Octopus

     One day while we were walking through Yeongtong, Jungwon noticed one of the new restaurants. She got really excited. After about a month we finally made it to the restaurant.
     The restaurant is named Kimmyeongja {김명자} and they specialize in octopus. After work tonight Jungwon and I stopped by to order a couple of freshly chopped squirmy things and soju.
     The restaurant itself was very nice. It of course had floor seating, but the cushions were nice and thick. The tables looked nice and the side dishes were very good.
     The side dishes included diced turnip in a red pepper sauce, white kim chi served in a bowl of ice, and gaeronjjigae (which is a type of boiling scrambled egg). Jungwon ordered us the sanakji {사낙지} which didn't have a price listed on the menu, and a bottle of soju. In the end the whole meal came out to be less than 25,000 won.
     Sanakji is nothing more than freshly chopped octopus legs. The guts and the section that I guess you can call the shoulders were served in a side dish. The octopus is so fresh that the legs continue to writhe about on the plate, and they are actually quiet tricky to eat as the suction cups grab on to everything, including your mouth.
     The still pictures of the meal aren't so bad. I made many, many movies, and they may not be for the faint of stomach. Sorry for playing with my food, but it was truly an experience I will not forget.

Octopuses

Fresh Octopus

First (and second) Bite

Stomach and Tired Tentacles

Closeups

Shabu-shabu

     Unfortunately I'm going to skip posting about the Turkish restaurant that we ate at on Sunday. We didn't take many pictures, and the few we did take were too dark to make the food look yummy. Instead of Kebab, I present, Shabu-Shabu!
     Shabu-shabu is one of the meals that is so healthy, yet so yummy, you can't stop eating. Jungwon suggested that we stop by a local restaurant for lunch yesterday. it had been a few weeks since we'd last been so I quickly agreed, and gorging was commenced.
     Shabu-shabu {샤브샤브} (the current-correct romanization from the Korean would be syabeu-syabeu) was a dish that came to Korea from Japan. The basic idea is for the restaurant to give it's patrons a pot of boiling broth, and enough food to feed them twice. Shabu-shabu usually has thinly sliced beef (it browns in just a few seconds in the boiling broth), some mushrooms, and tonnes of veggies. After the pot of goodies is eaten, the servers will bring some noodles, and freshen the broth a little. After the noodles they'll ladle out most of broth and throw in some seaweed mixed rice.
     The shabu-shabu that we ordered was beef and dumplings. Usually we have to shovel in the goodies ourselves once the pot begins to boil, but for this particular meal the pot came preloaded. Luckily this particular meal excluded the final rice course. After the cabbage salad, main course, and noodles, I don't think either of use could have touched the rice.
     Enough babbling. Here are some pictures from Monday's lunch.

shabushabu

Busy, busy, busy

     As of late, I've been busy looking for another job. I didn't have to start this early but I did, and I hope that I've found a good one. I'm not going to hold my breath. Both of my previous jobs in Korea sounded great until after the VISA.
     Now, I know that people come here to see pictures and movies of Korea and hopefully me, and not to hear me whine or rant about work. Instead I'll talk about food. I have lots of pictures from various meals that I've eaten in the past week. I even have pictures of a potential meal. A Korean treat that I promised Jungwon that I'd try.
     I will post the meals in the order eaten. Tonight's post is from two very large chains in the Seoul/Gyeonggido areas. The restaurant is Pho Bay. It's a Vietnamese restaurant, and the food is filling, delicious, and healthy. David was gracious enough to pay for the meal as a gift for Jungwon's coming birthday (July 25). The bar that we went to afterwards is named Wa Bar. The chain is very popular among the foreigners. This was only the second time that I had been to one.
     The usual main course that we get at Pho Bay is a plate of assorted veggies and a bit of meat, a plate of hard rice paper discs, and a bowl of hot water. You take a disc of rice paper, soak it in the hot water, spread it onto your wooden plate, laden it with veggies, roll it up, dip it in peanut butter and enjoy. It's a lot of work for a few bites, but it's really worth it.

Pho Bay

     After Pho Bay, Meg wanted to go out for drinks. David suggested the Wa Bar (western style bar specializing in imported beer). David had a Jack and Coke (not pictured) I had the Lowenbrau, Jungwon tried the Hooch Ice; Lemon, and Meg had the ultra-captain tall glass of Wa-bar draft something. The most interesting part of the trip to the Wa Bar was that the waitress had no idea what a Jack and Coke was, so David had to mix it himself.

Wa Bar