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Korean Winter Cometh! |
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So winter was depressing. I am not used to staying indoors for so long. I would have to say that the best part about this winter was when my mom and dad came to visit for a week. It was a holiday here (Seolnarl) which is the equivalent of New Years and Christmas together. We had no idea that it would be the coldest week of the year, when we encouraged them to come. It was beyond cold. I had to wear two pairs of long underwear, thick cords and two pairs of wool socks on the bottom. On the top, two long undies, a thin wool sweater, a very thick wool sweater, a down jacket, a scarf and a wool scarf, plus mittens. This was every time that I left the house! I am sure all you people from back east, are thinking to yourselves, yeah, so what? But all I have to say to you is. . . just because one can do it, doesnt mean that they have to like it. I got very used to always having cold feet and wearing so many layers over the course of the winter. My poor family from sunny San Diego, on the other hand, was not used to it! The temperature was so low that they suffered horribly! Of course this didnt matter since they were happy to see me and tomas, of course. And we were so happy to see them!
I was so proud of them just for leaving the country! They tried many Korean dishes and were overall, very adventurous. While they were here we visited a Buddhist temple up in the mountains (see the pix on our site). This was very brave, considering how cold it was up there. But I think it was worth it to see not only the temple, but a beautiful frozen stream. While up there we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful view, but the howling wind that instantly froze our exposed skin on our faces, quickly drove us indoors and back down the mountain.
The food here is actually pretty good. There are many dishes that I like. Perhaps some of you have gone out for Korean Barbecue at home? Well, here it is just great! You order beef or pork ribs or roasted duck or marinated meat and sit on the heated floor around a big long table with a gas-powered grill built into it. There is one grill for every 4 people. The servers bring out about 20 small plates of side dishes of all types. Everyone snacks on these as the meat, veggies and freshly cut mushrooms and garlic cook in front of you. When this finishes you take a lettuce leaf or another type of leaf, put some sauce on it, grab some meat and wrap it up like a bite sized leaf taco. You do this over and over until you are stuffed. It really is wonderful. The best part is that you get as much of the side dishes as you want. Then at the end of the meal they bring out a cup of persimmon/ginger juice. Just beautiful.
I have finally figured out enough Korean to order delivery food. I was very excited when I first mastered this. Prior to said mastery, Tomas and I had to survive on pizza from the corner pizza shop, when we couldnt face cooking, because they knew us and where we live.
Cooking is interesting when you have to figure out how to cook entirely new dishes with ingredients and instructions written in Korean and completely different veggies. In fact, just the other night I ruined a perfectly wonderful assortment of sautéed veggies with a new sauce I bought. It was REALLY AWFUL. Tom couldnt even eat it, and that says a lot! Thankfully, though, my private lessons help me a lot in this area. They tell me how to cook things and what they are called and so forth. Everything is an adventure!
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