The Blog YOU Care About: December 2010

Jillian R.

The year is coming to an end.

So is our time in Daegu. As I am writing this, I have this dreadful feeling in the back of my mind that I am going to miss this place. As I've written before, yes, Korea is indeed a strange place for a foreigner, especially an Asian, like me.

I don't know why but almost everyday someone asks if I am Filipino. I remember one particular conversation I had with a street vendor;
Vendor: U are Pilipino? (they mispronounce F's as P's and vice versa and V's as B's)
Me: No, I'm Malaysian, err, Malaysia
Vendor: Huh? Pilipin?
Me: No no, Malaysia
Vendor: Ohhh *mumbles in Korean*mumble*mumble* Pilipin!

I smiled politely and gave up. At least I enjoyed the odeng (fish cake) I was eating.

Anyway, like I said, amidst all its peculiarity; like this one;

(Beer & --- and what? Yeah, exactly)

I read the Korean words below the English one and it reads 비여안 "Bee-aw Ahn"

There really are some really good qualities too. Like, some of the older Koreans are so genuinely nice and helpful that often times I feel so touched that I feel teary eyed. Just quite recently we got into this taxi in which the driver was so happy to have an American passenger (Eric) that he started showing us his collection of the great oldies; Elvis Presley was among his many favorites. Also, he chatted on about a few cowboy movies which he evidently had watched many times over and over. He was an elderly man but he became very energetic as he talked about the movies with his limited English. I wish more Koreans have lateral thinking like him, as he removed the front passenger seat headrest when he saw Eric stretching his neck to the right and left to peer out at the traffic jam.

And most of all, I guess the one thing I would definitely miss most of all is our apartment. It's really a great apartment if not for the corridor of death.

Our place is nothing luxurious but it's cosy to say the least. We even managed to cramp a 4-person dinner table behind the couch and call it "the breakfast nook".

I can't say where we're heading at this point, and I definitely can't say if going back to Malaysia would be a good thing either. The possibility of living in the tropical heat again is too unbearable.

I think it's finally appropriate to say I don't want this winter to end!

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Lemmings

Jillian R.

Today I'm just going to write a quick update of what's happening.

So Eric has gone out of town for a few days. It didn't feel like it at first, but on the morning of his departure, I started to have this weird feeling which I couldn't identify starting from the pit of my stomach. As the hours quickly flew by, I realized that this is the first time in a year since moving to Korea that I'll actually be entirely alone in our apartment. It's amazing how fast one gets used to the different stages in life. My entire life, I've not had a problem sleeping by myself. I've never officially moved in with a boyfriend even; but last night was admittedly...rough. I tossed and turned until I heard the garbage truck (4am), and eventually fell into light sleep. I must've woken up a few times after that at the whirring sound of our very loud wall clock.

Yeah, like I said, it was rough.

Anyway, on a lighter note, let's see some photos of the week!

I've said before (or haven't I?) that there are maybe five female hairstyles in Korea every year according to age. Now I have proof! This is the current hairstyle for school girls from elementary up to middle school/high school.

(Back view)

(Front view)

I guess it's convenient that way, they could just go to a salon and ask for "school" style. Anyone who is not a lemming and does not follow the hair-code would probably be ridiculed in school.

If you owned a fancy car like this one, would you park it as such?

(Half a tire was dangling off the curb and merely an inch away from the electric pillar)

Koreans may be a little strange in their ways sometimes, but there's nothing wrong with a whole street lined with Korean beauty supply chain stores!

It's almost impossible to find good Mexican food here in Daegu - and I LOVE good Mexican food!

Fortunately there's this place right in the heart of downtown.

(Tacoholic Tex-Mex Restaurant)

We got there at about 5pm, so the place was empty because it's not the "official" dinner time for the locals. Yes, in case you were wondering, Koreans have specific meal times - according to my observation. Lunch time; between 12-1pm and Dinner time; 7-8pm. Any other time one wanders into a restaurant, it would be empty.
(I can't be sure about breakfast because western breakfast cafes are non-existent as far as we know, therefore we always eat at home)

The decor of the place was very basic, almost shanty-like. I guess to mirror the local street eateries in Mexico?

And this is something which I will definitely miss if we moved out of Korea; smoking areas in restaurants still exists!

I had no complaints about the food. However, the menu could use some improvement. The prices of all the dishes were blacked out with markers and no where around the restaurant were they published. So after we chose a few dishes and asked about the prices, the waiter had trouble saying the prices in English. Our waiter continued to stutter the numbers in English although Eric told him that he understood the Korean numbers. So ordering took a while. Also, most of the items on the menu were unavailable and like most restaurants in Korea, once a dish becomes "unavailable", it will never be served again. I was really looking forward to having a chimichanga.

That's all the updates for this entry. Next time, I'll be blogging about this quite peculiar thrift store which we stumbled upon.

Till next time!

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Chicken Business

Jillian R.

I think it's time the "Chicken Issue" is addressed.

Every time I tell a non-Malaysian that back home, I must always tell the waiter that I do not want any white meat, and that I WILL send it back if they serve it to me anyway; they look at me as if I'm not right in the head.

Now I shall attempt to explain why that is so.

You see, the chickens in Malaysia (and most other South East Asian countries) must not be fed right or injected with so much growth hormones that their meat mutates into this tough, stringy texture when cooked. Actually I don't know the reason why the meat is tough, and I don't intend to look it up either. Some of the search results might upset me.

In my family, my parents would often pick out the dark meat for my grandmother (whenever she eats with us) because she claims that her false teeth would not be able to chew through the ~~rubber pieces~~ white meat. Anyway, that would leave my siblings and I with the white meat. I would then not eat any chicken at all.

I hope this explains the chicken better: It gets dry even when it's boiled!

So as soon as I got to taste (normal) chicken outside the country, I was amazed beyond, well, anything, that the chicken breast is probably the tastiest part of the chicken. I have no "special preferences" which I must remember to tell the waiter, and I don't mind boiled chicken.

Oh, the above applies to ~~pork, turkey, beef...um, lamb...~~all kinds of other meats too!

I'm ending this entry with this quote from http://www.meemalee.com

" I would come back just for that chicken which was impressively moist for breast meat"

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They Might be Fruits, or Vegetables...or Aliens

Jillian R.

I don't know why it took so long for us to finally head down to Chilseong Market. It's been a bit more than a year now that I've been living in Daegu - and the market is about 5 minutes by taxi or 15-20 mins walk from our apartment.

For the past year, every time we pass by the market in a taxi, as if on cue, I go "I really think we should come here one of these days".

One of the first things that come to view as one looks towards the market is a big kitchen supply store. Silver and gold colored steel basins and hundreds of ladles could be seen hanging outside (and all around) the shops. Yes, there's more than one shop.

(This one is only one of the smaller stores, there are about a dozen or so kitchen supply stores around the market area)

The main purpose of going there today was to get a muffin baking sheet. My last attempt to make some muffins failed because apparently you can't just pour the batter into those baking paper cups.

Anyway, asking for the sheet was quite...impossible. The store assistants couldn't understand what a "muffin" is. I tried saying "small cake" and drawing 6 circles (representing the 6 cups on a muffin baking sheet) within a rectangle, but I think I've made matters worse!

After a couple of stores we gave up. We looked around and couldn't see any, amidst the hundreds of different steaming trays.

They even have the Chinese food delivery boxes - but nothing for baking.

(See, the boxes come in different sizes!)

As we walked further into the market, things got more interesting. Just like everywhere else in Korea, all the shops/vendors were grouped together according to the goods they were selling. For example, if you see one pharmacy in an area of town, chances are, walk along the street and you will probably find at least three or four more.

The "ginseng section" of the market was really quite impressive. Most of the stores had heaping displays of ginseng of all sizes. These vendors would make a fortune selling these back in Malaysia; where people pay an arm and a leg for ginseng.

The "fish section" is probably best avoided by people who feel squirmish around worms and other slimy things. There were big tubs of eels, and longish fish which I've never seen before. Being a seafood lover, everything looked delicious. In fact, the Korean spicy barbecued eel is one of my favorites!

Before I could even wonder if the baby turtles were sold as pets, Eric confirmed that they were food. It breaks my heart that people would (still) eat baby turtles! One of the bigger turtles poked its head above the water and I wanted to bring it home with me - but then again, it might cost a fortune to buy.

Past those were more seafood stalls selling everything from sea urchins, octopuses, squids and various kinds of sea monsters and of course fish. For the first time since I came to Korea, I saw fish fillets! Not being able to speak Korean fluently definitely makes buying fish quite impossible. Once we bought some normal looking fish which was probably 99% bone - and was very, very fishy.

The "pig section" of the market was probably the most shocking. Every stall had a pig's head on display as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It wasn't even roasted, just a plain, um...pink-ish pig's head sitting in the middle of their stall(s). It freaked me out a little, although the knuckles and ribs they were selling sure looked appetizing.

Then came the best part of the day, we were about to turn around when we saw a little hole-in-the-wall kind of restaurant hidden behind some jackets and shoes (stall, that is!). At 5.30pm, every table in the bulgogi (beef) place was packed. Plus, the woman barbecuing outside was quite insistent that we try.

The smell was so good that we really didn't need much coaxing.

The restaurant reminded me of the Hong Kong noodles stalls, where everyone eats, pays and promptly leaves.

We didn't have to wait long, within minutes, side dishes were brought to the table.

(The Spicy Korean Salad is one of my favorite Korean dishes)

The charbroiled bulgogi turned out to be quite heavenly. Although now as I'm writing this I'm feeling pangs of extreme guilt due to amount of fat I've just consumed. Anyway, even the kimchi wasn't too sour, therefore tasted just right. I'm not a big fan of the brine shrimp and raw garlic and I must say I'm quite puzzled by how the Koreans could just dip the garlic in twenjang (spicy bean sauce) and eat it as if the sharp, garlicky taste does not bother them.

Anyway, the meal was incredibly satisfying.

Ahh, I almost forgot to mention that we bought something which we thought were shallots. Believe it or not, we can't find shallots here. Anyway, I was so happy that we finally found some. All the way home, we discussed what we would make with it - curries, deep fry some as garnish, we even thought we might cook and freeze some to use later on.

I thought they were rather peculiar looking shallots;

But alas! They weren't shallots at all! We have been duped! I mean, the woman at the stall told us what it was - in Korean. So it counts as being duped, right?

Facebook is an amazing thing I tell you, I later on posted this picture on my profile and within hours, the mystery was solved (credits to E--). Yes, it a prickly pear. I've never had one before, hence thinking it might be a small, unripened pomegranate.

Anyway, stay tuned, more adventure-trips shall be posted.