Seoul Eats

You just gotta love crazy competitiveness between the pizza companies to add more and more ostentatious toppings in order to create a sense of value for their consumers. I guess it is the only way for the big pizza shops to create higher margins (these pizzas go for 30-40 usd a pie). These calorie bombs look interesting but I am on a diet these days so I am not willing to waste a day of working out for a pizza topped with ribs, mayonnaise, different types of cheese and a steamed egg crust. I guess the way that Koreans eat though one pizza would feed 8, because of the family-style way of eating. (In my house we would order 2 giant pizzas and wings and breadsticks and soda to feed our family of 5.) Anyway, I was passing by Mr. Pizza to see their new pizza offerings. Their new pizza is the "Eggta" which is a like a egg tart in a pizza. The rim is streamed egg and below that they have lots of cheese like a Chicago deep dish and then it is topped with "real steak," potat...

It's alive! I am so proud. It is bubbling and yeasty and has a acidic, vinegary taste (yes, I tasted it) in two more days my starter should be strong enough to make some great bread and pizza doughs ( I have plans for you my pretty). Like I had mentioned before, it is easy enough to do. I think this is how the first bakers started making bread. I can't wait until I start baking with it. Dan

I went to Toucan last night on Gyeongnidan Street. I had been there a long time ago and I thought it was ok, but I was a bit turned odd because the chef told me that the chicken wasn't very good that day because he was sick. It didn't give me much confidence in the food and it made me worried about eating there. This time around I didn't have to worry absolutely that (or at least I hope). When we got there on the Saturday night the place was packed and we had a 15 minute wait. There isn't a hostess to wait on you or anything and you just line up and wait and the staff sits you as seats come available. There is no table service either so you have to order at the counter. They will bring the food to table at least. The food is good. The chicken is flavorful but it seems more like the sauce is poured on the chicken just before baking in the oven. I feel they could have improved the flavor by either brining it or marinating it in the sauce. The jerk sauce does taste reminis...

Daily Delights Shopping day in Dongdaemun Breakfast: Waffles and Coffee at Beans Bin If you are going to climb the epic shopping mountain of Dondaemun, them you have to get a hearty breakfast with lots of coffee. Beans Bin coffee in the shopping complex of Doota is a great first spot. They have freshly made waffles with many different toppings. Get your sugar and caffeine fix here. Beans Bin Coffee Location: Doota 3rd Floor Cost: 12,000 Lunch: Mongolian Buuz and Khuushuur at Darkhan The Dongdaemun area is the central point for many different ethnicities such as Mongolian, Uzbekistan and Russian. Darkhan offers authentic Mongolian fare such as steamed meat dumplings called buuz and fried meat stuffed pastries called khuushuur. Their lamb platter with rice and vegetables are good as well. If you are brave try their hot (sour) yogurt tea. Darkhan Cost: 7,000 Seoul, Jung-gu, Gwanghuidong 1-ga 188-5 02-2278-4633 Dinner: Marinated Pork Trotters at Pyeong-ando Jip Pyeong-ando Jip is famous fo...

                  On day 4 we continued our trekking around Sagada. By this day my legs were water, my back was beat, and my neck was burned. But I'm in the Philippines! Seriously the Philippines is just so beautiful, and the people I was with were just so wonderful that those annoyances were minor and irrelevant. I was ready for anything. On this day we set out early in the morning for a 4 hour round trip hike down to the  Bomod-Ok (Big) Falls . This trek definitely wasn't as tough as the one at the Batad Rice Terraces and the weather was quite fair. You start at the top of a hill and hike down through some local neighborhoods. It felt a bit intrusive actually, as you're literally walking through people's backyards with their bathing children, barking dogs, and chickens. But it's also fascinating being able to see some locals and meet their friendly kids. They are obviously used to these strangers walking through and some have set up shop to...

Arirang: convenient location good Hanwoo and side-dishes Many tourists arrive late at night in Korea with a hungry belly and many are overwhelmed by the number of restaurants in Korea. The first meal in a new country is important because it will set expectations for the rest of a person's stay. For those that are staying over in the Myeongdong area and craving some barbecue, Arirang comes is alright. I mean it is a bit more expensive than the local places but the atmosphere and the service is great for newly arrived guests. Located across from the Westin Chosun Hotel, they have English menus and English-speaking servers that will take help cook and show you how to properly eat Korean barbecue. The restaurant prides itself on only serving high-quality Hanwoo beef that is seared over white-hot wood charcoal. They are generous with their side dishes and the sauces. You’ll get a wonderful array of kimchees and salads, fresh leaves and garlic to make your “beef and leaf” wraps and there...

These days, I have been cooking a lot at home and I have been getting back to making breads. Long ago I used to bake regularly. I didn't do anything fancy, but I would make decent breads, rolls, and sweet breads. I had always used commercial starters in the past, but these days, I have been playing around with using my own starters. Just for fun, I tried to use Korean nurut, which is the yeast used to make Korean rice beer (makgeolli). This wasn't very successful at all and it just turned to alcohol (an alcohol, that I think would turn me blind if I drank it). I tried another complicated recipe that I found in a book that asked for grapes. You can see a recipe here as well.  I used Korean grapes for this but the yeast starter didn't quite work as well as I thought and it added a floral, yeasty taste to the bread when baked. It did rise though. I might try this again in the future. I missed good, hearty sourdoughs and instead of trying to find this at the store, I have been ...

In day 3 we continued our intense trekking in Sagada, Mountain Province. Sagada is about 275km north of Manila and is a popular tourist destination for trekking, exploring caves and waterfalls, and other outdoorsy adventures. We started the day in Banaue with this beautiful breakfast from the hotel. Again the view outside the hotel is breathtaking. There were constantly birds flying by our window so here I was able to capture one. While driving down from Banaue towards Sagada we made several stops at particularly beautiful points along the way. This was one such scenic point. But wait a minute, this looks familiar. Ahhh yes, it's on the 1000 piso note, equivalent to about $25. I saw this kid here hauling rocks down the hill. It was a reminder that all of these incredibly beautiful rice terraces that are ubiquitous around the country are painstakingly made one stone at a time. I watched this kid carry at least 10 rocks down the hill within the 20 minutes we were stopped here. We als...