Asia Report #13: the Lost Tokyo post

I forgot to write about Tokyo during last summer's Asia Reports. Better late than never!

Though DMR would continue on to Hanoi and other destinations, Tokyo was my last stop in Asia last summer. There we met up with the inimitable Yu Bando who escorted us around town. First up was dinner at Gonpachi Nishiazabu, the somewhat trendy, bi-level space that was used as the location of the epic fight scene with the Crazy 88s in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Trendiness aside, this was a really handsome restaurant serving some tasty, traditional Japanese tapas.

In addition to many Kirins, the three of us ordered a ton of food including:
- Spinach salad with tiny little sardines
- Gyoza with yuba wrappers
- Sunagimo yakitori (chicken gizzards, Yu's idea!)
- Tebasaki (grilled chicken wings)
- Negima yakitori (chicken with scallions)

A wedge of the homemade tofu served in the bamboo basket it was formed in:


Tsukune, basically a Japanese version of kefta kebabs made with chicken. We ordered it with an egg on the side to use as a dipping sauce.


For dessert, I ordered the kuzumochi, ice cream served with cubes of arrowroot flour mochi and a black sugar syrup. Yummmmmm.


The following day, we headed to the Yebisu Gardens, an enormous complex in Shibuya where Yu works. We got there a little early so Dan could hit a photography exhibit and I the Yebisu Beer Museum. This was my kind of museum. When I walked in, I was greeted by employees in the gift shop who were pouring beers and putting out snack samples. I stuffed myself with beer flavored chocolates, something called Sapporo Beer Crackers and bits of tender beef jerky. I was tips by the time I began the exhibit.

Of course the exhibit ended with a place to sample the brewery's wares. I inserted a few hundred yen (about $3) into a machine and retrieved a token for a beer flight. In addition to four kinds of beer, I got some more Beer Crackers! I wound up buying some more of these and some beef jerky on the way out.


We had some time to kill before meeting up with Yu, so we decided to get some more drinks and snacks at the beer garden that was housed in the Garden Place complex. These deep fried potato balls were my favorite snack. I don't remember what else we ate because by now I was definitely drunko.


Later that evening, we found ourselves at this salary man stand bar called Fujiya Honten.

I'm so glad we had Yu with us because everything was written in Japanese and DMR and I would have been helpless. You have to take a flight of stairs down and there are no seats in this bar. All the cooking and drink dispensing is done in the center of the room and you elbow your way onto the perimeter. We had a variety of tastes, like steamed asaparagus with mayo, some croquettes, eggplant in a delicious, salty miso sauce, maybe some grilled saba. At first we sidled up to a ledge against the wall of the bar, where we could see some of the baseball game that was being aired. Eventually folks cleared out and we were able to get some space along the main bar area.

Afterwards we went to a great rock bar called BYG, and we drank too much.

Asia Report #12 - Kaiseki in Kyoto

We bid goodbye to Osaka and headed to Kyoto for a night's stay at the Gion Fukuzumi ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. I was mainly interested in the kaiseki dining that is associated with these inns. I have to say Kyoto was a bit of a let down after the hustle and bustle of Osaka. Not the town for me. But our room was comfortable, the staff friendly, and the meal a lovely culinary journey. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on what we ate; there were a lot of new tastes.


The blue dish on the left held some sort of pressed rice cake, with a piece of sea urchin, a dab of wasabi and some nori on top. The other dish contained a sweet shrimp, a dumpling, some edamame, marinated greens and a whelk! More on the whelk later.


The tan bowl contained deliciously light somen noodles with a shitake and shrimp garnish. Next to it was some sashimi - there was amaebi (sweet shrimp, which I wasn't too keen on) and I think mackerel and sea bream. Yes, I know, I am an embarassment to the Hong name. Behind that you'll see a pan fried flat fish.


Dan offers up the ubiquitous V for victory/peace sign. That white bowl in the foreground contained a couple pieces of sweet eel and delicate young bamboo shoots, which I was really into.


Contemplating the whelk. This was the only thing I refused to eat. I felt it was part of the experience to at least try everything, which I did, save for the whelk. It's a snail for crissake's and I was not going to do it. After much consideration, Dan decided he didn't have it in him either.

Fish in many forms for breakfast the next morning. Clockwise from top left: a fishcake with shrimp wrapped in yuba, in a light broth; tournade of some sort of root vegetable with fishcakes; fishcakes make to look like strands of spaghetti; tamago; some sort of flatfish; more fishcake made to look like pressed sushi, served with a sweet black paste.




Steaming hot miso with tiny little clams to start your day off. Loved the individual chafing dishes. Liked this miso a whole lot more than the miso served with dinner, which contained mushrooms that had a okra-like gooey-ness to them.

Asia Report #11 - Kuidore Freedom, I Love You, Yes I Do

Can't leave Osaka without a taste of takoyaki done right.
Filling the molds with batter.

Seven takoyakis on the canal.

I knew the molten batter on the inside was lurking, but I still had no self-control.

Asia Report #10 - Use Your Noodle Pt. 2

After our little field trip to the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, how could we be in the mood for anything but those delicious noodles in broth. Luckily, a fantastic ramen joint was just a stone's throw away. The restaurant turned out to be Menou Momofukutei, a lovely serene space inside and out, staffed by super cool, young Japanese men and women. It was fairly empty but we still sat at the counter that faced the kitchen. There was no English menu, but we managed to place an order for 2 bowls of shoyu (soy sauce based broth) ramen.

We were presented with small glasses of iced tea while we waited for our ramen. Meanwnile, I looked through all the little bamboo bowls and containers filled with various condiments such including pickled plum and mustard greens, and chili oil. There was also a grinder full of multicolored peppercorns and one full of sesame seeds.

Our ramen was earthy and delicious. It was centered around two pieces of succulent pork and joined by a chicken meatball, a white square of fishcake, some brown wood ear-esque mushroms (that I didn't particulary care for), spinach stalks, pickled bamboo, green onion and burdock root. Additionally, there was a gorgeous half of a soft-boiled egg, its golden yolk just barely set. It wasn't just the bowl of noodles that made our meal, it was the atmosphere, the Coltrane on the stereo, the friendly waiter who kept refilling our iced tea glasses at the right moment (and eventually giving us a pitcher, which seems to be the norm there).

We should have been sated, but I am a pig and I hate not being able to read a menu. So when I saw some gyoza pass by, I had to order some. Little did I know, we would be served baby gyoza!

They were amazingly crispy on the edges and tender on the inside. I added some chili oil, cracked pepper and ground sesame seeds to the dipping sauce, as well as a dab of the ball of green stuff you can see in the top right corner. I'm not really sure what that was.

And then it was off to Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers and where Dan and I would have a completely unreal and unparalled baseball experience.

Asia Report #9 - Use Your Noodle Pt. 1

I love Osaka! With the colors, the food, the store that's devoted to all things takoyaki, how could I not? Add to that an unrivaled fanaticism for their baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. This might be the city of my dreams.

While our hotel room in Osaka was tiny, it was still very clean with all the amenities you'd want - flat screen tv with more than 3 cable channels, automatic toilet, hot water maker for tea and coffee, and the hotel itself offered a really fantastic continental breakfast, Japanese style. While Listmaker was snoring away (oh wait, that was in Seoul), I was an early bird not willing to forfeit my free breakfast for a few extra winks. Any complaints one might have about the room size is mitigated by the bounty that was offered. There were a couple different varities of onigiri - rice balls with center fillings ranging from bonito (okaka, I would later learn...who knew bonito isn't a Japanese word!) to salmon to sweet and sour pickled plum. Also provided were a couple of instant soups, including miso in paste form, which is so much more superior to the powdered form. Guests could also opt for a nice little salad with a yummy sesame soy dressing, rolls, American cereals like Cocoa Krispies and Corn Flakes in boxes with Japanese lettering and this delicious vanilla yogurt. To drink, coffee, juices and teas were offered. I'll take this any day over wan bagels and insipid pastries. This was a great way to start off my day.

Dan, using his noodle, discovered the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum in one of the city guides the night before and we decided to take a visit. Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles. Only in Japan would they have a shrine to this sort of thing (good thing). Ando founded Nissin, the company that makes Cup O Noodles, you know the white styrofoam cup filled with little bits of dehydrated egg and vegetables that was a staple of your college years. We took a couple of trains out to an area in Osaka called Ikeda and while I was able to locate the museum on a map of the town in the station and orient ourselves in the proper direction, I couldn't pinpoint the street it was on. Most of the streets on the map were unmarked as were most of the streets in the town. We walked down one street and I could feel the museum, but no dice. We headed back to the train station and tried to get a cab to take us. Despite the cab driver not being able to speak English, I'm pretty sure he said something along the lines of, "It's right over there, you can walk, you don't need me to drive you!" We then headed into a bakery and a kind young lady gave us directions in her halting English. At least we knew which street to walk down.

Finally we found the museum! It was small and nothing was translated into English, but I loved the wall of ramen. Little did we know we were only a few days shy of qualifying to be their millionth visitor! Upstairs they had a ramen making workshop, which unfortunately you had to sign up in advance for. Oh well. Dan took some great shots, including this one of the cross section of a Cup O Noodle!


This is a portion of the great wall of ramen. The bullseye indicates the start of something big.


Our visit to the museum was brief, but totally put us in the mood for some ramen. On the way there, we had passed a great looking ramen joint and decided to eat there on the way back. More on the ramen and the rest of our day in Osaka in the next post!

Asia Report #8 - Good Taste Osaka

After a glorious business class ride to Tokyo, Dan and I got our Japan Rail Passes validated at Narita and headed to Osaka. The trip was in two parts, the first being about an hour trip from the airport to Tokyo Station in the city. The second would be a 3 hour or so ride on a shinkansen, a super high speed train that would make me feel nauseous throughout the ride. Before getting on our bullet train, we hit one of the many food stands in the terminal to pick up a couple bento boxes for the ride. I would offer you photos, but this is when my camera was failing me. Dan got an unagi don box and I went with the pork katsu. Everything was laid out so meticulously in the box, even down to the little packets of Japanese black pepper and shoyu (for Dan) and the katsu sauce and mustard for me. We also shared an iced green tea from the food and beverage cart that would make its way up and down the aisle every so often.

Finally Osaka! We had to transfer a bunch of times and then walk with our luggage to where we were staying, the Comfort Hotel in the Shinsaibashi neighborhood. It was very easy to find once we were properly orientated. Once we were properly checked into our very tiny hotel room, we decided to get some food. We kept passing places that I knew would serve delicious food, but also places where I knew no one would speak English and ordering such deliciousness would be difficult. We also passed tons of young men that looked like Rod Stewart. Chemically treated teased hair on top, white oxfords and tight black pants below. The number of men dressed like this was comical. There was also a female version with the same bad orange hair accented by the copper glow of fake tans.

We eventually wound up in Dotonbori, this completely packed and insane area with a canal slashing through it. This place is so alive and everyone's m.o. is kuidaore, which loosely translates to "eat til you drop dead with a smile on your face and can't eat anymore." I want that on my gravestone.

Dotonbori used to be a red light district and has been this sort of entertainment district for like 400 years! By this time, I was growing weak with hunger. The crankies were starting up too. Finally, in the midst of a town known for okonomiyaki, we found okonomiyaki paradise, a place called Chibo Okonomiyaki. We were a bit hesitant at first because there were a lot of people waiting before us and we both had on our cranky pants. There was also an elevator, which confused us until we realized there was 5 floors of okonomiyaki paradise. That certainly helped shorten our waiting time. The elevator opened up and a waiter took us to the third floor, where we were seated by the grill. The menus we were handed were all in Japanese and I also began sweating because of the grill heat. Luckily they had an English language menu (although much smaller and without offering any of the deliciousness that the people next to us were eating). We wound up ordering a couple of beers (beeru), a mixed yakisoba and a mixed okonomiyaki. Included in the mix were big chunks of squid, shrimp, and pork (buta). I loved our front row seat to the cooking action. The camera lost all the action shots, but I managed to salvage one shot of the pancake.

The pan it was served on was so hot the sauce was sizzling. In fact if you look closely at the bottom right of the photo, you can see some of the bubbles. I also love the way the thin slices of bonito wave around due to the heat, like amber waves of grain, like as if they were alive! The sprinkle of jullienned nori was a great touch. Usually you just get a shake of pulverized nori on top.

I was insanely jealous of the couple sitting next to us. I'm convinced they knew how to speak a little English and just felt lazy when I tried talking to them. They had a plate of these fantastic looking dumplings. Translucent squares of rice paper wrappers with a nubbin of mystery filling. What could it be? Halfway through their meal, the dumplings were still on their plate and I promised myself that if they got up without finishing the dish, I would make up for the meatball caper and skewer up that gyoza. There was no way I was going to let it go to waste. Much to my chagrin, they totally rallied at the end and wound up finishing everything. Other tables were ordering up cheese or kimchi in their okonomiyaki. Why didn't I think of that?

Here's Dan, looking fetchingly gaijin in his Ted Drewes shirt posing in front of the famous Tzubora-ya restaurant, known for serving fugu (that's blowfish for all you other gaijin). And giving the victory/peace sign, of course.

Asia Report #7 - Korea Wrap-Up

I got an email from Dan this morning/last night. He said he ate crickets and spicy frogs in Laos! I want him to do a guest post on The PSG & CLC, but I bet it will be something like: "The crickets were crunchy. The frogs were spicy." I'm glad I wasn't there. I have no interest in eating bugs intentionally. Ever.

To wrap up Korea, I forgot to mention that before our rain-soaked eating adventure in Myeong-Dong, we had another rain-soaked day. We met up with Sueun, another sorta relative who had lived at my parents' house for about a year to study English and just a few months ago had gone back to Korea. The three of us wound up going to an area called Insadong, known for its traditional buildings, art galleries and artisan shops.

We walked up a narrow street and settled upon a restaurant called Woori Nara Manseh - which roughly translates to Hooray for Our Country! It's a line from the Korean national anthem. The restaurant had a lot of character, which was a nice change from the kind of sterility that plagues a lot of Korean restaurants. Dan and I sat on a bench that was also a swing. It was nice to sway a bit while eating. He and I both got the bulgogi, while Sueun got the vegetable bibimbop. Once again, there was a bounty of tasty banchan, including these just tender enough potato shoestrings slightly glazed in sesame oil, as well as a small bean paste jigae (not quite as good as the one we had in Suwon). Dan also had a Cass with his lunch and it was then he decided that Hite was his favorite Korean beer.

After lunch, the rain was coming down even harder, so we decided to hit Lotte World - an indoor amusement park. There, I ordered some not very good takoyaki and Dan burned his mouth by eating an entire not yet cooled down piece. I also got a wicked headache, which caused us to cancel our dinner plans.

Some random food related thoughts:
• Napkins in Korea are tiny and impossible to keep on your lap.
• I don't like Korean butter or margarine or whatever the substance they put on sandwiches, which I'd normally be very pro about, but has a terrible artificial taste, like Pam. Come to think of it, the takoyaki pans were sprayed with this ill-tasting stuff as well.
• You can eat and drink for very cheap in Korea as long as you stay away from the Westerny places.

Ok and one non food related thought:
• What is up with the communal toilet paper dispensers in this country, that is if they even provide TP at all! Most of the stalls don't have a dispenser. Instead you have to grab some on your way in. I find this maddening.

Asia Report #6 - Dan Gets Wasted On Hite Pt 2

With our bellies full of seafood pajun and Hite, we trudged through the rain to one of Myeong Dong's main crazy narrow streets packed to the gills with stores, restaurants and people for our next food stop. Here you have competing cosmetics stores trying to out shout each other via megaphone, American chains, Korean chains, food stalls ranging from mammomth grills heating up sausages and squid sticks to tiny griddles manned by crouching ladies cooking what looked like little pancakes sold for the American equivalent of a quarter or fifty cents. There are brightly lit signs everywhere and not just on street level. It's completely insane. There's nothing like it in the states, I'm sure. These types of dense mainly pedestrian malls are something I've only encountered overseas. Fulton Mall may be a close comparison, but even that is way more open and wider.

We decided on a restaurant that specializes in budae jigae. This is a hotpot-esque dish with humble origins. Duuring the Korean War food was in short supply, especially meat and so Koreans who were near army bases would go around and gather what they could from soldiers who were feeling generous. This included meats like SPAM, sausages and hot dogs, beans and instant ramen. The Koreans would then dump it all in pot and stew it up with kimchi for a way too infrequent hearty meal during wartime. The military is a big reason why SPAM is loved by Koreans and Hawaiians. I grew up eating it and I especially loved, just loved using the attached key to open up the can to unearth the spiced ham. The thwomp sound the loaf made when escaping its tin shell was another joy.

Amazingly, this may have been the first time I've ever had this dish! I've had plenty of other jigaes (stews) in my lifetime, but I don't recall ever tasting one that was specially tagged as budae. Our restaurant was named for a Korean folk tale called Hong Bu and Nol Bu, two brothers on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Think Goofus and Gallant, you know from Highlights magazine, the one you read in the dentist's office as a kid. I can't remember which brother represents the "good" and which the "bad" nor can I remember which brother the restaurant was named for (I can't find the business card), but I imagine we were named for the bad, gluttonous one because I totally felt like a pig.

Each table was set up with a gas burner upon which a large wok-like vessel was placed. We went with the house jigae, which consisted of a little of this, a little of that (cut up SPAM, sausages, leeks, scallions, kimchi, chili paste, mushrooms, rice cakes and some udon noodles) in a clear broth. In addition we all ordered some add-ons. Dan and I added jjol myun, a type of very chewy rice noodles to our pot, while Moka and Joonpil added sujebi, which is another traditional handmade Korean pasta. The rice cakes were apparently North Korean style (who knew? not me, so I have to take Moka's word for it) and looked like little white opaque peanuts, while the sujebi looked like your traditional flat disc cut on the bias. " We also ordered a couple of Hites. Halfway through I knew I was drunk, but I think Dan was unsure. I also picked out my SPAM. I just wanted into eating it when there was a bounty of noodles and ricecakes.

As the stew simmered away, the heat of the dish intensified. We addedextra broth to cut down on the spiciness, and washed down each bite with swigs of Hite but it still didn't help. Moka likened Dan to a true Korean for his ability to widthstand such spicy food. I think we were all sweating by meal's end. Man, I want some right now!



P.S. One of our side dishes looked like a bowl of marinated glass noodles, but upon tasting, they had a crunch similar to bean sprouts. They sort of looked like the long body of a bean sprout too come to think of it. So far Googling has come up empty. I think it's a sea vegetable, possibly with the "angel" in it's name.

Asia Report #5 - Dan Gets Wasted on Hite Pt. 1

But first, a quick note about 2 things I recently ate while back in the states. This morning I had a salami and one egg sandwich and it was brilliant. How can something so simple be so satisfying?

Secondly, did you know that it's Mr. Softee's 50th Anniversary this year? The other day I had something off the menu that I had never seen before - a merlin! It's a cone that gives you the best of sprinkles and dip worlds. The Softee man pulled some vanilla soft serve into my cake cone so that it was about one inch above the rim. He dipped that into rainbow sprinkles. An additional dome of ice cream was swirled on top and that portion was dipped into the chocolate syrup that turns hard and creates a wonderfully crackly shell. Brilliant!

So back to Asia, I should have written about this before Glutinous Rice Stick since that was our last day in Korea. Anyway, the weather for our last 3-4 days in Korea really stunk it up. Rain, rain and more rain. Buckets of rain. Sheets of rain. There's no chance in hell even the world's largest golf umbrella is going to keep you dry rain. As a result, the baseball game we were planning on attending kept getting rained out, which did not make a certain you know who very happy. He got a little punchy in fact and decided he was going to get drunk. His preferred method of entry into bacchanalia - Korea's own Hite beer (easily the best of the Korean beers we've had).

Joonpil and his older sister Moka, fresh from a trip to China, met us at our hotel in Myeong-Dong. Our first stop - "for appetizers" according to Moka - was a bin dae dduk joint called Jong No Bin Dae Dduk. Many restaurants in Korea seem to base their menu around one or two specialties. Like if you go to a kalbi joint, the menu is not going to have much else to offer (but why would you need anything else?). The knife noodles restaurant we went to in Suwon only offered a couple other dishes (mostly dumpling variations). So anyway, this one specialized in bin dae dduk, which is a savory pancake made with a mung bean batter.

My favorite way to enjoy this dish is as a kimchi bin dae dduk. It's very homey and reminds me of bazaars that were held in the old basement of the church my parents attend. Anytime you cook kimchi - whether it's stewed or fried (or placed atop a pizza), it elevates the flavor to great new heights. Ironically we didn't opt for a bindae dduk, instead opting for a seafood pajun. Our hosts insisted that Dan make the choice. I was dropping hints to order the kimchi bindae dduk too, but either people were ignoring me or my hints were not very good. I know Dan was probably doing the former!

A pajun is a flour batter based pancake (usually 10-12"s in diameter) with tons of scallions that is a favorite of many of my Korean food loving friends, like Margie Sullivan! Usually in a seafood pajun, the seafood is secondary and you don't get much of it, other than a few nibbles of octopus or a baby shrimp. This one was bursting with huge chunks of squid, as well as octopus and shrimp. The edges were crisped up a beautiful golden brown and providing a satisfying crunch. There is a danger with pajuns of having the middle be a little undercooked, but this wasn't the case and it was done throughout.

For our beverage, Dan and I ordered Hite. Only there was just one Hite left in the restaurant, so being the wonderful wife I am, I let Dan have the Hite and I drank the Cass beer. By the way, beers in Korea? Served in very big bottles. These things are a sturdy 22 oz. The idea is to share, but we're dumb Americans and we each ordered a bottle.

On the way out, we noticed the stone mill grinding up the mung beans for the bindae dduk batter! You can't see it in the photo, but to the left, by the window was the grilling surface were all the delicious pancakes were griddled up.


Up next: more Hite, more rain and hot pots, Korea Fighting style!

Asia Report #4: Glutinous Rice Stick; United Bento

Shit, I started this post on July 29 and now I have no idea what the hell United Bento is!!! Glutinous Rice Stick was another type of Dunkin Donut we tried in Korea. Oh, wait, now I remember! United Bento is the bento box meal we had on our flight from Seoul to Tokyo. Back to the GRS. What can I say but delicious. I love Dunkin Donuts in the States and I love Dunkin Donuts in Korea.

Back to United Bento. So as I mentioned on my Bibimbop, Dan and I got ugraded to business class on our flight to Narita from Incheon. This was totally glorious and my new goal in life is to only fly Business or better. You're totally spoiled. Even if it was only for about 2 hours, it was a brilliant 2 hours with our legs and feet propped up and our butts nestled in comfortable leather seats. A flight attendant came around with ear plugs, eye masks and toothbrush sets with mini tubes of Rembrandt toothpaste.

For our meal, we were given an option of a chicken ceasar salad or a Korean-style bento. Both Dan and I opted for the bento. Unfortunately the pictures vaporized from the camera, along with some other good shots. But off the top of my head, the bento box included rice with some peas and gari garnish. The main protein was a very spicy and super delicious bulgogi, accompanied by some sesame seasoned chopped baby bok choy. Other side dishes included some other marinated root vegetables and a glass noodle salad. Our dessert was a profiterole filled with a light chocolate creme. I had some club soda with lemon and green tea with my meal. I believe Dan had a Pespi as well as green tea.

Asia Report #3 - Famous Suwon Kalbi, "Knife Noodles," Everybody Ramen

Before we hit the World Cup Stadium in Suwon (nicknamed Big Bird for its design) for a Blue Wings game, Dan and I were treated to some World Famous Suwon kalbi. Of course I forgot to grab a business card so I could tell you the name of the restaurant. I kept forgetting to do that a lot on this trip. Anyway, Suwon is known for its kalbi preperations and the kalbi here was indeed super tasty, but we've had just as good or if not better in New York. We're so spoiled living in a city like New York, where with the exception of maybe cheap Mexican, you can get excellent versions of so many ethnic foods. What made the meal for me with the unbelievable number of small dishes (banchan) that accompanied the beef. There must have been about 20 small dishes including super tasty mini pancakes that I think were made with some sort of yellow bean and maybe some glutinous rice? It had a bit of a spongey texture to it. There was also a few different types of kimchi (your standard cabbage to a variation on water kimchi (mul kimchi), which is not spicy at all. Additionally, we were offered small plates of various marinated vegetables, a scoop of tangy mashed potatoes, and mook, which I had blogged about earlier on the trip. The piece de resistance was the bowl of piping hot bean paste stew (denjang jigae) - which you never get for free in an American Korean restaurant. There were huge chunks of tofu and zuchinni, as well as clusters of enoki mushrooms floating around the slightly spicy, densely colored broth.

I found it really interesting that in Korea, you often share drinks. So when we all ordered some Pepsi, we were brought one bottle and three glasses. This is so much better than drinking all those oversized portions in the states. Also, the waitress kept insisting that Dan make a ssam with his kalbi. Ssam is like a Korean version of a wrap. In this instance, a piece of lettuce acts as the wrapper, with rice, kalbi, roasted garlic chips and hot bean paste making up the contents.

Oh, let me add that this was a soot bul kalbi joint - no gas grill here. All charcoal!

Wow, in retrospect we had a very long day in Suwon. Before the kalbi lunch, we took a city tour, which included stops at various points of the HwaSeong fortress, Royal Palaces, a drive by of the World Cup Stadium and a military training facility, and a KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) set that included recreations of Korean villages at different points in history. Pretty silly! After lunch, we were going to head off to a Korean Folk Village, but I had enough sightseeing for the day, so we rested a bit before dinner and the game. The room I rested in was the same room that 8 years prior, I was the victim of a relentless mosquito gang.

I had been promised a dinner at a kal guksu (which translates to knife noodles) house the moment we arrived in Suwon. The whole world knows I love my noodles. Unfortunately for Dan, this restaurant only had floor seating so he had to make due despite his pretzel rod flexibility. At the table were a couple of gas grills which the waiter filled with broth. Once it started boiling, we added various seafood (including mini-clams, mussels, abalone, and this one thing I was told would squirt out when bitten into. I do not like foods that squirt so I kept away) and vegetables. After letting that cook for a while, the handmade noodles were added. The starch in the noodles helps to thicken up the broth. The noodles are referred to as kal guksu because that's how they're prepared. You roll out your pasta dough and fold it over a couple of times and then use a knife to cut the thin strands. My mom makes a mean version of this dish.

Listmaker does a great job of going through the game for you - from the accident we witnessed prior to getting to our seats to the mad dash for the hot water coolers at half time to cook the instant ramen. The ramen scene was amazing! There was a trio of water dispensers every few gates or so and people, mostly kids and young adults were lined up 5 deep!. We were told that some people bring their ramen, but the stadium also offered them at concession stands too. The cost? About a dollar, I think. Beats a $5 hot dog most of the time!

p.s. Dan has become even more maniacal about baseball on this trip. He is crazy.

Asia Report #2 Photographic Evidence; Makin' It Great Wherever You Are!

Listmaker and I found ourselves in the town of Gyeong Ju, considered one of the ten greatest ancient cities or something like that according to the tour guides. It's about 4 hours south of Seoul on the eastern shore, and dotted with tons of historical treasures like a grotto and the Bulgoksa Temple. We were starving after the train ride, but there weren't too many options in the area since we were kind of cut off from the rest of the town as we were in a resort area by this lake. We decided to eat at the hotel and found a Korean restaurant that was jam-packed with only women, I am now realizing. Every regular table was taken up so they seated us at these elevated tables where you had to sit on the floor. Listmaker was not happy since he has the flexibility of a pretzel rod. They told us it would be at least 30 minutes before a table cleared up so this was our only option. Only not 3 minutes after sitting down, before we even ordered, a group of women got up and left. Then another group. In the next 5 minutes, there was a complete exodus and the entire restaurant cleared out. We got a table. Dan got some stone bowl bibimbop and I got neng myun, which is a cold buckwheat noodle dish that is very popular in the summer with Koreans. In fact, there was an article in the New York Times Dining section the other week that you should Google.

I thought our waitress was a robot. She was all too chipper. My inkling was compounded the next day when she was also the cashier at the in-hotel bakery stand where I bought some red bean buns. Maybe there was more than one of her?

Anyway, I tell this story to set up what we ate next. That evening, neither Dan nor I were in the mood for Korean. We each had a bottle of Hite beer at a coffee shop downtown before deciding on....PIZZA HUT! It may have been the best decision made that day. Don't get on my case for not trying local food. As I said, neither of us wanted Korean. We knew we would have plenty of Korean throughout the week.

Pizza Huts in Korea seem to be pushing the Cheese Bites pizza - I've also seen commercials for it in the states. As tempting as it looked, we thought the cheese filled dough rounds surrounding the pizza, which you then dip into a cheese sauce might be a little too much cheese.



We decided on a set menu that included a medium "Roast Beef" pizza, a pasta dish and two drinks. The roast beef pizza included bulgogi, assorted vegetables like mushrooms and onions and best of all, kimchi. I used to laugh at my parents when they'd pull out the kimchi to eat along with Dominoe's delivery or KFC take-out when I was younger. They were right - it does taste better with kimchi. For our pasta dish, we decided on a bulgogi and kimchi risotto. Again delicious. The spicy tang of kimchi was a perfect counterpart to the rich, cheesey rice. Also, our medium pizza was not much bigger than a personal pizza size you'd get in the states, which was perfectly fine with us.


Here's the green tea donut that Dan and I shared before boarding the train to Gyeong Ju. The counter person gave us two straws with our iced coffee (to which they added milk and liquid sugar). Incidentally, the last time I was in Asia - 8 years ago, I marveled at the fact that the coffee shops offered liquid sugar or simple syrup with their iced drinks. Eight years later and the US still hasn't figured it out.


This is the katsu that was the size of my face.

Asia Report #1: Green Tea Donuts and Pork Katsu

The CLC has doing all the work on this blog, so I wanted to chime in with a quick update from Seoul.

The Listmaker and I are about to board a 7:40 train to head to an area on the Eastern Coast of Korea called Gyeong Ju. Yesterday, we had a green tea donut from Dunkin' Donuts as a snack in the train station while picking up our tickets. That donut was for you Jim Flood! Dan didn't like it as much as I did, as it had an interesting texture to it that didn't appeal to him but did to me. It was called a Chew-isty and it sure was! The donut had a lot of elasticity so I wonder if they use rice flour or something more glutinous than cake flour. Picture to come soon.

For dinner we hit this cute little place on a narrow street in Myeong-Dong where our hotel is located. The name of the restaurant translated into: The Place That Does Donkatsu Really Well! I had the western style pork katsu and Dan, the curry pork katsu. The portions were huge - like the size of a first baseman's glove. Again, picture TK. To begin with we were both served a mystery soup of pale yellow. It was probably potato with something else. Our katsu plates were adorned with a junior scoop of Korean health rice, radish kimchi, macaroni salad and sweet pickled radish. I know, it sounds like a strange combo, but I really enjoyed it and it was a nice bargain at 6500W (about 7USD). There was also a side of shredded cabbage with a green mayo based dressing for both of us to share as well. For drinks, we both ordered beer, in this case a ginormous bottle of Cass, wich I could barely finish.

Then we stumbled back to the hotel to try and adapt to the time change. We both woke up around 4AM this morning!

Time for breakfast!

Lest I forget, for lunch we took a cab to my relatives' place in the Banpo neighborhood of Seoul, right across the Han River. There about 11 of us gathered for a wonderfuly family meal of make your own bibimbop. One of our hosts, my cousin Do-Won, shared a story about how a Frenchie friend of his said bibimbop was a terrible food because everything is mixed together and you can't enjoy each ingredient on its own. Frenchie, you have no idea what you're talking about! Pre-bibimbop, we shared plates of potato jun as well as a salad made with mook (which is this gelatinous food with not much flavor, but acts as a base for other tastes) lettuce, cucmbers, carrots and chiffonaded perilla leaves. Tasty!