To Market, To Market

The Chungang Market in Anyang.

If there is one shopping experience I absolutely love, it's a good market. I miss the Farmers Market back home in Charlotte a lot, but thankfully SoKo has some options as well. Last weekend I strolled around Anyang looking for some Christmas presents for my family, when I stumbled across the Chungang Market. Hooray!

Spices, beans, roots and lots of things that I can't pronounce.

The Chungang Market is a semi-outdoor market that is simply bursting with stall after stall of vendors selling everything from underwear to intestines. Yup, I said intestines. You can watch a woman measuring rice, then walk two feet away and watch another woman gutting a pig. I won't lie, some of the sights were a bit traumatic.

Ginseng!

Although South Korea is very techno-savvy and seems to be rushing into the future at light speed, I love the fact that they're still very much into Slow Food, farmers markets and alternatives to Western medicine.

Korean Fare

Korean side dishes, called banchan

Before coming to South Korea, I had never heard of Korean food. Ever. When I told people that I was considering moving here, everyone said, "Hope you like kimchi!" I had to look it up online to see what it was. Honestly, I was frightened.

Since moving here nearly three months ago I have fallen in love with Korean food. Not only is it colorful and delicious, it's very nutritious. Some sources say Korean food is the healthiest cuisine in the world. I'm pretty sure those sources are Korean. Still, it's quite good.

I'm sure I've only tried the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many varieties of Korean fare, but some of my favorites so far are bulgogi (Korean BBQ), naengmyeon (cold noodle soup), lotus root, dok bok ki (similar to a rice pasta, though they're called rice cakes) and - yes - kimchi. Kimchi isn't really a main dish, it's pretty much always served with banchan (side dishes) which come with all Korean meals. In Korea, there's no tax on food in restaurants, no tip and all the side dishes are gratis. You can eat an amazing meal for less than $8... and I've even had amazing meals for less than $2.50!

It's quite a relief that the food here is amazing, and I'm looking forward to all the new dishes I have yet to try. Luckily I get to try a lot of new things since I basically just point at the menu and hope whatever they bring me didn't used to be someone's pet. It's always an adventure...

Seafood soup. I found out later that some of the weird, brain-like things in the soup are "warty sea squirts". Appetizing, huh?

I'm learning how to make some Korean food... and this is my first attempt at preparing lotus root. It turned out really well!

Dok bok ki from a street vendor. You stand at the cart and spear the rice cakes with a long toothpick, and to drink, they pour you hot fish juice broth out of a vat of boiling fish cakes. Mmm... refreshing?

Deliciousness, Part II

Korean Melon

I love trying new things! Luckily, everything in South Korea is new to me, so there's never a shortage of firsts.

Yesterday I tried my first Korean Melon, and it was really tasty! I wasn't sure what it was at first glance... a gourd? A fruit? A vegetable? A piece of sports equipment? Still, I thought I'd give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did.

It tastes similar to a honeydew melon, but is much smaller and a bit sweeter, I think. There's not a lot of flesh to them, so the payoff for carefully cutting one up is nominal.

All said, I think I'll keep buying these beauties. They're tasty and relatively cheap compared to the rest of the fresh produce here in Korea. More on the exorbitant prices of produce in a later post...

Deliciousness, Part I

Banana milk... super yummy!

Do you like things that are delicious? If so, banana milk is something you absolutely must try!

I'm not the biggest fan of bananas, or of milk, really. I mean, sure I'll eat a banana on occasion and I eat my cereal with milk, but the idea of chugging down, and thoroughly enjoying, banana milk was a little foreign to me.

Luckily, I live in South Korea, where everything is a lot foreign to me, so I decided to give banana milk a go. And folks, may I just say, it was delicious!! It's creamy and just a little sweet, and full of banana-y goodness. And if you really love bananas, well I can't imagine how much more delicious this tasty little beverage would be to you!

I have no idea about nutritional content (for anything here, really) but my taste buds say yes, and so the banana milk will stay stocked in my tiny little fridge. Yum!