Korean Test Kitchen

Martha.  Emeril.  Jamie Oliver… you can all take a rest, because I know how to cook now!  Ok, yes 'cook' is a stretch, especially considering I don't really know what I'm cooking is suppose to taste like or look like, but I like to imagine that what I'm creating is pretty close to what any other Korean lady (cooking for the first time, wearing a blindfold, and with one hand tied behind her back) would make!

So far I have "successfully" - and by successfully I mean, I ate it and liked it - made:

• Bibimbap


• Fried Dumplings (ok so they were from the frozen foods section at my grocery stores, I still cooked them up and made a dipping sauce from scratch!)


• Kimchi RaMyeon


• Royal Palace TteokBokki (first picture below, my apologizes for the lack of artist food photography)


• Tuna Kimchi JjiGae sans the Tuna (last two pictures below)

And tomorrow night I'm going to attempt Sempio AnDong JjimDak!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Lo-tte, Lo-tte, Lo-tte, Lo--tte

Baseball in Korea is WILD!  The baseball is good, if you can focus on it!  The crowd is the real spectators event… at least for a first time foreigner. 

In Busan, the Lotte Giants are as essential to life as food and oxygen.  Life, clothing, ALL conversations circulates around it; with everyone, from student to old men, getting involved.  My taxi driver the other day did not understand a single word of English, but when I pointed to the radio and said "Lotte Giants"  I got a high-five!  

What makes it so special?  That I can't answer, because (1) I don't speak Korean and (2) I don't have an overwhelming interest in baseball (the last few Indians games I went to back home I took a book), but I will guess that baseball in Busan is special because it's incredibly fun!  

You become one body of support cheering on your home team! Pushing them to "hit, hit, hit", but you aren't cheering for just the team, you are cheering for every individual player, with his own unique and personalized chant!  The stadium begins to vibrates and you can no longer look at the field, but your attention is drawn up into the stands!  

Should you forget one of the players chants, or don't know it yet… don't worry, there is an MC all mic-ed up, whistle in hand, ready to provide the words, beat, and even bring out the "cheerleaders" to dance in between each inning.  There is also a Mini Cooper that drives pitchers in from the bull pin.  Why American baseball wastes time having them run in from center field, is now very far beyond me!  

But to be serious for a minute, let's talk about the most important element of Busan baseball - the orange plastic bag.  Instead of doing a 7th inning stretch, thousands of your standard grocery store bags are brought out, thrown out, passed out, all kinds of out, so that everyone in the stadium can wear it on their heads.  Again, you might ask why, and I'm not even going to try and guess, I just followed suit, tied it to my ears, and put up a peace sign.  I was nearly Korean!

For no won at all, I sat a few rows away from the field and enjoyed an amazing Korean pastime. 

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My life was a Kenny Chesney song

First applaud the fact that I knew of Kenny Chesney.  As much as my sister tries to brainwash me with her country music, I have managed to stay a good distance away from it.  Taylor Swift doesn't count!!  She's crossed chart catagories!!  

The other day, my life became his song "No Shirt, No Shoes, No problem" (not the shirt part,  just shoes!!  I work with little kids, that'd be a falony!!).

I left for school on Wednesday with a change of clothes for volleyball.  It wasn't till I was nearly on school grounds when I realized I forgot to pack shoes!!!  A bit of an essential item when trying to participate in a sport that requires you to make fast, short sprints, stop quickly, and jump up and down.  I mentioned this fact to my Vice Principal during lunch, expecting him to say something along the lines of "You can run home quickly after lunch to get them."  Instead, I was told to "play bare foot."   

Hmm... thanks?!  

If volleyball had been what it was when I first started playing, I wouldn't have minded too much.  But now as the weeks pass, less and less teachers show up.  So why make me play bare foot when there's only 5 of us here?!  Why can't I just take the day off?!  

Why?!  I'll give you 7 guesses and they go like this = T.O.K.E.N.W.G.

To clarify

It is not me and my friends that drink a lot.  My stories are only mostly about drinking/going out, because they're the tales worth remembering and sharing.  I have a document file full of PPTs to remind me of past lessons, no need writing about them here (although, if one is truly spectular I will share it with you).

But back to the point!  Drinking.  Drinking is a cultural thing!  So by that token I am engaging in a very traditional, highly practiced, cultural aspect.

Case in point:

Wednesday (April 6th) after playing volleyball my co-teacher asks me if I would like to go with her and Andrew to look at textbooks.  I did have plans that evening, but being that I have not seen a single English textbook, have zero direction for my after school classes, and am waiting on my books to arrive (at an undetermined, unlikely to occur date in the future), I thought it would be helpful to go along with them.

The textbook store was really interesting.  The amount of variety and content of the books ranged from (A) colorful, attention grabbing, smart study resources to (Z) completely boring, no one would be interested.  I, however, could only focus - and that is a stretch - on the pictures.  I've been really tired the last few days and was quickly losing steam.

Tired and hungry I was ready to call it a night when my co-teacher suggested dinner.  Beautiful!  I'll get a good meal, fill up, and probably not have to pay.  Not to sound horribly cheap, but my wallet is a little light right now. Anyways... Dinner for the three of us turned into dinner with her whole family.  I got to meet my co-teacher's husband and oldest daughter (I have her youngest daughter in my 5th grade Art class, and hang out with her everyday after school when she finishes classes.  We don't talk, but we point at things and make noises).  

At the restaurant we barely have our shoes off and asses on the floor before her husband has ordered a bottle of soju!  By the end of the night the bottle count for our table is: 5 bottles of soju, 3 bottles of beer, 2 pineapple Fantas, and 1 Coke.

Speech was beginning to slur, chopsticks were flying, and endless food kept arriving at our table!  In Korea, if your soju class is empty they will keep refilling it!  So after ~4 shots, I started taking faux shots - lifting my glass to my mouth, while covering it with my hand, and pretending to drink!!  

So you see!  It is culturally acceptable for my stories to center around nights out, because any night out, be it weekday or weekend, will have alcohol!! 

Expect some crazy stories to come this weekend!  It's another birthday for my group of friends, and the evening is going to be CRAZY!  Saturday I got picked (against my will and desires) to attend a Korean Cultural Tour with other GETs in Busan.  The weather here is currently gross... concerns of radioactive rain caused some schools to close!  Perhaps, the trip will be called off and I'll be free to part-take in my own cultural activities! No, not drinking, there is a really nice Cherry Blossum Festival happening this weekend that would be nice to check out.

^Me with my co-teacher and her family.  Notice the height difference.  Giant :(

Just a taste of Daegu… and it comes in a bag

To the disappointment of my parents, I do not have any cultural, historical, sight-seeing, or anything of that nature stories to share.  

My stories are again about being with friends and going out.  But Dad!! isn't history made from the events and interactions that occur between people?!  So I was making my own history on this first (of many to come) trips to Daegu.  And no slam against the people of Daegu or my friends who living there, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of cultural things there anyway.  Frommer's doesn't think so, nor does the official tourist site for Korea. There are hiking trails, a herb tourist park-thing, and a temple is listed that would be nice to see, but this first trip was business!!  Tim's birthday!!  Korea's history is centuries old and will remain in place for us to see on another trip up!! But Tim only turns 23/25 once (well the 25 he'll do again, on American soil, but that's not the point), we came up for his birthday.

 

We had good intentions to leave Busan early and arrive in Daegu with some time to look around.  Delays accorded (burgers for breakfast, a little shopping, a little wandering), but we got to Busan Station and caught the "slow" train around half one and finally arrived in Daegu just before 3.  

We did a little more shopping in the metro mall (very popular here. Transfer stations, where two or more lines meet, will have hallways and hallways filled with stores.  The sell everything down there!)  I got a new dress and a new, awesome, super Korean style coat, Rach got a sexy dress and Michael just walked around with us.  He lucked-out trying to find a new waistcoat (for Americans that is a suit vest.  Why the need for a different name, IDK).  From there it was time to give Tim a call and get ready for the night!!

Dinner was at a western pub.  The food was really good.  Despite that fact that we had burgers for breakfast that day, we all ordered burgers again!  I do like Korean food, but most meals lack the ability to do justice to your stomach they way a burger can!  So having two in one day really isn't all the "gross" when you remember that what we eat every other day is: plain rice, soup that is 90% broth and 10% tiny veggies (usually seaweed and onions), cabbage (kimchi), and more veggies!!!!  Plus the burgers were SO good :)

After dinner it was dancing time!! We went to Club GoGo, which has the worst steps imaginable for a club that offers limitless drinks for 2 hours for only 20,000won!!!  The three of us worked out a nice little way to work the system and enjoyed tasty drinks all night that were served in Capri Sun-like baggies!

There were no elevators to get stuck in this time, although the stairs could have posed a death trap, deep steps at a sharp angle, with low ceilings and barely two feet for you to get your body through, could have been a nightmare!!  We safely managed to escaped all dangers and made it out to the streets to find it raining and a cab driver who either (1) did not know his way that well around Daegu, (2) could not understand our western pronunciation of Korean addresses, or (3) a combo of the two with a bit of an alcohol haze mucking things up a bit.  I'd like to think that our hour-long cab ride, which should have only been 20mins, was mainly due to us not knowing the city and trusting too much in the cabbie's city knowledge, not that our communication skills were dampened due to bag drinks!  

Sunday we grabbed brunch, did a bit more wandering around, and headed back to Busan.  A great first trip to Daegu with more to follow - ones that will include cultural elements, I promise!