Food, Seoul Scenes, and Lili's Family Day

Hi all,

It is late Saturday night here. The girls are asleep (Deb too). We've had a tiring couple days touring around the city: getting a cell phone, dealing with immigration about some paperwork, visiting friends at INKAS and shopping for more things for the apartment. Lots of subway trips (which means stairs and long underground hikes to transfer between lines), but we got to see different parts of the city and sample some interesting food along the way.

Yesterday was Lili's Family Day, 4 years since she joined our family. Usually Deb makes one of her cool cakes (check out our home blog for some examples of her cake craft) and we have one of Lili's favourite meals: spagetti and meatballs or sushi (california rolls). We were hard pressed to cook or bake anything special for her this year, as we had yet to buy a pot let alone a cake pan. So we improvised. I think she liked it.

We started the day with a pancake beakfast. We had seen packages of pancakes in grocery stores here, so seeing as how we had no pan or indgredients we thought we'd give these "Chinese pancakes" a try. We microwaved and topped them with yogurt and strawberries (which are very, very good here!). When we cut into them we were pleasantly surprised to find a filling of a dark, honey-like substance. They were actually pretty good.
After a long day touring around, I (Derek) went down the street to pickup some take out food. I found some Korean gimbap (sushi rolls filled with sticky rice, carrot, pickled radish, egg, ham and and maybe something else?), very large Chinese style steamed dumplings and a chocolate cake from Paris Baguette. Here are a couple of photos of our delicious Family Day dinner.

So on Friday we traveled by subway to the Mokdong district of Seoul, to the west and south of the Han River (the large river that runs through Seoul) to go to the Immigration office. We were under the impression that Alien Registration Cards were required if staying longer than 90 days. Turned out, after filling in forms, paying fees and a long wait, that we were not eligible for these cards because we are traveling on tourist visas. Not a big deal, but having these cards would have meant we wouldn't need our passports to cash travellers and conduct other such business. Oh well. At least we got to see a different part of the city. Here are a couple of photos of the Mokdong area. The main street is lined with stores and businesses, like everywhere else in the city. Just off the main street we saw a cluster of what appeared to be relatively up-scale highrises. Here are some school girls in one of these highrise neighbourhoods.

We then subwayed back across the Han River to the Sinchon district, where we dropped in our friends at INKAS. Jin and Lili had to submit drawings there for a Korean children's drawing contest. The contest may be a part of Children's Day, national celebration of children that happens in early May.

There are a number of universities in the Sinchon area, so it is a young, hip and happenin' place. Lots of small shops, boutiques, coffee shops, clubs and bars line the streets. The place is bustling! One of the streets we walked along was lined with beauty salons, probably every second store. We found a square lined with food vendors. We were hungry so thought we'd give it a try. We selected one that had a variety of tempura (Japanese style battered veggies and things) that they call "twi-gim" in Korean. We tried one that looked like shrimp, but turned out to be squid(!) and another that turned out to be a vegetable combo (potatoes, carrots and some green stuff). They were very good. The girls loved them, even the squid!!



In the last photo the girls are buying a drink from a "Pocari Sweat" machine in a subway station (I think it is meant to say Pocari Sweet?). Interestingly, although there are very few garbage cans to be found, Seoul is a very clean city. Typically there are garbage cans are found beside these drink machines and I think people are expected to consume their drinks (fruit, soy, pop or cold coffee in a can) at the machine and dispose of it there. No one walks around here sipping a coke.

We still had some necessities to buy so set out to do more shopping on Saturday. On the way to our local subway station, Hannam, we found a kids playground. The girls were overjoyed! Here is shot of the subway pulling into Hannam Station, an above ground station on Line #1.

Our first stop was a second hand store called the "Beautiful Store". There are a bunch of them around the city and Korea. They accept donations of items that they sell with proceeds going to charities (kind of like Value Village). The one closest to us was in the Ichon district, just a couple subway stops away. The store was dissappointingly small, but we did find a kettle for $4. Now we can make coffee!!! (By the way, we had been looking for a bodom at other stores, but they were all more than $40 and up to $100!) The Ichon district hosts an American army base, so there were lots of foreigners about (likely Americans) and large highrises. Here is a view of the main street, with the above ground subway line and then highrises in the background. One of the friendly foreigners we met there said there are smaller, more charming, bustling side streets behind the row of highrises.

The second photo shows a totally different part of the city, our next destination, the area around Seoul Station (subway and main train station). The entrance to the subway is beneath the dome on the right. In the distance, between a couple buildings you can see Seoul Tower located on Namsan Mountain, a big tourist destination with a great view of the city (we'll have to check it out0. The building on the left is covered in scaffolding that is covered in a huge mural. Here is a better look at it. How innovative!

The second photo shows the interior of our destination at Seoul Station, the Lotte Mart. The photo shows a bakery and soup bar, and in the distance the meat section of the grocery store. This place is very much like the Emarts we've been to here, but prices seemed better. I found a wine section with very reasonably prices plonk from France and Chile. We bought a frying pan and a bunch of stuff for the kitchen, as well as a few groceries.

On our way home at last we promised the girls no shopping tomorrow (Sunday). We hope to get to Namsan Park and maybe go up the Tower there. Deb cooked up a great meal with our new pan. Mmmm! Then we crashed in front of the TV watching re-runs of 24.

Good night,

Derek and the girls