Seoul: Octopus Stir-fry and Seafood pancake Street food stall in Dongdaemun

The food in South Korea is bountiful, beautiful, and naturally quite delicious. You have an incredible variety of options for getting fed, too! Not only was South Korea way ahead of the US on the McDonald's delivery service, you can have all sorts of different foods delivered almost anywhere, whether you're beachside, at the park, or fervently studying at the library. This could be in part due to the fact that being a geographically small country makes it easier to ensure delivery to all its corners, and the little scooters used specifically for delivery are deftly able to navigate the winding alleys and side streets of the city. If you're feeling more like going somewhere sit-down, there are the food carts and stalls such as this one where you can get to pick out your food from either a menu or a mountain of ingredients, then wait while it's prepared (or be annoying like I was and hover with a camera). Your food will be made hot and fresh!  It will likely be pretty reasonably priced, too, unless you're silly like me and accidentally over-order and feel obligated to stuff as much of it in as you can. Even so, for the amount of food, it wasn't very expensive at all.

You'll find these little food carts all over Seoul and, presumably, the rest of South Korea, too. I can only vouch for Seoul as that's where I'm familiar with, but given their ubiquitous appearances, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find them all over the country. You can always go to a more enclosed sit down restaurant if you aren't keen on the plastic siding that constitutes the barrier to the outside world.  Personally, I don't mind it, but on extra cold days it might be a challenge to endure the blistering chills creeping in. Luckily your meal starts with a hot bowl of soup, free of charge, or at least mine did. Most meals in Korea will have some form of light soup and various side dishes included unless the main itself is a soup, which makes sense, right? It's a small touch, but a nice one. 

For this meal, I opted for stir-fried octopus with vegetables, and accidentally also ordered a seafood pancake that ended up being massive. Both dishes were good, but could have easily been shared with 2-3 other people, so I walked out quite stuffed. I hate to waste food but I doubt they do take out, and even if they do, my Korean skills were pretty weak and I doubted my ability to relay my request after failing to communicate my order properly already. Chalk it up to live and learn. 

More photos below!

Korea: Spicy octopus dinner out in Hwajeong

Given that Korea is a peninsula surrounded by the life-teeming waters of the ocean, seafood plays a crucial component in the cuisine. There are countless delicious dishes utilizing this bountiful booty in endless ways, from still squirming sannakji (small octopus) to bubbling cauldrons of seafood stew called maeuntang, to quick dishes like this octopus stirfry. It's a dish I ate several times during my stay in Korea and have since recreated for Antho, who quite enjoyed it too. There are a lot of awesome recipes for it out there on the vast expanses of the internet, but it's always nice to go out and try it in a restaurant! On this evening, Yonie and I went out for a meal together and enjoyed this delicious dish in a restaurant I had walked by hundreds of times without realizing. Even in the suburb of Hwajeong practically every building is multiple stories tall with various shops and restaurants occupying the many rooms within... walk down a hallway and you may find yourself surprised to pass a budaejigae (Army base stew) restaurant, a nail salon, a fashion shop and noodle house before exiting to the other side.  There are simply so many options available, it's really astounding. Personally, I love it. There's absolutely no way I could have tried every single restaurant in the time I was there, even if I ate out every single night of the week. Another mind-boggling thing is how affordable it all is... because of the steep competition there, costs of dining out in restaurants is often less than $10 per person! It can go up depending on the cuisine and the location, of course, as again there's no shortage of options for high-end dining, too, but for a budget diner and aspiring gourmand, South Korea is a wonderland. There's something for everyone, too! Whether you like spicy food or prefer to keep things on the mild side, can't get enough noodles and carbs or are devoutly carnivorous... Even vegans can find some tasty things to eat, though I have to admit that's one particular culinary leaning that doesn't have much traction there just yet. There are temples and places that do serve strictly vegan food but you may have to seek them out specifically, as even seemingly innocuous "safe" things like vegetable banchan will frequently have fish broth or sauce as a base or flavoring component. I'm decidedly omnivorous to the point of eating live shrimp and squirming octopus, so this isn't an issue for me, and I'm in love with the abundance of different dishes that proliferate the Korean dining table. To each their own, though! Make it your own. 

More photos below!

Japan: What I ate & what was in my fridge 2012-10-12

From left to right, clockwise:

  

そばつゆ：soba tsuyu, soy sauce & dashi based dipping sauce,

ざるそば：zaru soba, cold soba noodles

めかぶ： mekabu, slimy seaweed salad 

たこさしみ：tako sashimi, cold fresh slice of lightly-parboiled octopus w/soy sauce & wasabi

つけもの：tsukemono, mixed vegetable pickles

This is what the interior of my fridge looked like… lots and lots of vegetables, sauces, juice, etc.

And for dinner; rare steak with tomato salad and toasty potatoes. 

What did you have today? :) 

San Francisco: Aquarium of the Bay

You may not know this about me, but I have a major nerd-on for marine life. 

From cephalopods to aquatic vertebrates, crustaceans to coral, I think almost everything that swims, glides, wiggles and jiggles in the seas is pretty neat…

for the most part. 

I mean, in all seriousness, there are some intensely creepy little freaks roaming the oceans, like goblin sharks. 

Friggin' Xenomorphs of the sea, I tell you!!! Look at that retractible jaw!

But the San Francisco aquarium is devoid of goblin sharks in all their nocturnal deep sea horror, so fear not, friends!

I brought back a plethora of photographs to share the joy of aquatic lifeforms with you!

Yes, YOU!

(You special and unique little snowflake!)

So read on, amigos!

Japan: 2013-03-22 Ameya Yokocho アメヤ横丁

アメヤ横丁

Ameya Yokocho

March 22nd, 2013

      My friend Yuka and I had been visiting Ueno park for hanami and Ameya Yokocho happens to be right around the corner so we popped over for a tour. The name means "candy shop alley", though now there seems to be more of a focus on various foods rather than the singular sweets. Octopus tentacles, among a wide and bountiful array of other options are all readily available. If you're curious and want to stretch your Japanese skills you can check out their website here to get a feeling for the vibe of their shops. It's an eclectic mix of street vendors, shopping centers and food market…which means that it's the kind of place I greatly enjoyed!