Washington: Ikea trip!

Ikea is one of those highly envied and much imitated monolithic institutions that have managed to secure one of the rarest and highly desired consumer commodities: trust, familiarity, and a feeling of comfort felt almost unilaterally throughout their diverse consumer base. Is it that unpronounceable word Hygge manifest that makes their stores so deeply loved and universally appealing, or an ingenious marketing schema tailored to the minute details of the consumer cultures each of their stores adopt to? There's a similarity throughout Ikeas worldwide that makes them a comforting, familiar sort of place, whether you're shopping outside of Tokyo, South of Seattle, in Vegas or China... but, naturally, the store does adapt some of its design aesthetics to suit the needs of the particular location's culture and needs. That's just smart marketing and business, right? You probably won't find many Japanese homes with extensive, open design kitchens so there will be little tweaks to their displays to make their designs work in the space given your typical consumer. Even with these little details taken into consideration, there's that ever present familiarity of wandering in a perpetual state of nearly-lost through the winding labyrinth and neon-glow of your local Ikea. Surely the same technology used for the Doctor's TARDIS can account for the immensity of the spaces once you're inside because they never seem quite so big enough to account for it all on the outside.   

Not only are there countless tasteful, or trend-conscious, or outright outlandish, furniture and decoration choices to be found in your local Ikea, but their food counter is legit, too! And, naturally, most of the food available for consumption in their cafeteria is also available to take home to enjoy from their small grocery corner, which, after building up an appetite winding your way through countless displays and mock bedrooms, may end up being all the more appealing. We were hungry upon our arrival, so we opted to grab some food before shopping, which was a good idea, I think. We ended up ordering a lot of stuff, and between the food coma slipping over Antho and my guts deciding to revolt against life, the universe, and everything, it was a shopping trip made more interesting due to digestion. Good stuff. In the end, I did manage to find a desk and a new desk chair, after retiring my much beloved and long-suffering desk and chair from Vegas, which has followed me through multiple residences and been stuffed into multiple vehicles. When it came time to move our lives, and all of our collective STUFF, up to Washington, I was happy to let my old desk and chair go, for free, to a new owner. While we'd been putting a lot of our stuff out on the curb to awake and find it gone, during our last day or two of clearing out we met one of the neighbors who'd gathered most of it and simply gave the rest to him to do with what he pleased. We had old bicycles that needed a little repair to be usable, furniture we wouldn't be taking, all sorts of stuff. Worked out well for us, and for our friendly neighbor! 💗 

As far as our visit to Ikea on this particular day, I managed to find a computer desk that works well for me. While, originally, I'd had my eye on a particular model with an attached shelf, I'm happy with the options I ended up selecting. It was a lot more affordable, thanks to Christina explaining more of the Ikea hacks to me, like selecting your table top and then buying legs of your own choosing. Naturally, I ended up picking out legs that didn't really work with the holes pre-drilled into the desktop I chose, but Antho managed to make it work. A true #Ikeahack! Might make it a little more iffy when we have to move the desk at a later point in time, but, uh, let's save that obstacle for the future for now. As of this moment in time, I have a wonderful desk that serves its purpose with ample space for me to obsessively work at my planner, my morning pages project, our Etsy, my blog, and all the photo-editing and video-editing to come. It's a real workhorse, my desk. 

Korea: Roasted bird and fire's goods

There are few things that harken back to our primordial days as proto-hominids quite like fire-grilled foods, whether it be slow-roasted rotisserie style duck (like above) or crispy crackly fish on sticks broiled over charcoal, charred and oh-so-creamy eggplant grilled whole, sweet and softened onions in kebabs next to blistered tart and juicy cherry tomatoes and hearty chunks of flavorful meat, or full-on-whole-hog slow-cooked to crispy, succulent perfection. All humans hark from a time where the invention of fire served as the literal spark for that catalytic change from beast to a beast with a torch and toasted foods. With fire, we were able to spread from the milder climates of the fertile valley or whichever particular garden our species sprung up in and spread out into colder reaches. With fire, we were able to cook our food, as my quixotic rant above demonstrates, but this also meant making some foods accessible that previously hadn't been, along with improving the overall quality and safety of the food. Cooking makes a lot of foods more easily digested, after all, freeing up more of our energy towards things like growing our brains to adapt to our evolving lifestyles, or experimenting with tool-making.  Fire provides light, and warmth, and all those cozy things that make surviving a harsh, cold winter more bearable, too. 

Is it getting cold where you are, yet? Winter was beginning to sink her claws deep into Korea by this point, though snow hadn't fallen enough to stick just yet. A flurry here or there, though, definitely added a romantic touch to the days, especially when I worked at the Ssamji location, though the outdoor nature of that location meant we had to take proactive measures to keep from freezing our hands to inoperability.  Even with our blankets and scarves and portable space-heaters, the cool seeped into your bones over time, making warming foods all the more necessary to get through. And what more warming or soothing foods than those roasted over a fire or in an oven? Roast bird and breads are a popular pairing the world round, even in a country that came upon bread later in the society's culinary evolution such as South Korea. These little loaves of bread had sweet beans and nuts, a lovely treat to round out a cold evening!

Korea: Ssamji snacks

One thing you really have to applaud South Koreans for is their ingenuity. The country was absolutely decimated, economically, politically and socially by the Korean war. Their people were starving and made do with (what may have been questionably obtained) rations from American soldiers who stayed after the slaughter, and what foods they could grow or have stashed away, often fermented goods like kimchi, other pickles, and seasoning pastes. It was important to ensure their foods could hold out through the long, brutal winter. From these humble beginnings, though, the country was able to rebound and build themselves up into one of the most dynamic and energetic societies on our planet with a booming economy in both imports and export goods. This does not happen without serious work and dedicated effort, and young Koreans can quite literally thank their grandparents and great-grandparents, recent ancestors who legitimately built up the culture and society they're able to enjoy now. 

If you didn't know the history, you might not guess by looking at the city of Seoul. Young people happily wandering around, seemingly carefree as they nibble on street food snacks or shop for the latest trends. The frenetic pop culture industry churns out hit after hit, manufacturing new bands at a pace that seems surreal. It's only when you know about the past, and learn to look for signs of its presence, that you'll find traces lingering. Perhaps its the shockingly stunted stature of an elderly lady as she creeps her slow, bent-back and aching way through the train station, or maybe its the bullet holes in a tree along Seoul city wall, traced back to the war. Part of the rebounding period, however, was the need to fuel the workers in an affordable and easy way- this leads to a proliferation of processed foods and snacks that you'll find throughout both Seoul and Japan, both countries that had an extremely difficult rebound from warfare. These processed snacks provided a means of preserving meats and offering protein that wouldn't rot in the heat and humidity waiting for you to get to it as you went about your day. Fish cakes, like the big guy above and his fancy shrimp hat, provide a robust and surprisingly varied approach to a snack. Now a days, you can also find these bread pockets, stuffed with japchae or buldak (fire chicken) and griddle-fried to crispy greasy goodness. Not the kind of thing you should eat on a day to day basis, but for a treat it definitely worked!

Korea: Galbitang 갈비탕 and Ssamziegil snacks

Undoubtedly, one of the best things about living and working in Seoul is the ready accessibility of delicious, affordable food at any turn. Whether you're in need of a robust, hearty meal with a rainbow of banchan to whet your palate and satisfy your hunger, or simply an easy, light, quick snack to tide you over, you'll never have to go far to find it. The Fun Caricature location I spent a significant portion of my work days at in Seoul's historic arts and crafts district of Insadong, near Anguk station, was especially well-endowed in terms of delicious options- from food carts to sit down breweries, high or low end, it was all there. We could even get food delivered to us right at the location, fresh and steaming hot, should the need or desire arise (it did). Korean food delivery systems are among some of the best in the world, though America is desperately trying to catch up these days with Ubereats and Doordash and whatever other silly-named services have since come out offering to ferry your food directly to you to save you the hassle of going to get it. 

While I frequently opted for the cheap, quick snack from a vendor or the convenience stores, there was no denying the bounty of restaurants available to choose from near the caricature location. At first I was too anxious to go and try to fend for myself in a restaurant where the language is something I sorely struggle to comprehend, but once I started to pick up on reading Hangul (it's really a lot easier than you think it is) and could deduce the items on the menu it was a lot less intimidating. The meal pictured above, a delicious and warming bowl of beef rib soup (aka Galbitang) and ample banchan was reasonably priced, even for being in a nicer restaurant in a tourist-heavy area, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a change of pace from the usual hard boiled eggs and mysterious sausage-shaped-fish-based-food. My coworkers would sometimes join me on these lunch outings, but this was a solo mission. It was peaceful. If there's a lesson here, my friends, it's to be brave and get out there and try. Believe it or not, most people are actually quite kind at heart, at least in my experience out in the world. 

And who knows, maybe you'll make friends with the sweet lady at the dongppang (poop bread) shop!

Japan: Daily life & unique foods 2011-11-27

MOS Burger! 

A Japan-specific burger chain, they're actually pretty tasty. One of the things they're most known for is being among the first burger chains to offer rice buns, essentially rice balls subbed in for the regular bread buns. Who knew the Japanese were early adopters of the gluten free movement? ;)

A typical Japanese taxi, classy in black.

Seoul: Small Korean supermarket

Being the food nerd that I am, I seized upon the opportunity to geek out on a Korean supermarket.

I love seeing all the varieties, flavors, drinks and inventions available in different areas!

Some of the flavor combinations blow my mind and other products leave me pining for a viable proxy product stateside to satisfy my craving.