Happy New Year's SADDONEANS!!!!

[Gandalf]

Happy New year to all of my fellow Saddoneans!!

Tommorow I head off up to Seoul for a New Years bash in Apkujeong. Should be a lively encounter and apparently pints of Guiness will be readily available! That is a treat in Korea!

I've always wondered...what's the cuisine like over there? As far as the hometown variety?

Im a picky eater at the best of times, so some of the more traditional Korean fare is not to my pallete. Their national dish is this thing called Kimchi and its like a pickled cabbage marinaded in chilli and a few other ingredients. Im not a big veggie man so I dont really like it. The worst time was teaching at my old public school the morning after a night out. If a student breathes that on you and you have a rancid hangover, life can be very difficult! They eat a lot of noodles and stews. Chilli powder is omnipresent!

The Korean stuff that I really like is mainly meat stuff. They do this great stuff called "galbi" which is beef off the rib marinaded in garlic, soy sauce and some other things and you cook it on the fire in the middle of your table and it tastes great! They also do great barbecue chicken and it comes with a sauce that seems unique to Korea. Its very spicy but at the same time has a sweetness. Ive never tasted this outside Korea. Tastes really good. In the baking summer Korean men like to eat Samgyetang which is basically a whole chicken boiled in garlic, pepper and heavy with ginseng. Apparently its good for stamina! It takes some getting used to but tastes fine.

The Koreans eat a lot of kimchi and rice goes along with that. Koreans eat a lot of side dishes. These could be things crab, chillies all sorts of things. usually marinaded in sauces of different type. The Koreans also eat a lot of fish. I actually dont like fish and its very difficult if I go to the beach because there are row after row of only seafood restaurants. The scariest one is baby octopus. They octopus comes on the plate and is dead but still writhing around. My friend went to the beach with his girlfriend a long time back and she ordered the octopus. He was understandably scared. She started devouring it but was annoyed that he wasnt eating. She offered him a piece writhing between her chopsticks. He reticently bit into it. It was still moving in his mouth and he panicked and if you dont chew quick enough the tentacles will stick to your mouth or tongue. This duly happened and my friend ended up throwing up all around the table. The tentacles did come free thankfully. Quite a popular dish herethough. That is a great story. I shall never forget it!

You can get western food out here. I live in a fairly small city but there are a couple of decent steakhouses and family restaurants doing western fare. Seoul is where you need to be if you want to eat western food well though and thats where I shall be tomorrow. I know exactly the restaurant im going to and what I will be ordering. You cant go wrong with the chicken strip starter followed by beef and chicken combo fajitas. Dessert would have to be chocolate brownie with vanilla icecream!! Yum yum. Then an evening of Jack Coke and pints of Guiness!! Should be fun!