Discovering the new, appreciating the old

This week was my vacation, and with myself only having 4 weeks left in Korea I thought I should use my time getting to experience some of the Korean food that I have yet to try. Due to the fact that most restaurants only have a menu written in Korean it has severely limited my ability to eat anywhere I please. There would need to be pictures somewhere on the menu at a restaurant, or someone who had already been there to tell me what to order if I wanted Korean food. For this reason I would stick to my numerous staple restaurants that I had had success with previously. Hey, if it ain't broke?  But there are many things I have yet to try, so this week I ventured out to see what I had been missing.

First I went out with some friends to a new kind of barbeque place. Instead of pork or beef, they served duck on the grill. I had never heard of this in Korea, but apparently its a special chain restaurant that offers this unique bbq experience. We had many sides to come along with the duck of course, some being white kimchi, pickled jalapenos, garlic, and numerous sauces. I watched in awe how a Korean friend of mine chose to eat it; he wrapped the duck meat inside of a piece of kimchi, added a piece of garlic and jalapeno to it and then dipped it all (together) into the sweet brown sauce. It was effortless it seemed. . . . . so I gave it a shot. As I tried to wrap all of these components into a white kimchi cabbage leaf it all miserably fell out into the brown sauce. I laughed and thought "practice makes perfect" and kept at it until I also became, what I thought was, good at it. I must have looked like I was struggling though, as the waiter brought over a fork and smiled at me. I laughed so hard at how ridiculous I must have looked to him; A sad Meguk (American) struggling to eat her dinner. But  I refused to give into the fork temptation, and kept using my chopsticks. I was not graceful in the least, but my Korean friends at my table and others around the restaurant looked as if it was so easy to eat this way. It's amazing to watch Korean people eat as it is purely a work of art. Whether it is separating their noodles from their soup and dipping dumplings into it, or wrapping up 4 or 5 different ingredients into a kimchi leaf, it looks effortless. Eating is a not just filling a need here, its a full on experience with your food.

I had told a friend of mine that I had eaten bibimbap on numerous occasions but wasn't too keen on the cold vegetable dish. She looked at me and asked "Have you ever had the hot bibimbap?" She saw the quizzical look on my face and said, "OK you have to come with me to Bibigo." This is a restaurant that has a mix and match kind of bibimbap menu where you can choose your vegetables, meat, rice, and sauce for your dish. They make it cold or hot and exactly how you like it. I ordered the hot stone bibimbap with steak and an egg on top. The difference between the hot and cold version of this dish is they put the ingredients in a hot stone bowl where it cooks the ingredients as it is brought to your table. The rice gets a little crispy around the edges of your bowl and the egg gets cooked with the other vegetables as you mix it. It is a healthy and delicious form of bibimbap, and I am definitely a fan now of this popular entree.

I walked into a frequently visited Korean restaurant the other day and saw someone eating a black noodle dish. I looked at the owner who spoke NO English and asked him what it was. He pointed to a sign on the wall that said 'buckwheat noodles' and I was intrigued. I had no idea if it was hot or cold or what was in the dish, but I thought 'why not?' So I ordered the noodles, along with 2 tuna kimbap rolls which are always phenomenal, and took it home with me as take out. I was surprised to open the container and see that there was ice inside the dish and that it smelled very fishy. I told myself that cold soups can still be good and tried to be optimistic about my choice. But as soon as I put some of these fishy noodles in my mouth I realized that this was not a Korean dish I would order again. Maybe it was the seaweed paper piled on top, maybe it was the ice, maybe it was the fishy soup that had soaked into the noodles but I was not a fan. I decided I would just eat my delicious tuna kimbap for dinner that night and forgo the buckwheat noodles. Sometimes there is something to be said for sticking with the regular options......you know what your in for!

 I realized that I had done enough venturing out when mid-week rolled around and that I wanted to enjoy the staple restaurants I had worked hard to acquire. So I went with a friend to a Mexican fusion restaurant called Vatos. I swear, they have the best fish tacos I have ever eaten in my life. I usually order chicken or beef in Mexican restaurants, always shying away from anything fishy, but one night my friend and I were splitting our dinner and she ordered fish tacos. She wanted to try my beef ones and so I took a bite of her fish tacos and immediately fell in love. It is a moist battered fish topped with an orange sauce, red onions, tomatoes, and cilantro.  The flavors work together perfectly as you taste the cold tomatoes and onions mixing with the hot soft fish in your mouth, and then the spice of the sauce follows. It is a party in your mouth as my Mom would say, and I can never get enough of them.

 I knew I had to have my absolute favorite Korean meal this week also, which is by far dukgalbi. There is something so perfect about the spicy red sauce mixing with all of the fresh vegetables and the always pleasing topokki. And not just the normal topokki.....here they have mozzarella filled topokki and sweet potato filled topokkki.

I can't tell you the countless hours I have spent in grocery stores this year trying to find where you can buy this kind of filled topokki and I have always come up empty-handed. So getting to eat this delicious treat along with all of my other favorite ingredients of the dish leaves me continuously satisfied. This meal was one of the best discoveries here in Seoul for me as far as food goes. I will admit it.....I am addicted to dukgalbi. The first step is admitting it right? How will I ever live without it!

 Korean culture is quite a drinking culture, as many business men and women are required to go out and get drunk with their bosses. They have their very own alcoholic beverage called SOJU which is very popular and it is often mixed with a Korean beer. This concoction is called 'so-make' and it usually on every table in bbq restaurants here in Seoul. Because of this you would think it would be quite easy to find a good cocktail in this city, but you would be wrong. As far as I know the places that serve cocktails are clubs or very high end bars that cost you an arm and a leg for a drink. Usually you must go to a foreign pub of some sorts to be able to find a cocktail that would be in every restaurant back in the states. But the problem is that sometimes a girl wants something fruity in a martini glass, not a beer. So my friend and I set out to find such a location that was not filled with college students or that was not 45 minutes from home. We were lucky enough to already be in a very hip and trendy part of town called Sinsa and walked a few streets over to Apgujeong. After passing numerous Japanese restaurants, coffee shops, and clothing stores we finally stumbled along an adorable bar called "Bar Sette." We were thrilled to see an actual cocktail menu that had mojitoes, martinis, margaritas and more. Sure the drinks were around $15 each, but sometimes you just have to go for it. As I took a swig of my friends mojitio, which was so refreshing and delicious, I realized I had not had a mojito in over a year. It's crazy how time flies, and how much that taste brought back memories of relaxing with family and friends at a nice restaurant back home.

In my week of discovering the new and appreciating the old, I realized that as much as I love being adventurous and trying new things there is something to be said about the familiar. Whether it's the 100th time I have eaten dukgalbi or the refreshing taste of a mojito that has been lacking, there is comfort and satisfaction in treating yourself to the usual.