Fish Bread and Chocolat Chaud

 

Winter is here in Korea, and at the end of a frigid weekend of sightseeing,  I arrived at the subway station near my apartment as the first flakes of snow were beginning to fall. As for my neighborhood and teaching I’m going to put these things off for the next post, simply because these topics are somewhat of a mixed bag, and food is literally a more palatable subject.

Gyeongbok Palace

Window Shopping in Myeong-dong

snow, snow go away...

 

With the winter has arrived the perennial winter staple, fish bread, made by pouring a pancake-like batter into a fish shapped mold and filled with sweet red bean paste. And when you can buy three of these delicious fishies for only ₩1,000 (about a dollar) and with a street vendor conveniently near my home they’re too tempting to resist.

fish bread... here fishy, fishy

My second find was by complete (but wonderful) chance.  I was exploring the Itaewon shopping street in Seoul and happened upon a little cafe called Café et M’aime,  I was completely awed by the most authentic chocolat chaud i’ve had (better than Jacques Torres  in New York or  in Chicago with their delectable churros con chocolat) granted there were a couple tiny lumps of undisolved chocolate/sugar, but overall delectable.  I paired the heavenly drink with an equally wonderful bottle of Perrier for an incredible afternoon treat. (update: I went back this weekend and again ordered the chocolat chaud, which was equally wonderful. Also, I didn’t notice any lumps).

Chocolat Chaud and Perrier in Itaewon @ Cafe et M'aime

 

At Jirisan, in Insadong, I dined on hotpot rice and traditional korean side dishes, called banchan. Hotpot rice is rice that is cooked in a stone bowl and the kind I tried had delicious nuts or beans of some kind mixed in.  The most notable feature of this dish is that the stone bowl is so hot the rice on the bottom gets delicously crispy. I regrettably do not have a photo of the hotpot rice that I ate. However you can see the dish of delicious (and half-eaten)  japchae , which is one of my favorite Korean foods, in the picture with the banchan.

 

Don't worry, I went in the other door

Korean side dishes at Jirisan

 

I have so many more things I need to write, but in the interest, of finally finishing this post, I’m going to suggest everyone check out my photobucket account photos here. And also here is one last photo from my sightseeing in Korea: the traditional tourist wearing the foreign, exotic, cultural costume photo!!! whoohoo!