Considering that the last post was Japan, it seemed to make sense to move on to Seoul next. About ten years ago, I found myself in Seoul several times for work. The first trip was very short – I was on the ground in South Korea for under three days. That trip was also very last minute – I had two days warning before leaving for Seoul. I did not know anything about Korean food as I started out on that first trip, but one option on the 14-hour flight was bibimbap, which I enjoyed even in its airplane-food version, and have since enjoyed many times in other settings. The hotel that my company consistently used in Seoul is located in the very modern Gangnam district. I will admit to being more than a bit disappointed that the views from my various rooms at that hotel might as well have been Houston (not that there is anything at all wrong with Houston, I just hoped to see something else in Seoul). The restaurants in the hotel were also aimed at Westerners, and the expediency of eating in the hotel meant that I did not have a lot of chance for culinary exploration. All that is a long way of saying that this post is not going to focus on food.
The first two times I found myself in Seoul, I pretty much saw those views from the hotel and the inside of a conference room. The third trip was longer, and I had one Saturday to myself. My first stop on that one free day was Gyeongbokgung, or Gyeongbok Palace. According to the various on-line tourist information sources, Gyeongbok Palace was the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty and was originally built in 1395. This did not look like it coule be Houston, and it did not disappoint. I’ll let some pictures speak for themselves.
From Gyeongbokgung, I walked to Changdeokgung, another Joseon dynasty palace, this one originally built in the fifteenth century. The use of “originally” built is intentional and important for both palaces because both were burned during the late 16th century and rebuilt.
From Changdeokgung, it was on to the Jongmyo Shrine, a UNESCO world heritage site. According to UNESCO, the shrine is the oldest preserved royal Confucian shrine, and the ritual ceremonies continue a tradition established in the 14th century.
Much closer to the hotel than the palaces and shrine was the Bongeunsa Temple, a Buddhist temple dating back to 784.
I know there has not really been anything about food in this post. Perhaps one day I’ll get back to South Korea with the time and opportunity to explore the cuisine. In the meantime, a gorgeous Korean cookbook arrived in the mail last week as an unexpected gift from a friend, so if I do get that opportunity, I will be far better prepared than I was a decade ago.
Memories of Korea: Post-show wandering in Seoul’s Kangam-Ku district, buying fried chicken & beer from the street vendors at midnight on a steaming July night… The pieces were cut (using wicked-shark cleavers) into decidedly unfamiliar chunks, breaded with who-knows-what spices, deep-fried in oil hot enough to melt steel, and served straight out of the fryer – bring your own welding gloves. Tonsil-scorching temperature, but the flavor was amazing and quite addictive. It took one’s mind off the all-pervasive aroma of dried squid.
More Memories of Korea: In Busan, the show was running in the KBC television studio (closest thing to a theatre with a fly system we could find), a couple of blocks from the fabulous Kwang-Ali Beach, which is like the Korean version of Coney Island – street eats, OB and Hite beers, and wading in the ocean til 4am… G*d only know what we ate, apres-show. Our SM dined several times on some sort of sea cucumber/worm thing he dubbed “sea penis” (you’d have to know Jay); I’m not certain but I’m pretty sure I was served dog… (kinda tough, kinda gamey, if you must know)…
Memories of Korea Some More: On a rare day off in Busan, our Korean local crew got a couple of rental cars and “kidnapped” my asst. carpenter and I and spirited us away, up the coastline to some little fishing town that probably hadn’t seen a white guy since the Korean War… They took us to a seafood “restaurant” that consisted of some scaffolding wedged in the rocks on the shore of the Sea of Japan, with plywood laid out on top for a combination floor & seats, a couple of tent awnings popped up for a roof, and several coolers full of beer and raw seafood – octopus tentacles (still twitching) and some mild sort of tuna-esque whitefish. We ate and drank ourselves stupid, looking across the water at Kitakyushu. The more we drank, the better our Korean got and the better our local crew’s English got.
Return of Son of Memories of Korea: They have a soft drink called Milkus. It looks like milk but tastes like Fanta Orange. Mix it 50/50 with soju (we prefer Jinro) and you get a cocktail that looks like dirty dishwater & tastes like an alcoholic creamsickle.
Dear G*d, how I miss Korea…
You clearly had a lot more fun than I did. I miss travel. And I really need that alcoholic creamsickle.
Surely there’s soju for sale somewhere there; it’s a fairly common sort of Asian booze. And I’ll bet dollars to donuts* most oriental grocers in The City (especially in Koreatown) would have Milkus – hell, I can even get it at one such grocer here in East Cupcake. Look in the soft drink section.
*…but not Krispy Kremes