It Snowed...

It snowed on Monday.... but I missed it. This is the only snow I saw. Everything else melted.

Night at the JJimjilbang: Itaewon Land (이태원랜드)

To fight the terrible coughing and breathing problem I've been facing lately we thought a trip to the jjimjilbang was in order. Jjimjilbangs (찜질방) are public baths/saunas. I wrote a rather extensive post on the subject back when I used to go to the jjimjilbang with friends after work at my old job, but I haven't been to a proper jjimjilbang since my first 6 months or so in Korea. Though, I've been to a few oncheon which are mineral baths so they have similar bath amenities, just generally less sauna options. We chose Itaewon Land (이태원랜드) not for any particular reason other than the fact that we've passed it a few times and it is fairly convenient to our house.

When we checked in, we just requested 찜질방 2 명 (Jjimjilbang for two) which includes the use of the bath, free towels and clothes to change into so you can enter the common areas and saunas. Contrary to any logical English thinking, if you were to request 사우나 2 명 (sauna for two) you would not get to use the saunas at all, but only the bath area. Jjimjilbang literally means a steam room. And for some reason, sauna means bath to Koreans. So, if you're looking for only a bath, and no sauna, then you can request a sauna and get a bath for a cheaper price. Is that confusing to you? It's confusing to me.

After you pay, you can enter through the door for your gender (men and women don't bathe together after the age of 7 or so) and take off your shoes and put them into a locker. Here at Itaewon land you are assigned a certain locker. But, other jjimjilbangs will just let you choose your own shoe locker. Then, take the key to from your shoe locker up to the changing room and you can find the corresponding locker number for your belongings. At this time it is time to strip down to your birthday suit and go into the bath (sauna for Koreans)

 

I didn't think I'd be able to take a photo in the bath area, since it's usually full of naked women. But just by shear dumb luck I walked in for a moment and no one was in the bath. I snapped this as quickly as I could before anyone noticed the weigookin with the camera and dashed out again. 

The bath area here wasn't as nice as the one in Wangsimni actually in my opinion, but it was still very nice. Three pools seemed to be the same temp and same style, plus there was one extra hot bath and two cold baths (one cold pine bath, one normal cold bath). Before getting into the bath, though, you need to wash up. They have soap there you can use if you don't bring your own. You can also buy all sorts of shampoos and body scrubs outside the bath area if you like. Once you're clean you can relax in the tubs.

Once you've had enough of the baths, it's time to make your way to the public area where you can relax in the sauna or enjoy any of the other amenities available at most jjimjilbangs.

 

First I want to introduce to you my favorite sauna. It's the hottest one. On the floor the temperature is between 90˚-120˚C (remember that 100˚C is boiling). If it were water, you'd be dead, but as it's air, you can sit in there for a while, just not toooo long. They say that the temperature of the at the top of this room is between 800-900˚C, but it's shaped like a dome and fairly high, so you won't find your head up that high. Temperatures this high are supposed to heat not only your skin, but raise your internal temperature. They say that this draws toxins out of your body through sweating. I don't know if it's true, but if it were, it would be pretty darn cool. I can definitely say that sitting in this room made my sore lungs feel wonderful and my skin felt amazing after coming out. It is so hot inside you shouldn't bring electronics in, but I brought my camera in to try to snap a photo. It was a bit too hot and steamy for photos, though. This is how it came out. I kinda like it.

Me after the 100˚C sauna

Usually we don't think of cold rooms as being saunas, but at all jjimjilbangs I've been to, I've always seen the cold room. While there is ice on those pipes, it's really not that cold feeling. It is a bit refreshing to go in there after sitting for a long time in the hot saunas.

Besides the superhot sauna, this is my favorite. The clay room. We can sit here for a while as it's just perfectly hot enough to sweat a bit but not be uncomfortable. Notice that pillows here are made of wood. They're not as uncomfortable as you'd think, but there is a trick as to where to place them on your head. Sometimes I just use my towel to cover it and make it more comfy.

 

 Another nice room is the charcoal room. Not very hot at all, you can chill out here for a while, and some people just come in and sleep. It's not really my favorite, but I'm sure the Koreans will tell you that charcoal has some benefit for your body.

 

Here is the salt room. It's a very dry heat as you'd expect, but not very hot. The salt room is supposed to be good for blood circulation and preventing blood clots. I don't know if it's true, but it can't hurt I guess. 

Most jjimjilbangs will have snack bars and restaurants. Here you can get anything from Korean food to pizza. The price seems to be similar with typical restaurants outside.

At Itaewon Land, they have a huge manga (만화) selection. You can see people renting out a stack of books (300 won per book rental) and reading for hours.

They have these amazing massage chairs, if you don't feel like shelling out the won for a real massage. For 1,000 won for 10 minutes it is definitely worth it. But, there are two types, these in the photo and another one which pounds your body. I don't recommend the pounding chair, it was like a 10 minute torture chair and every time they beat my back around my rib cage I started another coughing fit. Not fun.

Itaewon Land also has a small gym and fitness area. While the price is nice, as gyms tend to be expensive here, you can't wear shoes,  it's not really a great idea for using things like the treadmill, elliptical and bicycle machines.

Jjimjilbangs should be fun for the whole family, so you might find some bored teenagers (or adults) playing some video games on the arcade machines or playing Starcraft in the PC room. We also caught the end of the movie Ajosshi in the movie room on the 5th floor.

But, it seems that what is universally appreciated in the jjimjilbang is just hanging out on the floor in the common area. Take a nap, watch TV or drink with friends it's the place to be. Just grab a mat and get comfy.

Itaewon Land (이태원랜드) is located at the top of the stairway across the street from Macaroni Market and Praha on the main street in Itaewon, about 300 m from Itaewon Station ex. 3. They also have valet parking service if you drive. We paid 8,000 won at night time, so it may be cheaper during the day. Going at night means you can spend the night if you wish.

Move Over Kia, Ford Is Coming to Town...

The NY Times reported today that the US and Korea finally reached a free trade agreement that would allow American auto makers into the Korean auto sales market. Check out the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/global/04trade.html#

가락시장 Garak Wholesale Market

Since we were at Garak Market anyway to film with Arirang, we poked around on our own in between filming and after we were finished filming. I never knew that Garak Market was a wholesale market. It's the place where supermarkets and restaurants will go to buy massive quantities of food to sell. It's not really a place tourists get to see, so it was actually a really great opportunity for me.

Garak Market is huge. It is divided into section depending on what they are selling. For example, there is a fruit market, seafood market, meat market, vegetable market. Then there is an entire market just for cabbage... because Koreans eat that much cabbage in their lives that they need an entire cabbage division to auction it off every day. When we arrived here with Arirang TV, we were hoping that we could catch an auction going on. But we were there too early. Auctions go on in the evening. They asked if I wanted to stay and film at 8pm when the auction started, but it was so cold and I was so tired by this point in the day that I said, let's just do it and get it over with.

Everything was covered up inside trucks, but being Arirang TV, they just asked the truck owners to open up the covers on the trucks so we could get a good view of alllll the cabbage that would go on auction that evening. It really was a breathtaking sight.

 

Finally, we finished filming, but before heading home, we thought we'd look around and do some shopping and photo taking. 

Some of the fruits and veggies for sale were quite cheap, but other things were just normal priced. Maybe we saved money on something, but other more expensive things kind of evened it out.

It was a reallly cold day. I can't believe these people do this for a living throughout the winter too...

As the sun was setting we found ourselves just in time to catch a vegetable auction. While the auctioneer rattled on in his auctioneer voice (it's just like in English, completely unintelligible unless you know what's going on) people went through boxes of lettuce checking for quality. I snapped this video while we watched the auction.

After walking around the vegetable auction, we wandered across the road to the seafood market. Here were endless stalls of all sorts of interesting fishy things.

The boyfriend was amazed by the cheap price of take out 회 (sashimi) so we picked up some to bring to the boyfriend's family's house. We got two full plates of 회 plus a plate full of oysters for 25,000 won. I guess that's a pretty good price. Though, take out 회 tends to be a bit cheaper since they don't need to give you all the panchan (side dishes) and soup and whatnot.

 

 Our 회 chef

If you ever get the opportunity to get into Garak Market in Songpa-gu (not too far from Jamshil) you should definitely make your way there. In the evening time is when the auctions start, so it's a good time to be there. Although, if you go during the day you might be able to check out the small non-wholesale market section which is fairly cheap as far as markets go. And make sure to pick up some 회 while you're there!

Kimjang (김장) Culture

As I mentioned in my last post, today I am filming for Arirang TV's segment, "Today's Blog". It's been a stressful day, but it's given me the opportunity to do something I've never had the opportunity to do. Kimjang. Kimjang is the kimchi making just before the winter season. Koreans make huge quantities to last through the winter. 

The boyfriend and I attended a kimjang event at the Gangdongguchong (Gangdong District Office) and I started out making kimchi. It's harder than it looks on tv. We started with pre-preserved cabbages. Then you need to be sure to get the right proportions of seasoning on the right parts of the leaves. The thickest parts of the leaves need a lot of seasoning, but the thin parts of the leaf need much less. Then it needs to be properly wrapped as you can see with in the piles of cabbage in front of the boyfriend.

Then the interviewing started. I was so nervous and messed up so many times, but they were kind enough and kept encouraging me. On top of it all, I've been really sick the past two weeks fortunately, I never coughed while on camera. 

Being on camera is really uncomfortable. When doing speeches in school, my teachers always criticized me for moving my hands around too much while speaking. I tried my best not do do that, but I never knew where to put my hands then. It didn't help either that my script was completely in Korean and they expected me to translate it. That serves me right for trying to look smart and emailing them in Korean. People assume that if you can say simple things well, then you must be able to read and speak at a high level. It's not the case, though. So, I spent half my time trying to translate the script to English with the boyfriend. Then, trying to remember all that stuff that I wrote down and make it sound natural. 

At this event, there were so many people working hard to make kimchi. This event was to make kimchi to deliver to neighbors in need. It was really nice to see so many people working to help those less fortunate.

Before it was time to deliver the kimchi, it was lunch time. The event hosts prepared fresh tofu, oysters, makkoli and some of the kimchi that we made ourselves for lunch. It was quite good, but I think between making kimchi  and smelling kimchi and eating kimchi I'm about kimchi-ed out for the next week or so.

Finally, it was time to deliver the kimchi we made. I was allowed to visit one of the homes to which the kimchi was delivered. A very kind gentleman was living in such a tiny apartment. I didn't think it was possible that people could still be living in such poor conditions. No bed, no windows, tiny fridge, no kitchen. The man delivering the kimchi reminded the man to be sure to eat good meals, not just cheap ramen. But, really, living in such conditions cooking much of anything must be difficult...

Then we moved on to a cafe where we got some cake and drinks and they filmed me blogging..

Here I was also interviewed more about my thoughts about kimchi, plus more about the kimjang process.

Next, we were off to 가락시장 to get some shots of the huge quantities of cabbage around Korea at kimjang time. Garak market is not your run of the mill market in Seoul. It's a huge wholesale market where buyers come in and buy produce by auction. Here, we went to one entire facility that was filled almost entirely of nothing but Chinese cabbage (배추). I  have seen plenty of people with shopping carts full of cabbage for kimjang, but seeing truck after truck piled high with nothing but cabbage was a bit overwhelming.

Filming here was harder than we'd hoped. We thought we could come in time for the auction, but because of a miscommunication we were there 4 hours too early. They asked me if I wanted to come back for the auction, and while it was tempting, it was also incredibly cold. So we just filmed then and got out as fast as we could. Filming in a place like this which is so full of action is difficult. We kept having to stop because people would drive by or people would walk too close to the camera.

Finally, the whole exhausting process was over. I decided I'll never be a TV personality. Too much stress. I never did well in drama classes in elementary school either. But it was definitely a fun experience and I was happy to get to make kimchi, since it may well be the first and last time I ever get to make it. I have a lot of interesting photos that I took during the filming process but as they asked me not to post those, I should respect their requests. I hope to have the video posted up here ASAP. Maybe in 2-3 weeks it should be airing on Arirang TV nationally and worldwide. I hear that it is played up to 10 times a day for maybe a week. I wonder if my blog traffic will increase because of it too?

Here are some past episodes of Today's Blog:

Arirang TV's Today's Blog Filming

Today I'm filming for Arirang TV's "Today's Blog" segment. It will be a 5 minute introduction to Kimjang, or the kimchi making before winter. While I'm really excited about it, I'm also a bit nervous. I've been sick for 2 weeks now and my voice is a bit hoarse and every once in a while I need to stop and hack up a lung. I'll be coughing all over the kimchi which won't look good on film... I'm really just curious how this is all going to go, and I'm hoping they give me a copy of the finished product to post here since I don't get Arirang TV at my home.


I'd better get going. I need to be in Gangdong by 9:00 am! And really, I can't believe that they need to film for 8 hours to make a 5 minute segment. How much would they need to film to make a 1/2 hour long program?!

You can learn more about this segment by checking out Eat Your Kimchi's post about their experiences. 

How I made stuffing... in Korea

 Most stuffing recipes call for things that are inconvenient to get a hold of here. Like canned soup. And ovens. And spices.  So I had to be a little creative this year. Actually although I have made homemade stuffing with my mom every thanksgiving, I never really paid much attention to the actual ingredients because I didn't think I'd ever want to make it on my own. But here I was, hoping for real stuffing. So, what to do?

 

First, instead of chicken broth I made a vegetable broth. I let the carrots, onion, celery and celery leaves boil for as long as possible before adding them to my practice batch. Then I let the soup sit in the fridge for 2 more days before making the real thing on Sunday. 

To my bread, which had been left out for 24 hours, I added some of the soup and some of the veggies from the stew. (On thanksgiving day I also fried up more veggies to add to the mix).  Then added a bit of mashed potato (my mother's style) rather than an egg to keep it together. I threw in a bunch of the two Italian spices I have: basil and parsley and hoped for the best.

My one baguette from Salaam Bakery (*note to self, must write a blog about this place) was enough to fill up this one small tin. On thanksgiving day, I doubled the recipe, using two baguettes. Which somehow yielded three of these small tin plates of stuffing. 

Then I roasted it in my toaster oven which I recently acquired when my beloved friend Matt returned to England. Fortunately, the tin plate exactly fits in the oven! I toasted with a cover for 15-20 min and then without a cover for another 10 min to toast it a bit.

In the end? It turned out ok. Actually my first batch had the best flavor, but it was too soggy for my taste. So the next time around I put in less soup, which gave it the right consistency, but it lacked a little in flavor. Ces't la vie..  Anyway, if your cooking stuffing this weekend for your Thanksgiving party, I hope this gives you a little help in making your stuffing!