Day off in the CBD

Mike arguing with a dinosaur at Queensland Museum. 

Watching the CBD skyline on Victoria Bridge. 

Ice skating at King George Square in the CBD. 

Fresh fudge at the Jan Powers Farmers Market in the CBD. 

Albert Street Uniting Church next to King George Square.

I took a day off from paper writing today and we hung out in Brisbane's downtown area, aka the CBD. We checked out the dinosaurs at the Queensland Museum, then got fresh produce and chocolate at the farmers market. Before leaving, we stopped by the Winter Festival at King George Square to get some free chai and watch the ice skaters. That's right -- ice skaters. It was in the 60s today, but if you have a spare $30 you could ice skate in front of the city hall in Brisbane. While it had its charms, I'll take the Chriskindlmarket over Brisbane's winterfest any day.

What you need to know about Australia

Think $129 is a little steep for a breathalyzer? Fear not, pay-per-use breathalyzer machines are available at festivals and outside of bars in Brisbane for just a few coins. 

Noosa weekend holiday

We took a mini vacation to Noosa this weekend -- the "hippest beachside destination in Australia" according to Lonely Planet. To get there, we rented a car and drove two hours north to the area. Mike drove and he said that it was like looking in a mirror the whole time. By the end of it, he was really good at navigating roundabouts but driving on the left was still weird. We made sure to take full advantage of the car and made a detour to a ginger factory on the way to Noosa.

We got into Noosa in the afternoon and were able to hit the beach before the sunset. Then we went to a bistro along the river and had some fresh fish. The next day we went hiking in Noosa National Park and saw a family of giant sea turtles and a few different types of lizards. Afterwards, we went to the beach again and had lunch at the Noosa Heads Surf Club -- which was voted Australia's best surf club a couple years ago. (Surf clubs in Australia are volunteer lifeguard programs that patrol the beach.) Then we swam on the main beach and checked out a second beach on the other side of the national park.

The next day we got up early and headed to the next town over, Eumundi, to see their famous Saturday market. While we were expecting more of a farmers market, the entire town center was covered with arts and crafts booths. We were able to get some artisan olives, bagels and a great bratwurst before leaving, though. All in all, not a bad weekend holiday.

Aussie Rock

I guess it was only a matter of time before Nissa and I started getting Australian pop songs into our heads. The scene of the crime was the Caxton Street Food and Wine Festival, which sounds like a very formal and refined affair but reminded me a lot of the street fests that go on in Chicago -- warm, sunny and a bit crowded. The food was all right (I had my first ever canned whisky and soda), but it was the bands that were a real treat.

With the help of a couple friends from here who guided us along, we took a trip back in time to re-experience the best of 80's Australian rock. Don Walker, of the famed Aussie band Cold Chisel, was the first act we saw, and was fantastic. He had a great grizzled voice, his band was solid, and he told this one captivating story about a "bad bugger" named Harry. It gave me chills. Walker was clearly a guy with a lot of experience.

Don Walker (photo by Rhianna Patrick)

Next up was 1927, who had a much poppier sound and songs everyone seemed to know the words to. Songs like this one:

The biggest difference between the video and now is that now the lead singer is bald. Oh, the ravages of time. But our friend Rhianna insisted he was as good looking as ever. The lead singer for the next band, Boom Crash Opera, also turned out to be bald. Noticing a trend here? He was a true showman to the end, though, and they really got me with this tune:

The last band we saw that day was called The Jungle Giants. I really dug their energy and upbeat style. They were clearly the youngest band of the four we saw and it was really refreshing to see them after spending most of the afternoon reminiscing about the 80s. This was obviously a band from today. Being as they're from Brisbane, I'm looking forward to checking them out again:

Our Home Garden

Our apartment here in Brisbane is surrounded by lush forest and overgrowth, so I guess it was only a matter of time before we acquired some plants of our own. Last weekend, Nissa and I went to a free training seminar about home gardening where we expected to learn a few tips on growing herbs and small crops on a porch or in a backyard. So we were pretty surprised when we got to the class and the instructors told us we would be building and taking home a hydroponic gardening device. All for the price of... well, nothing.

Our kitchen garden.

The class provided us with all the tools and starter plants, as well as a small pump to drip feed water to the plants throughout the day. Actually, the pump was an air pump meant to oxygenate fish tanks, but with a little clever engineering we were able to transform it into a water pump that would normally be a lot more expensive. Really a brilliant way to save some money.

So as I write this I can hear the hum of the air pump from the kitchen and the light trickle of water coming out the feeding tube. Now to wait and see if this lettuce actually grows.

Bibimbap take 2

Yesterday I made bibimbap again and tried to apply some of the lessons I learned from the first time around. I'm not sure if the taste was any different from my first attempt, but it sure was more photogenic.

Tomorrow marks the start of our 1 month countdown to leaving Korea. While I'm excited to begin the next chapter of our life, it's also strange to leave a city to which I've grown so accustomed. The last two years have pushed us in ways we couldn't have imagined -- from the challenges of learning a new language from scratch to trying to navigate a workplace culture that favored age and gender (a win for old men) over the quality of one's work.

It certainly hasn't been easy, but it's helped that we've been able to lean on Mike's family in Seoul whenever the goings get tough. We've carved out a niche for ourselves here in Seongbukdong and have even learned to relish the few benefits of being a foreigner here. I take free Korean language classes four days a week at the local Seoul Global Village Center and we've been able to take French pastry classes for a pittance. Being the only foreign couple on our hill has also meant that our local shopkeepers know us well. We always get a hello from the owner of the Korean-style roast chicken restaurant when we walk by, and the ladies in the produce section of our small grocery store greet me with a smile.

To think, all of this nostalgia came from one bowl of bibimbap! But there will be plenty of time to reminisce (or reminissa, if you will) later. Now, we have one month left in Korea and we plan to fill every minute of it.

Sokcho trip

This past weekend we took a trip out east to Sokcho, a seaside city close to the DMZ. We visited the city once before in the winter and loved the small town atmosphere and fresh seafood and vegetables served there.

On our first day we visited Seoraksan mountain, the third highest mountain in Korea. We were feeling kind of tired, so we decided to take the cable car up to Gwangeumseong peak. It was foggy, but when the breeze cleared the sky, we were able to see all the way out to the sea. When we visited the mountain in the winter, the park was nearly empty and very peaceful. This time it was pretty crowded and the park was filled with tourists more interested in checking their cell phones than looking at the scenery. We even saw some people doing video chat on the mountain peak ... pretty weird, but that's 2011 Korea for you, I guess.

On the second day we hung out at the beach and went swimming in the ocean. The waves were much stronger than in Busan, but the water was the perfect temperature. It was so nice to get away from polluted Seoul for a few days and take in the seaside air.

We ate a lot of great food on the trip including North Korean-style naengmyun (or cold noodles in broth), ojingosundae (squid sausage), grilled fish (including melt in your mouth, freshly caught Chilean sea bass), wild greens bibimbap (vegetables and rice), and Sokcho-style sundubu (soft tofu stew). We also tried a corn-based liquor that was like makgeolli. It was incredible how fresh all the food tasted ... and how reasonably priced it was. Sokcho is only a 3-hour drive from Seoul, but somehow the produce and meat in Seoul is twice as expensive and less flavorful.

A few funny notes from the weekend. On our second day in Sokcho, we randomly chose a grilled fish place to eat at for dinner. It turned out that some acquaintances from Seoul were eating there too, though they were almost finished with their dinner. The incident reminded us of just how small this country is. It seems that we're constantly running into other expats that we've met during our two years here, even when we're not in Seoul.

Secondly, there were some funny stores in the downtown area of Sokcho. The first is "Bar Dumb," which is pretty self explanatory. The second was "Parma" -- a hair salon that copied the Puma logo. Parma means "perm" in Korean, so we thought that was a pretty clever rip-off.

French pastry class II

Chocolate mousse with almond slices.

Yesterday Mike and I took our second French pastry class, this time making chocolate mousse and creme broulee. Mike had a lot of fun with the blow torch on the creme broulee; I think he would buy one just for fun if weren't moving. While I always thought those pastry blowtorches were expensive, it turns out you can get one for less than $10 here -- though most people use it to unfreeze their pipes in winter and not to make french pastries.

The chocolate mousse was super rich and good, better than what they serve at D & J Bistro's I think. It's amazing that all three recipes we've made so far are basically made form the same three ingredients: eggs, sugar, and vanilla. No wonder they're so good!

Creme broulee, freshly fired.

French pastry class

The meringue "islands" of ile flottante.

On Friday, Mike and I took a French pastry class at the Seoul Global Center in our neighborhood. For just 5,000 won ($4.60), we learned how to make the meringue and creme anglaise dessert ile flottante, or floating island.

French food is impossible to come by in Korea and even the most expensive "French bakeries" have more things in common with Dominick's than Paris. So it was nice to have some handmade and very good pastries for once. Next week, we'll take another French pastry class, so expect more photos then!

Freshly made creme anglaise: milk, sugar, egg yolks and fresh vanilla, straight from the bean pods.

The finished product, with freshly made caramel on top.

Wrapping up the pastries to take home.

Summer in Busan

Last weekend we took a trip down to Busan, on the southern tip of the peninsula. It was our third trip there since living in South Korea and our first time staying at a hotel off of the main tourist strip in Haeundae. Since it's peak season and we were planning the trip with only a week lead time, we weren't able to find a reasonably priced hotel near the country's most popular beach. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Our hotel was on the much chiller Gwangalli Beach overlooking Gwangan Bridge.

We spent most of Saturday laying on the beach and swimming, and then had the freshest crab we'd ever tasted for dinner. The next day was a scorcher and while we originally planned on doing some sightseeing, we ended up hanging out at Haeundae Beach until our train left. I have never seen a beach that crowded! Unfortunately, the large number of people attracted quite a few thieves. The girls sitting next to us had their bag stolen while they were in the water. Although petty theft is super rare in Korea -- most people leave their laptops and purses at their tables while they go to the restroom in restaurants, for example -- Mike and I are cautious Chicagoans. We took turns swimming and watching our bags, and came home with all of our belongings.

Since we're leaving Korea in less than three months, this was largely a farewell trip to Busan. The city has always held a special place in our hearts ... maybe because with its smaller population and waterside location it reminds us a lot of Chicago. I'm not sure when we'll come back to Korea again after this year, but we've already decided to make Busan a destination when we do.

Bingsu Heaven

It being summer, we went to get ourselves a popular Korean treat called "bingsu". It's traditionally a mix of fruits and ice cream served on a bed of shaved ice with a topping of sweet, red bean sauce, but these days Koreans have gotten more creative with it. We went to a place Nissa had been wanting to come to for a while called Cafe Add Bing and ordered the Oreo bingsu, which was basically an Oreo milkshake on a bed of shaved ice. It was an indulgent delight. The ice actually served as a nice diluting agent for the richness of the cookies and cream.

Oh, and the waitress actually brought us 4 spoons at first - maybe that was a hint? Whatever. We Americans could handle it.

Japchae

Giant bowl of homemade japchae.

My latest attempt at Korean cooking was japchae, or stir-fried cellophane noodles with vegetables. The recipe I chose did not indicate how many servings of the dish it would make, but I assumed that like the other recipes on this website it would make four or five. I was wrong.

We now have enough japchae for at least 10 people! I'm hoping we can get rid of some when we see Mike's cousins this weekend, otherwise we'll be eating japchae at every meal next week.

In case you're wondering, the japchae I made includes cellophane noodles, carrots, spinach, ground beef, onion, green onion, garlic and button mushrooms. And like bibimbap, each ingredient is cooked and seasoned individually before going in the serving bowl. Simplicity is a rare thing in Korean cooking.

Bibimbap

A bowl of homemade bibimbap.

This week I made bibimbap for the first time. I never realized how much work went into the ubiquitous dish! The version I cooked involved rice, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, fern brake, bean sprouts, beef and eggs ... not to mention various oils and seasonings. Each ingredient is cooked individually and using varying methods, quite a task in our tiny, two-burner kitchen. I used every bowl and piece of tupperware in the house just to keep the ingredients separate before serving them at dinner.

Mike was happy to report that the fruit of my efforts was "just like Mom makes," so I imagine we'll be eating bibimbap at home a lot more in the future.

Jeju Island vacation

This past weekend we took a mini vacation to Jeju Island, commonly known as Korea's Hawaii. Located at the southern tip of the peninsula, the island was created from volcanic eruptions two million years ago. Today, the island is home to South Korea's tallest mountain, Hallasan, and dozens of waterfalls and beaches.

We crammed a lot into our three-day trip, including a 20-km (12.4-mile) hike up to Hallasan's summit. To get a full sense of the impressive nature hidden in an area one-tenth the size of Seoul, expand the photo slide show to full screen and click on "Show info" in the upper right hand corner.

South of the river

Ginger coffee latte and organic strawberry cupcakes at Mug for Rabbit Cafe in Apgujeong.

Bicycle on Garosugil, Seoul's fashion center.

A quiet moment at Asia Park, a remnant of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Old Standby With A Modern Twist

One of the staples of Korean food is the rice cake, known generally as tteok. It is commonly found in many dishes, usually in the form of small beads or oval-shaped slices dunked in soups, playing the role of a filling starch (like noodles). But tteok can stand on its own as well, as a dessert or snack. Songpyeon, for example, is a small, bite-sized rice cake filled with sweet sesame or bean paste that is traditionally made and eaten in large quantities during the Chuseok holiday in the fall. There are plenty more varieties that I don't know the names of but could identify pretty easily by sight: the rectangular, rainbow-colored kind that is just sweet enough to satisfy a midday sugar craving; the round kind that are filled with super sweet red bean paste; the extra soft kind that are coated in a nutty, beige powder. A visit to any tteok shop in Seoul is always a visual treat because of how colorful the different kinds of cakes can be.

Variety of tteok.

There's one tteok shop in our neighborhood that we've come to love over the last six months, and I'm pretty sure I haven't bought tteok from another store since discovering this one. That's partially because I've eaten a good amount of mediocre tteok since moving here. But this store also never fails to impress.

Groundbreaker.

Usually, they stick to the classics (like the ones I mentioned). No fancy pants surprises, just straight up good tteok. But today Nissa and I noticed a kind we'd never seen before. Right away, she thought it looked like tiramisu -- and she wasn't far off. The shopkeeper told us it was coffee-flavored, which I had never seen or heard of before. There are a number of cases, mainly involving cheese, where Koreans have infused a new ingredient in a traditional dish and made it incredibly better -- melted cheese on bibimbap, for example (there's also cheese-filled tteok... proving, once again, cheese makes anything better). I was hesitant but Nissa really wanted to try it, so we got a pack. And boy was it worth it. Soft, creamy, and with just a hint of sweetness, this stuff is the genuine article. I don't know if this store was the first to try this, but I won't be surprised if I see it again someplace else. Coffee-flavored tteok is seriously good.

The Spicy Master

Left: Bibim Naengmyeon, Right: Mul Naengmyeon

One of my favorite foods in Korea is a tangy, cold noodle dish called 냉면, or naengmyeon. It's essentially sticky buckwheat noodles in either a beef and vinegar-based broth (above right photo) or a thick, chili paste-based sauce (above left photo). My mouth is watering just writing about this.

Naengmyeon is usually only available at restaurants in the summer and fall, but there are specialty houses that serve it year round. The weather's actually been warming up just a tiny bit over the past week, and since it was such a mild day out yesterday I got the craving again for some cold naengmyeon. Nissa and I found a good-looking restaurant near the Sunghsin Women's University subway stop and stepped inside to give it a try.

Now I've been to places before that serve up an incredibly spicy version of this dish, so when the menu gave a range of choices from mild to spicy, I went with the mild mul naengmyeon. Nissa, however, was a little more adventurous. We used to argue about who could eat spicier foods but I have totally conceded defeat. She is a spicy master. She regularly orders the spiciest version of dishes at restaurants, only to have the waiter or waitress inevitably warn her they're not joking around, to which she politely answers back in Korean, "That's OK." And then she scarfs the whole meal down with just a few beads of sweat on her nose.

This case was no different. I had about two bites of her spicy bibim naengmyeon and told her she was crazy. Even after watering down some of her noodles in my soup they still had a tongue-splitting kick. She wasn't able to finish the whole dish this time (midway through she mentioned her ears were ringing), but it was still quite a feat.

You win, Nissa. You win.

The spicy master at work.

Kimchi making

Making kimchi in Seoul.

A couple of weeks ago, our friend invited us over to her house to help with the annual kimjang -- or kimchi making. We gathered on her living room floor and her mom and aunt instructed us on the messy art of creating Korea's most famous dish.

The post-kimjang feast.

After we packed all the tuperware in the house with fresh kimchi, we sat down for a homemade feast of boiled pork, green onion pancakes and, of course, kimchi.

Eating at home.

The kimchi was some of the best we've had in Korea. We've been eating it one cabbage head at a time and it's only getting better with age. Whether that's from the recipe or just because we had a hand in making it, I don't know.

The Korean government has been trying to globalize Korean food quite a lot lately. But it seems that their efforts will get a boost early next year when chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his wife launch their 13-part PBS series on Korean food, "The Kimchi Chronicles." The NY Times recently posted a preview of the show and I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

Happy Pepero Day!

The Pepero cookie display at Home Plus in western Seoul includes Pepero-shaped balloons.

November 11th is Pepero Day here in Korea, a made up holiday akin to Sweetest Day in the U.S. The whole holiday is based on the selling of cookie sticks like the Japanese Poky line or the Korean version, Pepero. The date was chosen because it looks like four Pepero cookies lined up: 11/11.

While I can't say I condone holidays based solely on the selling of products, I do enjoy getting free cookie sticks at work for Pepero Day. And you can bet I'll be shopping the sale racks next week for discounted cookies.

Kimchi crisis

My first piece in The Christian Science Monitor was published this week. You can read it here.