Seoul Food

Wednesday 20 November 2024

We arrived in Seoul in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning and after meeting our guide, Jeuni, and the rest of the group headed by coach to the Ibis Ambassador Hotel in central Seoul. Normally a 90-minute ride from Incheon airport, the thin early morning traffic meant we were tucked up in bed by 1:45am (3:45am EAST).

Food glorious ……

Our first day in Seoul was punctuated with interesting meals. Although famous for its amazing fare – that wasn’t necessarily the case for us.

Breakfast at the hotel was included and I settled for a small serve of beef salad, black beans, pickled something and seaweed salad. All very tasty, not too spicy and not too filling.

Lunch was challenging. How we managed to choose Egg Drop in the capital of cuisine remains a mystery. We were trying to fine easy and quick. I ordered Teriyaki BBQ and Debs the Garlic Bacon Cheese. While the served food was a doppelganger for the plastic versions – the sandwiches were sickly sweet. Not an experience to be repeated.

Our culinary exploration was rounded off with dinner at the home of “authentic Korean food”. The before and after photos showed how far we got. Debbie’s sweet and tangy cold noodles were filling and bland. We explored, but failed to resolve, what combination of deprivation and desperation would make this a national dish. My BBQ pork and rice was tasty, but so ridiculously spicy that even a litre of water and half a bottle of soju couldn’t clear a path for all of it.

Hoping that Thursday brings better victuals!

Gyeongbokgung Palace

In the morning, we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace which was home to the Joseun dynasty from 1395. What struck us most was how quiet, orderly and deserted the tourist attraction was. Yes, there were a few tour groups and locals around, but not the mass of humanity that normally accompanies exotic and historic sites.

And this subdued atmosphere was not limited to the Palace. The lack of bustle and noise, car horns and shouting that normally earmarks major cities in Asian countries was absent. Calm, quiet, orderly, deserted.

The only exception was the disproportionate number of people wearing Hanbok, Koreas national costume. Young girls, older women, and many females of clearly non-Korean descent were sporting the full skirts and crossover jackets. And many were escorted by equally dressed up males, some wearing large black tulle hats to show they were scholars!

A pretty script

While at first confusing, it didn’t take long to see the patterns in Korena writing. Each block of shapes makes up a word with the individual shapes representing a combination of consonants and vowels. We started to play some very successful games of snap matching the phonetic English spelling of different words with the matching Hangul.

The Korean word for food is eumsik written 음식. 감자 (gamja) potato and 가지 (gaji) eggplant.

You can start to see the visual patterns that emerge for the ‘ga’ sound 가, ‘gam’ 감 with the extra box for the m; ‘ja’ 자 and ‘ji’ 지 with the slight variation for the different vowel sound.

We found a Koren keyboard in the National Folk Museum and figured we could become fluent very quickly with this.

My confidence in this matter is not overreaching as my affinity with Koren culture was recognised by our team leader when I received the coveted and honorable appointment of Temporary Flag Holder.

Tomorrow we will climb mountains.

The Budget

Egg drop 11900W ($13.61)
Supplies 19200W ($21.97)
Dinner 34600W ($39.58)
Cash out $200
Total Tally: $6129.16