Blow Fish Soup

I had always heard about people eating blowfish in Japan, but I didn't know until yesterday that it is quite common in Korea. Blowfish have a toxin that, if eaten, can cause paralysis or even death (aparently 1 fish has enough tetrodoxin to kill 30 humans). Many westerners are wary of blowfish restaurants, but sickness/death is rare (or so we were told). The blow chefs (as I prefer to call them) are required to have a special liscence - so why not give it a try. I'm not sure how common these types of establishments are in the rest of Korea, but you see them everywhere in Busan - just look for the friendly blowfish on the sign. The fish is served raw, fried, or in our case mixed in with a soup. I think they put two fish in each bowl of soup and its usually served on the bone. They do cut the lips off before hand and make a special banchan (side dish) out of them. It was relatively cheap ($6000 won or $6 per person) and delicious. The meat was very dense (almost like chicken). The soup was accompanied with other banchan including kimchi, pumpkin pancakes, and dried fish. Rice was also served with the soup. They put it in a piping hot stoneware bowl so the rice gets nice and crispy on the bottom - after you scoup the rice out its customary to pour water over the top and drink it afterwords (its actually pretty tasty). It was a really tasty experience and we'll probably go back soon.

the ole Korean song and dance

Last Thursday and Friday at Yong Dang (my second school) a troup of traditional Korean performers came to the school to teach the students about their culture and I got to check it out. This is at a church near our apartment. These women are wearing the traditional Korean garb called Hanbok. The performers in the videos below are also wearing Hanbok, but you can't see them as well because they're seated. This first video showcases various traditional instruments. They are playing an excerpt from a Korean opera that Kyung Mi told me lasts for 8 hours! There's a lunch built into the opera. I don't know if I'd love it for 8 hours, but the instruments are beautfiul.
In this video the woman is wearing the clothing of a queen. The dance she is performing is a palacial dance usually danced before royalty. The flowers are peonies.

The man in this video is not wearing a Hanbok, though there is a male version. This headress and drum dance were often performed in a millitary context, but also to drive evil spirits out of the rice fields in order to insure a good harvest. I like that twirlygig. I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, but the advantage is you can lay down to watch it!

And that's a bit of Korean tradition. We'll show you more as we discover it.

Soju 1000 and other Halloween characters

Friday was Halloween Day (as they call it here)! So all this week we had Halloween classes and we carved pumpkins and ate pumpkin seeds and dressed up and went to a costume party and showed Koreans what Halloween's all about. Korea loved it. The kids were crazy about the jack-o-lanterns, trick or treating, candy, and It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. And even the grown ups, who are usually pretty serious, were excited to see authentic Halloween costumes roaming the streets with people inside.

Our budgets were small and our time limit short, but I think we came up with some great costumes. Brian was Soju 1000, the drinking robot. I was Graffiti with a green mohawk. David was Tiny Princess, which was both disgusting and hillarious. And Duck was Tiny Princess's Knight in Shining Armour (I prefer the Brittish spelling). Tiny Princess was undoubtedly the most popular with the locals, but they loved us all and even gave us free Soju for our troubles. David and Duck came to our area, and the four of us and Young Jae, the PE teacher at Brian's school, went out for dinner and then to a Soju Bar. At the Soju Bar we met some locals who were fans, and another teacher from Brian's school - Sunny- met up with us. Then we were off to belt out our vocal cords at a norebang (pronounced nor ray bong), which is a room where you sing Kareoke with your party. And then to Vinyl Underground dance club, and then to Ol 55 costume contest (grand prize trip to Thailand, keep your fingers crossed) , and then to Girl Fighter, and then to Ghetto Bar. It was a long night of big fun. Behold. Parents be assured, Soju is only 40% alcohol, so though there are many shots in these pictures, they only do half the damage.

This is Soju 1000 showing off some of his functions. The more soju you put in, the more functions you get out. This was in the middle of the street in a culture that does not know Halloween (but they secretly love it).

And that was Halloween Day in South Korea.

Jagalchi doesn't smell so bad

Sunday we went to Jagalchi market, famous for being the largest seller of seafood on the peninsula. It was huge. The bottom floor is all sea creatures, at least half of them living. The second floor is half dried seafood and half restaurants. You can buy a fish downstairs and have them cook it for you upstairs. We didn't eat there though, we weren't feeling brave and we thought our ordering could go very badly. The next two floors are a giant buffet that costs about 30 USD, but it's enormous and all you can eat with sushi and steak and all sorts of delicious (minus the steak) foods. We also didn't eat there. We actually ate at a cheapo place nearby but got ripped off anyway. Oops. Inside the market though we saw some of the biggest shrimp in the world, giant flounders, lots of octopi, some crazy shellfish, and these things that look like naked sea cucumbers - gross flesh tubes the give me goosebumps. It's a marine invertebrate zoologists dream! Can't wait to take Dad there.
We also checked out Gujke market nearby. Gukje is a giant street market where by haggling you can get many goods "on the cheap" as our map says. We got some string lights for our apartment, which is now feeling quite cozy and homie. We'll do a video of that soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this slideshow of Jagalchi and Gukje.

I also have this random assortment of Korean oddities to show. These were photos taken all over the place.

The Black Face jacket was at Gukje market. There's also The Red Face brand with the same North Face logo. Black Face looked pretty cheap, but Red Face looks kind of legit. The pumpkin house was near David and Duck's house. There was a small garden and to save on space the pumpkin vines were led up the house and onto the roof where the squashes looked like they were doing pretty well. It was such a great Halloween house. That "coffee" is what they brew at my school. My teacher asked me if I wanted coffee and then handed me that. A heinous crime against coffee's everywhere. The grubs were at Haeundae market. I wish I'd put my hand in for comparison. They were about as long and wide in diameter as my pointy and middle fingers held together. I think they're food because they were in a stall where the woman sold only edibles. They were awful (just their existance, I didn't eat them) and that box was full of them and I have nightmares about what kind of bug they eventually turn into. And the last photo is Brian and David playing Taekun at a typical streetside arcade near David and Duck's place. Those little arcade games are outside tons of small shops in the backroads.