Make sure you are undaunted and secure with your relationship status when you travel to South Korea, especially if you happen to visit on the 14th. Koreans are well-known for their love of anything adorably cute, beautifully romantic or sickeningly soppy (depending on your way of thinking), and have unofficially christened the 14th as variedly themed couples’ days.
The 14th of February is Valentine’s day as we know it, but with a twist: Guys, keep your wallets hidden, as this is the day you get presents from your gal. You get to pay back, triple, on the 14th of March, when it is your turn to shower (/bucket) her with gifts. And if you are in the heart-wrenchingly ghastly situation of _not_ having another half, then the 14th of April is for you. It is called Black Day, and it is the day when ‘single Koreans mourn their lack of love by eating sticky, black noodles called jajangmyeon’ (quoted from here).
I didn’t know much about South Korea beforehand, and the main reason I decided to end my trip there was due to VietJet recently starting a new flight route from Seoul to Saigon with decently low prices. And, well, I’m always up for discovering new places and soul-searching……
South Korea is a unique country. In addition to its adamant opinions on romance and relationships, it is famous for being the most developed country in the Human Development Index. South Korea also boasts most young adults with a tertiary education degree, the world’s lowest percentage of overweight people, the world’s fastest internet (not completely sure I trust the reliability of that statement…) and a special love for underfloor heating and honey butter crisps. Soju, their national drink, is the best-selling liquor in the world.
Korea is interesting for its extraordinary history too. After being devastated by the Korean war of 1950 to 1953, still officially ongoing, South Korea experienced monumental progress in terms of industrialisation and modernisation, becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s.
Apart from doing an essay on the Korean war in some high school history course or other, I didn’t have much prior knowledge about the country.
Luckily I met Bianca though. Bianca is the first half-American, half-Brazilian ginger I’ve met, rectifying my slightly negative impression of The American Traveller. She exhibited all the traits I love about Americans – super friendly, happy and enthusiastic about everything. I met her at my quirky hostel, and spent many joyful moments with her wandering the streets of Itaewon, dressing up in Gangnam, discussing friendships at cute cafés and people-watching in metros.
In addition to being a blast to hang out with, she was also a Korea-fanatic, so helped me delve deeper into Korean life. I was enlightened about everything Korean from how K-pop music groups are formed (training starts from early childhood) to how to recognise girls with a nose job.
Many of my Korean food samplings were also thanks to Bianca. Korean food is world-renowned, and indeed often delicious, but I must admit Japanese and Taiwanese are more to my taste. I just can’t deal with spicyness.
But ah, I do love the names of Korean edibles.
The first morning we had bibimbap (rice, veggies and egg). Scrumptious, delicious, ah, one of my fave Korean dishes.
When you eat at a restaurant in Korea, you get a bunch of quaint little ‘starters’, including veggies, greens and meat. The most famous one is kimchi, fermented cabbage in a spicy sauce. (It is funny because in Vietnam you address a female who is slightly older than you as ‘chi’, so this was a popular name for my lovely dear friend/excellent senior teacher Ms Kim (as well as any other Kims who happen to be older than someone)…)
The next morning we had a patbingsu, a strange dessert of shaved ice flakes with toppings of red bean paste and condensed milk. This was delicious too, but overly sweet – this is how much the two of us devoured of it before overdosing of sweetness…
On my last day I had lunch with my Philipino friend from the DMZ (cannot WAIT for that blog entry…) and sampled the famous bulgogi, a stew of meat and greens. Such warmth, which was exactly what we needed after an afternoon of observing North Korea through binoculars, but definitely not anywhere as close taste bud-bogglewise as bibimbap.
One of my fave Korean foods already prior to my trip was topokki, (also known as teokbokki, ddeokbokki, dukboki and tteokbokki), though I must admit the Korean version was too spicy for me. Topokkis are soft rice cakes (aka perfection) usually served in a hot dragon breath-vibed sauce (less perfection). I bought some from our market, managed about half a portion before my mouth overdosed on fire. But without the hot sauce, in a normal-spice-leveled stew I had in Vietnam, topokki are, indeed, PERFECTION.
I topped up my Korean delicacies with an excellent fair share of green tea lattes, which I at some point realised taste like a slightly sweeter version of spinach soup. I adore spinach soup. At least the Finnish kind.
Talking of finnish, let’s finish this Introduction to Seoul entry with a food which may be quintessentially South Korean, quintessentially Asian, or quintessentially just a bad translation…
The question is, is the bone hungover? Or was the creature the bone was taken from hungover when it died? Or is this a special bone soup for hungover people? Or a special health-enhancing soup for people with aching, metaphorically hungover bones?
Cheerios
Emzy
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Topokki sounds like it should be a Finnish girls’ name, as in Topi & Topokki…
What an insightful thought!