Two Weeks in Korea (1)

Catfish stew dinner. The food tends to be more spicy in Korea than in L.A. but I have yet to have dishes that didn’t taste good.

This restaurant is known for fresh water eels. The ladies were barbequing outdoors next to tables. Although it was getting chilly we chose to sit in the outdoor courtyard. What you don’t see is the Imjin River behind the restaurant that runs close to the DMZ.

One of many street vendors selling “duk bok ki” made of rice cake. It is a favorite of many but I’m not much of a fan of rice cakes of any kind.

This is a restaurant known for its beef stew soup. It is now being run by a third generation owner and it used to be located near my childhood home in Seoul. Recently, it relocated to its current spot in Myung-Dong.

One of the few remaining hand-made Korean-Chinese style noodle place. The chef runs fingers through the dough multiple times to make thin noodles; a knife never cuts it. This is how it used to be made; now days, machines do it.




We are all creature of habit. When things are comfy, we tend to want to stay that way. My sister and brother in law made us feel right at home and we spent the past two weeks living like ordinary residents of Seoul; hair cuts, doing laundry, dry cleaning, trying out a public bathhouse, two karaokes, a concert, get together with friends (we crossed paths with two friends from Los Angeles, one on a business trip: the grand opening of a FOREVER 21 store in Myung-Dong , and another on a pleasure trip, a 5-day temple stay, does that sound like a pleasure trip? He and I had a memorable and totally un-regrettable night out together. He can fill in the details if he wishes).

The big difference, looking at the list, of course, was that we didn’t have to get up each morning to go to work like every one else. This alone, I suppose, doesn’t make ours an ordinary life. When the biggest worries after getting up in the morning are what to eat and where to go, I had to pinch myself (& Joanne also asked me to pinch her on a few occasions) from time to time, to remind ourselves that we were actually doing this. We are very thankful and we count our lucky stars every night.

Here are some photos of sights and tastes of Korea as well as fond memories that we take with us as we head to Osaka, Japan.