43 Food for 'Seoul'
This was written some time in June 2012, when I visited Seoul. This is the pre-Gangnam era, and no one knew - or cared, for that matter - about the weird monkey-dancer-singer fellow from South Korea. Neither was the world full of nuclear war-cries from the northern neighbor of the country at that time, so you need to take the write-up uncolored with these recent 'developments' - if that word can be used at all.
Anyway, the reason I never got down to publishing this earlier is among the usual suspects - not enough time to complete the post, not having enough breathing space to upload it .. blah blah! ... I was going through my heap of unfinished tales for some other reason recently, and chanced upon this rather abrupt version. The other reason I got reminded was an unplanned occasional lunch arranged at a local Korean joint in Delhi ... So here it is, for what it is worth ... S.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food for 'Seoul'
This was my first time to Korea - a short week-long trip only to the capital city of Seoul, and I decided to list down some of the first impressions we got of the rather unusual place in whatever short time we were there ...
* South Korea is quite a developed nation. The country is one of the top places in terms of per capita income, and this is evident in the glimpses of its capital and most populous city Seoul. Compare that with its neighbor China - which, like India, is a 'developing' economy. I had been to China just a few days ago, and so the contrast was especially striking. Seoul is closer to Tokyo than Beijing or Shanghai at the first glance at least.
* The city of Seoul is built on hills. So there is a lot of up and down, which gives the city a nice character. Rather like Hyderabad. For someone who stays in the flatland of Gurgaon, this was a welcome change. Just to give you a sense of what I mean, consider this - the pathetic excuse of a hotel we stayed at - Best Western Gang Nam - had two basements of parking which could be accessed by car from behind the building, as the road went downhill.
* The currency conversion is quite mind-boggling. There are just too many zeros. A meal for two would cost you 40,000 Korean Wons! ... A short 10 minute taxi drive you cost you 2,500 Wons. Of course, people also get salaries in the same manner. So here, everyone is a millionaire! (Note: with one USD amouting to more than a thousand wons, this is actually not too expensive. The dinner for two is actually only about US $35, and the taxi ride is only US $2).
* There are lots and lots of cafes and coffee shops all over the place. Sitting in the coffee shops with a iPad in hand (or a Samsung tablet - depending on where your loyalties lie, considering you are in Korea) is a national pastime.
* All public places - cafes, buses, subways have wifi. The entire city has wifi. And bloody good too. Very fast, and hopefully secure. You just have to choose the network you are under at any point of time, and voila - you are on the grid!
* Koreans are known for working their rears off. Most people work crazy hours - like 8:30am in the morning till 8:30-9:00pm in the evening. After that, they usually go out in groups to some nice drinking places - called 'hofs' and drink and dine till the wee hours in the late night ... And yet the next day they are back early in the office, ready for a brand new day.
* There are quite a lot of eating and drinking places to socialize. Some are proper eating joints along the roads, while some are roadside places. Some, of course, are for fine dining and very fanciful, with the traditional costume dance-drama performances - meant mainly for tourists - some are almost like museums.
Anyway, the food at the roadside ones - especially the ones in the back alleys of Seoul - is the tastiest (like all cities around the world I guess).
* But before we speak of food, let's get the drinking scene sorted. Korean men drink, and when I say that I really mean it. The favorite and regular one is a local drink called 'Soju' (pronounced 'so-joo'). It is Korea's national drink. You will see the little green bottles of Soju everywhere - in shops, convenience stores, restaurants, bars, malls. A bottle is about 1,200 wons (hardly a dollar), so that's pretty cheap. People usually mix this with cola and drink in shot glasses.
The other favorite drink for men typically is the rice wine. There are a number of varieties of rice wine - from clear ones to milky white to muddy yellow, with slightly different flavors and tastes. All are usually had chilled, unlike the Japanese who have their wine warm.
There is also a sweet berry-flavored red drink called 'Bokbunja ju' - but we were told that is more of a ladies drink. It is quite sweet and fruity in flavor. Worth a try.
* Like mentioned earlier, the eating places are plenty. You just need to try the back streets. But it is amazing to see that every restaurant serves typically only one type of meal, unlike in India where they will serve all sorts of mishmash under the name of "Multi-cuisine". The restaurants in Seoul serve only one type of meal - not even cuisine.
The first ones that we tried were the grill places. They served only grills. The most common ones are the bar-be-que ones. Korean bar-be-que is called Bulgogi and is now popular outside Korea too. But here in Seoul, in the land of Bulgogi, things are serious.
Since the restaurants serve only one type of meal, the menu is simple - pork or beef. There are no menu cards - even in proper eating places. The entire menu will have about three lines - which essentially says something like 'grilled', 'boiled' or 'steamed' - and will be hanging in an un-ubiquitous place on some random wall in the restaurant.
So, crossing your fingers, you order like a pound of pork belly or beef belly. This big chuck of meat will come raw, and they will set it up on a grill that is right in the middle of your table.
By the way, there is a flexible hose-pipe that blows air on the grill that you can adjust for height. You need to keep moving that pipe if you intend to also have conversation with fellow diners on the table as it comes right in the line of sight.
They will then cut the meat with a pair of Scissors - yes, that's right, this is the first time I have ever seen this - into small chew-able pieces, and then you can spend hours grilling your pieces and eating. It is a fairly relaxed affair. I think this type of grill is called Galbigui- but I may be wrong. The meat is accompanied with a couple of types of kimchi (always!), an egg custard (not sweet, but salty), some green vegetables, chillis (definitely spicy!) and so on.
* Kimchi is not always sour. The one that you get in Korean places outside Korea (like in KL, Singapore etc. - say in the Bulgogi Brothers chain of restaurants) is always fermented cabbage. But the Kimchi that you get in Korea can be simply some types of veggies in plain water too. After a while, you realize that Kimchi is any kind of accompaniment with the meat. And that is why it is considered the national food for Koreans.
* A second place that we tried specialized in clams and shellfish. Clams of all shapes and sizes - one even as big as a rugby ball - are steamed and arranged in a bowl. You eat these with wasabi and soy sauce ... My word, before this, we did not even know that there are so many different varieties of clams. Like always, all food tastes great with soju. Here, this is how the bowl of clamps looks like.
* The third type of restaurants we tried are the roadside ones. This is where you get excellent Octopus stew. In here, small octopus and veggies are put together in nice spicy beef broth, and is again cooked at your table. Cooked noodles are also added to the stew. So it is a meal in itself, but we did see people ordering bowls of rice with it. It is spicy, and eaten piping hot, it cleans your sinuses for certain. Great with chilled rice wine. By far the best meal in Seoul. Not to be missed at all.
* The chopsticks are made of metal, unlike Japanese and Chinese. But I guess this is now general knowledge. What is interesting is that the metal chopsticks are almost as light as the wooden ones. Also, there is always a metal spoon along with the two chopsticks - this is multi-purpose - for soup, for curried main course, and also for the egg custard.
There aren't too many varieties of dessert. But we found frozen whole fruit - like a peach, or a rhododendron - seems to be a specialty.
* Coming to the people - Koreans are very disciplined, like the Chinese and Japanese. There is a palpable hierarchy in the work environment. In a meeting, unless the big boss gets up, no one will rise from his or her chair. Generally they will also refrain from asking questions in public, but will seek clarification in private.
* Apart from being disciplined, Koreans are extremely conscious of their dental hygiene - almost on the verge of being a nation of dental OCD. People carry toothbrushes along with them, and we have seen the office staff - even managers - going into washrooms and brushing teeth - which they call 'chica chica' - after their lunch every day! ... I kid you not. We have coffee machines and soda pops in offices, right? But have you ever seen a mouthwash dispenser in the pantry of an office? Here - take a peek.
* Language and Communication is a challenge. Most taxi drivers do not understand English. You need to carry with you the hotel card in Korean always. The restaurants also have staff who do not typically get any other language than Korean. Even in offices, out of the majority, only a handful who have interacted with international clients will have rudimentary English skills. Partly due to the communication and largely due to the culture, it is difficult to confirm if the people understand what you tell them, as they tend to remain passive.
* Yet, they are a lively bunch of people, and enjoy food, and drink, and music as much as everyone else. Most people have a great sense of humor, and it is unfortunate that a lot of that gets 'lost in translation' - by language and cultural divide. Music is all over the place. Karaoke is not just a national pastime, but it is a followed as rigorously on Friday nights in different K-bars as Christians following the Sunday Mass.
* Most Koreans have some religion or other - unlike the Chinese - and the most followed one is Christianity. So the largest festival - and thus the best shopping deals - are around Christmas and New Year.
* Here is another fun fact about the new year. The years of people's ages are reset every December. So when someone tells you his (or her, if you are lucky) so-called 'official' age - don't go by it. Someone who says being of 35 years may even be over 40 years!
* Things to visit in Seoul - The city is pretty clean and safe. People walk all around the place even till late hours. The places to visit in the city include Seoul tower and walkway, shopping streets etc. Sadly we did not get much time to go around the city, apart from the food streets and some of the shopping malls nearby - which were like malls in any other city.
Overall, great place to visit. I am looking forward to my next visit sometime in the coming years.
Best
- Shreekant
(written on 24 June 2012)
Anyway, the reason I never got down to publishing this earlier is among the usual suspects - not enough time to complete the post, not having enough breathing space to upload it .. blah blah! ... I was going through my heap of unfinished tales for some other reason recently, and chanced upon this rather abrupt version. The other reason I got reminded was an unplanned occasional lunch arranged at a local Korean joint in Delhi ... So here it is, for what it is worth ... S.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food for 'Seoul'
This was my first time to Korea - a short week-long trip only to the capital city of Seoul, and I decided to list down some of the first impressions we got of the rather unusual place in whatever short time we were there ...
* South Korea is quite a developed nation. The country is one of the top places in terms of per capita income, and this is evident in the glimpses of its capital and most populous city Seoul. Compare that with its neighbor China - which, like India, is a 'developing' economy. I had been to China just a few days ago, and so the contrast was especially striking. Seoul is closer to Tokyo than Beijing or Shanghai at the first glance at least.
* The city of Seoul is built on hills. So there is a lot of up and down, which gives the city a nice character. Rather like Hyderabad. For someone who stays in the flatland of Gurgaon, this was a welcome change. Just to give you a sense of what I mean, consider this - the pathetic excuse of a hotel we stayed at - Best Western Gang Nam - had two basements of parking which could be accessed by car from behind the building, as the road went downhill.
* The currency conversion is quite mind-boggling. There are just too many zeros. A meal for two would cost you 40,000 Korean Wons! ... A short 10 minute taxi drive you cost you 2,500 Wons. Of course, people also get salaries in the same manner. So here, everyone is a millionaire! (Note: with one USD amouting to more than a thousand wons, this is actually not too expensive. The dinner for two is actually only about US $35, and the taxi ride is only US $2).
* There are lots and lots of cafes and coffee shops all over the place. Sitting in the coffee shops with a iPad in hand (or a Samsung tablet - depending on where your loyalties lie, considering you are in Korea) is a national pastime.
* All public places - cafes, buses, subways have wifi. The entire city has wifi. And bloody good too. Very fast, and hopefully secure. You just have to choose the network you are under at any point of time, and voila - you are on the grid!
* Koreans are known for working their rears off. Most people work crazy hours - like 8:30am in the morning till 8:30-9:00pm in the evening. After that, they usually go out in groups to some nice drinking places - called 'hofs' and drink and dine till the wee hours in the late night ... And yet the next day they are back early in the office, ready for a brand new day.
* There are quite a lot of eating and drinking places to socialize. Some are proper eating joints along the roads, while some are roadside places. Some, of course, are for fine dining and very fanciful, with the traditional costume dance-drama performances - meant mainly for tourists - some are almost like museums.
Anyway, the food at the roadside ones - especially the ones in the back alleys of Seoul - is the tastiest (like all cities around the world I guess).
* But before we speak of food, let's get the drinking scene sorted. Korean men drink, and when I say that I really mean it. The favorite and regular one is a local drink called 'Soju' (pronounced 'so-joo'). It is Korea's national drink. You will see the little green bottles of Soju everywhere - in shops, convenience stores, restaurants, bars, malls. A bottle is about 1,200 wons (hardly a dollar), so that's pretty cheap. People usually mix this with cola and drink in shot glasses.
The other favorite drink for men typically is the rice wine. There are a number of varieties of rice wine - from clear ones to milky white to muddy yellow, with slightly different flavors and tastes. All are usually had chilled, unlike the Japanese who have their wine warm.
There is also a sweet berry-flavored red drink called 'Bokbunja ju' - but we were told that is more of a ladies drink. It is quite sweet and fruity in flavor. Worth a try.
* Like mentioned earlier, the eating places are plenty. You just need to try the back streets. But it is amazing to see that every restaurant serves typically only one type of meal, unlike in India where they will serve all sorts of mishmash under the name of "Multi-cuisine". The restaurants in Seoul serve only one type of meal - not even cuisine.
The first ones that we tried were the grill places. They served only grills. The most common ones are the bar-be-que ones. Korean bar-be-que is called Bulgogi and is now popular outside Korea too. But here in Seoul, in the land of Bulgogi, things are serious.
Since the restaurants serve only one type of meal, the menu is simple - pork or beef. There are no menu cards - even in proper eating places. The entire menu will have about three lines - which essentially says something like 'grilled', 'boiled' or 'steamed' - and will be hanging in an un-ubiquitous place on some random wall in the restaurant.
So, crossing your fingers, you order like a pound of pork belly or beef belly. This big chuck of meat will come raw, and they will set it up on a grill that is right in the middle of your table.
By the way, there is a flexible hose-pipe that blows air on the grill that you can adjust for height. You need to keep moving that pipe if you intend to also have conversation with fellow diners on the table as it comes right in the line of sight.
They will then cut the meat with a pair of Scissors - yes, that's right, this is the first time I have ever seen this - into small chew-able pieces, and then you can spend hours grilling your pieces and eating. It is a fairly relaxed affair. I think this type of grill is called Galbigui- but I may be wrong. The meat is accompanied with a couple of types of kimchi (always!), an egg custard (not sweet, but salty), some green vegetables, chillis (definitely spicy!) and so on.
* Kimchi is not always sour. The one that you get in Korean places outside Korea (like in KL, Singapore etc. - say in the Bulgogi Brothers chain of restaurants) is always fermented cabbage. But the Kimchi that you get in Korea can be simply some types of veggies in plain water too. After a while, you realize that Kimchi is any kind of accompaniment with the meat. And that is why it is considered the national food for Koreans.
* A second place that we tried specialized in clams and shellfish. Clams of all shapes and sizes - one even as big as a rugby ball - are steamed and arranged in a bowl. You eat these with wasabi and soy sauce ... My word, before this, we did not even know that there are so many different varieties of clams. Like always, all food tastes great with soju. Here, this is how the bowl of clamps looks like.
* The third type of restaurants we tried are the roadside ones. This is where you get excellent Octopus stew. In here, small octopus and veggies are put together in nice spicy beef broth, and is again cooked at your table. Cooked noodles are also added to the stew. So it is a meal in itself, but we did see people ordering bowls of rice with it. It is spicy, and eaten piping hot, it cleans your sinuses for certain. Great with chilled rice wine. By far the best meal in Seoul. Not to be missed at all.
* The chopsticks are made of metal, unlike Japanese and Chinese. But I guess this is now general knowledge. What is interesting is that the metal chopsticks are almost as light as the wooden ones. Also, there is always a metal spoon along with the two chopsticks - this is multi-purpose - for soup, for curried main course, and also for the egg custard.
There aren't too many varieties of dessert. But we found frozen whole fruit - like a peach, or a rhododendron - seems to be a specialty.
* Coming to the people - Koreans are very disciplined, like the Chinese and Japanese. There is a palpable hierarchy in the work environment. In a meeting, unless the big boss gets up, no one will rise from his or her chair. Generally they will also refrain from asking questions in public, but will seek clarification in private.
* Apart from being disciplined, Koreans are extremely conscious of their dental hygiene - almost on the verge of being a nation of dental OCD. People carry toothbrushes along with them, and we have seen the office staff - even managers - going into washrooms and brushing teeth - which they call 'chica chica' - after their lunch every day! ... I kid you not. We have coffee machines and soda pops in offices, right? But have you ever seen a mouthwash dispenser in the pantry of an office? Here - take a peek.
* Yet, they are a lively bunch of people, and enjoy food, and drink, and music as much as everyone else. Most people have a great sense of humor, and it is unfortunate that a lot of that gets 'lost in translation' - by language and cultural divide. Music is all over the place. Karaoke is not just a national pastime, but it is a followed as rigorously on Friday nights in different K-bars as Christians following the Sunday Mass.
* Most Koreans have some religion or other - unlike the Chinese - and the most followed one is Christianity. So the largest festival - and thus the best shopping deals - are around Christmas and New Year.
* Here is another fun fact about the new year. The years of people's ages are reset every December. So when someone tells you his (or her, if you are lucky) so-called 'official' age - don't go by it. Someone who says being of 35 years may even be over 40 years!
* Things to visit in Seoul - The city is pretty clean and safe. People walk all around the place even till late hours. The places to visit in the city include Seoul tower and walkway, shopping streets etc. Sadly we did not get much time to go around the city, apart from the food streets and some of the shopping malls nearby - which were like malls in any other city.
Overall, great place to visit. I am looking forward to my next visit sometime in the coming years.
Best
- Shreekant
(written on 24 June 2012)
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