Extra Passport Pages- Price Increase

In today's edition of the US Embassy's monthly newsletter, they mentioned the price for extra passport pages would be increasing from $0 to $82. It seems a bit of a steep hike to me, but what can you do? So, I highly recommended getting your extra pages now before July 13th, 2010 when this price increase goes into effect!!!

Food Firsts in Jeonju

There are certain foods that should be on every foreigner's "to try" list during their stay in Korea. While in Jeonju, I was able to try quite several strange foods that I wouldn't try on a normal day. Here's what we had:


홍어회 (hong-aw- fermented sashimi ) on the right and boiled 심겹살 (samgyupsal- fatty pork) on the right. Put them together with kimchi, and you get 홍어삼합 : hong-aw sam hap, or litterally hong-aw sum of three. Actually, I didn't eat this one but, you can see my friend trying it here. He's more adventurous than I.



번데기 (bondaegi) is silkworm larvae. I've always felt as though I should try this, but never could get up the guts. But, as my friend is preparing to leave Korea in the next month or so, he's trying to try as many things as possible, and got me involved too. Usualy on the street they sell this from huge vats of the stuff that you can smell from a mile away. The smell is usually enough to quell any desire in me to try it, but here as it was just served in such a small portion, I wasn't appaled by the smell. There's actually a video of me eating it, but it might discourage people from trying if I showed it publicly. Lets just say my friend thought they tasted like raisins, but a little crunchier. To me, it was edible, but far from enjoyable. Anyway, it's something everyone has to try at some point. I had to get it over eventually.


This one wasn't on my list, but I figured I'd throw it on here anyway. These are small crabs that you eat whole, shell and all. They're not bad, actually, and a lot less effort than trying to fish out meat from a crab shell.

Here's 돼지머리 (dwegi mori- pig's head). The thought of eating pig's head is a little disgusting, but if I hadn't actually seen the pigs head for sale before they process them and make it look like this normal looking meat product it wouldn't have grossed me out so much. When you see the actual pig's head for sale in the market with the snout, nose, mouth etc. all there for the world to see, it makes it a bit less palatable. Anyway, upon trying it I found that it was quite tasty. If I hadn't had the awful image of the pig's heads for sale in the market I would have definitely eaten more. They put some sort of spice that almost tasted like some sort of Italian seasoning in it. It was quite pleasant. This one is highly recommended.
Sorry for the blurry picture here, this is 산낚지 (sannakgi- live octopus). I actually didn't eat it here, but I've had it before. It's called live octopus because, even though it's been cut up, the octopus is still moving around a bit. It's really fun when you try to pick it up and it clings to the plate, seemingly trying to futiley save its life. It's a bit chewy, and they say that if you don't chew it well enough, it can cling to your esophagus as it goes down. I don't really think that's true, but just to be on the safe side, I'd chew well anyway...

Just for future reference, I thought I'd make a list here of all the strange food a foreigner should try while here in Korea. Let me know if I should add anything else to this list. I'll start with what I posted here.

• 산낙지- live octopus
• 돼지머리- pig's head
• 번데기- silkworm larvae
• 홍어회- fermented sashimi
• 회- hwei- Korean style raw fish
• 곱장- gopchang- marinated fried intestines
• 순대-sundae- intestines, often filled with noodles
• 보신탕- boshintang- dog meat soup
• 육회-yukhwei- raw beef
• 족발- jeokbal- pig feet meat
  

That's all I can think of at the moment. Any other "must try" foods that you can think of, please mention in the comments! Thanks!

Pizza School

Pizza in Korea tends to be overpriced. Recently, I wrote about the fact that one medium Domino's pizza for take out here cost me about 18,000 won. But, if you're craving pizza and short of cash, there is always one reliable option: Pizza School.

Pizza School is actually a pretty new phenomenon here in Seoul. When I first arrived there was only one within walking distance to me, and it was a bit out of the way so I didn't go often. Now, there are at least two more within walking distance to my house, which actually makes it TOO convieneint. I get pizza now more than I should.

So, what's so great about this place? Well, their basic pizzas start at only 5,000 won. Why so cheap? Well, it's take out only. In Korea, they don't charge extra for delivery, nor do they accept tips. So, in order to pay for delivery, motorcycles, gas and delivery boys, they've got to jack up the prices of the pizza. Not so at Pizza School. No delivery means cheap prices.

Pizza school has got all sorts of interesting options for pizzas. I usually get the combination pizza, or just a plain cheese pizza (which always comes standard with corn. If you really hate corn, you can ask them to to make it without it). Yesterday we decided to be adventurous and get some of their stranger pizza options.


This time we ordered Mexican Bite Pizza and Carbone Pizza.


What we didn't realize when we ordered the carbone pizza was that it was actually carbonara pasta on a pizza, complete with noodles and all. Actually, it tasted ok, but it wasn't my favorite.

On the other hand, here is my Mexican bite pizza. Yea, this one is weird, hot chicken, sweet potato around the edge, and cheese bite crust. I didn't actually have high expectations for this one... but it was amazing. When I ordered it, the man behind the counter said, "Are you sure you want to order that pizza? It's very spicy..." probably because he saw me, the weigookin. Anyway, upon trying it, it has nothing on a typical kimchi jjigae which I eat several times a week. Koreans think us westerners are babies or something.

Anyway, Pizza School is an excellent choice when you're craving pizza. Just... don't look at the calorie information on the menu... it might ruin your experience when you realize that one pizza is about what your entire daily caloric intake should be...

Jeonju's Famous Cuisine and Too Much Makkoli

After going to the hanok village that I talked about in my first Jeonju post, we headed over to Makkoli Street (막걸리 골목) to find the famed makkoli restaurants that serve makkoli in kettles and provide an abundance of side dishes (안주) for each round of makkoli you order.

There is one very famous makkoli place around here, and we went there first, but because of the size of our group, we would have had to wait too long, so we decided to try the unknown instead.

Makkoli in Jeonju is a bit different from the Seoul type, we had two options; 맑은 막걸리 clear makkoli, or normal makkoli. Here on Makkoli Street, it's served three bottles at a time in kettles for about 12,000 won. Sound steep? Well, wait til you see all the side dishes that come along with the single order of Makkoli. I wouldn't suggest eating before you go (unless you really hate traditional Korean food, and I'm not talking kimbap cheonguk style, in which case fill up before you go because you might be disappointed with your options for food).

Our first makkoli joint turned out pretty good, but after two kettles, we decided to head out and check out another place. A sudden downpour made us pick a restaurant quick, but again, no disappointments. Their menu was similar but they sent out some of those strange Korean dishes that should be on every foreigner's checklist to try before leaving: silkworm larvae, live octopus and fermented sashimi among others. I'll post about that later..

We had an early start, so we had a pretty early finish heading out around 11:30 to find a hotel to stay the night. Now, in Jeonju, if you want to stay at a nice place, like a hanok, you need to make reservations far in advance, BUT, if you want to stay in the cheapest possible place, then the (not so) little love motel area right behind the bus terminal is the place for you. We couldn't get a room at the first place we stopped at, but the second one was just perfect. 40,000 for the night with a jacuzzi. Despite bad connotations with love motels in other countries, love motels are not (very) sketchy and are generally fairly clean considering the price. Definitely an option for budget travelers here.

In the morning, we awoke with pretty bad hangovers and decided to find a restaurant to try the famous Jeonju 콩나물국밥 (beansprout soup and rice) which is, well, soup with beansprouts, rice and topped with an egg. Despite sounding bland and a little unappetizing, with a little red pepper powder added it was quite enjoyable.

Dinner on Sunday was the famous Jeonju Bibimbap. Now, I don't know if I went to the wrong restaurant or what, but... this looks like regular old bibimbap to me. Delicious, but perfectly normal and unexotic. Does anyone know what's supposed to be special about Jeonju Bibimbap?

Anyway, Jeonju is well known for it's cuisine and if you ask any Korean they'll be able to list of things like bibimbap, bean sprout soup and makkoli as famous menu items here. While Jeonju may not be the most interesting place in Korea, it's cheap and interesting for a weekend getaway. Expect one more post from the trip soon!

"My Dream House"

This month we're studying houses in my Reach Out 4 class. I had some extra time on the review day, so I asked my boys to draw a picture of their dream house and describe it. Here's what I got:

Attack Bug House

"Under the Beach" House

I tried to tell him about 6 times that his house was under the water, not the beach, but he insisted that it was not under the water, that it was under the beach.

Kitchen Robot House?

Pay attention to the last two sentences or so here. I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to say, but whatever it is, it sounds awesome. Don't worry, I made more corrections after I took this picture.

A-Team and an A-Game

Tonight I went to see The A-Team at Wangsimni CGV. The A-Team was always a favorite TV show as a kid but I didn't have very high expectations going into the movie, since these sort of films are generally of terrible quality. But, they pulled the movie together fabulosly. I felt like I was back in middle school watching re-runs on cable again. It was action-packed and hilarious, in just the combination the show always provided. The new members of the A-Team meshed so well I thought I was watching the original cast at times. Though, it's a shame Mr. T couldn't have played B.A. I guess he's getting old now though. I highly recomend seeing this movie, especially if you were a fan of the show when you were younger.


Now, tomorrow night is the big game: Korea vs. Uruguay. South Korea made it through to the round of 16 in the World Cup. Game is on at 11, and you better believe I'll be wearing my red shirt I finally bought in the subway on Wednesday (a little late, I know) watching the game out somewhere, probably at a bar for my friend's going away party.

And you know what else? If Korea can beat Uruguay and if the USA can pull through to the next match, guess who will face each other? Yup, that's right, USA vs Korea. Now, who to cheer for is the question. One friend suggested wearing no shirt, but If I could somehow get two flags onto one shirt I think that would be ideal. Or, carry two flags, so I could wave either at the appropriate moments. Well, we'll face that problem if and when we get there. :-)

New Look

Ok, so I finally played around with blogger's new template and got the balls to change it. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I'm glad I figured out how to enlarge my banner. I had to remove the "shrink to fit" option that I had been overlooking. Tell me what you think of the new color scheme. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the purple. I am a fan of the separated posts and the wider posting area though!