I just received my copy of the interview I had last month with Korea Agra Food, which is a trade journal that promotes Korean food. Here are some hi res photos I took of the article. I have larger versions of these photos in my Flickr account, if it’s too hard to read here.
This week we have one of those evil recruiters, Rowan Hall, from ESL-Planet Recruiting. He actually has a lot of background info on the current trends in the Korean ESL industry and personal experiences and advice on how to navigate the new E-2 visa regulations.
It took a few months of setting up. We are proud to announce that the new Seoul Podcast is up and running with its inaugural episode “Reverse Culture Shock” with special guest panelist Karl from the original Seoul Survivors.
Enjoy.
My latest column hit SEOUL Magazine this month. For a couple of months now, I have been given two pages instead of one and have been asked to include more specific places to go. It’s a bit daunting because I work until 8:30 during the week, Seoul is thirty minutes away by subway, and the subways close around midnight. So it’s usually not worth it to go into town to try out a new restaurant. And when we have done it, we have hit disappointments almost every time. Usually the restaurants we research give the wrong directions are have gone out of business. Some of the places we find are just too awful to write about in a tourism magazine.
I’ve been writing for the magazine for almost a year now, and I’m finding my voice. I’m also seeing how much I can get away with–or really, I’m seeing how much of my personal style I can put into the articles. I throw in a few jabs. I talked about how Haemultang and Agu Jjim ruin the delicate taste of their ingredients last month. This month, I trashed some of the specialties of a Greek restaurant I featured. Granted, there were some really good items on the menu that I recommended, but I also talked about what to avoid, specifically the fruit souvlaki covered in dried oregano, whose picture, funnily enough, graced the heading of the article.
This article was one of the hardest I’ve ever researched. Poor Eun Jeong came out with me on cold January and February weekends to try all of this. I also used her as a second opinion source, as I can have a fucked up palate.
Greek Joy (Hongdae)
A little casual Greek joint. The Johnny Cash on the speakers was a bit surreal. I liked the blue theme they had going on. They are divided into a casual restaurant and a more formal restaurant upstairs. The souvlaki sucked, but here are pics.
The Avgolemeno was pretty good. Lemony.
We also had an adequate Greek Salad. I particularly like the Pastitsio.
The one thing we both agreed was good was the Gyro. Real pita bread, decent fillings and a refreshing yogurt sauce.
Cusco (Hapjeong)
We almost didn’t go in because the picture ads in front looked like the typical Korean fusion crap–shredded cabbage and squeeze bottle honey mustard.
The interior was moody with bric-a-brac that looked like it came from the Peruvian Tourism Bureau. They also had free coffee with a Peruvian cake (3,000 won per slice) in one corner. We had just gotten through eating all that food at Greek Joy. The menu was all in Spanish and Korean. There were a few interesting items I wanted to try, but their specialty was Ceviche. I had to get that. They also promoted their Maca Sours.
I really liked that drink and wanted more. It was a bit pricey, though. The Ceviche was bright and sour. It was perfect for summer. Too bad it was gray and freezing outside and not much warmer inside. Eun Jeong really liked it, though. She loves astringent tasting food, which I am starting to figure out is the Korean taste profile.
Some Ramen Place (Sinchon)
Our final stop that day was Sinchon–on a busy Saturday night. It was packed with college kids. We noticed that there were a lot of Japanese places. We have, in recent years, become fans of Japanese-style fresh Ramen. It’s smooth and savory. Here’s a little video of a Hakata Ramen street stand I went to in Fukuoka, Japan.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c2ZmLT9N4w]
We found this one place in Sinchon, but it had no English on its sign.
We were stuffed, but we still found room for Ramen.
Eun Jeong’s was pretty good. It reminded me of Hakata Ramen but was on the salty side. There’s a Ramen shop in Myeong-dong that does it better.
I didn’t particularly like mine. I didn’t dislike it. On the menu, they called it “Chinese Ramen.” It was flavored with chili oil and tasted too much like Korean Ramyeon. I like Korean Ramyeon, but I don’t go to a Japanese Ramen house for Korean Ramyeon. Well, now we know what to avoid.
Sundae Maul (Sillim)
The genesis for this article was that I wanted to point out a few places near Sillim-dong, where I lived for three grueling months. It’s a horrible place to live in, but there were some things I liked about it, particularly the Sundae Village (Sundae Maul).
Here’s the big pink restaurant mentioned in the article.
I also have a video of eating there from 2005, when I lived in the area.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhtoHJaTBhk]
The Chinese Grocery (Bongcheon)
My trip here was a sort of memory pilgrimage. I did this quick stop in Sillim and its neighbor Bongcheon on a Sunday. I wanted to feature and finally give some decent press to a great little one-man pizza place named Ruciano.
Unfortunately, it’s no longer there. It looks like it was replaced by another real estate agent. Still the Chinese groceries across the street were in business.
I love this store. It smells exotic and has a lot of unlabeled mysteries. This is where I found the cornmeal that became the grits article. It has fresh cilantro, big bottles of Tsingtao beer, walls of sauces, oils and spices, a fridge case and a freezer case, both filled with stuff I just want to buy and cook to see what the freak it is.
Magnolia (Gangnam)
And now back to the beginning. Magnolia was the first successful (as in, made the article) place we visited on our first research trip in January. It was also the final place we went to that day. We were exhausted, so when we got a taste of their wonderfully fruity coffee, we felt re-energized. I have been back there, and they did not disappoint. The second floor, I must warn you, is sit-on-the-floor only. And you have to go up a narrow staircase flanked by burning candles. Flowing scarves are not recommended.
The first time, we ordered the Everything Waffle because they heavily promoted it. I actually liked it (sans tomatoes).
On my second trip there, I tried the pizzas. The Rucola Pizza is the one to get. That’s all I’ll say.
Raw–REJECTED (Gangnam)
I’ll get to this later on its own special post. I can’t believe we wasted money there. I’m sure it was worse than Chez Pim’s “worst meal” ever. Here’s a hint (behind the tuna).
UPCOMING NOTES:
I’ll be out of town for the next two weeks. Posting will be sparse, but I’m also working on future SEOUL Magazine and Korea Herald articles. I’m not committed to these ideas, but here are some future plans:
– Seoul Seafood Expo
– Top Ten Wackiest Pizzas in Korea
– Food Tour of Insa-dong
– Food Tour of Seoul’s French Quarter
– The Best Korean Food That You Don’t Know About (from the tourist brochures, at least)
Actually, it would be good to have more company on these “research trips.” Poor Eun Jeong, I’m sure, is still post-traumatic about the work for this past article. Maybe she respects that what I do is actual work–nah, that’s asking too much.
Here is my latest Korea Herald article, published on Valentine’s Day.
Harnessing Love Through Spaghetti
You still have a little time left. Don’t fret over some overwrapped, overpriced gift basket. In my world, the best expression of your love for someone is food. You can impress without being some master chef.
Let me tell you a story: My first year in Korea, I had difficulty in the dating scene. I had dates, but they never developed into relationships. One time, I planned a date with a young woman. She asked if I could cook something for her. I made her my spaghetti.
She is now my fiancee.
Was it my spaghetti? Was it my charm and wit? Was it my manly physique, maintained by many years of beer and tacos?
Let’s assume it was the pasta. It’s not really a recipe. It’s more of a technique that I developed during the college poverty years when dried pasta was all I could afford, and I was forced to make it interesting.
What I do is chop around three cloves of garlic and an onion. I slowly cook them in some olive oil in a skillet. I sweat them, which means that there should be no browning, not even sizzling. Just slowly cook them until they are soft. Sometimes, I also add mushrooms, peppers, or fresh tomatoes. It helps clean out the fridge. I then add a glass of red wine, usually whatever I’m drinking at the time, and turn up the heat. Balsamic vinegar also works instead of wine, but don’t use more than a tablespoon or two. Let about half the wine boil out. Then add either a can of tomatoes or a jar of spaghetti sauce. Turn down the heat and let it cook slowly.
While all this is going on, have a big pot of water on the stove, heavily salted. You need that salt in there to prevent the pasta from having a negative flavor. I have heard that the water needs to be as salty as the ocean, but just a palmful will do. When the water is boiling, add whatever pasta you intend to use. Be vigilant in this, and test it for chewiness. Too many people overcook their pasta. In fact, it’s best to slightly undercook it. Drain the pasta, and add it to the spaghetti sauce in the pan. Let the pasta finish cooking in the sauce. If the sauce is too dry, add some of the pasta cooking water.
Serve this with a fresh green salad, using a big variety of leaves from your local grocery store. In fact, make a Korean raspberry vinaigrette. In a big bowl whisk together aquarter cup of balsamic vinegar, a generous pour of Korean raspberry wine, a tablespoon of good mustard, and half a teaspoon of dried herbs, if available. Make sure that you use something good like Dijon mustard. Honey mustard is out of the question. Now, while whisking very quickly, slowly drizzle around three-quarters of a cup of extra virgin olive oil until it starts looking like a nice glistening salad dressing.
A classy Valentine’s sweet for adults is salted butter caramels. I adapted this recipe from food blogger Chez Pim. Slowly melt 1.5 cups of sugar and half a cup of Korean honey in a saucepan. When the sugar is a nice dark color and not burned, whisk in a stick of room temperature butter in chunks. Add a cup of heated heavy cream and stir until smooth. Let the mixture reach a temperature of 125 degrees Celsius. Spread it out on a non-stick surface and sprinkle in some sea salt. Slice them and wrap them when they cool.
That should rescue you for Valentine’s Day. If it’s too late for you, there is still White Day next month.
From one of my articles in The Korea Herald
Mardi Gras in Korea?
“Laissez les bons temps rouler!”
Mardi Gras is coming February 5th this year. It is one of the hardest times of the year for those of us from the northern Gulf coast (Gulf of Mexico, that is). You are more likely to find people who can share Christmas with you than people who know about or understand Mardi Gras.
Also known worldwide as Carnival, American Mardi Gras began in 1703 in Mobile, Alabama, and spread throughout the French territories of Biloxi and New Orleans.
Even though there are no parades, I try to celebrate Mardi Gras my own way, which always involves food and alcohol. A favorite party food is the seafood boil.
A seafood boil is mainly shrimp and other shellfish boiled with corn, potatoes, and onions. Crab boil seasoning is highly prized amongst Southerners in Korea, and people love the opportunity to brag about their stashes brought over from America. If you can get your hands on this concoction of celery seed, cayenne pepper and allspice you’re in luck. A shrimp boil is easily in your future.
Yet it’s not hopeless if you don’t have any crab boil seasoning. You can mimic the flavor fairly closely with ingredients from you local grocery store in Korea. I’ve been experimenting and substituting, and I have come up with a concoction that comes fairly close. The hardest thing to come by was a substitute for the aromatic spices. Most Korean stores stock large rolls of cinnamon bark under the name tonggyeppi (통계피), meaning “tube cinnamon.”
To that I added some fresh ginger, black pepper, chopped sesame leaves, three bay leaves, gochugaru (고추가루) and susam (수삼), a type of ginseng. This is all stashed in a mesh stock infuser that looks like a giant tea ball. Put that in a large pot of boiling water, along with a cut lemon, chopped celery, some salt, a handful of garlic and a cup of rice vinegar. Next come the vegetables, usually corn on the cob and potatoes. When the potatoes are soft, add the crabs, shellfish and shrimp. Make sure not to overcook them. They only need a few minutes.
Take out the seafood and lay it on a table covered with newspaper, along with the vegetables. Throw together a basic cocktail sauce. My Koreanized version of the sauce we make in the Mobile Bay area requires a bottle of American-style chili sauce, like Heinz, one tablespoon of prepared wasabi, one tablespoon of lemon juice, and, if desired, a dash of Cajun seasoning and a spot of brandy. Peel the shrimp, dip and enjoy with an ice cold beer.
For dessert, microwave a Moon Pie, called “Choco Pie” in Korea, for ten seconds and top with ice cream. Moon Pies were a “throw” that started in Mobile parades and spread throughout the region. It’s the traditional Mardi Gras sweet treat.
Louisiana native Jennifer Young from the Seoul Survivors podcast has also shared a recipe for microwave pralines using ingredients easily found in Korea. She takes 2 ½ cups (500 grams) of light brown sugar, combines it with a cup (250 ml) of whipping cream and microwaves them for thirteen minutes in a large bowl. Quickly she adds two tablespoons of butter and two cups (500 ml) of pecans or walnuts. She then spoons them on a non-stick pan and chills them in the refrigerator for thirty minutes. These pralines are extremely sweet and buttery and go great with coffee.
She also has a recipe for Rice Cooker Jambalaya, and she will give you the recipe if you’re nice. In the meantime, kick back, dig into some shrimp and let the good times roll.
Quick! Before it’s gone!
My first little piece (Sesame Leaf Pesto), under my real name, Joe McPherson, in The Korea Herald is up. It’ll only be online for a little while, so you might as well get a hardcopy. While you’re at it, you should also read the pieces by The Marmot (Robert Koehler on the new E-2 regulations), Gypsy Scholar (Jeffery Hodges on something deep, thoughtful and insightful, meaning I wouldn’t get it, about the word “eye”) and Seoul Photo Club guru David Smeaton on the use of RAW format versus JPG.
Go to KoreaHerald.com and click on “Expat Living” on the left column.
(Double posting this on the ZK front page too.)
I’ve lately started writing one-page food columns for SEOUL Magazine. It’s a pretty classy magazine compared to its competition and predecessors. And it has a fairly large readership, not only in Seoul but around the world. The Korean National Tourism Organization supplies copies of SEOUL Magazine to Korean tour agencies overseas. So if you want a hard copy, you can go to your local Korean tour agent and see if they have one.
Yet if you’re lazy like me, there’s a PDF version of it online.
In the June issue, I wrote piece on the growing Korean frozen yogurt craze in America.
Just a note that The New York Times just put out a piece on Korean fried chicken in New York. I’m in there.