tales from Korea

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Special meals are worth special trips. This particular trip was to the East coast of Korea, outside of Seoul in the Gyeonggi-do region close to the ever-growing city of Incheon. There is an area famous not just for its delicious shellfish, but also the manner in which you can get it: Unlimited and grilled on a BBQ. You wouldn’t think it was possible to get unlimited shellfish, this type of food is usually mighty expensive, but as we got to the main strip with the restaurants it started to make sense why it was being offered. The reputation of this particular area brings a lot of people over, and that means more restaurants setting up – competition is rife and they’ll go to great lengths to get your into their place.

Coming into the town there is a man, or a lady, standing outside each establishment trying to flag cars down and convince them to try their place over their neighbours’. Luckily for us, the choice had been made already as Jayeon’s mum had picked out a place that was recommended online. We parked and headed upstairs; the place was very simple, wooden tables with a hole cut out for the bucket of hot coals, plastic chairs and no décor on the walls. The staff handed us two rather unexpected (to me anyway) tools – Pairs of gloves and a large blue plastic bucket. What exactly am I suppose to do with these? I hope I don’t have to pick my meal out of a fish tank. Luckily that was not that case. The gloves are for handling the shells and the bucket for throwing them into.

We tucked in to a load of different shellfish, some huge, some tiny. Some were salty, some were meaty, some had little taste and some too much. It was an interesting experience; again something Korea does well – making a shellfish meal a simple but delicious and no-frills experience. After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we took a walk down the harbour and market area, and I got too see the slightly darker side of this district. There was a pier lined with Spartan, vinyl cabins with smoke chimneys occupied by older independent fish merchants. There was a mark of desperation on many of their faces. Some chopped, piled and hacked all manner of fish and shells in a kind of solemn contemplation. We passed one woman who proclaimed she has had no sales that day, and begged to buy something. Jayeon’s mom paid 5000 won for some Oysters, she took her measuring cup and filled it to the brim, but continued to stack the overflowing cup and eventually poured it into the plastic bag. Her hands were scarred, worn, with thin fingers and blistered fingertips. She asked me to call her 할머니 (grandmother). The chimneys continued to bellow out an oaky scented smoke, which clung to our clothes for the rest of the day, constantly reminding me of the seeming dichotomy still relevant in Korea today – the division of the hidden traditional ways and the in your face modern capitalism.

Update: The name of the cafe has been changed to “My Attic – Homemade Sandwiches”. She told us many people said the title doesn’t make sense so she changed it. I also offered to help correct any English mistakes, she was happy!

Jayeon said to me once, “Ahh you’ll never find any sandwiches in Korea, what are you gonna’ do?”, “I’ll survive… I guess”. I do love a nice sandwich, they were pretty much my staple food back home, but Korean food is great so I wasn’t too concerned about not being able to eat any in Korea. Turns out of course, we’re living in Bundang – an area considered to be very posh and upmarket. This is quite the case, especially in the next town to Sunae, called Jongja, there is a long street which has loads of European terraced styled restaurants, sandwich bars and cafes. The prices of sandwiches are generally pretty steep though, so I never bothered looking too hard. But a little while ago, a new place opened right beside our building in Sunae. Its name in English reads “Little My’s Attic”. I was wondering first, was it supposed to be “My Little Attic?” Or maybe her name is ‘My’ and so it was suppose to be “My’s Little Attic?” I still don’t really know. But the name is not so important, the food on the other hand, is!

We instantly liked the style and décor of the place – bench style tables with assorted and unmatched chairs, hand drawn black line sketches on the walls. Creeper plants on the roof and ceiling. It’s a comfortable and well-put together little place, so we tried it one morning for breakfast. It’s now turned out to be our morning breakfast place every weekend.

When Jayeon and I order something we always order two different things and then usually split the food 50/50, sometimes we even prefer each other’s food and swap it. It’s a fairly normal Korean thing to order something for yourself but it’s rarely just for ‘you’. The first time we ordered, we got the “My’s Club” – a cold sandwich and a hot one called the “Philly steak”. They were so damn delicious; not just a good attempt from a Korean place to recreate a sandwich, but it beats many places I bought sandwiches back in Ireland. When you order a sandwich you can also get a drink – Iced tea, Iced coffee (Or hot coffee) or a soft drink for an extra W1,500. This means the total cost for a sandwich and drink is about W10,000 (About 9 dollars). Yes, that’s expensive food for Korea, but let me tell you – it’s really worth it. We would also recommend the “Manhattan”, another great sandwich.

So it’s possible to still have the occasional western food that is really good, even better that you can find an indie cafe like this and not have to rely on American sandwich chains. Go Korea!

It’s nice to be finished up at university, and our planned trip to Praha (Prague – Czech Republic) was a good opportunity for a bit of a break. The trip was really great, but mostly for unexpected reasons – the guesthouse we stayed in turned out to be almost more enjoyable then our main touristy objectives in visiting the city. Unfortunately Praha was raining pretty heavily for most of the time and we ended up feeling pretty miserable, squelching through the rain, cold and damp for most of the day. Besides the terrible weather, though, Praha is a wonderful place that I’d definitely recommend visiting.

The Praha OK guesthouse is situated in a normal, almost suburban style house – keeping with the Korean style of making you feel at home while staying there, they include three meals and clothes washing. On arrival we were greeted by the older co-owner of the guesthouse, who welcomed us, showed us our beds (separate for men and women) and provided us with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee. He prepared lunch for us right away, and we sat down to a wonderful meal. I was really surprised, even though I knew breakfast, lunch and dinner were included in the stay price, the meals were quite elaborate and delicious; I would have paid good money to get a meal like it in a normal restaurant. After lunch JaYeon and I headed out to explore the city and on arriving back to the guesthouse we were greeted by a few others who had also arrived, all very surprised at my apparent good attempts at Korean. We all sat down to dinner and afterwards relaxed around on the couches chatting and discussing various things, but decided to head to bed early as we were very tired from getting up early that morning to catch our flight.

The last day was the best during our stay, on the first night Jun-Min, the younger co-owner and I were discussing various aspects of Korean and Irish culture, we were brought onto the topic of Korean Soju which I have had once before in India. He said to me we have to drink some together, but JaYeon said Soju is very expensive so she doesn’t think we will get around to doing it. During the meal on the last night of our stay, a wonderful table presented us – everyone had their own side dishes of homemade kimchi, paste for Samgapsal and another side dish of which I can’t remember. We also had our plate of sliced carrot strips and cucumber, not to mention the sticky rice and seaweed soup. I really like Samgapsal, but still haven’t got use to the idea (or sensation) of stuffing your mouth in one go with a mound of lettuce, pork belly, spicy sauce and rice. Glasses of wine were poured (and broken), and suddenly a large two-litre bottle of Soju was taken out by Jun-Min! He poured everyone a glass and we started to tuck in. It was a beautiful meal and we had great fun, with Korean and English being spoken and everyone laughing, eating and drinking crazily. I forgot for a while about the etiquette requiring a host to always fill up an empty glass; I must have drank about 10 or more shots… with many “Keonbae’s!!” in-between. It was a great experience – you would expect this with a close group of friends, but here staying in a guesthouse they treated us like we were really their friends, and the other Korean’s stated they felt very comfortable eating and talking with me. My small bit of Korean language but large interest in Korean culture appears to be paving the way to learning and sharing more with them.

The Praha OK guesthouse is located about 15 minutes north west of Praha centre, and costs €15 per night.

Perusing over the lunch menu at Shilla Restaurant, I knew I’d be in for a wondrous surprise again. Getting up late this morning, I decided not to have any breakfast, met JaYeon after her school finished and arrived at the restaurant just a few minutes after opening. The waitress immediately remembered us from last time, which was nice, but I don’t suppose many westerners come in enthusiastically attempting Korean and inform the manager of her beauty (I was speaking about the décor, but it didn’t translate that way). I decided to go for 회덮밥 (Whey Dub Pab), similar to the common westerner choice of 비빔밥 Bi Bim Bab (a stone bowl of rice, vegetables, meat and a fried egg). This dish was served in a stainless steel bowl with a side of spicy sauce and a small bowl of garlic and ginger soup. I mixed up the meal and started to tuck it. I’m still overwhelmed about eating Korean food, each new dish seems to introduce me to a variety of new tastes, and my eyes watered slightly thanks to the collective delight of my taste buds and effects of the spicy sauce. JaYeon enjoyed 짬뽕 (JJong BBong), the sauce was so red I knew it must be spicy; supping a bit of the sauce that was left, I choked a bit – It really grips the back of your throat. But the taste, again, was simply magnificent. Going back to my dish, I’m still amazed at how delicious, varied and healthy Korean food is. JaYeon thought it was funny how I was wide eyed with wonder, and was browsing the menu again, excited about what I can pick to eat next time. The sooner the better I say.