no.1: first week in Seoul

Time goes by fast, and with that said, I have been in Seoul for a week. 

Truthfully I thought I would have a hard time prioritizing my research in the first week due to all the interesting things to do in the city distracting me, yet it turns out I'm thinking about my research and finding concepts that relate to it in everything I have done. Going out in this past week and watching people interact with food in restaurants, cafes and street markets has provided valuable insight into the merit of food in the Korean culture.  

Frankly when you plan an international trip without an itinerary, the days can look a little random. Alysa and I would wake up with one desired destination in mind, and the rest of the time walk around until something caught our eye. While struggling to figure out the subway system, this method was actually pretty helpful because whenever we took the wrong train, which was often, we would end up trying to figure out things to do in the accidental arrival area. With that I present the randomized and chaotic breakdown of week 1:

Wednesday: Landed in SK after a long 27 hour journey and after freshening up (wiping airport germs off of us) we had our first meal in Yeoksam-dong which was Samgyeopsal-gui (Korean grilled pork belly). This meal is served Korean BBQ style where the meat, side dishes and lettuce wraps are brought to you and there is a stone grill which you can cook the meat to your desired taste. I've had this meal multiple times in the U.S, but having it in Korea was a whole new experience and it was so much more delicious. We quickly realized there is not a lot of foreigners in Gangnam, which is where we are staying, and our first dinner experience created a wake-up call for us: English is not used everywhere, and without knowing how to speak or understand Korean, things can become very difficult very fast. 

Thursday: Greeted by a rainy and cloudy morning, we started our day in a coffeeshop across our airbnb where we learned that Koreans usually take time to drink their coffee while at the cafe rather than taking it to go; probably because there are very limited public trashcans where you can dispose of your cup while you're on the go, and you cannot take coffee cups on trains or buses. This felt different. Slowing down to have a cup of coffee, talking to your friends to plan your day; it was a nice change of pace from the rushed go-go-go culture of the U.S. With some guidance from our friends who live in Seoul, we decided to explore Cheongdam-dong which is an affluent district in Seoul filled with luxury stores and grand modern architecture. This definitely set the scene of the luxurious city life, especially fascinating coming from the suburbs of Colorado. We ended our day meeting up with our friend Jae-Min at the Noryangjin-dong fish market; which he thought would be a valuable scene for my research. The expansive options for seafood was so exciting and most of the fish were kept alive in tanks before you purchased them, which they would then prepare for you in a restaurant above the market. Everything moved so quickly in the market and we found ourselves barely keeping up with Jae as he ordered the seafood, but eventually we were up at the restaurant eating some of the best sashimi and crab we have ever tasted. Drinking is a huge part of the Korean culture, especially when sharing a meal with friends, so we made sure to add some Soju (Korean rice wine) to our meal for the full experience (drink responsibly, always). The whole experience at the market and in the restaurant illustrated the history of traditions and food preparations of Korean meals. If the environment was not so fast paced, I would have loved to interview one of the many vendors. Super grateful for our friend Jae because I don't think we could have found this place on our own as a tourist attraction.

Friday: We chose to dedicate the whole day to exploring Myeong-dong, which is a huge shopping area filled with international stores, different cultural restaurants and street foods, and sights like the Myeong-dong Cathedral and the Nanta theatre. Of course as soon as I saw the street food, I knew it was time to do some practicum work. I will say, the overwhelming anxiety caused by the language barrier has made it a bit difficult for me to approach vendors, but regardless, with the Papago translator on my phone and voice recording app on Alysa's, we conducted our first interview. The stand belonged to a Korean man who has been operating two street food stands in Myeong-dong for over 10 years (p.s the Korean vendors I have interviewed so far have not been the most comfortable sharing their names with me, which is totally understandable so I will be describing their work and identifying their stand names instead). He was very open to let us interview him once I was able to translate what my research was. For now, I have pictures and voice memos of the interview which I will translate when I am back home. We ended our night meeting up for dinner with one of Alysa's college friends, Malechi, who is studying abroad at Hanyang University this semester. We have overcome some language barrier issues as most of the places we eat at include a self-service tablet with the menu, and little interactions from the servers. 

Saturday: Arguably one of the coldest days of my life, but we chose to not let that stop us from exploring. After taking a wrong train (thank you Alysa for the navigation role), we ended up lost in Seongsu-dong, and did what we know best, which is wonder around and see what we can find. We ended up in the shopping area of Seongsu which included a lot of pop-up shops and also the infamous Dior glass store which was beautiful. This hip neighborhood is customized for the younger population in Seoul with organic coffeeshops and restaurants in old warehouses, displaying modern brutalism and contemporary architecture (shoutout to Alysa for that, she is studying architecture at Virginia Tech). After exploring a bit we ended up at the Starfield CoEx mall, which is the largest underground shopping center in Asia. That fact definitely holds true as we got lost over 100 times. This was the first place we had been to that had a lot of foreigners, as it is a huge tourist attraction in Seoul. I took some time in the Starfield library to look at the cookbooks and history of food archives, and although they were all written in Korean, I found that most of the cookbooks included pictures and little history facts about the meal on them which provided such a holistic view of the recipe; this is exactly what I want to achieve with my final deliverable cookbook. We ended the night struggling to find the famous Gangnam style statue, but it was so worth it. Nothing beats a pair of giant bronze hands commemorating one of the biggest music bangers of the century. 

Sunday: Rested, we simply needed rest. We went to a coffee shop near Hanyang University, and I worked on my project a bit before we went home to sleep early (I attempted to write this blog post on Sunday but I was exhausted). Highlight of the day though, we did have one of the best Yukgaejang (Korean spicy beef stew) I have ever tasted in my life, and it was only 10,000 KW (less than 10 USD).

Monday: Our tour guide savior Jae-Min helped us plan an awesome day, we visited the Gyengbokgung palace, the Bukchon Hanok village, and the Gwangjang street food market. We definitely took advantage of having Jae as a translator and conducted many more interviews of street vendors. We had a full day of eating, starting with Korean street food classics such as Tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes), blood sausage, and fried squid near the Bukchon Hanok Village. The vendors ran a small, cozy shop enough to fit about 6 people inside. We then moved onto trying the Michelin star reviewed beef tartare restaurant in Gwangjang market. This was one of the other main focuses of my research as I am striving to show that Michelin star meals don't always come in fancy European restaurants, and this place definitely blew me away. Jae helped me conduct multiple interviews in the market, mainly focused on traditional Korean food with vendors who have been doing what they're doing for more than 50 years. I cannot wait to translate the interviews, but what I have so far and the pictures already warm my heart. 

Tuesday: We decided to meet up with one of Alysa's friends, Yuna, who is visiting her family in Korea and will be joining Alysa in study abroad next semester. We visited Korea University, overall looking at the campus and also taking time to explore the engineering building and the dining hall. It was so interesting to see the meals served to Korean college students, and how much more balanced and healthy they looked compared to the Mines dining hall (very jealous of Alysa enjoying these meals next semester). Yuna wanted us to try one of her favorite foods, Dakgalbi which is stir-fried marinated chicken in a gochujang (spicy chili) based sauce with sweet potatoes, cabbage, perilla leaves, scallions, tteok (rice cakes), topped with cheese. The flavors of this meal were mind blowing, and it was perfectly paired with Yuna telling us the stories of how her grandmother makes the best Dakgalbi in the world. We ended the night back at the Myeong-dong market for one more interview and also some late night snacks. 

Wednesday: We picked the below freezing day to go visit the Seoul Namsan tower. I am so glad we fought through the cold because the view at the top of the tower was beautiful, and we caught it during the most perfect sunset. Alysa and I bought a lock to add to the bridge of the tower, much like millions of others who visited the site. Now, a little representation of our friendship and this amazing trip will live in Seoul forever :) We also tried the server-less instant ramen bar in Gwansu-dong, which after a freezing walk, was so rewarding and yummy. The ramen restaurant had tens of options for instant ramen we could choose from, and a topping bar to take the meal to the next level. Since tipping is not a thing in South Korea, and general restaurant service is very much "Do not disturb", this server-less restaurant is the perfect place for introverts, and also great for overcoming the language barrier when ordering food. 

Thursday: That's today! It is Yalda today which is a Persian holiday, and I will be celebrating at the one and only Persian restaurant we could find in Seoul. So far this trip has been amazing and I cannot wait to see what the next week holds :)

As promised, here is the first segment of Alysa's thought box:

"We ate a lot of raw food. Like beef sashimi?? WTF?? I didn't know that was a thing. I thought it was just fish sashimi, this blew my mind. Anyways..."

The first blog post is definitely long but I want to be able to use this blog as a way to record this amazing journey. On top of the pictures added, if you want to see more adventures follow my instagram @parmidamahdavi. 

That's all for now, update you all next week!

Love, 

Parmida 

Picture dump:

In order:

1. EggDrop breakfast sandwich 2. Samgyeopsal-gui (Korean grilled pork belly) 3 and 4. Noryangjin-dong fish market sashimi and crab 5. Myeong-dong street food market 5.  Me in front of the Dior building in Seongsu 6. Starfield CoEx library 7. Gangnam style statue 8. Alysa and I at Gyengbokgung palace 9. Tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes) at the  Bukchon Hanok Village 10. Michelin rated beef tartare and beef sashimi 11. Me in front of the best view of Seoul from the Namsan tower.