Korea: Day 1 - Seoul
Wow, we've just come back from a week in Korea. What can I say? The food is great, the people are friendly (they certainly know how to knock back their booze!), the scenery is gorgeous, the cities are alive - it reminds me simultaneously of China, Japan and Hong Kong, yet is very much a unique culture... of which the Koreans are justifiably proud.
I have to admit, I worked with some oddball Koreans in the past - both colleagues and clients. I found them very hard to figure out and was not that keen on going for a holiday there. But I've been thoroughly converted and found it a fascinating place. I took a fair few pics and as always, we did have a mission to eat our way round the country. So let's start with Day 1...
We had an overnight flight and landed very early, rather shattered. Took the airport bus into town past misty marshes and then entering the city proper - modern skyscrapers, smooth roads... and bunches of apartment blocks with their numbers proudly emblazoned on their sides, bringing to mind both Hong Kong e.g. huge new town apartment blocks closely built together, and China e.g. numbers and numbers.
We stayed in Itaewon (Hamilton hotel) - Seoul's answer to Leicester Square. A truely horrid, yukky, area full of American fastfood joints, crappy tourist shops, dirt, litter and US army soldiers on leave. Our first impression of Korean service? Utter crap as the hotel desk guy unhelpfully asked us to come back in 3 hours time when a room would be ready cos apparently it takes 2 hours to clean a room (and despite my early checkin request). Thankfully somebody else took over and so we walked around the tatty area and then lay down in their lobby. Not good behaviour I know, but we did get our room. Which was actually very nice. Even if the hotel did come with its resident prostitute touting for business outside...
Well, we slept and slept. Then in the afternoon, awoke for food. We headed to Insadong on the underground - very easy, very efficient to use, though people don't really wait for you to exit before they enter.
Just those stairs! How do old people or mums with prams cope when there are so many stairs everywhere? I'm still so unfit.
Insadong was pretty, quaint, very touristic, but sweet. It has a lot of shops and galleries and cute teashops around the back streets. You can get some quite unusual teas like quince tea - sweet.
It also has a very good dumpling restaurant called Sadongmyeonok.
The dumplings are about three times the size of a Chinese equivalent 'jiaozi' dumpling. Packed full of very earthy tasting meat (sorry - it's better than it sounds) in a delicious soup. We also ate a seafood omelette - it was good. The squid was delicious.
The whole meal came to about £7.50 for the 2 of us. And it still rates as one of the best we had in Korea.
After Insadong, we decided to hit the university areas near Sinchon. This area is buzzing with life: cheap trendy clothes stalls, young people...
and as the evening fell, we stumbled upon a blazing criss cross of streets with bar after bar (hof?), pub after pub, restaurant after restaurant...it was fabulous. The vertical lights with the strange Korean script reminded us of Tokyo and of course, Blade Runner! (Sorry for fuzzy pic below - I was mid-beer)
Of course we had to eat there and whilst looking for a restaurant called Zenzen, we came across 'Zanzan' instead. The guy running the place spoke great English and seeing us looking lost, explained that they specialised in 'intestines and other organs - I'm not sure what they're called'. Well, it was packed with people on stools hovering around hot plates, sizzling smells and bottles of soju copiously being gulped down. We asked him to fix us something up for about 20,000 won (10 quid). Back came a BBQ plate filled with, some rolled fatty meat, mushrooms, onions, cabbage which all quickly started emitting stomach-rumbling aromas.
Again, a lot better than it sounds - it was delicious, but very rich. It was also accompanied by various side orders, including a raw organ which - we were advised - should be dipped in one of the sauces and eaten (no cooking involved). Huh! As if we'd try raw unidentified meat on our first night in Korea.
Well, the raw organ was melt-in-the-mouth fantastic. Still have no idea what it was though. (And oops, no picture).
Anyhow, we tried unsuccessfully to get another drink elsewhere, but failed - maybe there is an obligatory food order or something. We stumbled back to the ugly Itaewon area very satisfied with our first experiences of Seoul.
I have to admit, I worked with some oddball Koreans in the past - both colleagues and clients. I found them very hard to figure out and was not that keen on going for a holiday there. But I've been thoroughly converted and found it a fascinating place. I took a fair few pics and as always, we did have a mission to eat our way round the country. So let's start with Day 1...
We had an overnight flight and landed very early, rather shattered. Took the airport bus into town past misty marshes and then entering the city proper - modern skyscrapers, smooth roads... and bunches of apartment blocks with their numbers proudly emblazoned on their sides, bringing to mind both Hong Kong e.g. huge new town apartment blocks closely built together, and China e.g. numbers and numbers.
We stayed in Itaewon (Hamilton hotel) - Seoul's answer to Leicester Square. A truely horrid, yukky, area full of American fastfood joints, crappy tourist shops, dirt, litter and US army soldiers on leave. Our first impression of Korean service? Utter crap as the hotel desk guy unhelpfully asked us to come back in 3 hours time when a room would be ready cos apparently it takes 2 hours to clean a room (and despite my early checkin request). Thankfully somebody else took over and so we walked around the tatty area and then lay down in their lobby. Not good behaviour I know, but we did get our room. Which was actually very nice. Even if the hotel did come with its resident prostitute touting for business outside...
Well, we slept and slept. Then in the afternoon, awoke for food. We headed to Insadong on the underground - very easy, very efficient to use, though people don't really wait for you to exit before they enter.
Just those stairs! How do old people or mums with prams cope when there are so many stairs everywhere? I'm still so unfit.
Insadong was pretty, quaint, very touristic, but sweet. It has a lot of shops and galleries and cute teashops around the back streets. You can get some quite unusual teas like quince tea - sweet.
It also has a very good dumpling restaurant called Sadongmyeonok.
The dumplings are about three times the size of a Chinese equivalent 'jiaozi' dumpling. Packed full of very earthy tasting meat (sorry - it's better than it sounds) in a delicious soup. We also ate a seafood omelette - it was good. The squid was delicious.
The whole meal came to about £7.50 for the 2 of us. And it still rates as one of the best we had in Korea.
After Insadong, we decided to hit the university areas near Sinchon. This area is buzzing with life: cheap trendy clothes stalls, young people...
and as the evening fell, we stumbled upon a blazing criss cross of streets with bar after bar (hof?), pub after pub, restaurant after restaurant...it was fabulous. The vertical lights with the strange Korean script reminded us of Tokyo and of course, Blade Runner! (Sorry for fuzzy pic below - I was mid-beer)
Of course we had to eat there and whilst looking for a restaurant called Zenzen, we came across 'Zanzan' instead. The guy running the place spoke great English and seeing us looking lost, explained that they specialised in 'intestines and other organs - I'm not sure what they're called'. Well, it was packed with people on stools hovering around hot plates, sizzling smells and bottles of soju copiously being gulped down. We asked him to fix us something up for about 20,000 won (10 quid). Back came a BBQ plate filled with, some rolled fatty meat, mushrooms, onions, cabbage which all quickly started emitting stomach-rumbling aromas.
Again, a lot better than it sounds - it was delicious, but very rich. It was also accompanied by various side orders, including a raw organ which - we were advised - should be dipped in one of the sauces and eaten (no cooking involved). Huh! As if we'd try raw unidentified meat on our first night in Korea.
Well, the raw organ was melt-in-the-mouth fantastic. Still have no idea what it was though. (And oops, no picture).
Anyhow, we tried unsuccessfully to get another drink elsewhere, but failed - maybe there is an obligatory food order or something. We stumbled back to the ugly Itaewon area very satisfied with our first experiences of Seoul.
posted by sylv at 4:30 pm
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