched a full season come and go with plenty of individual team success overshadowed by the failure within the league. Since before I can remember, I have been an optimistic Chiefs fan and supporter, but my optimism and hopes are slowly fading with each passing season. Whether they were dominating the defensive stats in the 90's or setting new records on offense in the past five years, they have not been able to find a balance and effort to push them over the hump from a decent squad to a real contender. I am starting to face the fact that they may never get over that hump and I may never wear that jersey again; at least until next season when Larry Johnson tears through the NFL...