The Bitter End

This is going to be the most exciting entry I've written to date.  A few topics that will be covered include and are probably limited to:

Pizza in Korea

A Rock and Roll Show

A dancing cook

and

another Korean hot dog adventure

Saddle up and prepare to experience Korea vicariously through text and images.

I'll start with our first (and to this date, only) encounter with Korean pizza.  Just around the corner from me is a cozy little place called Pizza Flower.  One Sunday night Caroline and I decided to give it a shot.  Twenty minutes and seven dollars later we were sitting on the floor of my apartment.  Nothing stood between us and the pizza and the cameras were rolling.

Just in case curiosity has got the best of you, I'll describe what you've just seen.  You were looking at a Bulgogi Pizza, or a pizza with Korean-style barbecued beef on top.  What you probably don't know, and what we also were lucky enough to find out, is that the pizza was also covered with other bits of randomness including corn and maybe onions.  Corn seems to be a condiment here.

I hope you're all geared up for the first bite because it's happening right now:

Good not great.  Similar if not identical to a standard frozen pizza.  Nothing about it tasted Korean to me so I decided to improvise.

Buckle up:

Kimchi strikes again!  This stuff is fantastic.  Add it to anything that tastes of mediocrity and sit back as it instantly drums up some flavor.

The next topic that I'd like to cover is music here on the peninsula.  I'm not sure why, but KPop reigns supreme.  KPop is loud, dancy, technoey, (what?), rap/pop music.  I'm about to offend the entire country but I'd like to be honest about my feelings towards this musical genre.  

I think it's pretty terrible.  Every single song sounds exactly the same.  The male singers look like they've never heard of sandwiches.  The girls look fake.  The musical groups have more members than the entire Wu Tang Clan.  It's as cookie cutter as it gets but the  everyone here loves it and I mean everyone; from kids to teenagers to adults; I've even caught some older men listening to WonderGirls while devouring chicken and knocking back shots of soju.

I'd pretty much given up on seeing live music while living over here but then we stumbled into a bar called Urban.  We couldn't believe our eyes or our ears.  On the stage were about 6 or 7 young Korean rock and rollers.  In front of the stage were about 15 or 20 young people flailing around uncontrollably.  We had struck gold.  

Here's a quick glance at the Chef, as I've named him, dancing around to a rendition of the most popular KPop song in the world; Gungnam Style.  We're still debating whether or not this guy was actually a chef who had just finished his shift or if wearing a chef's apron is hip with the country's alternative youth.  Either way this guy was great.  We danced around with him and his crew for a while.  I even introduced some college kids to the Charleston and the Twist.  I hope it catches on. 

I'd rather not leave this post on a sour note but I can't be held responsible for my culinary exploits.  Dancing around like idiots strikes up your appetite.  There were some hot dogs on the horizon, Korean hot dogs.  After my first experience I still haven't learned my lesson and decided it was a good idea to try something else.  The dog I selected looked pretty decent.  It resembled a giant corn dog and it looked something like this:

Shock and Awe

A Night Out

For the first week or so Caroline and I have had to rely on PC cafes in order to make contact with one another.  On our second night in Daegu we were able to meet at an Emart.  (Emarts are giant department stores and they exist all over the city.  Think Wal-Mart but with higher priced options as well).  We picked the one that looked like middle ground and both made our way there.  The plan was for each of us to just circle the building until our paths crossed.  (No cell phones.  Once you leave the PC Cafe you're basically just hoping for the best).  All goes swimmingly and we soon realize that our apartments are only about 2 miles apart.

The next night we decide to meet in my neighborhood for dinner.  There is a BBQ place on my street with outdoor seating, (probably a rarity here where everything is so crammed together).  We walk over and fumble our way through ordering food.  The food is good and cheap and I'm lucky enough to try some Beondegi.  Beondegi is boiled silkworm larvae.  It's then tossed in chili and garlic and served cold.  I found it quite tasty and I've been looking for it ever since.

Bugolgi

Beondegi

Just in case you think I'm fibbing, here's some photographic proof to my claims:

After dinner, we set out to explore a supermarket.  I have about 6 or 7 markets in my neighborhood but I only visit two.  My favorite is the 007 Mart, or the Bond Mark as I've affectionately named it.  The other market is called Power Mart.  Power Mart has more options and is more organized than the Bond Mart.  Shopping in South Korea is the only time I find myself feeling completely lost.  The larger markets are way too overwhelming and the smaller ones are difficult because I can't read Korean.  It becomes a guessing game and so far I've done alright, (that's not saying much though, I've been sticking to rice, noodles and other things that I can easily identify).

Caroline's new friend

$10!!! Disgust...

What's even more rotten than the price of peanut butter?  The bread situation here in Korean would make it almost impossible to eat the peanut butter anyway.  I've only seen white bread being enjoyed as a snack or dessert here.  They sell slices of it in places like the PC Cafe and the 7-11.  I've even witnessed half loaves of bread (not sliced) sitting in the center of a table while hungry diners tear through it with forks (not chopsticks). 

Bread may be a treat here in Korea but pastries of all kinds can be found in the cafes and bakeries.  We've even seen a gourmet doughnut shop while wandering around downtown.  I have two bakeries on my block, each one offering everything from traditional Korean rice cakes to loaves of white bread.  This leads me to my next experiment: The Korean Hot Dog Craze!  By craze I mean I've seen hot dogs in the craziest places and I am making it my goal to try each and every one of them. 

First up, the hot dog danish, courtesy of Paris Baguette.

Don't scoff at me