Osaka, Day 0 and 1

On the first night when I got into town, we went to a local Izakaya called "Sommelier" where L knows the owner. We got some pasta there. Pretty simple, but done well. One of the dishes had thick slices of browned garlic in there. Mmm...

Pasta.

This is a big jug of chestnut shochu. I had a glass of this... it tasted familiar but I couldn't place it. It's on the stronger side (higher ABV than sake and Korean soju, but not as strong as western spirits). For a place called "Sommelier," they apparently didn't serve any wine until L pestered them about it which I found to be funny.

I can't remember what, if anything we had for breakfast the next day. We were up relatively early, so I think we just had some tea and then hopped on the train.

Outside of the Umeji castle, I bought some of these custard cake ball things. What a rip off! It cost 500Y (about $4) and they had the texture of stale dough balls. Not good eats.

Chicken on a stick. Much better eats. The sauce is sweeter and much saltier (soy based) than its common Korean counterpart. I actually thought this was perhaps a little too salty, but the Korean ones are sometimes a little too spicy. I need something in the middle.

For lunch, we had soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles).

L described this as an "Okinawan Doughnut," which we had purchased in one of the train stations. I thought it was a little too dry for my tastes. Might have been better with a cup of black coffee.

These are the octopus balls (Akashiyaki) that we went to the town of Akashi for. These are different from the more common takoyaki. The inside is almost custardy. I think I actually liked these better than the normal takoyaki which often ends up getting over sauced. This was also served with some sort of broth that you can immerse the Akashiyaki in, although I was happy eating them on their own. Combined with a cold beer, this was an excellent snack.

While wandering around Osaka castle, we ran into a guy selling fruit on a stick. We both got a chunk-of-pineapple-on-a-stick each. As the guy selling them said, "very sweet!"

Around the corner from the Osaka castle is an arena where they play concerts. We happened to wander by before the show started (Beyonce was performing that night), and so the area had plenty of souvenir stands and, more importantly, food stall stands. This is some sort of fried chicken... sort of what chicken nuggets are supposed to be. Very, very tasty and as healthy as they look! =P

Later that night we wandered through a fancy market at some point. Watermelon for 4200Y ($35) anyone?

The famous Kobe Beef. Didn't actually eat any during this trip.

For dinner, we went to a kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) place. Above are a couple of the items from round one. From the top left going clockwise: scallops, baby squid, unknown fish, and squilla.

This was a grey-looking paste that we did not know what it was. I decided to try to anyway since I had not seen it before. After checking with the waitress, it turns out that this is kani-miso (crab with fermented soybean). It wasn't all that good... I guess grey pastes usually aren't.

Another interesting one. This was filled with some sort of smallish fish (the white translucent things - you can see an eyeball here and there). The fish actually had a neat texture; sort of gelantinous but not in a gross squishy way. Also present are some fish eggs (probably tobiko or masago) and some cellophane noodles (I think).

Post dinner, we finished off our GI-tracts with some cake and coffee. I had fun laughing at the Engrish on the menu.

Mmmm... Coffe and Froats.

And "Heab"? I think it was supposed to be "Blended Herbal Teas" and maybe someone just got too excited about compressing things.

Anyway, here are the cakes and coffees. I got some sort of light fruit and shortcake-like object (bottom right). L ordered something from the case which looked like chocolate and strawberries... which it was, but then there were multiple other flavors in there as well. I only remember banana, but when we rechecked the case on the way out, the cake was aptly named "the whimsy of the chef" (which to me means random experimentation).

More Street Food

Ok, so this first picture is not street food. This is the Bulgogi that we had for lunch on the DMZ tour. After the tour, Sue and I walked along the CheongGyeCheon stream from where it starts all the way down to GwangJang market. There are a lot of food stalls there.

First stop, kimch mandu. Pretty tasty.

Next stop, some sort of pancake. They had a bil stone mill that they were using to freshly grind some sort of cereal. It looked to me like the large-style couscous that you sometimes get, but Sue thought it was some sort of bean (could have been soybeans I suppose... the color was about right). The pancakes themselves were filled with soybean sprouts as well. Freshly fried, so it had to be good (and it was).

From the market, we just kept wandering east. We went through DongDaeMun (watched some more pop groups perform in front of the department stores, including a horrible wannabe punk-ska band), and then we just kept on going until we finally got tired and headed back into the subway system at the Changsin stop.

On Tuesday night, we went over to the university areas surrounding Ehwa Women's University, Yongsei University (KU's arch-rival), and HongIk University. With three schools next door to each other, this made for a lively area. Lots of shopping, restaurants, bars, etc. And lots of street food stalls.

Some sort of chicken on a stick with a piece of ricecake (tteok) on the end of it. This had a very interesting cinnamony flavor.

Japanese-style "takoyaki" (grilled batter balls with a piece of octopus inside topped with shaved dried bonito and some sauce).

This was an odd but very tasty one. On the inside is a piece of ricecake again, but the outside is a wrapping of some sort of ground meat, and then finally the whole thing is dunked in some sweet and spicy sauce.

Another variation of chicken on a stick. This time battered and fried. The frying keeps the chicken on the inside very moist. Yum!

Noodles, Dumplings and Meat

At lunch time yesterday, Sue and I hit a random noodle place (aptly called "Noodles Restaurant").

I got a bowl of fresh, home-made noodles with seafood.

Sue got a bowl of fresh mandu (Korean dumplings).

That night, we went out to dinner with Prof. Chung of KU. We went to a beef restaurant in Itaewon. Food was very good.

This is yukhwe, which is a mix of fresh raw beef, raw egg, pears, pine nuts, and I think some cucumber or green squash. Yup, you just eat it raw (think tartare). I've had this before in the states back when I lived in NYC, but hadn't had it since. Very tasty.

Here's a cut of kalbi. In Korea, the kalbi is cut with the rib bone on one end and then the strip of meat extending the other way. In the states, we usually get kalbi in what they call "LA style." I'm told that when Koreans first moved to Cali, they tried to get the butchers to cut their ribs for kalbi, but the butchers ended up cutting thin slices against the bone, and that's how the LA style kalbi was born.

This is another dish not for the squeamish. Raw beef liver! It sounded kind of scary/adventurous, but it was actually quite good. Sue and I both agree that the raw liver tastes better than the cooked version (yes, she ate some, too!). This didn't really have any of that heavy, dense, organy taste or pasty mouth-feel that you get from cooked liver, kidney, etc. It actually had a very mild and slightly sweet taste to it that was quite pleasant. One of the guys from my hockey team back home told me that when they would go bow-hunting for deer, after a kill, he would cut open the deer and eat a chunk of its liver right then and there (partly just because it grossed out his dad). He described it as really soft and sweet, and I can now sort of see how that might be the case. (If I recall correctly from my high-school biology classes, the liver is supposed to be the energy center for the body where short, simple sugar chains are stored for short-term energy needs.)

Large Food Update

I had a good friend (L) visit last week, and since L is also a foodie (no surprises there), we naturally spent a lot of time doing food-related tourist things.

I saw these out in front of a shop. Not sure if they were for eating or just for show/for pets.

These were mostly sesame candies. I've had similar Chinese candies before as well.

Some guy making fresh tteok (glutinous rice). Lots of pounding with a giant wooden mallet.

Lunch. Hand cut noodles (top left), samgyetang (ginseng and rice stuffed whole chicken, bottom left), and assorted banchan.

There are a lot of little teashops in and around Insadong. This was at one of them (L is really into tea as well). However, these "teas" were almost more like "punch." Very sweet, and no apparently use of the leaves of the tea plant. I don't remember what flavors these were.

Gwangjang market.

Food stalls in Gwangjang market. One of my guidebooks claims that this market is the largest market eatery in Seoul.

Hmm... perhaps the fish ain't always so fresh.

Soup?

Crabs.

Lunch on another day. Random restaurant in NamDaeMun market's restaurant alley. We chose one that did not have an old lady out front saying "English menu" to us. We both got some sort of stew (L's was more meaty, mine was probably doenjang based) and some dumplings (mandu).

Second lunch. Boribap (barley bibimbap) down "noodle alley" also in NamDaeMun.

Back in Insadong, there's this lady that sells these donut-like fried items that are *really* good. They're filled with some mixture that I think is predominantly cinnamon, but I think has some peanuts and perhaps something else in there as well. You can't go wrong with freshly fried.

Another attempt at tea. L got the "five flavor tea," also very sweet. She said it reminded her of cough syrup, but I didn't think it was that strong. I got persimmon leaf tea, but it honestly had very little flavor at all. I called it "$5 water-flavored water." Maybe it's supposed to have some herbal/medicinal properties rather than olfactory.

Something Fishy

For Lunch yesterday, we went to a place called City Tuna (시티참치) near campus.

For appetizers, they brought us this hunk of fish stewed with turnips. There really wasn't much meat on the fish; mostly skin and bone, so I'm not sure how you would go about eating it. The turnips had soaked up a lot of the fish flavor... perhaps a little too much; it was really fishy smelling and tasting.

The main dish was raw fish, fish roe, and some veggies (lettuce, daikon sprouts and seaweed) that you mix with rice and a spicy sauce. It's called hoedeopbap (회덮밥). The closest thing I can think of would perhaps be Chirashi Zushi, but even that's not really quite the same because that's lacking the sauce and the mixing. In any case, it was good and fairly healthy.

Paul and I have been frequenting a Korean BBQ place. They know us there now, and we usually get free "service" items whenever we go. Usually it's a bottle or two of coke or beer, but last night, they gave each of us a bottle of soju. I'm not sure if this soju is special or not, but it seems fancier than the standard soju you get at restaurants and bars. The fact that it came in a box (most soju that I have seen come in bottles on their own) and has a heftier, higher quality bottle seems to indicate that it is better than normal. I'll crack it open next week when Sue's in town again.

Variation on a Theme

Tteokbokki is a very popular Korean Street food (previously featured here), and I found a variant of it: Labokki, which is basically the same thing but with Ramen noodles (and there's still some tteok/ricecake in there as well). Pretty good, but I think the original with tteok only is better.

Zesto

Among the many things I ate when I got back to Atlanta was soft-serve ice cream from Zesto. If you haven't tried it before, you must (there's one on Ponce, and another in L5P). Best soft ice cream in town.

Other things consumed this past week: cuban sandwich from Kool Korners (classico), country fried steak from the Majestic (this is currently the source of my all time favorite CFS as well as pork chops), a cheeseburger from the Vortex (my favorite burger joint), a sub from Jimmy John's, and pizza from Savage Pizza (my current favorite pizza spot in ATL). Unfortunately, I didn't get to hit all of my favorite spots.