The first food I ate in (South) Korea was an
onigiri (rice ball) like the one pictured above. I figured it would taste like just about every
onigiri that I had eaten in Japan, so I bit right in. The last thing I expected was the blast of
kimchi that followed. Good thing I found a water cooler nearby. But I was momentarily delayed in my quest for relief, since I couldn't find a cup dispenser.
What I did find, however, was a stack of paper that, upon closer observation, was actually a stack of paper cups folded flat. Or at least that's what I assumed they were. So I filled one with water and hoped that I wouldn't get any weird looks from people wondering what I was doing filling a random advertising flier with water.
Another unusual thing I found at breakfast was these cool little packets of jam. At first, I tried to peel the cover off of one, but then I noticed I the little "how-to" diagram and realized I was going about things the wrong way. I later learned that they also have these funky packets in Japan. And if you take another look at the first picture, you can see that I had the pleasure of eating "butter fresh." Finally, notice the plastic chopsticks. Throughout my trip to Korea, I can't recall ever seeing a single pair of throwaway chopsticks like they have everywhere in Japan (besides my own pair*, which I brought along). Kudos in that regard to the Koreans!
*In Japanese, at least sometimes, your own whatever is called
"mai" (pronounced like the English "my") whatever. So if you bust out a pair of your own, personal chopsticks (
hashi), for instance, instead of using the disposable ones like practically everyone else, you'll inevitably get a comment about
how great it is that you are using
"mai hashi." And that inevitably leads to the following exchange: "No, no, these aren't
your hashi, they are
my hashi!" "That's what I said. They're
mai hashi."
After I had breakfast at my hotel in
Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, I went for a walk. One of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot of signs in Russian. Considering that Russia borders on Korea (albeit North Korea), I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised to see the
Cyrillic writing. There was even a neighborhood opposite the train station that was marked as a "shopping area for foreigners" but was in reality a little Russia Town, full of shady
cafés, shops, and places to exchange money.
This memorial, which is similar to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is located at the "Memorial to the Loyal Dead" high up on a hill in
Busan.
Looking up at the top of the "Memorial to the Loyal Dead."
That's "
Busan" in Korean next to the "33" on the license plate. After I figured that out, I decided to take this picture to help me learn the characters for
Busan, as an aid for reading train and bus schedules, for example.
I had a bunch of spare Korean change that I brought with me from Japan. Some of the coins were 20 or 30 years old, and I wasn't even sure if they were still valid currency. So I tried them out in this coffee vending machine. I had no idea for sure if I was buying black coffee, coffee with sugar, some other kind of coffee, or even hot chocolate. But that didn't matter. What was being called for in the situation was bravery. So I chose to push this pretty red but
ton.
The coffee cost all of, oh, 25 cents (U.S.), and I got what I paid for in both quantity and quality! Later, after a bit of investigation regarding the smaller characters at the top of the button, I was able to confirm without a doubt that what I had purchased was indeed cream coffee. Buy some coffee, learn to read some Korean. And look at that: The cup has a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it. Well, almost.
Wow, look at this! Liquid guts... Or is it a "good" drink? Or something else? As harmless as I'm sure the drink was, I took a pass.
I don't know about you, but I don't exactly want this back taking care of my money. To be fair, the bills they gave me weren't fake.
Perhaps the strangest thing about Korea is the paper money. They only have three bills. And the largest one, the 10,000 bill, is only worth about $8 US (about 6 euros!). So it's no wonder I saw people everywhere paying with credit cards. What a sharp contrast to Japan, which is quite the cash society, possibly even more so than Europe is. And by the way,
everyone's a winner in Korea, since their currency is the "won."
I saw quite a few amazing cakes...
and pastries...
and donuts. The Koreans love donuts. In Japan, you've got "Mr. Donut," but in Korea, you have
Dunkin' Donuts as well as
Krispy Kreme. (By the way, I entered this photo in
Snapfish.
com's "What does love look like?" Valentine's Day photo contest. Wish me luck!)
Of course, I had my fair share of Korean food, starting with
bibimbap. (Notice the metal chopsticks and spoon that you get with just about every meal.) (6000 won?)
And you can't go to Korea and not have Korean BBQ. Lucky for me, I was treated to this meal by a really nice Japanese family that I had met on my second full day in
Busan. The husband happened to be an English teacher from Kagoshima Prefecture, which is relatively close to where I live. I'm still waiting for them to write to me so I can send them a thank-you card.
This meal I ate at a hole-in-the-wall that someone recommended. The soup was piping hot and was full of vegetables and clams. And notice the multiple side dishes, which are served with most Korean meals. They are always all-you-can-eat. This meal cost all of 4000 won, or about $3.50/EUR 2.25.
Surprisingly, this meal only came with two side dishes, one of which was
kimchi, of course. But you could have as many noodles as you wanted. All this for 7000 won.
More side dishes galore. These were served with a vegetable soup. This meal probably cost about 5000 won.
I met three Koreans one night and we all went to dinner together. We ordered some kind of stir-fry, with
kimchi (go figure!), cabbage, chicken, and Korean-style
mochi, which looks a bit like string cheese.
When we finished most of that, we ordered some rice and had stir-fried that, as well, because the Koreans prefer their rice crispy on the "bottom," if you will. (These two dishes together: 7000 won)
Even when I didn't have Korean food, I couldn't quite escape it. I heard that the Koreans "
Koreanized" most foreign food, and, sure enough, that characteristic matched my experience. Here's a plate of Thai food that came with some surprising side dishes. (7000 won)
And here's a plate of food that I had at a Turkish restaurant: Lamb served with those lame pickles on the side. As well as
kimchi, naturally. Sigh. (14,000 won)
More Korean 101: Those first two characters obviously mean "toothpick." Not so obvious is which cup holds the used toothpicks. So I took a pass. But later on, after careful observation, I came to realize that the "do-not-cross-the-street" a.k.a. the "man-in-the-hat" figure is the one to avoid.
One time in Seoul I went to a movie theater, because I was curious how much tickets cost. In Japan, tickets can cost as much as $20. In Korea, they were much cheaper. When I was in the cinema, I also had to use the restroom. There were no signs in English, but I noticed the sign above me had these two strings of characters that were nearly identical (except for the first character). Voil
à! All that was left was to follow the arrows that pointed the way and look for the "man" or "woman" figure on the door.
Ever heard of 25 o'clock? Or how about 27 o'clock?
One day, I took a day trip to South Korea's third most popular tourist destination (unbeknownst to me at the time), Gyeongju. Most of the city's attractions were spread out over a rather wide area. At one point late in the day, when I was already pretty tired from all the walking I had done, I had the choice of climbing a fairly steep hill to see a shrine at the top or calling it a day and heading back to the bus station. I'm glad I decided to burn a few extra calories. My biggest reward was getting to take pictures of a whole bunch of little statuettes that surrounded a lantern at the top, like the ones shown here.
t was for sale.
