seoul #3 Donuts and Taco Bell

Kimchi is probably in my top 3 of food items. It is more of a side dish, or appetizer to us, but definitely a staple in the Korean diet. It is not uncommon for Koreans to have Kimchi refrigerators, that is how much they eat.
We went on this trip with small children who have yet to develop the same love their mom has for the stuff.
They on the other hand were excited to see Dunkin donuts, Mister donut and street donuts on almost ever corner while walking around Seoul. We had donuts everyday, so we indulged this.


The Ginseng Chicken was a highlight of our eating out experience. A small chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, red dates, and chestnuts. Flavored with ginseng set in a delicious boiling hot broth.

Upon researching Seoul we discovered that it has a Taco Bell. I believe there are a variety of western food chains near the US army base in Itaewon and that is where we found Taco Bell. We turned the wrong way at first when we came up from the subway and almost gave up looking for it. We had a "let's try one more way" discussion and were pleased to find it. This was our only reason for stopping off in this district.
In talking with other Americans, I have found that we are not alone in missing the cheap tex-mex fix that Taco Bell gives to us. HK is not abundant in Mexican food choices and certainly has no fast food. We joked about going back to Itaewon the next day, but knowing our trip home was only a month away we held off and savored our first Taco Bell in over a year.

The street food often smelled delicious and looked like items we would eat. If anyone has ever been within a mile of Stinky Tofu, or strolled passed stalls of squid on a stick, fish balls, looking for a good hot dog, or french fry vendor you can appreciate my sentiment. Nathan had encountered a hotdog, french fry conglomeration during his last trip to Seoul and we couldn't find it. We did spot these spiral cut potatoes deep fried on a stick and were glad to try them. If we wanted we could also have had octopus and wasp larvae, but we were thankful for an option.
I am fairly certain in the picture above some of those were filled with red beans. Koreans from my observation have the same affinity as Chinese and Japanese for red bean as a sweet treat.

It took about an hour, but we did eat at a restaurant that served bite sized chicken pieces deep fried. It was delicious and almost worth the wait. We watched Korean baseball and were served multicolored cereal for a starter.

A spicy octopus dish was shared by Nathan and I and it was quite good. Not as chewy as I often find it to be.
and yes I had Kimchi.

Seoul # 2 Attractions

As we were walking along a grassy area outside known as Gwanghwamun Plaza, we spotted an underground museum. One part was about Sejong the great. The person credited with creating the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. Chinese characters were used prior to the Hangeul.




The museum is laid out to represent Sejong on one side and a famous military leader Admiral Yi on the other. Yi is known for his defense against The famous Japanese invasion in the 16th century. He is also know for his modifications to the "turtle ship"and a replica of such a ship could be found inside the museum.



They had interactive displays for the kids making it a fun place to explore.

A folk village was next to the Children's museum. It was a mini walk through Korea in the past. The traditional shoes the kids tried on, also replicated store fronts and memorabilia representing the mid to late 20th century.

I think this one looks like an AD with Elliot's Pocari Sweat and Jane's Fanta.

Seoul #1

In May we took a short trip to Seoul Korea. The 3-1/2 hour flight with Cathay Pacific went well and we landed in a new country. This was the kids 8th country. Nathan commented he was in his 30's before he had visited his 8th country. This is the life in Hong Kong, an international hub making it convenient to travel.


The Hotel Sun Bee - Insadong -The reviews were right about the location being a good one. It was clean, had free internet and was relatively cheap.

We spotted a toy store while walking the street and went in. We soon realized it wasn't a store but a museum. We paid the1000 won and made our way round. There were so many items packed in all together it was hard to know where to look first. We recognized some of the memorabilia, and toys that have the origins in Japan and China, the cartoons, comics that are still found in the pop culture here. A hanging Cabbage Patch reminiscent of my 80's childhood, hung from a string among other random dolls. Most items were greatly used, dingy, broken and there was no rhyme or reason to most of the displays. Still It was quite entertaining and worth the buck it cost to walk around..



I explained to Jane about how the juke box worked, feeling old as I did. I remember juke boxes at Pizza Hut.


My first impressions:
Surprised that signs could be found in English
Felt like I was in Japan some times and Suzhou at other times.
Even though I felt the culture was distinctly Korean and that people proudly identified with being Korean, it seemed more western than Hong Kong. A result of our presence and relationship with the country is a guess as to why this is. I also assume this is mainly true of Seoul.

Singapore Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden in Singapore is free. Not only does it have great flowers and trees but a Children's area that could be a full day of fun for the kids. We did visit the National Orchid Garden the only part that comes with a fee. Orchids are my favorite flowers and I was very excited to get this opportunity to see a large display of them.








We learned about Epiphytes- a plant that grows above the ground, supported nonparasitically by another plant or object, and deriving its nutrients and water from rain, the air, dust, etc.; air plant; aerophyte.



The Children's Garden was great it reminded us of FMG in Grand rapids. Tree house, sand box, a place for kids to get wet, some educational displays about soils, and music. All that was missing were the sculptures.

singapore slide from outypants on Vimeo.