"Bizarre Foods" with Alexandra
One of my favorite Travel Channel TV shows is “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.” He travels the world eating the most unusual and oftentimes grotesque foods a tourist can find. A man after my own heart, he’s a true believer that “sharing food is the best way to experience other cultures.” Seoul, South Korea is nothing new to Mr. Zimmern; you can watch his full Korean episode here. While I’m no Andrew Zimmern, I’m pretty adventurous in trying new foods. Korea by far has boasted the most insane cuisine I’ve ever encountered. Honestly, I… Read More
A Fortress Guarding Beef Ribs
Although Korea is a small country and you can find the same cuisine across the nation, each province or city prides itself on one specific dish. In the case of Suwon, South Korea its famous meal is sogalbi (beef ribs). I traveled 30 minutes outside of Seoul with Korean friend, Mrs. Hoa, to meet her former professor, Mr. Cho, now a dear friend, in Suwon, who wasted no time in taking us to the most famous restaurant in the city.
Welcome to Korea, Mom and Dad!
Mom and Dad on the plane. As an expat living in a country as different and far from my home as Korea is, nothing is more comforting than having visitors. Especially when those visitors are your one and only parents! My adventurous side doesn’t come from nowhere, so I couldn’t wait to introduce my mom and dad to Korean life. Taking after my organized mother, I did a ton of research and composed a very detailed itinerary for their 11 days with me in February. I had planned a lot of sightseeing… Read More
Korean Staff Dinner Wins in Overtime
My school’s principal is a social man who loves his Korean alcohol. Scheduled about once a month, staff dinners are a morale and team spirit booster. To celebrate the start of the new semester, I traveled with my new colleagues to the coastal city of Incheon, about an hour west of Seoul. In rare form, this dinner included an overnight in a pension on the beach. This dinner was not for the faint of heart. Looking back on it, I feel like I participated in a sporting event, some of the games… Read More
Bibimbap for the King…and Michael Jackson
Food has always been an extremely important piece of Korean culture. For the kings of the Joseon dynasty beginning in the 1300’s, food was as precious as gold. The royal dishes, called “sura”, were made by the most skillful cooks using only the best seasonal ingredients selected from every available source in the country. Kings usually dined on three square meals a day, each with 9-12 side dishes! Here is a replica of how a typical table appeared at mealtime in the palace. It’s good to be the king, eh? Replicas of… Read More
Dinner: It’s Only Mostly Dead
Last weekend I went out with my co-workers for a seafood dinner unlike any I’ve had before. The restaurant was situated right on the beach in the city of Incheon. The ocean provided a beautiful reminder of where the food on our plates had come from, some of it seeming all too recently.I think the main attraction of the night was the squirming “sannakji” – live octopus. Technically it isn’t alive because they remove the brain, but its active body provides some unsettling entertainment: dinner and a show! Similar to a chicken… Read More
Who Eats Better? 