Inner Journey

  Sook ju namul is the name of mung bean sprout in Korea. Suk Ju namul is inexpensive and common vegetable in Korea and other far east countries. The photo is stir-fried sook joo namul dish served to us for free in a lamb skewers restaurant. Because we are regular to this place, this food is always given for us even if we do not order and both me and Leo enjoyed its crunchy texture and taste. In Korea, bean sprouts are more common than mung bean sprout, but in other Asian countries, mung bean sprouts are more often used for culinary purpose. One of my favorite Japanese foods is fried beef with mung bean sprout. Sook Ju namul contains a lot of minerals and vitamins necessary for the human body and helps relieve hangovers. In summer, it easily goes bad much faster than other vegetables such as bean sprouts and spinach thus caution should be exercised in handling.   Because of this nature, some people believe that the word “Sook Ju” stems from the name of the traitor. Arguably...

  On last Sunday, just before our ritual of culinary tourism over weekend, we went to Leo’s favorite cat café, Savannah Coshca, which is home to almost 20 adult cats and kittens. Although this is the place for Leo, I also enjoyed much because cats have been one of my best animal friends.  The cat with dark fur in the first photo goes by dark cloud and the cat in the second photo is Deoku who is indeed pussycat loving sleeping in customers arms and on pet furniture. Leo bought two chicken breast packs for pets and fed flocking feline friends with pleasure. Their feeding frenzy, some savannah cats even jumped in an attempt to catch bowl containing breasts. As a matter of fact, me and Leo are allergic to furs of animals as well as pollens thus we sometimes sneezed and having runny nose.  But such problems never stopped enthusiastic cat lovers like us go there! I remember that, especially on chilly, snowy days, cats provided both warmth better than blankets and brought se...

  This time, I happened to choose two cans of Hanmaek in the fridge of a convenience store. This beer is a relatively new (in 2021) product of OB Beer. I was trying to find out Hite-Jinro’s new beer Kelly, but it was not anywhere yet. In reality, it was first time for me to know that Hanmaek is in the market because I have been very insensitive to what is going on with domestic beers. The spokesmodel of the Hanmaek was an actor Lee Byung-hun. I think if you watched “Mister Sunshine”, then you may be familiar with his name. It was very unusual to employ such famous entertainer to promote it, reflecting on company’s seriousness to increase market share. Hanmaek is a 4.6 % ABV (alcohol by volume) lager beer made by OB Beer with the intention of making a lager representing Korea. Unlike some malt beer released in last few years, domestic rice is used to produce this beer. OB Beer did not properly distribute its product in restaurants as it was released in the COVID-19 time. Even th...

  I wrote this article on 3 rd of April, which marks the bloodiest event in the period between the independence and Korean war. Have you ever wondered why April is the cruelest month in the year? Well, I am familiar with this expression as I am a big fan of Eliot and read his “wasteland” many times.   And with Leo, we went to the park behind the city hall today, because of Leo’s health condition, he was not able to go to school and had been with me all day. Since it was the time long before the end of classes, no kid of his age was seen in the empty playground, seemed to be literally wasteland. In his poem, Thomas (Eliot) envisioned that our mundane life with funs quickly faded away and everything ended soon, leading him to write poem lamenting ephemeral existence. That’s my interpretation and as two of us stood there, watching myriad of fallen petals of cherry blossoms covered the ground, saddened, and decided to go somewhere else. Later we briefly visited rooftop café in ...