Eat in Sokcho and free Malaysia

I don't exactly plan to give up on this blog but it is easy to be distracted away - what with living hundreds of kilometres outside of Gangwondo now.

I still have 'Gangwon' as one of my Google reader alerts and occasionally I see an article that interests me - most of the articles are about soccer, which is a fun sport but I prefer to play than to watch or read about.  Anyway, I don't know why this one caught my attention; probably it was the international feel of reading about a Star Trek fan describe Sokcho for Free Malaysia Today.

In any case, Tiberius Kerk (Star Trek's captain was James Tiberius kirk) visited Sokcho and enjoyed Squid Sundae, although he was disappointed at first that it wasn't ice cream.
A few things bothered me about the article:

For a city filled with about 84,000 people, it was not surprising that the streets were not crawling with pedestrians. Sedate is the appropriate word for this city.

We were told that the Sea of Japan was nearby but we couldn’t identify it. The sun was bright and the sky was very clear when we arrived at the fish market.

The first sentence with 'filled', 'not' and 'not'.  My own writing is filled with phrases that do not make sense and so are not easy to read.  Dang, I can't imitate that writing- well, not deliberately.

I am not a VANKer so I don't mind the 'Sea of Japan' remark, but it is hard to travel anywhere without seeing the sea, not matter which name you use.

Clearly Mr kerk had fun in Sokcho and made me miss it a little.

Sort of Gangwon related

A Dr. Samia Mounts from the Seoul American elementary school recently visited a cement factory - probably in Donghae or Samcheok, and although that is not the point of her article in the Korea Herald, it is enough for me to discuss her article here (the two cities are in Gangwon).

The point of the article is Makgeolli and Makgeolli bread. She was on her trip and over-indulged a little. She still had a lot of makgeolli but felt unable to drink it. Instead, she made bread and it sounds delicious. It sounds good enough, and is so well explained, in fact, that I may try to make it myself. Seeing as I have never made bread before, that is quite an accomplishment on Dr. Mounts part.

I don't like to paste large sections from other websites, but here is the ingredient list:

Makgeolli bread

l 1 3/4 cups makgeolli (warmed)

l 1/4 cup olive oil

l 2 tablespoons sugar

l 1 teaspoon salt

l 1 package fast-acting yeast

l 3 cups all-purpose flour

l 1 cup sweet rice flour

l 1/4 cup sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

There are also some mouth-watering pictures of, well, bread - I can't say for sure that they are made from the recipe.

Milk?

This post would have been a little more topical last week as Boingboing had posts about Dairy Drink and vitamin D Milk.

Click to bigify the picture or accept my claim that the cartons are labelled, "Milk Based Peptides".

Anyway, is this milk?

Thanks AlaskaMarci and OnTheRoadMartin

Here I am cooking D.L. Jardine's Texas Chili, a Christmas present from my sister, AlaskaMarci.

However, I wouldn't be able to open the tomato sauce without a can opener, a gift from OnTheRoadMartin, an ex-coworker who is still making plans for March and onwards.

The story of the can opener is a funny one. I had thought l lost my Swiss Army knife, a Christmas gift from many years ago from my mother. I bought a new one to replace it, but then found the original knife.

I then asked a coworker, Masuro, if he wanted to buy a knife and he happily said yes. Indeed, he was right at that time looking for a knife.

I told him about the knife I thought I had lost and how I even used it at home as I didn't have a can opener.

The next day, a can opener appeared in my mailbox at work. I thanked Masuro, who looked surprised. Soon, I learned that OTRMartin (ah, he's never On The Rag, he's always cheerful) had dropped it off for me. It seems that he has had an extra opener for years and even carried it with him, asking if others wanted it. He got tired of that, somewhat strange, habit and didnt' go out of his way to mention it these days. After he overheard my talk with Masuro, he delivered it the next day.

Coming soon, The chili!

YangyangBill is a great host

YangyangBill invited us to dinner last night (by the way, is the TownName thing getting old? I originally did it for a little anonymity but I don't know if it really serves any purpose). The Kwandong family showed up as did a few other coworkers and friends in the area. There was great food, good conversation and more great food.

Let's see; there were smoked oysters, Vietnamese noodles, chips and salsa, shrimp salad, and I'm sure there was more.

Another famous blogger from Gangwon called YangyangBill up to give him a message only minutes after I had said the same thing. YangyangBill had no choice but to believe us, although he had no way to confirm our identical but separate story: last night had the largest full moon of the year (link is to the top google search - I don't think it's about astronomy per se). It was a shame that last night was cloudy until around 11:00 - we did see a very bright but not noticably larger moon as we walked home.

Does nobody care about trichonosis?

I don't eat a lot of red meat. I even make my spaghetti with diced chicken rather than beef meatballs.

A few months ago, I bought some American chuck roll and made some great steak sandwiches.

I decided to try ham. I don't know why, I just never was into it before.

At E-mart, I checked out the "cooked ham" and all the meat I saw was pink! That's cooked? I don't need it to be well-done, but pigs carry some nasty parasites. Can I at least have it done medium?

So much for that experiment.

Be careful out there.

sharing a communal soup?

The Lao-ocean Girl, as always, was way ahead of everyone else on this story. I can't find her post of double-dipping, but she discussed it a few years ago.

Yahoo has an article about finding bacteria in communal dips, just in time for the Superbowl. I presume the same information applies to the shared condiments available at a Korean restaurant. My favourite side dish is dwen-jang jigae (soy bean soup) and now I know I need to either hog it all to myself, be sure to eat first or pass on it altogether.

Apparently it's not about English as a Second Language

The Korea Times has an article about 'Extended Shelf Life' products. There I was fancifully imagining ESL Milk's special English properties. It would compete with Einstein milk (clearly with physics-enhancing properties) and DHA milk with "DHA naturally secreted directly from cows" (I shouldn't use quotes- that's close but not quite right.)

Oh, this photo is from South Korea ESL Blog.

The article tangentially describes a troubling change in shopping and eating habits.

First, an amusing quote:

To meet these "non-fresh'' demands, local manufacturers are catering for a variety of options with longer life and taste.

A 'longer ...taste'. Hmmm. The reporter has been writing about the claims of Oriental Medicine too long.

Another:

Confectionery maker Shany began selling mass-produced bread made with natural yeast baked under an all-natural fermentation process.
While typical expiration dates for baked goods are usually a week-long, Shany's latest stays fresh for about 15 days.

North America is moving away from bread with high preservatives content while Korea may soon embrace their version of Wonderbread.

A final quote:

A recent report by global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan showed that the study of antimicrobials and other antioxidants _ which are considered ideal extenders _ will be at an all-time high and the demand for ESL goods is expected to have a high impact from 2006 to 2012.
Retailers welcome the forecast, as extended shelf life means they are left with better margins by cutting goods gone bad.
"Retailers like full shelves and if goods can be kept fresh for long, it serves a benefit for manufacturers, retailers and consumers,'' said Lee.

Science Friday, an NPR weekly radio program, recently had a panel discussing food and food quality in the US. One of the panelists commented that Twinkies which can remain 'fresh' just about forever, cost less than fresh, unprocessed food and what a sad description of our priorities that was. The audio can be found here.

I don't know what tomatoes used to taste like but I've listened to oldtimers go on about how farmers selected for beautiful red tomatoes and somehow forgot to select for taste. This new change is not about taste but quality and healthiness.

Extended Shelf Life food would be great for travellers but do we need it at home?

Do I sound like an oldtimer now?

The earliest example I can think of regarding rushing to use ESL products would be vitamin pills. I give one to Kwandong Alex everyday. They don't go bad and you can buy six months of a year's supply at once.

But the pills aren't perfect. Yahoo search turned up this site which describes vitamin C pills and how overdosing can damage your DNA. Its hard to overdose with oranges - you'd need a truckload of them but only a few concentrated pills. It also mentions that the foods high in vitamins are also healthy for other reasons - meaning you would need to take the pill and the fruit for full benefit.

Well, now I know what I'm looking at in the supermarket. I won't be buying the ESL milk exclusively out of amusement anymore.

transitional species between fish and moth

All those who doubt evolution, look on this 'fith' - a transitional species between FIsh and moTHs - and despair! (click to enlarge)
Six legs?-check.
Wide wings? Check!
If you've seen a moth through a window, you'll notice the eerie similarities. If the body were a little less chunky, you wouldn't know the difference (maybe the gills and fishmouth might bother you a bit, but not much).

More seriously, anyone know anything about this fish? It has two pair of pectoral fins which separates it from older fish families, like salmon and trout, but that still leaves a huge number of species to distinguish it from.

I apologise for the glare from the tank. I just noticed it at a sashimi restaurant by the bus stop and had to shoot it.

UPDATE: friends at the talk origins google group have identified it as a sea robin, or close relative, the Red Gunard. Thanks, Mel, Dana and John.

Sook (숙) tripping

KwandongAlex was scratching his head yesterday so we cleaned and reloaded the humidifier, figuring the air was dry. Just before we connected the tank to the humidifier, Kwandongmotherinlaw brought out some broth to add to the tank.

The broth was dark brown; it reminded me of consomme. I'm not a fan of hanyak (Korean home remedies) but in Canada we might have added some sort of menthol (Vicks was the first choice at my house) so I didn't mind.

In the middle of the night, I was hot, I was cold, I was dizzy and having some strange dreams. Eventually I turned off the humidifier.

I woke up with basically a hangover. It was then that I learned the broth was Sook tea.

Probably there is no connection but I remember hearing that Korea's sook (a roadside weed) is very similar to Absinthe, a European plant. Is absinthe the same thing as wormwood? Anyway, the European version is infamous as a hallucinatory drug that can cause madness.

I guess I had better beware of cravings for humid air for the next while!

Oh, I learned about sook from Steve Roney. He used to run tours in Seoul but I beleive is back home in Canada now. His site is/was mysterytours.

Shopping at Di Feel Good Morning Mart

There is a supermarket near my apartment that I frequent. It is well-stocked and has about half the floor space of E-mart's grocery floor. Until two weeks ago, it was called 'D-mart'. Then the name changed to 'Feel Mart'. The staff, layout and stock did not change. On Tuesday, I noticed the name has changed again, to 'Good Morning Mart'.

Is this simply another example of how quickly things change here? In Canada, I was under the impression that frequent name changes were part of a bankruptcy process, or somehow a way to dodge creditors. Could that be what's happening? Any guesses?

What is "Yong-gwa"?

I saw the box of fruit for sale at a local supermarket. The fruit looks otherworldly to me. Apparently, it is grown in Chejudo. On the right, is a fruit from a tree at Gwandong University. Clearly, the fruit are different but similar. Are these the cultivated and wild varieties of the same fruit?

Anyway, what is a 'Yong-gwa'? Do you peel and eat them? Are they worth buying? Or, does anyone dare me to eat one and can I make money out of it somehow?

Thanks again, Melvin

This evening, I had an incredible craving for Kyochon chicken. I looked through the house for a flyer and couldn't find one. with Kwandongson sleeping and Kwandongwife away, I couldn't leave the house. So, naturally, I looked online. All I could find on the first page of google results was a link for Kyochon stocks. Useless. I couldn't think of where to go next.

After a few pages, I saw a link that looked a little familiar. My good friend had blogged about wonderful Kyochon chicken and included a photo of the box- with a website in plain view. Woo-hoo!

I had been trying kyochon.co.kr but the suffix actually was .com .

Soon, I will be enjoying Korea's best chicken.

Painting a watermelon is expensive!

I saw these watermelons at the local E-mart. The first says something like, "Keep the dream alive" and both refer to 2006 World Cup. Perhaps selling these watermelon is how the players get paid. If you click to enlarge, you will see that the price tag is for 59,800won or about $60.00!