Cow Parts

MOOOOOOO. That’s me being a cow.

Hello all! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break – yes I realize I’m a bit late. Anyhow, I thought I would do a short little blog on cow parts. I made beef tang no less than four times already this winter so I thought I would share some of the different parts of cow you can buy at the butcher shop so you can see what it looks like.

Knee caps. If you go to Jinju Gomtang, they have a great do-ga-ni tang - though I confess that I haven’t been there in a very long time since I’m not out and about in K-town like I was in my twenties. =P They give you kitchen shears and a big plate of knee caps with soft tendons falling off the bones. I loved eating all the tendons and dipping into their soy sauce/wasabi mix. Squeamish? Don’t be. Give it a try and you might become a fan!

This is where the marrow is. Even if you don’t use other parts, I suggest adding some beef marrow to any gook or tang you make.

Ox tails are always a favorite in tangs. I always separate my meat after boiling for a while and store it for easier access.

Beef brisket. After boiling for a few hours, I will take this out of the soup and let it cool down. Then you just take a sharp kitchen knife and slice the meat into thin strips.

Beef Feet. This is definitely not for the weak of heart, but I guarantee your gook will be much more milky and flavorful if you add some feet. Try it. I promise you won’t regret it.

I normally use all the ox tails and then use about half of everything else. Let it drain in water and then boil and throw out the water.

You can store the remaining cow parts for another time.

Remember, boil and throw it out once!

Then wash and clean all your bits and pieces and add water and boil, boil, boil. You can see the more in-depth how-to over HERE and HERE.

Hope everyone has a great holiday! We will be heading over to the Motherland again to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Seoul. And yes, food pictures from the homeland will be coming up again so get ready to salivate.

And can someone please tell North Korea to tone it down a little while we’re over there? Thanks.

Korean Food in China

LingLing and I were staring at KFC and McDonald's, both of us not wanting to eat fast food but also not wanting Chinese food either, when we noticed this new Korean restaurant right in between the two. I, for one, was really excited. I've been dying for some barbecue!

They have all the usual stuff on the first few pages of the menu: kalbi, (beef) sam gyeop sal, (thick bacon) and on the next few pages, not so usual things. I don't think I'll be ordering the Roast Chicken Stomach, Roast Chicken Heart or Sliced Ox Tongue today. I ordered bulgogi and something for LingLing as she doesn't really like meat that much.

One of the differences between here and Korea, and I didn't find this out until the bill came, but they actually charge you extra for things like the coals, 6 Kuai (about 75 cents). It's not really a big deal, but why not just add the price in with the meat. I mean, who's going to order raw Chicken heart and not cook it? Then again, this is China.

Also, and I can't see this going over well with the Korean population - you have to buy kimchi for 8-10 kuai (over a dollar) and even the leaves are not free, another 10 kuai. My favorite extra charge was 2 kuai, for the dipping sauce which we dodn't order but came with the meal. We were shocked they didn't charge us when we asked for more garlic!

LingLing doesn't really like Korean food, to be honest. I can't blame her as she's only had it a few times and for most people it's an acquired taste. However, most of the places we've tried have been Chinese Korean style, which is much different. This is the first authentic place I took her and she really enjoyed it. Notice the change in her expression when she sees the food come...

She mostly likes vegetables and so this was a nice surprise for her: bimim bap, which is basically mixed vegetables with rice in a stone bowl. It's pretty much all I ate when I first went to Korea and hence why even now I can't eat it anymore.

Here it all is. You can see that 2 kuai sauce there in front. I think the soup was free, but I could be wrong.

Despite the pettiness of being charged extra for every little thing, the food and service was very good. They came to change the grill every 5 minutes. And even with all the hidden charges the total came to much less than it would in Korea. I think we paid 75 kuai, just under $10. In Korea all this would have been around $20. I guess the way they do it just seems sneaky, but as LingLing said to me, "In China, nothing is free." I'm just happy I found such a place to get my Korean fix of barbecue. I also found a Korean fried Chicken and Hoff place, too, which I'll have to get pictures of next time I go.

Slow Down and Look at the Purple Flowers

When I was in Gyeongbokgung in Gwanghwamun one day I noticed people zipping and zooming by these nice flowers without so much as the slightest glance. Seoul people: stop! Slow down! Look around you! Look at this beauty! There's time to enjoy life and it's many gifts. Don't hurry your lives away on meaningless hustle and bustle. For what do you pass up these flowers for? Can you even remember last Thursday? How about last Friday at 6:00? What were you doing then? It's not too late to start enjoying today! Oops, look at the time. I have to hurry off to class.

Sam Gyeop Sal

Take a look at this picture of Sam Gyeop Sal smoking on a hot stone grill. This is yet another of my favorite dishes. You mix pieces of the meat, sauce, garlic, kimchi, tofu, mushrooms, or any of the other side dishes and roll it up in a fresh lettuce leave and chomp! chomp! chomp! Oh wonderful Korean food - my mouth is watering at the mere thought!

Jake the Snake

This is my friend Jake with his woman at a club called Stomper's in Hongdae. Look at him turn on the charm. Surely she can't resist!


This is my friend Jake after about 10 beers. Watch as he turns into a raging red-eye'd dance machine. Hold the mouse over the picture to find out Jake's secret thoughts...there's a new thought everyday, so check back often.


Here's my Australian friend Mark from the guesthouse. Are you having a good time, Mark? Say "Kimchi!"

The Seoul Blog - Getting Drunk Out of Your Mind

Koreans in general are drinkers. They are among the top alcohol consumers in the world. And when they drink, they tend to drink hard and fast. There is no moderation. It's not uncommon to see people staggering down the street early in the evening barely able to walk, vomiting on the streets. I'm not sure whether it's the peer pressuring system of "one shot" that requires them to down shot after shot of liqour in rapid succession, or whether it's an inherit need to quickly and completely escape the pressures of Korean life. In any event, the more you can drink here, amazingly, the more socially admirable you become. Also the bars stay open until the customers go home, and you can by booze at anytime of the day or week.


I remember the first time I drank Soju, a Korean vodka based drink. It was with my first boss, after signing the contract to work at his school. It seemed a little odd to me to be drinking with my boss, much less pounding one shot after another in some kind of competition. Needless to say I lost miserably. He put away 3 bottles without a flinch. I had about 1 and-a-half before I excused myself to go home and vomit and to get up early for my first day of work with a headache and upset stomach.


Check out this article called, The Global Hangover Clinic.


Looks like all that beer and Soju caught up with these guys. It's 11:00 o'clock and already one guy is passed out cold. His buddy across the table is engaged in singing to himself and performing some kind of bizarre dance. The other guy maintains control. He'd better drink a few more.



The passed out guy pukes on himself. He wakes up for a moment, chews the
vomit in his mouth, swallows, and falls back to sleep. His buddy across the table
stops dancing and has a look. It would be a shame to let this moment slip
into the past, forever forgotten. For posterity, I snap a picture from the shadows.

A Scavenger Hunt and Ngo's Departure

From time to time, our school organises events on the weekends for the teachers to participate in. Jareb Steines, a teacher at the Dongnae branch, recently put together a Scavenger Hunt. We met up at Busan tower in Nampodong at 11am on a Sunday.

The idea of a scavenger hunt is to put together small teams of people and complete as many set tasks as possible. The tasks are usually things like "Collect three different kinds of flower" or "Take a photo of yourself standing next to a bridge." Completing the tasks necessitates traveling to different areas of the city, finding stuff out and having fun.

John, Anthony and I went out to show support. Having stayed out quite late the night before, we weren't in a particularly competitive mood though. For those of you who don't know, blue Powerade is a rudimentary hangover cure.

Although many teachers had said they would come, only six others including Jareb actually showed up. The 11am on a Sunday factor may have had something to do with it.

But we weren't about to let a good idea go to waste, so we formed 3 teams and started completing our tasks anyway. We would meet up in Seomyeon around 3 hours later and find out who the winning team was. One of the first tasks was to take a photo of two people wearing 'Couple-Ts', which are matching outfits that couples here often wear. But we couldn't find any so we took one with these military dudes.

The next task we did was to "Take a photo of a team member giving W1000 ($1) to a kid under the age of four." Anthony did the honours.

I like the expression on the kids face: What is going on here?

Here's John and Anthony completing "A photo of one team member feeding another team member kim chi." Why were we back home all of a sudden and not out competing, you may ask?

A: Because we were tired.

But we went out again soon after that.

"Two team members outside a Family Mart wearing face masks."

"A before-and-after shot of a dirty public place that has been cleaned up by the team."

John's face mask was optional.

John and Anthony grew to enjoy the anonymity provided by their masks and opted to keep them on for the rest of the event. It's always a little bit odd when there are two masked guys following you around in a department store. Thanks to Anthony and John, I am now used to it.

Team Dongnae ended up winning the event, having completed more than forty of the fifty tasks. The winning prize was a high-five from Jareb. I'm glad we made it out though.

Devin and Tamara invited us over again for Thanksgiving this year. I still find the event to be a festive curiousity (for whom are the thanks given to?), but I'm never one to turn down a nice dinner. Different teachers from the branches had prepared a variety of dishes.

Jason Medley enjoying the fine selection of wines available.

They had ordered two turkeys and there was plenty of food to go around. One thing I hadn't had in a while: Deviled eggs.

Num num num.

We ate and ate. I had three plates, which was a far cry from last year's record. But I'm on a diet these days and trying to condition myself for the cafeteria luncheons that I'll be surviving on in Seoul.

Homemade pumpkin pie or strawberries and cream anyone?

Although they look quite nice, one thing that Anthony and I have in common is that we never enjoy eating sweets.

Cake, donuts or cream buns? Ewww, no thank you.

It's a different story for John though.

All the food and wine was a little too much for poor old Vince, who promptly fell asleep on the wall.

As one does.

It snowed quite heavily in Busan last week. On average it snows here about twice a year, so it was very rare to see so much. It's never enough to make a snowman out of, but I am always hopeful.

John and I moved into our apartment in Seomyeon more than a year ago. At that time, it was quite expensive to get the key-money (deposit) together. But we scraped up enough dough and have been living together for quite some time. In Australia I moved house more than 31 times (I lost count at 31) since I left home at the age of 16. Having lived with so many different types of personality, I can safely say that John is a very easy person to live with. I've never seen him irritated for any household related issue.

Everyone has what I call a 'default mood', which is the mood that they are usually in when they wake up in the morning and nothing significant has happened yet. John's default mood is blank and happy, which means he's open for suggestions as to the days activities and is always feeling pretty good about things.
We decked out our house with boys toys: an X-Box 360, 42 inch plasma screen, poker set and a hub that allows wireless multiplayer. In the photo above, John and Anthony are playing Madden '09. We spent a lot of weekend afternoons like this.

But all good things must come to an end. After spending a solid 2 years in Korea, John's contract was up and it was time for him to head onto greener pastures. Seeing as he's heading back to Canada in the winter, I guess they're not really greener pastures so much as snowier pastures. Anyway.

We had a farewell party out with friends the weekend before. He may be coming back to Korea sometime in the future.

Anthony, Heather and I took him out to our favourite Thai restaurant in Busan. It's at Haeundae beach, very close to the Queen's Motel. The dishes are typically small but very well flavoured and the service is excellent.

We also went fishing, which we were supposed to do more often after we bought our new fishing rods. We went out to Gwangan on Sunday and it wasn't long before John caught the first fish in our fishing history. It looks like a piece of seaweed or something in the photo, but in real life it was flapping and did have gills. On such an auspicious occasion such as this, we decided to be noble and set the Leviathan free.

Here's me, Joon, Anthony and John at the airport, right before he left.

The problem with Korea is that everyone has to go home at some point. But every ending is a new beginning and it's better to think of the good times we've had, rather than the company we've lost.

Good luck and work hard John!

See you next time everyone.