Our Last Excursion to Seoul (for now)

Well it's that time of year again. SUMMER VACATION! Last year for summer vacation we went to Jeju Island and had a fabulous time. This year we decided to make another trip to Seoul since we loved it so much the last time we were there. After I started planning our third trip up there, I quickly realized this will probably be our last time up there (for now) since we have no more vacations during our contract (besides our vacation to the Philippines next month). So here is the breakdown of our trip.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

After we finished working in the morning, we caught a bus to Seoul. The bus ride took about five hours (less than the travel time from Lewiston to Seattle) with a bathroom break after two hours.We arrived in Seoul around 6 and made our way through the crowded subways and underground shopping to our hostel. After we settled into our cozy, but cool room, and migrated the busy streets to find our way to a comedy show at a foreigner pub. A friend of ours, Wassim, is an up-and-coming standup comedian. This was the second time we saw him perform, and we were exploding with laughter!

 After the show, a few friends and Bobby and I made our way to a small store that sells a wide-array of imported craft beers. Bobby was in heaven and could have spent hundreds of dollars there (I did let him treat himself to a few select ones he hadn't tried yet). Bobby spotted an excellent cider that was on sale. So he grabbed some for us to try and OMG it was the best cider I've ever had. It is a dry cider, but it is creamy on the palate. It has a crisp and fresh aroma of apples with a uniquely refreshing tartness. It is almost like champagne, but better! Needless to say, we bought a few to bring home (Busan) with us!

(I think we are starting to sound like alcoholics, I swear we don't normally drink everyday, only on special occasions, which are most of the times I write blog posts). ^_^

We ended our night atop our hostel with good friends and homebrew we brought from Busan. We chatted and laughed the night away until sunrise.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

We started our Sunday morning by treating ourselves to some beef at a local western grocery store/cafe. Beef is pretty expensive here, and being the penny crunching travelers we are, we tend to only buy chicken. But when you are on vacation, you're allowed to splurge a little. I got a roast beef sandwich on homemade bread and I also found a Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost - a super gingery, lightly sweet carbonated beverage that excites my taste buds.

After lunch, we made our way to Namsan Tower AKA Seoul Tower AKA N Seoul Tower to meet one of our Korean conversation partners from LCSC, Jayeon (Elieen), who lives in Seoul. Normally you can see beautiful 360 views of Seoul from this tower, but it was a foggy day, so we didn't venture up to the top. But the surrounding areas were covered with lush green trees, well kept green grass, beautiful stone paths and the loud sound of cicadas buzzing through the trees.

Apparently a lot of couples go to Namsan Tower (which is on Namsan Mountain, the highest point in Seoul). The gates around the tower are covered with pad locks with couples names and short love notes on them. The idea is for two 'lovebirds' to write on the padlock and then link them to the fence and throw out the keys to ensure their vows are not broken.

We heard about this tradition for couples on Valentine's Day last year but at the Namsan Tower you can show your love for your significant other anytime of the year. I hope this next year during Valentine's Day Bobby and I can be apart of this tradition!

The pink lock below says, " Baby, I love you. Promise we are forever. I love you"

As part of the "love theme" they have angled benches that force couples to sit closer to each other.  

Next, we needed a little boost of caffeine. We found this awesome coffee shop that roasts its own coffee. 

The name of the shop translated into English is:

"A Sommelier's Coffee Shop".

After we were refreshed with caffeine, we headed to a famous makgeolli restaurant that we read about on CNN.com, called [ :h]. At this restaurant you can drink fresh makgeolli from every region in Korea. 

To start things off, we got a makgeolli sampler of the top 5 makgeolli's in Korea. 

Below you can see the descriptions of each one.

1: Lotus Root makgeolli from 충 청 도 (Chungcheong)  

2: Buckwheat makgeolli from 강 원 도 (Gangwon)

3: 개 도 Island makgeolli from 개 도 

4: Champagne Style makgeolli from 복 산 (Busan!)

5: Five Grain makgeolli from 충 청 도

Our favorite was #2. It was crisp and well balanced. We ordered a bottle!

Not only was the makgeolli amazing, but the food was the best Korean food we had ever had. We ordered traditional rainy day food: Kimchi Pajeon that had chunks of squid, green onion, kimchi. It was think and fluffy, but crunchy on the outside-just the way I like it. We also ordered a warm kimchi and tofu dish. The kimchi came in a mix with bolgugi (meat) and spices. It was sweet, spicy and salty. 
The perfect combo.

Monday, July 30, 2013

On Monday we make our way to the Korean Traditional Village. We were kind of confused by it, since it seemed like just a lot of modern clothing stores and shops. The highlight was this man. For 1,000 won (less than a dollar) he draws a portrait of you in less then a minute. We lucked out, because there were no lines on this day. I guess normally there are lines that go around the corner full of people eager to get their own pictures. 

Here are the portraits:

 
He also owns a small coffee shop that roasts their own coffee with cute hand drawn characters on each coffee bag.

Before we left Itaewon for the day, we did a quick price comparison on masks there and masks at the Traditional Village. Turns out, Itaewon was a lot cheaper and since there was no one else in the store we were able to haggle the price down.
So, check out our new masks!

Meanings of the masks:

(We can't find the meaning of the two masks on top. They are from a different village than the two on the bottom. When I do find their stories, I will update this post. But for now, here are the stories of the bottom masks.)

3:   In the twelfth century, the gods ordered craftsman Heo to create twelve masks, and he was to avoid contact with others until he was finished. Just as he was finishing the final mask, a girl peeked into his workshop, and he fell down dead. His final mask–Imae–was left incomplete, missing a lower jaw.


4:   Bune, sometimes spelled "Punae," is a flirty young woman. With her tiny, fixed mouth, smiling eyes, and apple-cheeks, Bune represents beauty and good humor. Her character is a bit shady and unrefined, however. At times, she tempts the monks and other men into sin.

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Next stop: Dinner! 

Tyler and Natalie recommended going to a Traditional Korean Temple Restaurant called Sanchon. We weren't sure how to get there, and our Korean isn't very good, so we called the restaurant and gave the phone to our cab driver. After winding through small crowded streets, the cab drive stopped and said "yogi" (here). We looked at each other confused. As we got out of the taxi this man was standing there waiting for us and showed us to Sanchon. How nice. huh?!

As soon as we got there, they gave us slippers and put our shoes into a locker. A monk escorted us to a small sink, pointed and said "washe". We washed our hands and went to our table located right next to a dance floor. 

During our meal, we enjoyed three courses of vegetables that are only found in mountains here in Korea. Some were new foods we had never tried. Some were foods we are familiar with, but with a vegetarian kick. For example, they served three kinds of fritters of fried seasonal vegetable. 

We were curious eaters. Trying small bites from each bowl and letting it disperse in our mouths before we decided if we liked it or not. We found somethings to be very flavorful and full of spices, but there were other things that had bitter, dirty notes. 

Each course brought a new kind of nectarous teas. After doing a little more research on these tasty drinks I found a great link about traditional Korean teas.

The teas we had were:
 The first being a plum tea that our server told us was a fermented mixture of plums and pine needless-aged for many years. Plum tea helps prevent food poisoning and used to help upset stomachs.

The second was a cold pine tea for good health.

 Finally, the tea served with our desert, Omijacha, or five-taste tea. This tea has five tastes:sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and hot. It's great at relieving thirst and fatigue. Korean's believe "it is an essential dietary supplement during the summer." 

While enjoying our main course we got to watch a few traditional Korean dances. Unfortunately, my camera died while I was taking pictures of the food so I couldn't record the dancing. If you have never seen a traditional Korean dance then I recommend you watch this video. It is from the same restaurant (Sanchon), although they are performing different dances than the ones we saw. To see one of the five dances we saw, look on my Facebook page here and you will see a short video I was able to capture on my phone. 

Tuesday, July 31, 2013

Tuesday we slept in, enjoyed the cool AC in our room, ate some Vietnamese food, packed our bags and headed for the bus.

As we traveled back home through the beautiful green country side of Korea, I tried to soak it all in, remembering this might be the last trip across Korea, for now. I hope we can come back in a few years to explore the beautiful country side yet again!

Until next time,

Home Brewing in Seoul

    Long before coming to Korea, I had quite an enthusiasm for beer. I would never hesitate to cough up the extra money to get a well crafted artisinal ale instead of a yellow bubbly excuse for a beer. Then I moved to Korea and I was granted a whole new level of appreciation.

    Korea is a drinking culture. For some (locals and foreigners alike) it is a frequent occurrence to eat and drink until the sun comes up. While the food here is ridiculously delicious, the drinks (beer and soju) are not. Perhaps the intense flavors of Korean foods are thought to be well paired with an absolutely bland Korean lager. I like to think they just don't know any better. And how could they know any better when 99% of their market is cramped by just two companies? Hite-Jinro and Oriental Brewing are a duopoly here in Korea and their nearly identical line of boring beers have nearly every store and restaurant in this country on lock.

    It didn't take me long at all to throw in the towel and come to a point of refusal of these sad excuses for beer. If the mega stores like Home Plus or Lotte Mart didn't carry small selections of imported beers I probably would have fled to N. Korea (Microbreweries might be the one thing that North Korea is doing better than the South). I'll occasionally shell out the big bucks to purchase a bottle of the good stuff (a bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale is about $7), but the math doesn't add up when trying to quench my thirst and remain within my booze budget. When I've been asked what I miss from home, I have responded beer, family, and friends. If you wonder whether I ordered that alphabetically or by importance, I'll never tell.

    Thankfully, this all changed a few months ago. Jestine was looking deep into the future (a quality of hers I admire) and envisioning jobs for us back home. She showed me a job posting for a company in Seattle called Taphandles who make custom tap handles and offer branding services for breweries. Of course I didn't get the job, but it was this day when previously unfamiliar synapses in my brain were introduced to each other and I realized...

I am Bobby and I want to do beer.

    Make it, brand it, sell it, drink it, bathe in it. 

I no longer merely consume beer. Beer is beginning to consume me.

    I began researching the beer industry and the art of brewing. I don't think I've ever been as interested in reading about a particular thing ever in my life. I figured it would be impossible to brew my own here in Korea and I would spend the next year boning up on all of the details and hit the ground running when I got back to the States. Luckily, I didn't have to bottle up all of this enthusiasm. Amidst my research, I struck a rich vein of gold called HomebrewKorea.

    It turns out it is possible to make beer in Korea and their is a community of foreigners who are doing so. Most of the members are located in Seoul, but I got in contact with one of the few pioneers in Busan, Kevin. He graciously opened up his home/brewery to me and it was this night in late April that I lost my brewginity. That night we brewed Kevin's recipe Kobukson Pale Ale. My contribution was getting in the way, sampling his beers, barraging him with questions, and being a general distraction.

    HomebrewKorea also introduced me to a new friend named Graham. Before meeting him, I could see his passion in brewing. This guy was posting on the forum and asking questions months before he even came to Korea.

    Jestine and I planned a Beer inspired vacation to Seoul for our extended Buddha's Birthday weekend. On the final day of our excursion we met up with Graham to check out his set up and brew a batch with him. Graham went the extra mile and provided me with a list of his ingredients on hand and software to develop my own recipe based on what he had available. After bouncing a recipe back and forth, we solidified our game plan:

Bobby's IPA - American IPA
================================================================================
Batch Size: 23.000 L
Boil Size: 27.000 L
Boil Time: 0.000 s
Efficiency: 76%%
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.0%%
Bitterness: 48.1 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 7 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
================================================================================
                      Name  Type    Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
 Weyermann - Pale Ale Malt Grain  5.250 kg    Yes   No  85%%   3 L
                   Carared Grain 400.000 g    Yes   No  75%%  20 L
          Wheat, Torrified Grain 100.000 g    Yes   No  79%%   2 L
Total grain: 5.750 kg

Hops
================================================================================
                   Name  Alpha   Amount     Use       Time   Form  IBU
             Willamette  5.0%% 30.000 g Dry Hop    0.000 s Pellet  0.0
                Cascade  6.0%% 30.000 g    Boil 15.000 min   Leaf  7.9
 Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus 15.2%% 30.000 g    Boil 60.000 min   Leaf 40.3

Yeast
================================================================================
        Name Type Form    Amount   Stage
 Safale S-05  Ale  Dry 11.000 mL Primary


    The following is an incomplete photomontage of our brew day with Graham.




Here is Graham's super scientific water measuring technology.

Doing work on the "motorized" grain mill.

No home brewing is complete without a few glasses of your own creation. This was a delicious coffee porter that Graham made a few weeks ago (even Jestine loved it).

I'm feeling it at this point.

Not only did I have the opportunity to brew a batch, but I also got to help finish up the end product. Here Graham is cleaning up the dry hopping process before we bottle a different IPA he produced.

Graham collects empties from a restaurant near his house for bottling.

Utilizing gravity.

Utilizing bad form.

Yummy Cascade hops (Shout out to the NW).

Mashing in.

Cooling the wort.

    As I write this blog post, I am enjoying my first bottle of the Kobukson Pale Ale I brewed with Kevin. It's composed of a wonderful blend of malts with a delicious middle-ground hop balance. The beer pours a beautiful copper color with a fluffy head. The body and carbonation are very refreshing. The aroma and hoppiness are a bit subtle for my taste, but it is supremely fresh and nothing has ever tasted better coming out of a Cass pint glass.

Cheers!

A Food and Beer Inspired Trip To Seoul

Over the last few months Bobby has gotten really into beer beyond (drinking it). We have decided that we are going to start home brewing when we get back to the States. He would LOVE to start doing it now, but the size of our apartment, how hot it gets here in the summer, and the amount of time we have left here (9 more months!!), makes it unrealistic to invest in the equipment necessary. Although Bobby can't brew now, he has started reading books, listening to podcasts and trying to get as much information as he can about beer and brewing. He found a Korean home brew blog and met two guys here in Korea who are passionate about beer and are brewing here in Korea! One of the guys, Kevin, actually lives here in Busan. Bobby has had the opportunity to go to his grain, hop and equipment filled apartment and help him brew a couple of times so far. Kevin has started selling his beer to foreigners and Koreans and Bobby is eager to help him produce, market and sell beer (Bobby's natural sales traits may get some exercise). The other guy Bobby talked to, Graham, lives in Seoul. We decided to devote our vacation to Seoul to good beer (drinking and making) and delicious food that we can't find in Busan.

So without further adieu, here is how our weekend in Korea's capital went:

We left Teacher's Seminar Day and made our way back to our apartment to grab our things. We went to the Busan Train Station and found our seats on the train bound for Seoul. I know this photo is cheesy, but I promised I would try to take more pictures... 

even if they are lame. =)

I got out my iPad to read the latest issue of Women's Health Magazine, while Bobby watched a few TV shows on his.

When we got to Seoul, we hailed a taxi and made our way to SP @Itaewon Guesthouse, our hostel in the middle of Iteawon (a foreigner district where all the microbreweries we wanted to go to were located). When we got there, we asked for an upgraded room and one of the super nice foreigner guys that works there said "no problem!" Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that room, but it had a queen size bed that was 10 times more comfortable than the one we have been sleeping on for the last year. Here is a picture (I should have taken one before our things got everywhere, but oh well) of our closet size, private, bunk bed room (and again, these beds were more comfortable than the one we have in our current apartment).

After we settled into our room, we decided to use the Starbucks gift card we got for Teachers Appreciation Day. I think I have only been to a coffee shop two times while in Korea. I always avoid them because they are so expensive here, but when someone gives me a gift card I am definitely stoked to treat myself to my old stomping grounds. I wish the Starbucks here were more like home.. I would have loved to have a soy misto, but the Korean lady behind the counter gave me a weird look when I asked for one. So I got an iced coffee instead. =)

I was pretty hungry and noticed there was a legit kabob shop next door. So while I was ordering my coffee, Bobby hopped over to the kabob place to surprise me with something tasty. Lets just say I was in heaven. Its been a long time since I have had a kabob or Starbucks (sorta a weird combo, but I didn't care!)

After we got filled up, we went to a Canadian Pub and saw a dozen or so comedians. Some were professionals, some were newbies (both of which were funny for completely different reasons). We met up with our friend Wassim, whom we had met in Jeju last summer. He introduced to some of his very entertaining friends. We actually ended up staying out until 4:00 AM! It was a great first night in Seoul!

The next day we decided to go look for a Forever 21 (one of my favorite stores and the only one in Korea is in Seoul) Sadly, the one in this area was closed. So we went to lunch, wandered around and did some people watching instead.

For dinner we decided to hit one of the microbreweries called Riley's Taphouse . Bobby treated himself to a few beers that he had never tried before and I just sat back and enjoyed my long island iced tea whilst we ate dinner.

I thought this was kinda cool. Since this place was pretty small the kitchen was upstairs (or maybe downstairs) so they used a small elevator for the food. Smart.

We actually weren't too impressed with the food at Reilly's, so on our way to the next microbrewery we stopped in at a teriyaki spot. Since the day I have met Bobby, he has loved teriyaki and I have fallen in love with it too! Actually, the night we got engaged we tried to go to a nice restaurant, but ended up getting take out teriyaki instead...so maybe it's OUR thing now.

Once we got in and ordered a dish of spicy chicken teriyaki, I noticed there was a sign on the wall that said this teriyaki was originally from Seattle! What are the chances of that?! We have noticed that a lot of the times when you get food in Korea that isn't Korean food it always has something that is Korean about it, if that makes sense. Like sweet pickles coming with your pasta at a nice Italian restaurant or corn on your pizza. However, this teriyaki had the perfect Seattle flavor and didn't come with anything out of the ordinary. It was legit!

After filling our bellies, again, we headed to Craftworks Brewery. Bobby ordered a Jirisan Moon Bear IPA, which he loved and I treated myself to a fresh peach pie with ice cream and Bobby chose a specific beer that he thought would pair well with my peach pie (a Beakdusan Hefeweizen). BOY OH BOY was he correct. The peach pie really brought out the flavors of the beer. It was probably the best dessert I have had since his mom last excited my taste buds over a year ago.

We found out online that there was a Forever 21 in a different district than we were in a few days early. I felt bad asking Bobby to go shopping with me again, but he said he was happy to treat me. We made our way to Garosu-gil (click the link to see pictures of this neighborhood), about a half hour away. It was a super cool neighborhood with a lot of character. It actually reminded us of Seattle. It might have been the cool, cloudy weather. Or the character of the shops, but it was a good feeling. We found Forever 21 and Bobby was really patient while I shopped and didn't act disappointed at the total price. 

So after a day of me shopping, we decided to go to High Street Market, an international market in downtown Itaewon. Bobby was stoked when he saw the beer and meat selections. However, in this photo Bobby isn't shopping for himself, he is looking at ciders for me.  I wish we had a market like this in Busan!

After buying a couple beers, we went to the roof top of our hostel and enjoyed our tasty beverages and  the pretty view of the city.

 I was craving Greek food. A friend of mine recommended a Greek restaurant near our hostel. It was a really cute place with opened windows looking out over the city. We snagged a seat by the window and did some more people watching. We even saw the Greek cook come out and talk to some Grecian tourists. I feel like this is a rare thing to see here as most business with an ethnic flair are actually operated by Koreans.

After the amazing Greek food, we went back to Craftworks to grab a beer to go and a few gifts for family and friends. This was Bobby's favorite beer of the trip and since it was a good price, we had to get another. This time we went big.

That night we went to Gangnam to meet some friends for dinner and a comedy show. I had to get a picture with the Gangnam Style sign (typical tourist shot).

All the new friends we met while in Seoul, getting Korean BBQ, Soju and Cass Beer.

After a second round of dinner, we went to a hookah bar called Rainbow. We ordered a few rose flavored hookahs, which was an awesome flavor, and a bucket of a vodka mixed drink to share.

We didn't know this place was going to have a live band two feet from us, so after about five minuets we couldn't talk anymore. To entertain ourself,  we grabbed a marker and added some Seattle artwork to the tables.

The comedy show was great. Afterward, we all went back to a friends apartment near Gangnam and made spam and eggs until the wee hours of the morning. The next morning we got up at 8:00 am to make our way over to Graham's apartment so Bobby could have a full day of hands-on brewing. 

More on that here.

I am still full from eating, drinking, and enjoying myself so much this weekend. It is weekends like this that make being here so amazing. I love exploring new places and meeting new people. 

This is what life is about. I look forward to our next adventures.

Cheers!