Jeju - Rocks man, ROCKS

I was on Jeju Island for a week about a week ago. Jeju is a volcanic island and official province of Korea which resides off of the southern coast. Because of its natural geology, most stone used on the island is volcanic rock. You dont notice it at first but when you do it's literally everywhere. Every building with exposed rock, the curbs, you name it. I like the black porous stone, it adds a dark exotic shadow that tells you that you are absolutely not in continental Korea.

 In Jeju the air is crisp and with an undeniable bouquet courtesy of the sea. It has green palm trees, black and white sand beaches, and a skyline in technicolour.

 Obsidian ridges leave soft gouges around Jeju.

The first Korean Gam Ja Tang

For those in the dark, Gam Ja Tang (literal translation; potato soup. The Gam Ja [potato in korean] is actually the korean name for the neck of a pig. So its pig neck soup and not nearly as strange as it sounds) is fucking delicious. Its recipe includes such hard hitters as apple, shrimp (only for flavour) and sesame as well as healthy helpings of a local fermented spicy condement knows as Gochujang (available all over toronto, you have no reason not to try it).  Ive had it at every restaurant that serves it in the Bloor KoreaTown but, of course, its best in korea.

on the top left you will see what we're having. 3,800 won is about $3.50 canadian.

A basic table layout. The Gam Ja Tang is served boiling in stone bowls. In the background you see some kimchi with both cabbage and radish.

A good chunk of pork. Korean cuisine has revolutionized my view of Pig as a meat. When you eat Gam Ja Tang you should remove the pig from the broth.

A great pic of pork. When you eat Gam ja Tang you can (should) expect a supple salmon-like pice of pork (mature ham more like) with tones of onion, pepper and smooth cabbage. It's hard to define but coming from someone familiar with north american cuisine its easy to love.

In Korea its often served with a sweet wasabi side. So much is great about this inclusion. Soft horseradish with added sweetness that the pork craves, amazing. It sounds good because it is.

July 1st 2010 - The Subway

The Seoul subway system is something to admire. It's intimidating at first (especially coming from the one line that makes up the Toronto subway) but really is easy to master. All stops and information is bilingual. Its very clean, quite and effiecient.

Also they have this great touchscreen map and trip planner. In addition to that they have a google streetview-type thing where you can look at the surrounding area of a station and look for restaurants, whatever.

Mositah.

Hof and Soju

At the writing of this post, I (a 23 year old Canadian Male with an H-1 visa) have been in Seoul for 17 days. I am not an english teacher living in Itaewon. Why come to rome to act like a greek? This is my photo, food and maybe music, blog to document my stay in South Korea.