Another benefit of the winter break, for the students anyway, has been getting treats from their parents and family. Some of my students have been generous enough to share some with me, and so I thought I would share my opinion of them (the treats) with you.
The first I received was a small can of shikhye (pronounced sh-ky), which resembles some kind of rice milk, and tastes about the same. Certainly not my taste, but the children love it.
After class last week, one of the parents brought in some fresh bread for the teaching staff. Unlike back in North America where bread is mainly a meal ingredient, here in Korea its mostly a dessert. Its strange, I walk into the bakery section in E-mart and find a large variety of pastries, cakes, buns, and sweet breads, but not even one loaf of whole wheat or multigrain bread. For the most part I've been stuck eating white bread, something that I've tried to avoid back home, but have little alternative here when it comes to making sandwiches.
A lot of students also bring in these noodle snacks. Very similar to Mr. Noodles or any instant noodle package, but they don't add hot water and make them into a soup. Instead they eat them raw with ketchup, which comes with the noodles. I tried some, but again, its something that doesn't suit my tastes.
Over the last two weekends there have been some birthday celebrations, and during these outings I've had the opportunity to try some interesting new dishes and flavours. The weekend before last, after my penguin swim adventure and relaxing sauna trip, we all met up in Jeju-si for Dave's birthday. We met just outside the E-mart in town and walked to a nearby restaurant whose specialty was grilled lamb.
After getting lost, and walking around in a circle for a while, we were glad when we finally found the spot. I'm not the biggest fan of lamb, but the lamb served there was quite tasty. Similar fashion to any galbi (grilled marinated meat) restaurant. We were served the regular side dishes of kimchi, sesame salt, lettuce leaves, garlic, peppers, etc.
We celebrated with a birthday song and some cake, and of course, with a lot of drinks. The only downside to the place was that they were a bit understaffed for us, as we numbered almost twenty and there was just one waitress along with the hostess to serve us all. We ran out of lettuce leaves too, but other than that, it was a quaint meal.
The cake we had was cheesecake, which unlike other cheesecakes I've had here, actually tasted like a cheesecake. There are several specialty cake shops: Paris Baguette, Dunkin' Donuts, E-mart, and independent bakeries. What they call cheesecake here is more like a light and fluffy cake with somewhat creamy cheese icing between layers. Its still good...but no cheesecake, so when I was told we were having cheesecake I didn't get my hopes up; It was fantastic.
After leaving the restaurant we stopped by this small bar called G.P. Its a really small bar and can fit maybe 12 people in it, before feeling too crowded. The best part of this place however, is its white russians. I'm of course referring to the drink, not actual white russians. For 7,000 won they give you a pint sized drink with only enough milk to give it colour...delicious and deadly.
We ran into some other friends of ours and enjoyed our time. It started getting really crowded, so we all slowly made our way across the street to another popular foreigner spot, Led Zepplin. Its a cozy bar with a unique atmosphere and enough room to accommodate all the foreigners on the island, and almost all of them showed up. Besides Dave's birthday, there was also two other birthdays going on; at some point, all the parties converged at Led Zepplin.
What better way to finish a great night with friends and drinks than some McDonalds; the best treat of all. There was some slight differences, such as the addition of the bulgogi burger and big bulgogi burger, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac no matter where you go.
It was the first time I've had fast food in months, and I loved every bite of it. Another few interesting additions were the bacon tomato deluxe and the Shanghai spicy chicken. I recommend both. After some grub, Mike, Brian, and I took a taxi back to Seogwipo.
This past weekend was Mike's birthday, and we celebrated in a similar fashion by going out to dinner, followed by a few drink stops. The first place on the agenda was Bagdad cafe, where I shot a video short about Brian's gallery (which has encountered a few delays, but should be finished soon). The food there is unbelievable; they import their tandoor clay oven from India, making it a completely authentic restaurant with a qualified staff to compliment it.
I ordered, by recommendation from my friend Elizabeth, some garlic nan, chicken makhni (pronounced ma-kahn-nee), some samosas, and a glass of red wine. It was absolutely bliss.
Brian surprised Mike, and everyone, with a birthday cake. It wasn't cheesecake, but it tasted great nonetheless. It was some kind of mocha-chocolate cake. Like Dave's birthday, we went out to G.P. followed by Led Zepplin and McDonalds, though the experiences were completely different...except for McDonalds, that was just as awesome.
I think Mike and I talked about Schwarzenegger films for almost forty minutes on the ride home; it was priceless.
On Sunday, Brian, Mike, and myself, decided to meet up again for dinner. This time we went for something a bit more exotic: horse. I've never had horse before, but then again there is a lot of things I haven't had before coming to Korea. Its not that uncommon, as I'm pretty sure you can get horse meat in some places back home and in Europe.
Mike will eat anything, and I'm not sure if I'm impressed by that or disgusted by it, maybe both. Anyway, we were first served this plate of raw horse meat selections, which is considered a delicacy; I opted to wait for the grilled stuff.
It tastes somewhat like dog I've been told, which probably isn't that bad either. I was in E-mart the other day with a co-teacher and I saw them bring out a plate of hot glazed meat, and I said, "That smells good, what is it? Pig, chicken?" She simply replied, "Dog."
So maybe dog isn't that bad, but either way, I think I'm going to hold off on that for now. It was an alright meal, but something I probably won't do again, just because of the amount of raw meat. Also it was pretty expensive for a Korean meal, around 21,000 won each. It doesn't sound like much when you convert it into dollars, but I like to get my money's worth, especially when I now know how much things should be priced here.
Today a had yet another opportunity for some more grilled meat. All the teaching staff was invited out to one of the teacher's pension (like a bed and breakfast/Inn) for some BBQ. We brought all the supplies with us and managed to put together quite the feast. It was delicious, but a little too fatty for me. Usually I try and cut the fat off, but when everyone else is just eating the whole thing, it makes me seem too self-conscientious. I now just look for the pieces with the least fat on them, maybe its a trade off.
After finishing our meal, we were treated to some dessert. No cake this time, just a bowl of fresh strawberries with some fresh cherry tomatoes and oranges; I must have had a dozen strawberries. They were so ripe and juicy, it was the perfect treat. Unexpectedly our co-teacher put on her karaoke machine, and to my surprise everyone actually sang. Some more than others, and some definitely better than others.
Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed reading about some of the interesting meals I've had the opportunity to enjoy the past few weeks. Hopefully I didn't make you too hungry reading about it. Time to do some sit-ups...
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