Merry Christmas Part Two

I'm back from my eleven hours of shouting at children and I thought I'd finish off Christmas Day with my favourite song for this time of year, an atheist carol of sorts...

Hopefully next year we'll head to the UK for white wine in the freezing bloody cold...

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Morning and I'm off to work.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Pork Chops!

A beautiful sight on Christmas Eve, skin-on bone-in pork chops, courtesy of High Street Market.

I had a few issues getting my hands on them, a slight misunderstanding and a delay of a day, but for a store that has only been open a week, it's forgivable. Plus the owner kept me up to date with phone calls, apologies and even threw in a free ribeye steak for my troubles.

It's good to know that there are still small shops out there that want to take care of their customers and I know that I'll be buying more meat from High Street Market because of theway they've treated me (plus their beef is cheaper than the local supermarket).

Popularizing Soggy Rice

It takes guts to stand on a street corner and offer soggy rice to foreign passers by, so I'd like to commend the actions taken by these high school boys who braved the streets of Itaewon last month to let people know about the joys of "Sikhye" (식혜).

Their leader's grandmother had made up a batch of this sweet rice drink and they were doing their best to introduce this particular aspect of Korean food culture to foreign residents and visitors.

Their English may not have been perfect, but I commend their attempts to popularize this particular beverage. It's an acquired taste, but a good batch of 식혜 can make a great end to a good meal... though the texture of mushy rice is still a little disconcerting for me.

Monday Night Curry

Monday night is the one time of the week my wife and I actually get to sit and eat dinner together, so we normally make the most of it and cook something more extravagant. Yesterday we went for a three curry feast: Smothered lamb, vegetable curry and an experimental coconut prawn concoction...



I've already written about my version of Madhur Jaffrey's Smothered Lamb here. It's my favourite for warming myself up in these cold months, the combination of slow cooked lamb and coriander makes for a luxurious filling feast.



The coconut prawn concoction is also adapted from one of Ms. Jaffrey's recipes...

Combine the following:
One chopped tomato (peeled and cored)
The juice of half a lemon
A handful of finely chopped fresh coriander (stalks and leaves)
A finely chopped hot green chili
A teaspoon of Korean medium chili powder
Half a teaspoon of salt
Half a teaspoon of sugar
A teaspoon of garam masala
Half a teaspoon of cumin powder
Half a can of coconut milk
A little water

Stir it all together then fry off a teaspoon of mustard seeds and three crushed cloves of garlic in some oil, then add the coconutty mess to the pan.

Leave to reduce to whatever consistency you prefer, then fry as many prawns as you like in a little oil, add them to the sauce and you're pretty much done. Throw in a handful of chopped spinach and allow to wilt. Serve.



Fortunately my wife is a dab hand at making chappatis. We've been experimenting with flour combinations and last night we tried a mix of buckwheat, wholemeal and plain flour. Delicious...



Finally, it is important that your Monday night curry should be served with at least one Winnie the Pooh spoon. If not, then the whole meal just won't feel right without Milne's classic characters staring into your mouth...

헐~ Blue Poopy Horse Doodle

As a special Christmas week treat I'd like to show you a beautiful piece of art that our resident costume designer created this weekend.

My unofficial title is "Blue Poopy Horse Doodle", but feel free to contribute your own appropriate moniker...

It's a mixed media piece using mainly white board, marker pens, a modeling balloon and a piece of sellotape.



The clown in the top left is desperately searching for her sausage (which happens to be in her mouth), whilst the musician (a rather accurate representation of myself) lies wormlike on the floor offering himself up as a sausage substitute. However, it is over on the right hand side of the plastic canvas that the real focus should be placed.



This delightful blue horse has had rather too much powerade and so has pooped out a swirly, curly, whirly little turd that rests below the picture. The horse, shocked, surprised, frustrated or perhaps simply overwhelmed by all this excitement cries out "헐~".

In case you're not down with the kids, 헐 is the hottest word around town (or so I tell myself). This video (which I first saw thanks to The Seoul Patch) perhaps explains it best. A day in the life of a high school student:

This lovely little blog defines 헐 as:

OMG but only for bad things (eg. You find out you have to do pages 1-100 for homework – that’s a 헐 moment)

Why not impress your Korean friends and colleagues with an exciting new word this week...

헐~ I left my wallet in the room salon.

헐~ Lotte Mart fried chicken is no longer 5,000 won.

헐~ G-dragon has released another crappy song/commercial.

헐~ That rash really shouldn't be there.

헐~ The Yeonpyeong live fire drill is still going ahead.

Almost Christmas...

One week to go and plenty of chocolates left in the advent calendar.

Even More Exciting Deli News

In my previous post about Itaewon's new "High Street Market" I was a little skeptical. After ten years in Korea I'm fed up with being charged extortionate amounts of money for small comforts or tasty treats, so I tend to be a little wary when shiny new places open up.

However, this afternoon's visit to High Street Market has proved to be a joyous one. Yes, there may be some pricey items on the shelves, but their English mature cheddar is about the same price as Emart, their wines start at 15,000 won and you can get a slice of traditional Stollen for 2,000 won. They don't have the biggest selection on offer, but they do have some choice items that you won't find anywhere else.

They have a fantastic baker making chili baguettes, rye bread and other baked treats. They have beautiful, but very pricy sweets in fancy jars and they have ridiculously expensive best quality French butter.

Forget about all of that, because the one reason you have to go to High Street Market is their meat counter. One of the owners is a meat importer and has his own factory, they can order in what you want from Korea or from around the world and the selection I saw today was great. Prices are competitive and I have a feeling I may be buying a fair amount of my meat from them. Legs of lamb, turkey mince, rib eye steaks... I drool just thinking about it.

Best of all, with no fuss or bother I was able to order pork chops on the bone with the skin on. Forgive me if I'm being naive, but I've never seen a skin on, bone in pork chop in all of my ten years in Korea, but they're able to get them to me next thursday.... At a reasonable price: a couple of chops will set me back about 5 or 6,000 won (about 500 grams worth).

It's early days and I don't want to jinx them, but if High Street Market play their cards right they could become the must visit shop in this part of town. I know that I'll be getting my cheese and my pork chops there from now on...

Give them a try, so far High Street Market is living up to its name and I hope they succeed.

Back Where He Belongs?

Seoul Zoo Malayan Sun Bear, January 2008

If you've been following the news over the past nine days then you'll know about Ggoma the Malayan Sun Bear who broke out of Seoul Zoo and headed for the mountains.

However, "honey, wine and sardines" were his downfall and he was captured yesterday.

I've been to Seoul Zoo a fair few times and while many of the bears have wide enclosures to play in, the Malayan Sun Bear cage has always disturbed me. It's dark, small and far too easy for drunk ajosshis and annoying kids to tease the bears.

It's great that Ggoma is safe and sound, but I wish he and his older bear friend were treated a little better.

Hidden Lands

Tomorrow, for one night only, there's something special going on at the Seoul Art Space Mullae. I'll let Jeremy Neideck explain it in his own words:

Hidden Land
A new work of physical theatre

Director: Jeremy Neideck
Designer: Justin Shoulder
Performers: Tak Hoyong, Jung Minji, Jo Seongeun, Justin Shoulder, Jeremy Neideck

Produced as a partnership between Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and REM Theatre. Supported by JUMP, The National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging Artists (Australia)

What happen when nature shrugs off its skin of steel and concrete?
In the crumbling corners of a vast, concrete city; ancient spirits struggle to survive among the humans who have forgotten they were ever there.

In this work-in-progress showing, Australian and Korean artists collaborate to combine live physical theatre with experimental costume design and video art to explore a hidden land full of strange and beautiful creatures.

They've been working furiously over the past days to create something which will hopefully be both extraordinary and beautiful.

The designer, Justin Shoulder, has produced some fascinating work in the past:

V from Jaan Ranniko on Vimeo.

The Bumblebeez "Misfit" from The Glue Society on Vimeo.

Not everybody's cup of tea, but worth a glance if you're interested in the avant garde...