Variety: The Spice of Life

Before coming to Korea, I didn't really have much in the way of experiences with Korean food. Part of the reason being that my mother really doesn't make it due to a bad experience with it in the past and because Korean restaurants aren't that common in the US; sure, there are some here and there, especially near military installations and where there are a lot of them, but, regardless, they are few and far between. So my stay in Korea definitely has been a bit of an adventure on the food front.

A nice thing, though, is that the cafeteria/canteen in the building in which I work serves a very cheap, often filling lunch (3500 won, equivalent to US$3.20 or so). So, while the quality may not be the best, it's a good introduction to decent Korean cuisine for not very much.

Pretty much, here's a rundown of some of the Korean food I've encountered:
kimchi: Fermented cabbage, radish, or cucumber, usually covered in red chilis. In some form or another, expect it to appear at every meal.
rice (bap): Appears also in many different forms, whether white or black (and the black rice is very good).
gochujang: Red pepper paste made from slightly fermented red chilis. Common to top rice. Good gochujang is really nice and not overly spicy, but the most common one they serve tends to be just hot.
naengmyeon: Cold noodle soup, featuring cooked noodles and a frequently spicy broth. Normally also served with vegetables and/or egg.
bibimbap: A mixed rice dish where rice is combined with vegetables and (sometimes) meat or another protein, sometimes topped with egg, and served with gochujang. Comes in lots of different kinds, with a classic one being dolsot bibimbap (where the meal comes in a hot ceramic bown and, if topped with an egg, the egg cooks in front of your eyes).
Korean barbecue: Thinly-sliced meats, like pork rashers and/or beef, and chopped vegetables grilled at your table. By your own hands. Normally served with a sweeter sauce, salt, and lots of soju.
soju: Korean distilled rice liquor, very similar to vodka but with half the alcoholic content. Plentiful and cheap here, so it's the go-to booze when people want to get totally smashed.

Also notable are the numerous written and unwritten conventions when one goes out for food and drinking. For one, unlike in France or Germany where a person going out to eat alone isn't really looked at funnily, eating in Korea is very much a social activity: in most Korean-style restaurants, individual plates aren't prepared for each person. Instead, while each person normally gets their own bowl of rice or noodles, the dishes are set down to be consumed communally; using your chopsticks, you pull bits off the communal plate to your own plate before consuming it. And the normal method of serving seems to be many small dishes in sequence rather than all the dishes for the appetizer, main course, dessert, or whatever coming out simultaneously. So the effect appears as if it's a lot of small, quick courses. For example, when I went to a restaurant with a lot of the people from my lab this past Friday, there was so much food and in so many courses; soups, salads, vegetables of all kinds, meats, fish dishes, and so forth. It's a very different style of eating, one that I'm not completely used to, but it's sorta growing on me. A bit.

Using chopsticks has also turned out to be a bit of an adventure here in Korea. Most meals have two utensils involved: a set of metal chopsticks and a matching metal spoon. Unlike in China and Japan, the spoon is used actually for eating rice, but also used for soups and messy things. Chopsticks are used for most other applications. And living in Korea is the first time I've really had to use chopsticks, so... it's been a learning experience. That said, the border between "chopstick dish" and "spoon dish" is a bit blurry sometimes, so you just look around at what the other Koreans are doing, smile, and continue on with what you were doing. Normally, offense isn't taken if you make a good-faith effort to not be offensive... I think. And the normal things with chopsticks apply here: never leave chopsticks standing upright in a bowl of rice, never position them in a certain way...

Otherwise, things here in Korea seem to be going rather slowly. Might be because of the weather and the humidity: arriving during the monsoon season wasn't, in retrospect, the best idea. But things here are just so different from other places I've lived, both with the sights, sounds, and sensory overload with all the flashing lights. This place really does feel like a melding pot of traditions and cultures; people seem to want to hold on tightly to the traditions like the hierarchy, food, dress (in some cases), and ceremony while wanting to modernize and become powerful and prosperous. Whether or not both can be accomplished at the same time... I dunno.

So, yeah, that's it from here. There may be some pics coming soon, especially with more exploration on the horizon. And, with that, have a good rest of your week.

The Land of the Morning Something

Note: For one of the first times since I turned 18, I'm actually travelling with someone else on this trip. This is why I use "we" and "our" a lot.

Well, I'm now in South Korea. And it was quite an interesting experience getting here. And getting over jet-lag has been... interesting. As have been a lot of other things, so here are some bits from the past five days of our adventure here.

Anyways, the original plan was to leave from Cleveland-Hopkins Airport early (at around 8) on the morning of the 11th, have a reasonable 3-hour layover in Detroit, and then take a thirteen-hour flight from there into Seoul-Incheon, arriving at a reasonable hour on the 12th. We did arrive at a reasonable hour on the 12th, but...

The initial CLE-DTW flight got cancelled. Not cool. And it automatically rebooked us on a flight that would leave from Cleveland at 6 in the evening and put us into Seoul at 4 in the morning on the 13th. Even less cool. After talking with the Delta agent, what we were able to get was a flight that left from Cleveland an hour later than the original flight and went into LaGuardia Airport in New York and, from there, we'd need to take a taxi from LaGuardia to JFK Airport for a flight that would leave for Seoul about 3 hours later. Long story short, the traffic in NYC was reasonably painless and we made it to JFK with plenty of time to spare, got checked in rather quickly, and were through security and waiting on our flight in no time.

The flight was, in fact, long. Thirteen hours on Korean Air. The service seemed somewhat disturbingly attentive, though: two meal services, two snack services, beverage services throughout the flight, and several duty-free carts coming and going through the plane. So we were at least sorta taken care of for when we landed at a very foggy Incheon Airport. Immigration was painless (though it involved being fingerprinted and photographed) and Customs was likewise straightforward and, two hours later, we were at our destination and checked in to the place we'll be staying for the month. It's a very small accommodation: the shower, toilet, and sink are all together in one "cabinet", and there's not much space at all. But it'll work.

Saturday and Sunday were designated for exploring, getting acclimated to Suwon (the city in which we're staying), and popping into Seoul, including a trip to the Money Museum at the Bank of Korea. Now that the week's started as normal, we're starting some of the science; in particular, we're getting to know the people we're working with (all very nice) and the equipment. So hopefully there'll be some good results to be brought back to the US with us.

As for the food... well, I'm quickly learning how to use chopsticks, and that's an adventure... especially since the Koreans like using flat metal chopsticks that are sorta kinda hard to grab things with. At least rice is customarily consumed with a spoon, so that's not too hard. And Koreans love red chilis: practically every main dish is flavored with them in varying quantities. Getting used to that level of spiciness is taking a bit, but it's coming along.

So, yeah, more to come soon. With that, have a good rest of your weeks.

Thawing Out

This blog in meant to be a blog of my experiences in travelling abroad and the such; I started it back in May of 2011 before I went to Germany and France. Once I returned to the US, though, I stopped blogging because it didn't seem "necessary" anymore. But I always thought that, were I to go out of the country, the blog would be revived on that occasion.

And... that occasion has come. In about one month's time, I will be going to the Republic of Korea for a month-long scientific project in collaboration with some people there, the topic being electrospinning. I don't know too much about it, but I'm sure I'll get an earful/eyeful very soon. Not to mention it'll be a potentially interesting destination: I've never been to Asia. The furthest east I've been is Romania, so this'll be a very different experience altogether.

So, yeah. That's about it for now. More info to come.