Gimjang

It's a HardWorld, HardWorlders. And things get more HardWorld when Korea is lacking their blessed Napa Cabbage so they can make their kimchi. Yes, it was kind of a Hard year for kimchi eaters everywhere....in Korea at least. Some failed crops meant the cabbage was more expensive than usual, and, in my high school, that meant less of the cabbage kimchi and more of the radish kimchi, which I am not much of a fan of. Kimchi, of course, is any kind of fermented vegetable. Not just cabbage. But you wouldn't know this from the school lunches which daily only featured radish kimchi as their kimchi side dish. No cucumber? No, my personal favorite, mustard leaf kimchi? It was a sad state of affairs in our lunch cafeterias, to say the least.

UNTIL one day - a snow day at that - as I was walking down the hallway after I had just finished my lesson. I smelled something. It smelled delicious. "Aromatic" even. Where is this heavenly aroma coming from? Well, god damn! As I passed the "cooking" room I peaked in to see my principal and about 20 married women making CABBAGE mother fuckin' KIMCHI! Damn, this is some Gimjang going on.

Gimjang is this time of the year when people make kimchi. Families get together for it, and apparently they do it at the school as well. Lucky for me, I had my camera that day, and I found a student to take pictures of my ass making kimchi. So, here they are! And hopefully I will be seeing tons more cabbage kimchi in the lunch line for at least a couple of weeks. A pat on the back would be nice. A handshake the next time I meet you would be great too. These are hands that touched a head of fermented cabbage and place spicy gochujang paste infused with other vegetable pieces or whatever onto each leaf of that head of cabbage. I did it. And you didn't. I'm sorry...for you.

Fry Them Feet!

Kimchi, bulgogi, barbecue, bibimbap. Korea's most famous foods. I would like to add one more: fried chicken. Fried chicken is damn good in this country. I can't really explain why. It could be the batter. Probably the batter. Could also be the chickens as well. Whatever it is, it rules. However, it could also be the ubiquitous draft beer that is served with your plate of deep fried bird. It's one of those things where you think, "why doesn't America get their shit together and open up chicken and beer restaurants." How hard can it possibly be? It's two great things made even better by being together. An ice cold frosty mug of draft beer and golden deep fried chicken.

As mentioned before, I live in Suwon, South Korea. It's home to about a million folks just south of Seoul, and a shit ton of restaurants. It can be daunting in Korea because of the sky rise apartments and the flashing neon lights. I still discover things in my neighborhood that I never saw before because things look very different at night than during the day. So, I constantly rely on word of mouth to discover the jewels of Korean cooking.

A recent discovery comes from an ex co-worker and friend named Pil Young. Pil Young has already turned me onto one great restaurant which I will probably post on here at some point, and recently I met up with him to try a famous fried chicken restaurant right here in Suwon.

I met up with my man on a cold ass night at Paldalmun (팔달문) or the South Gate of Hwaseong Fortress. At the time it was the coldest night of the year until this past week when it hit a low of 9 goddamn degrees (fahrenheit). The bus ride was a bit longer than I thought, so it took me almost an hour to get to the stop where Pil Young was anxiously waiting. Luckily, the chicken joint was only a street up and a turn into a narrow crusty old street. On both corners were chicken hofs. Chicken smoke was billowing up from both sides. As we approached, I noticed that the middle aged ladies there were frying the chicken right there on the street, and then bringing the plates inside for the hungry customers. Pil Young told me that both chicken hofs were famous.

Inside was warmer, but not warm enough to take off my coat. Like many Korean restaurants, there's too many goddamn lights on, but I'm used to it by this point. The only seating was floor seating which is okay by me cuz I like to keep my ass warm on a cold day. Pil Young orders the chicken and the 500cc of beer mugs.

AHHHH. The beer tastes great. Usually Korean beer is not impressive EXCEPT in chicken hofs where you can get the draft beers. Not long after, out comes the fried chicken. Impressive. A nicely stacked plate of chicken with all the necessary parts PLUS an extra mini plate with gizzards and deep fried chicken feet. That is a first for me. I never knew they deep fried the feet in Korea, but there it was! I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but this was no dream! It was reality! A beautiful reality.

Usually the chicken feet you get in Korea is drowned in super spicy red sauce, and is quite tender. However these were much tougher, and chewier, but good. The chicken was, of course, crispy on the outside, but also nice and tender on the inside. Gobbeldy good. We ate the whole damn plate of bird, and there was a lot of bird, and we downed 2 mugs of beer.

Success! Pil Young is not wrong in his food choices. I look forward to the next time he takes me on a food hunt. God bless the man, and the tongue that the Lord built for him. And God bless fried chicken and beer!

Teacher "Workshop"

As you all know (and by "you all", I mean Scott and Joel....maybe other folks), I live and work in Suwon, South Korea. It's about an hour south of Seoul. In many ways it feels the same as Seoul cuz it's super busy and stuff. But in other ways it's different. Depends on the area, really. I live in Mangpo-dong which is in the south, and kinda country. There's some farmland right by the school I work at which is just a 20 minute walk. The school I work at is called Mangpo High School (망포고등학교, for those "in the know"). It's not a big school, and it features some of the city's so called "worst" students. They're not too bad. They kinda run wild, but the school doesn't do anything about it, so....what can an alien like myself do? Right? Where am I going....okay. Enough about the school for now. I want to get to what I did with the teachers from the school this passed weekend. Not an orgy! Not. an. orgy.

Here's the thing, when the year end school tests are finished (the school year starts in March and finishes in December), the school takes all the teachers to a teacher "workshop" somewhere in Korea. When I first heard about these "workshops" I thought it would be, like, sitting in a conference room listening to lectures about teaching and the next year and all of that. But, one of my co-workers clarified things. It's only an excuse to get wasted and relax on the school's dollar. Well....why not? Let's see what this is about.

The day of departure was Friday at 12. Students finished their morning tests, and then we were all hustled on board. Of course, I was the last one cuz I couldn't understand the Korean on the intercom that said we're leaving earlier. But, everyone loves a late foreigner, and I happen to be a foreigner so fun fun fun!

The mood of the bus was set early on when my tenth grade co-teacher (name is Joe) started walking down the aisle with beer and soju shots ready. Yes, I have no problem with these things. I like that very much. Off we go! Destination: Byeonsan Bando (변산반도 one of the national parks) in Jeolla province (전라도 this province has a reputation for protesting the government and food). From Suwon it's maybe 3 hours or so, but we make a stop at another high school for a quick lesson on the history of the school, which I couldn't understand, and I took a quick nap. Then back on the bus to ride down the famous causeway of Korea. I don't know how many miles it was, but I guess they put a lot of money into it. Kinda neat. It's right on the ocean. Probably destroyed marine life making it, but maybe not.

Then we hit Byeonsan, and we do a quick jaunt through a small hill, and stand by the ocean and pictures and things happen very fast in Korea. Something like that might take an hour or 2 in America, but because Korea likes to finish everything too goddamn fast, it only took maybe 30 minutes. I got some neat pictures of all this for your enjoyment (see above. this is the town). Please....ENJOY!

Finally, it's dark, and everyone is ready to get down to some serious eating and drinking. Koreans do not fuck around, for better or worse, and eating n drinking is one area that they DEFINITELY don't fuck around in. Okay, that's not totally true. Koreans do fuck around. I have noticed that they will look busy at work, even if they have not a thing to do. I usually just kick back with book or something. Okay! Back to the story! We are at a seafood restaurant, and booze and food is practically falling off the table. There's a shit ton of raw shit, and tons of side dishes because we are in Jeolla-do which has a reputation for covering your table in side dishes. Eat....drink....eat....drink. I meet folks I rarely get to talk to. Turns out some of them know more English than they were letting on. Some people start to go down early, though, including the guy I rode down with. I knew from talking to him on the bus that he would be the first one down, and I was right. He was screaming and yelling and slobbering, and later he told me that he thought he said some bad shit to some of the girls. Maybe he did, but I didn't hear it. I consoled him by telling him that most people on the bus has probably done that. He's catholic, so he kinda likes to feel guilty about everything. I would also like to point out that, through all of this, the principal and vice principal are there getting drunk, too.

After a couple of hours, we spill out into the street. Bloodlust. I'm getting hit on by a married woman. Everyone else is yelling for the singing room. But the singing starts early, cuz as it turns out, there's a goddamn singing room ON the bus. So, Joe starts belting out his favorite Trot song, and then another co-worker gets on and starts slurring his way through another. The scene is set with flashing neon lights. Here's a picture. It's a strange thing.

Last stop: our hotel and a singing room inside the hotel. More beer. More food. Lots of singing. I sang Bizarre Love Triangle but it was pulled cuz it's too slow. Sad. And then I try 9 to 5 which is still pulled cuz I keep laughing during it. Super sad. So, I leave that crew and go to another room where I eat some extrodinarily hot n spicy soup. Burned so much that I was pouring tap water through my mouth, and then....I guess I stumble back to my room and pass out.

Next day, out the door and to a restaurant out by the sea. Excellent view. Delicious rice porridge. Good hangover remedy. And back on the bus to head back to Suwon. BUT, we stop at a great temple called Naesosa (내소사). For once, I had kinda of a tour guide. One of my co-workers is a Buddhist and she explained the meaning of different things around the temple grounds.

After finishing, we loaded back into the bus and did one more stop. As said before, Jeolla-do is famous for food. One food they are famous for is jeot (젓). Jeot is salted and fermented fish and shellfish. After it has rotted enough they mix in a spicy concoction with it, so it gets a nice bright red and slimy appearance. It's not a side dish, and you usually eat it with rice. The principal is from Jeolla-do, so that explains why he gave us an allowance to buy this slimy stinky stuff. I bought an extra jar. There were many varieties, but I ended up getting changran jeot which is fish intestines and bibimnakji jeot which is octopus. I almost bought the oysters, which I love, but this was so incredibly salty and rich, that I couldn't do it. C'est la vie.

Not much to say after that. It was pretty uneventful the rest of the way back to Suwon, but my appreciation of Korea had been lagging for quite some time. It was nice to take a trip to remind me why I really love this country. Sure, these fuckers work hard, and that keeps them from appreciating some important aspects of living. But, it really is a great country, I'm happy to call it my second home. Keep rockin' Korea.

Here's 2 more pictures:

Jeot galore!!!!

And the singing bus:

Tokyo Journey Journal Part 5: The End

Day 5:

Finally, my journey written in stone. For the ages. The internet will never die, and these written words will be read by Joel and me's families for generations to come.

So, the day has arrived, and I am....out of money, and so is Joel. I am basically relying on him because, for some bizarre reason, it's really hard to find atm's that will take international bank or credit cards. You have to go to the post office to do it, and it's Saturday which means, I'm out of luck. So, I have to use Joel's funds one more time for the train back to Korea. Joel and I are in pretty low spirits. Just too much of a good thing for too long will do that to a couple of crazy wild dogs.

At the airport train station, I decide that now will be good time to actually take some pictures, which I had neglected to do the entire trip, so here's one:

Unfortunately, Joel lost his body, and only his head survived...just kidding. Not funny. Anyway, here's another one of Joel. This one's for the ladies:

Good times. I hope to do it again soon. Maybe take a nature course next time. Tokyo is too busy.

Tokyo Journey Journal Part 4: Loverman

Day 4:

I think it may have been the booze and the lack of sleep all week, but my spirits were very depleted on day four. At least for most of the day. Anyway, today was shopping day. So, we hit the road (or subway) in the afternoon.

The previous day had been rainy, and it was no longer hot. Today...was overcast, and kinda cold, but no rain until evening. So, Joel took me to this shopping center/flea market type place in, I believe, Koenji? Is that right, Joel? Anyway, wherever it was, it was great. There was a wonderful porn store there....well, maybe "wonderful" is a strong word for it, since some of the girls on the covers looked very much under 18. Welcome to Japan. BUT, there was another store there (actually, there were many stores there), that specialized in bizarre comics and books, and experimental music. Not knowing much about the book/comic department (though it was strange, to say the least) I scooted on over to the cd's. Lots of Japanese stuff, some of which I bought just for the cover. So, 3 cd's, and another cd for Joel. I got a reissue of a 1990 album by the Japanese noise band Hijokaidan (called "Romance", it looks very serene on the cover, but, trust me, I only could get through 10 minutes of it. The thing is, I used to buy noise stuff back in my twenties, but these days my ears just can't handle all those high frequencies...low frequencies are great...lower the better. Bass rules!), and I also picked up a psych n folk compilation called "The Night Gallery 2: 21st Century West Psychedelia", which is pretty great, and I'll probably post that on here one of these days. The other one I bought purely for the cover, and then I gave it to a nice girl that I sat next to on the plane. Don't worry, pretty sure it was not noise. Anyway, the majority of the music was of an experimental/noise/psych type of vein. Well worth checking out if you are ever in Koenji....and if I can find the name.

So, we left and walked and drank sake from a self heating can, but we couldn't figure out how that worked. The can did get very hot, though. And we drank some beer, and we went to some other place in Koenji....I think. And it was time for me to eat the RAW CHICKEN. Hell yeah. And it was good. Served sashimi style at a chicken yakatori bar. So, we ate that and other chicken parts and one dish with a raw egg dumped over the bbq'ed chicken. Everything was great. Plus, Joel's sweet lady (Aya was her name) showed up with a friend. At that point, my spirits were high again, and Joel's was dipping. I won't get into that, but his lady sure is a pretty one. Her friend was kinda cute too, but not really, but I didn't care.

After the chicken place we went....to....another place and ate and drank and talked to some Japanese at a nearby table. The dude tried to kiss me even though his lady was sitting right beside him. It was weird. Anyway, we're in gear, so we head off to the karoke room, which ruled, and had way better stuff than the Korean ones. The Judas Priest songs even had real guitar on it instead of keyboards. Man, that was fun. I did The Smiths, and Joy Division and some other stuff. And then it ended. And I was sad. And the girls left. So Joel n I slept at the Karoke room a few more hours until the train opened and then we dragged ourselves in a gloomy ass way off to his place for a few hours of shut eye before my triumphant departure.

I found this interesting little biography on Hijokaidan translated by Alan Cummings here. Check it out. It's not the most listenable style of music, but their stories are interesting, and actually if you play some of it at a low volume, it kinda works like ambient music. However, if there's too much feedback, that kinda kills the ambient buzz. I also recommend Merzbow and Masonna.

Tokyo Journey Journal Part 3: Japanese Dentonites

Day 3:

Alright, I need to start getting this down a lil faster, cuz my memory is already slipping about events. So, day 3, Joel has this day off (Thursday) so we get up, and don't do much until we hear from Megumi (Meg to you). Meg is a friend from Denton, and she's about as Denton as a Japanese person can get. Which means she's very Denton. In a good way. We are also going to meet her beau (Toshi or Toshiro....I never can remember his name. Good guy, though.) who used to live in S.F. and another ex-Dentonite, the lovely Yasuko, who I vaguely remember from some place in Denton.

We meet up with them at around 3 or so, and Meg takes us into these little back alley joints (in Shinjuku, which we were just in the previous night). Small dirty little venues for eating and drinking. Oh, and it's raining, which kinda makes this area seem even more cooler. Japan is like Korea in that they both eat when they're drinking, and drink when they're eating. Good combination, I think. So, we get some draft beer (served by a robotic beer dispenser, don't know what else to say about it), and some yakatori, and a bowl of soup filled with intestines and shit I like, and Joel hates. It's all great fun, chit-chattin' and catchin' up. Next, Meg and gang takes us into the Golden Gai area where we find a place that let's us stay there without paying an extra fee (they charge you for just sitting down in those lil bars, like $20 or more) and we continue eating yakatori and drinking. Meg and I got hooked on the deep fried cheese balls, but it was all good. After that, Yasuko had to leave us cuz of work the next day (ㅠㅠㅠ) so we decide to go back to Meg's and smoke some MOTHER FUCKIN' WEED, DOG. Shit, that was good. We watched some Pulp Fiction too, and some other stuff. It was all good confusing. Anyway, Joel n I left at some point, and headed back to the homestead. We stopped at McDonald's on the way back and fuckin' chewed on that and passed out and dreamed of angels.

Tokyo Journey Journal Part 2: Folk

Day 2:

Joel had to work on this day (Wednesday), so I lounged around a bit, and then decided to go for a run by the river near his home (River Ara? I think that's the name). It was hot that day, but the heat would end after that. After a shower, I went out, and walked around looking for Yellow Pop Records (which was mentioned in an earlier post). In the meantime, I ate at blessed 102 again. Usually, I like to try different things when I travel, but that shit is too good. In the restaurant, I asked a couple of handsome young men where a good record store was. They told me, and it wasn't there, BUT I walked in another direction and found Yellow Pop! Good place, and I already mentioned what I bought in a previous post. Then I headed back.

When Joel got off work, we decided to skip dinner for the moment and see some folk music down in Tokyo. It was at this bar (I believe), and the night was called "Chihana presents: Basement Tapes - Deluxe Edition". Now, there was nothing original about the music, but it was fun, and they are all great players. We got there at the tail end of Chihana's folk set. Chihana is a 22 year old female virtuoso around those parts. And she obviously has a deep seated love for pure Americana folk n country. Good for her.

Next was Suemarr, a banjo playin', Band lovin, and overall nice guy. He was accompanied by a lady (Joel help with the name, please) that also played guitar, and had just a really peaceful, almost levitational quality about her. Marriage material. Good set of mostly covers.

Lastly, was The Basement Tapes. Featuring Chihana on guitar along with 3 other guitar players, one of which was a dead ringer for a 70's era Waylon Jennings. This was definitely some rockin' country roll. Fun stuff. On the way out, Chihana stopped us, and talked to us for a bit. Joel neglected to get her phone number.

After leaving, one thing led to another, and....we decided to stick around Tokyo all night. First thing, we headed for an Izakaya in Shinjuku. We drank more, ate some delicious raw horse meat, and other goodies. Slept. Talked about talking to some girls another table. Slept. Ate some ice cream with a brownie in it, and finally made it out the door to hit up the Golden Gai area at around 4 am.

We went into a place called....something, but it had The Who on the door, so that was enough. It was pretty cool. Closed in, very little space, but comfortable. The bar owner was happy to see us, and talked a while with us. I don't remember if he used english or japanese. Joel knows some of their language. He's smart. Anyway, no ladies for the night, we went home and slept, excited about what was in store for us the following day.

I really shoulda taken some pics. The picture of Chihana above was taken off the internet.

Tokyo Journey Journal, Part 1: The Beginning

Day One:

Early start, semi-early flight. 10 a.m. Took only a little over an hour to get from Suwon to Incheon airport. Left my home at a little before 6. I'm glad I had gotten there early cuz I stood in line waiting to check in for an hour. The check-in lady was nice. Get her phone number next time. After that, it was pretty smooth, all the way to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo it was like clockwork. It took at least 2 hours and maybe more to get to Joel's, but they were good directions.

Laid around on his floor, and thought about putting porn on his computer. Watched Team America instead. Drank some delicious Yebisu while waiting. That shit blows away any Korean beer. Once Joel arrived from work, I neatly tea-bagged him, and then we were off to eat at (I think) Joel's favorite style of Ramen called Tsukemen at a place in Kawaguchi called 102. That shit blew my mind. Here's how it works: They (the Japanese) give you two bowls - one for the soup and another with the cold noodles (you can also get an optional side dish with goodies on it, which we did). You take the noodles and dip it in the rich, creamy broth, and then shove it down your throat. Here's what makes it so good: the pork in the soup (and in the side dish) is this big chunk of super tender meat. So good, reminds me of the pork chops at Smitty's BBQ in Lockhart, Tejas. Even the fat was yum. On the side dish was a boiled egg, but not just any, cuz when you took a bite of that shit, the yolk just came pouring out like an over medium fried egg. Next, they had this big black rock that they would drop in your soup and it would make your soup boil! Can you believe that? A hot rock to boil your soup. Anyway, best meal I had. Thanks, Joel.

Next, we went to his friend's bar in....somewhere. It was a cool little dive bar, and the owner really likes folk music. He played some old Ry Cooder, The Band and Flying Burrito Bros., and some other stuff that made no impression on me. We drank a great little Japanese beer that I had never heard of before.....and now I can't remember the name. Really good. Joel, you gotta fill in the blanks for me in the comments. We also drank some great shochu. And then we went home, filled with overwhelming joy for humanity.

Heartland Beer