I am writing this post from a pagoda in Incheon intl. Airport. For once I didn't have to climb a mountain to reach it... although I did opt for the stairs over the escalator as it is healthy just like the large tiramisu mocha I'm about to down.
I have around an hour to make my transfer from Beijing to Hong Kong so I expect many people will be approached by a frantic foreigner (potential blog name if any of you are in the market for one... 50wonzillaz please) asking them for help.
I need to wander around and look suspicious now. Oh the joys of turning up to the airport three hours earlier than required.
'Tis the season of eating and drinking (more so than other seasons), and being on the other side of the world (to some of you) it's difficult to find some holiday season comforts, either in their entirety or at a reasonable price. An attempt at trying to find the baileys proved useless and there's not a mince pie in sight.
So, in an effort to make those of you on more roast potatoey (it's a word) shores jealous, I will prepare an imaginary feast for you, made up of only my favourites of the wonderful Korean cuisine. There isn't so much a starter, main course and pudding setup in Korea but I'll adapt my menu to this format.
So for starters on this fine day, I will have Sundae. No it's not an ice cream but a Korean variant of one of my favourite breakfast items, black pudding. Who am I kidding? ALL of the breakfast items are my favourite breakfast items! This variant however is much more, intestiney, mmmm..... but DELICIOUS.
I am intensely (intestinely) fond of this dish. HAR HAR HAR
Onto the main course(s) of a) bibimbap, a dish native to the region in which I live, Jeollabuk-do, consisting of rice, vegetables egg and spicy gochujang (red pepper paste), b) galbitang, or short beef rib stew, with glass noodles, egg and spring onions as well as the more ordinary white onion (throw some rice in there too) and c) bossam, boiled pork thrown onto a leaf with some ssamjang (spicy soybean paste) and other assorted toppings. Here's some photos that will hopefully make your mouth water.
Bibimbap: Mix it all up and then gobble it all up.
Bossam: Wrap it up and throw it down your throat.
Galbitang: Take your time with this one - it comes hot.
'And what about dessert!?' I hear you cry.
This is a red bean fish. A fish shaped pancake filled with mashed redbean.
And this one is a red bean fish ice cream. Wafer cone filled with ice cream and red bean jam.
Yummy.
On Friday I'm flying to Hong Kong for Christmas, and I expect the food there to be delicious.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
Red Bean Fisherman
P.S. This issue's K-pop performed by Wonder Girls and Akon.
I should start off by saying: I've extended! If granted, I will be staying in Korea until (at least) next August. I'd kind of made my mind up about this before I even got on the plane to come to Korea on my initial six month contract, so it was an easy decision to make.
A couple of weeks ago I went to my first thanksgiving dinner, and we had quite the feast, including but not limited to: three chickens (not each) with all the trimmings, fried crispy seaweed, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, fruit crumble, ice cream and other tasties. It was very nice and a good excuse to have a Christmas dinner a month before Christmas.
I've been doing lots of teachery activities recently, to be detailed below:
As part of the school curriculum, students and staff alike are required to do some kind of voluntary service. This time it was visiting an old people's home and putting a show on for them. The kids did a few performances including an orchestra set, a drum (samulnori) show and a couple of song and dance routines. In the last post I wrote about being asked to sing a song with the teachers, but in reality I just had to dance along. It was a hit and staff, students and the elderly alike cried 'ENCORE!' to us, and of course me and the lads obliged. Below is an excerpt of our dance:
Me and the teachers played some 'Tee-ball' last Wednesday, which is basically rounders.
Team Jeokseong also visited Dongae Elementary for the tri-school volleyball final. Of course I was hideously overdressed in smart shoes and a shirt and still ended up being picked to play. Fortunately for me and my gripless shoes, a new player appeared and my services (or disservices as my last volleyball game made it known) were no longer required. So I stood on the edge talking, cheering and eating chicken and fruit. It was like PE at school except this time I didn't have to forge a letter from my mom saying I'd hurt my foot and couldn't take part. (Hi mom, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but yes, I did that.)
I'm also learning to play the changu, a Korean drum. I hope there's a K-pop niche for that.
Onto other K-pop related news. A couple of days ago my students asked me what music I liked and when I replied with 'BIGBANG' one of my students got very annoyed with me. She told me that I needed to say I hated them because they were 'hers'. I said no. She cried. I'm going to see them next month hopefully. I'll be sure to take lots of photos for her.
The snow hit Korea on Wednesday in full force, and yesterday I climbed the Sunchang mountain. Below are some pictures from this little excursion that I took with my neighbour Ekta.
Good morning, snowy mountain.
A little something refreshing to help on the climb.
Snow Temple.
I also went to Skyrim.
Don't eat yellow snow or shake strange trees hands.
Gamsahapnida for reading,
Cold person.
P.S. This installments dose of K-pop isn't K-pop. It's a 'traditional style' song taken from a film I watched, 'A frozen flower'. It was very good but don't watch it with your parents or your children if you have them. You have been warned. The clip below is harmless, don't worry. Watch it with the whole family if you so desire.
