Patbingsu 팥빙수

A very popular dessert here in Korea is shaved ice, Patbingsu 팥빙수.  It sounds very uninteresting, especially when the ingredients include red beans (pretty sure red beans are spicy and served on rice.)  With that said a friend and I were out and she insisted that I had to try this and further I would enjoy the dessert.

We stopped at Cafe Coin because they had a picture of shaved ice (I really need to learn to read a menu!)  Up the stairs and into a very European looking cafe with large overstuffed arm chairs against windows and small side tables.  I loved it!

We ordered the Ice Flake or the traditional Patbingsu consisting of shaved ice, red beans, a scoop of ice cream, and nuts (on the side).  When it arrived it was huge, definitely something you share.  The red beans are slightly sweet and jellied.  The best surprise for me were the powdered rice cakes.  They are also slightly sweet and reminisce of a gummy bear in texture but not as sweet and artificial tasting.  The whole dish also had a sweet cream poured over the ice.  It was very good and we were not able to finish this dish.  It was a little pricey at 11,000 won or $10 but worth it for an original Korean dish and time spent with a new friend.

Space at a Premium

Seoul is a city of 12 million and there are people everywhere.  I can't speak for New York but I know that while San Diego has 5 million, the city limits of San Diego is rather large and spread out.  

In Seoul, buildings are built on top of one another with steep alleyways and tiny little store fronts with enough room for shelves, maybe a table and 2 people walking side by side.  Even the restaurant we had dinner in was on the second floor, on top of another restaurant and under a third.  Churches are built within other buildings.



One of the rare stand alone commercial building I have seen is a Costco and even it wasn't to American giant-size standards.  

Nature

 I am bit of a nature geek and so one of the more exciting things about living in Korea has been seeing the different types of birds and trees.  My first observation was the abundance of Japanese Maples.  In the states they generally are small and ornamental and expensive.  Here they are much larger and as common as Bradford Pears, I even have one outside my front door.

Hibiscus syriacus

There are also a great deal of Hibiscus growing here.  A more common name, Rose of Sharon, it is the national flower of Korea.  This one is growing along a wall with others for 50 feet, huge shrubs easily 6' tall and covered in flowers.

Rufous Turtle Dove

Ring-necked Pheasant

I have also seen many different types of birds.  The ring-necked pheasant is a very large bird, very shy and hard to get a picture of. The rufous turtle dove is common and reminds me of mourning doves in the states.  They are larger than mourning doves and the coloring on their backs is very pretty.  There also a lot of black-beaked magpies.  These birds are similar in size to a common crow and has the same boldness and loudness.   

I walk everywhere and try to take my time to look and see what is around me.   Sometimes it is good to slow down, the rewards can be simple but great.

Insadong & Cheongwadae

Cheogwadae

Today I went to Cheogwadae, the Blue House.  This is where the president of South Korea lives.  Koreans will elect a president once every 5 years and each president is only allowed to serve 1 term.  Their election is held in December and like us this is an election year for them.  Of course we didn't actually see the president but I did see a lot of tourist, just like in DC.

Interestingly China tourist make up 40% of all visitors.  Their tour groups are usually noted by the huge grouping of umbrellas.

Lots of Chinese tourists with their umbrellas

I also learned today that 12% of Koreans have the last name Kim, followed by 8% Lee and then 6% Park.  Only royalty were allowed to have surnames and it wasn't until the 1860s that all Koreans were allowed by have a surname.  Everyone was allowed to choose a last name.  Park is a true Korean last name, you will not find a Japanese or Chinese with a surname of Park.  Our tour guide was a Ms Park and she was very proud of her surname.

Replica of the President's desk. Each of the boys had their picture taken in the chair

  

Boolgogi

I also briefly visited Insadong and had my first true Korean meal, boolgogi.  Boolgogi is marinated sliced beef in a wonderful broth with rice, kimchi, squash, seaweed and bean sprouts.  Koreans eat with stainless steel chopsticks and a spoon for the broth.  I like kimchi, I had the traditional Chinese cabbage type.  It wasn't too strong although I have been told it can be very smelly.

Street view of Insadong

After lunch we walked along the street and did some window shopping.  Insadong is known for their tea houses but I didn't see any.  I plan on making another trip there and will check them out the next time.  Because of the sun there were a lot of umbrellas open and I found that my eyes and face were routinely being poked with umbrellas.  I never thought that would be an issue, glad I wear glasses.

미 새ᄅ Michele

미 새ᄅ are the Hangul characters for Michele.  I am even proud to say I figured this out on my own although I did google it to check first.  

One of my goals while I am living in Korea is to learn to speak Korean.  I have no grand illusions of fluency but would love to converse with Koreans when out and about in the city or at least thank someone.  Currently I am learning the characters/alphabet, 26 in total.  I've spent the last 2 days saying my alphabet while writing the characters out.  Each character is a sound and their combination forms the whole word.  My name is phonetically pronounced "Mee Shel."  It's a start. 

I would also like to be able to read a menu and know what I'm ordering.  You have to have a lot of trust and nerve to just point to a picture.  I will say that the actual dish did look just like the picture, unlike most fast food places where your chicken sandwich isn't anywhere as tasty and fresh looking as the actual product.  We aren't real sure what the yellow, pickled side dish was; I think it was squash.

First Musings

So here goes nothing, my feeble attempt to share with family and friends my great adventure here in Seoul, Korea.  We have been here for 2 weeks, I can say hello and thank you in Korea and I know I will love my time here.  So far we have been to Seoul Tower

Seoul Tower

And we visited the first of 5 palaces, Deoksugung

Deoksugung Palace, central Seoul

One last thing before I sign off, when I say annyong haseyo to someone it literally means "are you at peace?"  They answer back with "ni, annyong haseyo" or yes, I am at peace.  Isn't that a great way to greet someone?