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 ...

  Now, spring seems to be everywhere despite chill air early in the morning and at night. The most obvious harbingers of seasonal change are blooming of cherry blossoms elsewhere in our apartment complex, attracting attention of villagers. I took picture of cherry flowers against backdrop of clear spring sky. I thought flowery image of early spring matches honey taste well and decided to drink something other than soju or beer this weekend. This time we chose something sweet to drink with broiled fish. When I really want to drink sweeter liqueur, it is usually bokbunja wine, but this time I ordered mulberry wine made from mulberries from Buan County in Jeonbuk province. It comes with slim bottle that resembles Canadian ice wine bottles. Mulberry fruit is called "Odi" in Korea and the bottle has the name “Odi Wine” on it. Mulberry is used not only as a general food ingredient but also as a medicinal resource because it contains alanine and asparagine acid that decomposes alcoh...

  This time, we went to fusion sea food restaurant Hoepocha to enjoy fresh raw fish dishes before weather gets too hot to have them. It is March and the best season to have Hoe or Korean style raw fish cuisines will be over soon.   The fish, however, we had this time was Japanese seabass (Nongeo in Korean) and it is known that one of the exceptionally best summer raw foods.   In Korea, the bestseller fish in the seafood markets are olive flounder, rock fish, sea bream, sea bass, and salmon.   Among these, seabass is more delicious during summer days because this fish spawn in fall and consequently, they begin to prepare for reproduction in summer and same is true for croaker (Mineo). In fish markets, both wild caught, and farm raised seabass are available. There are few species that show different characteristics when they are served as raw fish dishes and seabass is one of them. The muscle of wild caught seabass is bright and back is light gold, but farm raised bass...

  If you are a foodie looking for unique taste and texture, then puffer fish dishes are for you. Fugu sashimi and other Japanese cuisine are famous and have a long history. Today, I am talking about Korean puffer fish dishes. Because of its potentially lethal poison in many parts of this types of fish, they are considered edible only in few countries including Japan, Korea, and China in the world with strict restrictions in treatments and cooking. In Korea, puffer fish is called bokeo and is served in both cooked and raw. There are 21 species that can be used for cooking, but only three or four species are found in menus in Korean restaurants. I recently visited bokeo restaurant Namdobokguk, which specialize in puffer fish soup. That is near subway 7 Sinjungdong station. As in the photos below, I ordered Milbok (Green rough back puffer fish) set menu that comes with soup, fries and salad made with puffer fish with several side dishes. Each table in the restaurant has electric stove...