People were seated at the little food stalls eating, and the sights and sounds and smells were quite interesting. Unfortunately, we ate at a little restaurant before we found this market, so we didn't get to partake. The main dish seemed to be green bean pancakes (I can't remember their Korean name), and they looked tasty!
Instead, we had some kind of steaming stew for lunch; we don't know what kind of meat was in it, but I guessed quail or something. The stew also had ginseng and dates in it!
The area was divided into districts. We saw such themes as custom tailors, gardening, weddings, books, raw seafood, camping/outdoor gear, and produce. It was quite the assortment! Being nerds, Kyle and I especially liked the book district. In one store, there were used English books available, and they were (curiously/amusingly) sorted by color rather than by topic. But how else are you gonna sort books that are in a language you don't speak?
The market part itself was quite fun to go sightseeing in. And it was PACKED. (Even though my pictures don't really convey that.)
My favorite part of all was the seafood section, which had lots of ooky things on display. AWESOME.
We also saw lots of ginseng!
Afterward, we came back to my apartment and ate kimbap (my first! and it was HEAVENLY) and watched the new episode of Burn Notice. We also mixed some soju, Korea's national liquor (made from sweet potatoes), with Chilsung Cider, a yummy Sprite-like soda. And y'all, it was GOOD.Kyle has quickly become one of my favorite people here. Over the course of the day, we talked about everything from religion to politics to philosophy to the Muppets. And it's absolutely uncanny how similar our frames of reference are! One of us will mention something like Plato's Allegory of the Cave, or the law of diminishing returns, or Swift's A Modest Proposal, or Hobbes' versus Locke's view of human nature....and the other one knows that reference too. It's bizarre; it's like we had perfectly identical educations. It makes intellectual conversations that much easier--and more interesting!
Here we are in front of the dancing fountain in Dongdaemun. Aren't we cuuuuuute?
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4 comments:
So my adviser loves to go off on tangents on just about any subject, one of which I was reminded of just now. We were talking about archives and libraries and various ways to organize them, and how absurd it would be to organize them by color. I can hear him cackling now!
okay, so Kyle does kinda look like me
5 comments:
1. green bean pancake = scallion pancake. It's good, not at all spicy, and best with a soy sauce-based sauce.
2. steaming stew/soup thing with quail = chicken soup. It's a game hen with dates, san-sam (different type of ginseng), sticky rice (chap-ssal), and salt & pepper and possibly other seasonings.
3. The hanging fish you took a picture of is my FAVORITE! It's called "byung-uh" and quite good salted, and grilled (or pan-fryed) with the skin on. But you only eat the flesh under the skin, with rice and other side dishes.
4. Soju & Chilsung cider is a good combo!
5. Have you lost weight? You look super skinny in that photo!
I wanna come visit you!! You're having so much fun in Korea!!
correct for 3. Totally mis-thought. Not byung-uh. It's called joh-gi. Sorry.
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