Food, Art, History (and no drama!)

September 27, 2010

I’ve had a few nice days exploring Seoul and hanging out with people from the hostel. I have put many miles on my feet. Hopefully, that will counter the 3 desserts I had before dinner last night - more on that later. :)

I explored a neighborhood near the two main palaces that has some of the traditional homes (hanoks). The government is subsidizing to help revitalize the area and many of the shops and classes there revolve around traditional customs and arts. These homes were for the top officials of the dynasty who needed to be close to the palace. The homes are surrounded by a high wall and then open to a courtyard. As you can see the style has many similarities to the palaces. I also tried a street vendor’s snack of something doughy with chili sauce. That’s the picture of the food in the cup. The tubular part doesn’t have much of a flavor, but is chewy. There were also flat pieces with a fish taste.

That night I went to a BBQ restaurant with a group from the hostel. Switzerland, USA, Canada and Australia were represented at the table. We had good laughs and I tried the Korean liquor, ???. You can see how scissors are used to cut the meat. You won’t find knifes on the table at Korean style restaurants because they are seen as hostile. We then hit a club that featured buckets of alcohol mixed together and one straw per bucket. No I did not partake in that delicacy! And who knew clubs could cause such injury! I had someone bump me into someone else and in the process my beer bottle hit my lip. I almost had to make use of that crazy glue!!! Alas I just got a tiny cut. Now it just matches my bruised hand from the shrew and my other bruises from falling on the subway stairs. I had fun dancing for a bit, but then crashed and headed to the hostel.

Needless to say I got a slow start the next morning, but made it to the National Museum of Korea. First I had chicken BBQ with a friend from the hostel. I might have figured out the mystery of the napkins - they are hidden in the table!

The museum was very good and had artifacts from the Paleolithic Age to modern era. I got a kick out of the shoes. I don’t think I would have fared to well walking in those all day! The stirrups were also interesting so I’ve included some here. In one picture you’ll see Bronze Age coins that look more like bookmarks with a hole at the top. Later the coins became circular, but kept the hold because they are easy to string and carry about. The long pod looking thing is a jar coffin used in the 5^th century. They also had a cookie mold and given my love of baking I just had to include it here (its two long wooden pieces connected). The greenish pottery piece is the famous celadon. This piece is an incense burner, but the celadon is a method of glazing and firing that can no longer be duplicated. I also included one Buddhist painting of a king being judged upon his death. It is being determined which level of hell he’ll go to. It was made in the 19^th century and it seems to have many parallels to Last Judgment scenes in European art. You can’t see it well, but at the bottom there are fiery fires.

For the evening I went to a popular area, Myeongdong and had those desserts I talked about. The first was a disc of fried dough (similar to funnel cake) and it was filled with melted cinnamon and sugar. It was very good – and sticky! My next taste was of a dessert that traditionally was made for kings (or so they told me). This is the one in the pictures. You’d never guess that the white stringy bit is honey! A small block of honey is heated over a fire for days and then cooled for 7 more. The man put the block into a mix of flour and cornstarch and with this the honey softened and he made a large ring out of it. Then he folded it over and repeated it until he had thousands of tiny strands. He was swift and made it look easy. Then he pulls off some of the honey strands and puts chopped nuts into the center and wraps it. It looks a bit like a square cocoon. It tastes good, but I think I enjoyed watching the process just as much. Then I headed to Mister Donut. I had to be able to compare it to the other shops, right? I indulged in a mocha frosted one that was good, but no match for Krispy Kreme and definitely no match for the local shop I grew up going to. After my progressive dessert trek I found a cheap restaurant and tried their cheapest meal – this Mexican pizza. It’s fun to see what the end result of food fusion is!

I planned on a quiet evening of organizing my pictures (yes, I filled the memory card all over again!) and watching tv. I did have a couple of couch potato hours and then the owner of the hostel (a man of 30) and some of the guests asked if I wanted to join them in the sitting area for drinks. The owner’s friend also joined us. I happily joined and we had some really laughs. I had some more of the “king’s dessert.” :)

Given that age is so important for ranking here, we got on the topic. It had already come out how old most of the others were and I knew I was the oldest (but sshhh!). I haven’t told many people on the trip my age. Since I’m going the hostelling route I am usually one of the oldest guests. In any case, it is sort of a refreshing experience to choose what to reveal about myself since I’m a stranger to everyone. I don’t lie, but I can keep my age under wraps and avoid the drama of saying I was married once upon a time. There are other things I can keep reveal as a like... Last night though the Korean guys were telling us what we would call them and they of us given our ages. They assumed I was younger so said I should call them “donsa” (spelling). I decided I was comfortable with them enough at that point to reveal that in fact I was the oldest at the table. I didn’t reveal right away that I’m 35, but said I was born in a different decade then all of them (one was born in 1989! I could have been his teacher!). They were surprised and then when my real age came out they thought I was lying. My face stayed red for awhile as they had a long conversation about my age. But it is also fun to shock people a little bit every once in awhile. I guess one benefit of my age is that by custom I don’t pour anyone else’s drink from that group, they just pour for me. :) But since we are a mixed group we didn’t stay strictly to it. We need more perks in America about getting older. At 4am I finally called it a night.

Now off for more unknown adventures...