Making the Weekend Count

The stars aligned in Yangjae on Saturday. First, I met up with the Runsploring group at the Yangjae Citizen’s Forest. This park was created in anticipation of the Seoul Asian Games (1986) and the 24th Olympic Games (1988). After a quick lap around the park area we mainly ran on a pleasant path along the creek. Overall, I was underwhelmed, at least in winter. On the flipside, it was great to be in the company of fresh air and running enthusiasts!

Second stop: Yangjae Flower Market. A huge greenhouse filled with vivid orchids, cacti of all types, insect-eating plants, potted herbs, small trees! Wandering around this jungle was a mini-adventure in itself. I snagged some potted rosemary and lucky bamboo…a huge steal.

The last of the three aligning stars was a trip to a café called The Velo from where I had eaten the most delicious ciabatta at a festival only a month before. An hour is a little far for a great café, even for me, but since I was in the area it was not to be missed. Actually tracking it down was a bit of wild goose chase, even though we were equipped with Google Maps. Too often I dig something up from the blogosphere that I try to hunt down in the city. It feels like I'm playing a video game--I'm just the little blue dot trying to reach the red flag! Upon a second sampling of ciabatta and pastries, the journey might just be worth the commute in the future. And the farther you go outside the city, the more wonderful the prices are. Post-workout endorphins + delicious carbs = heaven!

Why is it that I love going to the movies much more than I ever did in America? Is it all the flavors of popcorn (butter, cheese, garlic, and caramel) to choose from? Is it that Korean theaters feel cleaner and fancier? That they are a little cheaper? The love seats for two? Or that seeing an American film is somehow more exciting in a foreign country? American blockbusters play in the many theaters that fill Korea, though usually with earlier or later release dates than in America. Seoul even touts the second largest movie screen in the world and a number of 4D theaters. To compliment an awesome Saturday Italian dinner, we finally managed to see Silver Linings Playbook.

The weekend nearly marked my sixth month anniversary of living in Korea. However, I had been lacking a major experience: a full all-nighter. Bars in Charlottesville close at a conservative 2pm, but nightlife in Korea operates past sunrise. (I'm long overdue for a post on Hongdae...stay tuned.) You might be thinking why on earth people would stay out that late, but let me tell you just how easy it is to lose track of time. Subway opening time (6am) also happens to be a convenient time to wrap up a good night.

For better for worse, instead of making a 20 minute subway ride home at 6am, I encouraged my friends to peer pressure me into heading all the way to Gangnam for a (sickening) American-style brunch. For 30 bucks, we put only a dent in the Alligator’s Back: ten waffles, four generous scoops of ice cream, two piles of whipped cream, and eight fruit compotes. It tasted good but felt…horrible. Unfortunately, it took a stomachache to remind myself of yet another reason to be vegan.

If you don’t go to sleep on Saturday, is it really Sunday? I think it’s only fair that if you have the stamina to make it until Sunday sunrise you get a bonus day. Alas it doesn’t work that way. Sunday morning involved deliriously streaming a high school basketball game and watching a sixteen-point lead in a regional championship game disappear before my eyes. After a nap, I collected myself enough to see Stop Kiss, an enjoyable play performed by an expat acting group. To round out the weekend, we finally made it to the Japanese tofu-inspired restaurant, Kyotofu. My three leaves of lettuce were pricey but delicious. Once I got home and my head hit the pillow they didn’t open until 11 hours later.

Hey, who snuck this picture of us running!?!

 So many gorgeous displays!

A little bonsai

A member of the carnivorous plant family

I'm ready to backpack someplace tropical!

Post-sandwich delight

Yangjae Citizen's Forest is located on the newest of 16 subway lines.

I'm not sure where the driver sits, but it's not in the front car!

Cookin' Nanta

I went to the theater Sunday. Sounds so classy but wait until I describe what I went to see! It’s the longest-running show in Korea (since 1997) and was the first Asian show to reach Broadway. If I would see one show this year, it sounded like this should be the one. It’s also happens to be a musical about cooking…hmm maybe Nanta and I were meant to be.

"Nanta is a non-verbal performance of free rhythmical movements that dramatize customary Korean percussions in a strikingly comedic stage show. Integrating unique Korean traditional drumbeats in a western performance style, Nanta storms into a huge kitchen where four capricious cooks are preparing a wedding banquet. While cooking, they turn all kinds of kitchen items - pots, pans, dishes, knives, chopping boards, water bottles, brooms and even each other- into percussion instruments."

The show wasn’t exactly traditional, despite samul nori percussion played on kitchenware. But it was stimulating, comical, and…very silly. Acrobatics, magic tricks, pantomime, audience interaction. It had it all. We were encouraged to clap and cheer all the while being pelted with objects such as chopped cabbage…and plastic balls? Two audience members were married on stage and others had to compete in a mandu-making race. Children’s laughter echoed throughout the theater. I dare say it was almost too family-friendly for two 20-somethings to be seeing alone…

Of the four cooks, one was female. I was quick to notice how highly misrepresentative this is of cooking duties in Korea. My students and chingus have told me how women do nearly all the cooking and household chores. I suppose it could be that professional cooking is a different circumstance.

The female chef was also a complete bombshell; the show really did have a little bit for everyone after all. Her incredible abdominal region was easy to appreciate since her chef outfit gave an unobstructed view of her midriff…another highly misrepresentative aspect of the culture here. Korea is conservative when it comes to baring midriff and cleavage. I usually have to ask ten people to get a consensus on cultural topics, but I gather that it might be a combination of cultural norms and self-consciousness of the all-too-stereotypical ‘chopstick’ female body type. Though women tout high necklines, the length of shorts and skirts is anything but conservative. This duality of above-the-waist conservatism and miniskirts/booty shorts is always entertaining. Of course this is because of the values my culture has imparted upon me. Who really gets to determine what is or isn’t conservative? (Shout out, Richard Handler!)

Update: Can the new president really ban miniskirts?

The Year of the Snake ~ Happy Seollal!

Happy Seollal! It’s Lunar New Year in Korea (and Asia) and perhaps the biggest holiday of the year. Sunday is the official holiday but it is celebrated as a three-day affair. Seollal is a family holiday. People head to their hometowns to visit their families and worship their ancestors. Children adorn the traditional hanbok clothing. Folk games are played. Ddeokguk (rice cake soup) must be eaten. Most Koreans use Seollal as the date when their age officially increases so the tradition goes that you increase your age by eating a bowl of ddeokguk. If you want to stay young, better not ask for seconds. The kids get excited for Seollal because bowing to their elders results in respectable sums of money. Who do I need to bow to…?

I know Seollal is not my holiday, but it still makes me nostalgic about being with family. Have I really been here for 5.5 months? One of these days a Korean friend will invite me along for a celebration.

All my life I thought I was born in the Year of the Horse. Hours of studying paper placemats at Chinese restaurants…wasted. I never thought to calculate when my birthday falls in the lunar year. As it turns out, I was born in the Year of the Snake! My new personality now includes traits such as ambition, hard work ethic, perfectionism, self-doubt, sympathy, intensity, jealousy, suspicion, courteousness and more depending on the source you read. Apparently my fellow snakes and I are in for a year of bad luck. Well…I guess that settles it. This year I have to celebrate Birthday Year (okay, okay, last birthday joke…maybe.)

Just like Chuseok, Korea is a transportation nightmare during the holiday. Everyone is trading places to visit family and hometowns. Booking tickets must be done in advance and doesn’t come without a price hike. Traffic blows. Lunar New Year is a chaotic time to travel in Asia and not quiet long enough to make it worth it for me. And yes, I also just simply failed to plan ahead.

The long weekend (my second longest vacation of the year!) kicked off with a dinner gathering at my place. A couple coworkers and a couple Korean friends came over for the evening. My chingu (friend) prepared ddeokguk with seafood and haemul pajeon (green onion pancake with seafood.) How simple it is to host a party when you’re not in charge in the kitchen! However, I did make a sweet potato casserole for dessert, by request. The same chingu has been obsessed with it since Christmas and insisted I teach him how to make it. I don’t think he was as impressed the second time around since I very loosely followed the recipe…and the result was less sweet than the first casserole. But then there weren’t any leftovers so it must have been just fine.

Our landlord gifted Bethany and I with another spam gift set. No further comment.

Want to get bit by an ostrich? Or meet squirrels with rabbit ears? Head to Nami Island! Bright and early on a crisp and clear Saturday morning I began a two-hour subway trek to a quaint micronation called Namimara. Little did I know I would be taking my first international trip since arriving in Korea. Namimara Republic is an independent country with its own flag and currency! Transportation to the island is limited to ferry or zipline. Nami is also the set of a popular Korean television drama and is symbolized by snowmen due to a famous first kiss scene on the show.

Nami was a bit like being in Narnia, particularly with a charming covering of snow that hadn’t instantly transformed into the grey slush of the city. Imagine beautiful tree-lined paths, the smell of campfires emanating throughout the entire island, peaceful music echoing down every dirt path. Shops, restaurants, and art galleries are located in the town center. And yes, Nami is home to three curious ostriches. Stick your thumb too close and you might learn what an ostrich beak feels like.

On Sunday, the official day of Seollal, I met up with my Nami buddies again in Insadong, an area that is both touristy and traditional. Thought we didn’t know what would be open on the holiday, this area was probably our best bet for the day. Soondubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu soup) and dolcet bibimbap (hot pot mixed vegetables and rice) with plenty of banchan (side dishes) filled our bellies. Following lunch, we settled into a traditional tea house in side alley. Barefoot and seated on the heated ondel floor, we drank varieties of tea including quince, plum ginger, and double harmony. Traditional food and tea was the perfect way to celebrate Seollal.

In the evening I headed over to SPACE for their ‘Wake the Snake’ mandu-making potluck. Mandu (dumplings) are usually made with pork but we made two vegan types: mushroom-onion and tofu-pumpkin-carrot. It was much simpler and way more fun than I imagined. We pan-fried some and put the rest into the ddeokguk. If you’ve been reading closely, you might notice that I have had two bowls of ddeokguk this new year…I’m losing track of how old I am at this point. Sharing mandu and other potluck offerings with warm familiar faces and a few awesome new ones (that I hope become familiar) was a fabulous way to ring in the new year. The evening ended with an outdoor wall painting for 2013 but I had to catch the last train home before long.

My four-day weekend has nearly come and gone…but I feel rejuvenated! The week ahead will fly by. I loved having extra time to try out some new recipes (smashed chickpea/avocado sandwich, chocolate avocado mousse, bruléed grapefruit, honey-vanilla-almond granola, baked spiced chickpeas, millet-blueberry pancakes) while also enjoying many of my favorite Korean dishes. To wrap up a reviving break I treated my skin to Korean face mask, complementary with cosmetic purchases from one of the gazillion cosmetic shops. I was going to post a picture, but thought I’d spare you the nightmare filled with masked murderers.

Guest chef in the kitchen~flipping that pajeon

Winter Wonderland

Cross-species breeding?

A millisecond later and we would be looking at a very different facial expression

Soju bottle art

Lunch~ soondubu jjigae, dolcet bibimbap, banchan galore

 Cozy tea and ddeok

 Mandu in the making

Waking the snake
(Namsan Tower in the background)

The VEGANing of the End

Believe it or not, vegan life was (and has been) incredible. I wasdaunted by a month long vegan commitment but it was easier than I expected. Ilearned that my food choices are totally mind over matter. And exerting alittle willpower every now and then. I also refuse to eat something that isn'tcompletely delicious, so I've been eating well, to say the least. I canhonestly say…I’ve had the most delicious month of my life.

Instead of harping on all the foods I wouldn’t be eating throughout themonth, I reframed my thoughts to focus on all the awesome food that I would be…somany new recipes and ingredients that I finally had the chance to experimentwith! You would think I’d be working with a more limited base of ingredients, butit ended up increasing! To accompany all the nuts, seeds, dried fruits, grains,oats, my vegan pantry staples have expanded to include coconut oil, unfilteredapple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, chia seeds, dates, and shredded coconut.I barely cooked half of what I had planned to this month. So many new dishes toshow off that posting my vegan highlights on Facebook every few days becamequite overwhelming!

It wasn’t an entirelyperfect vegan month, but it was pretty damn close. I’ll be honest, there were acouple moments that I knew I was consuming something wasn’t completely vegan. Thisincluded ordering a soy latte and at the last second changing my order to asweet-and-salty soy hot chocolate, not realizing soon enough that ordinary hotchocolate is probably not vegan. It also included eating the politest sliver ofchocolate cake for my students who threw me a legitimate surprise birthdayparty.

Therewere also many powerful moments that I turned down tasty foods in the name ofstaying true to my commitment. Even though the month was easier than I built itup to be, I’m incredibly proud of myself for following through. I proved tomyself that I actually do have willpower and self-control (sometimes) which I usedto feel I seldom exercised. It kills me to miss out on a good free meal but Ilearned the world doesn’t end if I do.

Fringebenefit: my skin cleared up a lot! I had a sneaking suspicion I’d been breakingout due to dairy. Many vegans have reported similar experiences. Whether it wassomething inherent to dairy or the added hormones and antibiotics, it doesn’tmatter to me. I don’t plan on introducing dairy or eggs back into my lifeunless I can ensure that they are ethically raised. Dairy just doesn’t seem cleanto me anymore and putting something in your body is the most intimate ofexperiences you can have. I love almond milk and find it an awesome substitutefor most of my milk needs: porridge, cereal, and coffee. Even if I can buyorganic and ‘free-range’ animal products, I’m not sure I’m willing to supportthat level of suffering in food I choose to eat for enjoyment. (I can getcomplete nutrition from an entirely plant-based diet!)

That annoying protein question. I personally believe I am asked aboutprotein because the asker needs to justify their personal dietary choices andunwillingness to change them. There are tons of thriving herbivores in ourworld, both human and animal. I also believe many people over-consume theirshare of the world’s protein. It’s a bit peculiar how some people become quitethe nutrition expert at the first mention of being vegan…uhh nobody cared aboutyour protein intake until you mentioned you were vegan! It is exhausting feelinglike I have to constantly defend my choices. Anyways, for the proteinobsessed...here’s how I can get all the protein I need: all types of beans,lentils, chickpeas, whole grains, quinoa, nuts and nut butters, seeds (chiawoop woop) tempeh, tofu, soymilk, even fruits and veggies!

To coincide with my vegan journey, I began reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer this month. Obsessed. It’snot heavy and surprisingly funny. He doesn’t proselytize like I do. The bookhas reinforced how being vegan embodies so many things I believe in; the more Ilearn, the more I realize how veganism falls completely in line with my values.Over 99% of animal products people consume are from factory farms: the workersare treated like shit, the animals are handled in ways that are morallyunconscionable, the environment of which we depend upon our food is beingdestroyed, our health is being put at risk...and after all that, the resultingfood we eat is hardly nourishing to us anymore!

Eating good food is a personal and financial priority of mine. Oursociety spends a smaller percentage of income on food than any previoussociety. It sounds great…if the cost of food wasn’t being externalized on animalwelfare, our environment, and our health. It seems too obvious that we wouldn’tprioritize the way we spend money to include higher quality food.

The idea of beingvegan forever is very daunting. I know I haven't had my last taste of cheese inmy life, but I will try to be vegan when possible. A few days into February Iindulged in a gastronomic ice cream cone by the name of ‘Pecan Party.’ Ittasted great, but about half way through I was coursed with regret, in stomachand in mind. If I must label my diet, I suppose I hope to be a 'selectiveomnivore.’ This means that if I do eat animal products they are sourced from humanely-raisedfamily farms. I understand how this can sound (pretentious!) but as Jonathan sopointedly says:

“Thechoice-obsessed modern West is probably more accommodating to individuals whochoose to eat differently than any culture has ever been, but ironically theutterly unselective omnivore— “I’m easy; I’ll eat anything” – can appear moresocially sensitive than the individual who tries to eat in a way that is goodfor society.”

When I feel like caving in, I just have to remind myself how muchsuffering I’ll tolerate in my food. “Cruelty:not only the willful causing of unnecessary suffering, but the indifference toit.”