Anthony in Korea, Day 25, Saturday, May 16, 2009

Let me begin with the Royal Toilet, the toilet with all the buttons that I’ve seen in my students’ apartments and here in my own bathroom. So, the way it works is you sit down and do your business. Then you press a button and it sort of becomes a bidet, only it’s warm water and it’s quite, uh, efficient. Then you press another button and it shoots hot air at your nether-region, and…well, I sat there for 5 minutes wondering when the hot air would stop, and then I realized that all I had to do was stand up to get it to stop. All of the other buttons, apparently, are just to help adjust it to your personal, uh, backside.

Okay, enough about the Royal Toilet…

Today I had such a nice tutoring session with the Korean lawyer, and then afterward he and his wife brought me to an excellent traditional Korean restaurant where we had delicious bibimbap. Bibimbap, which is rice and vegetables and some sauce (and sometimes meat), is so simple but so delicious. If you’ve never tried it, please go to a Korean restaurant and have some. It’s NOT spicy! It’s just rice and whatever else you want in it—so simple, so healthy, and so good. The Korean couple were so nice and I feel bad I won’t see them again for a while. But I know for sure that when then move to NYC in a few years, my wife and kids and I will be there to welcome them.

Next I met Bori at Namdaemun Market. It was raining all day here in Seoul so many of the street vendors were not around. Nonetheless, I managed to tell the man in the Korean souvenir shop “kaka joo say you” (give me a discount), and I got some traditional Korean stuff for me and my family. I love Namdaemun and I will miss it a lot.

Next we headed to Yetchajip in Insadong, Bori’s favorite tea shop in Seoul and a place I’ve been meaning to visit since I got here. The teas all cost between $5.00 and $7.00 per cup. In case you are wondering what a six dollar cup of tea looks like, please see the photo above. And you know what? It was worth every penny. This traditional tea shop, which has been around forever, specializes in unique teas that are as dark as rich as any coffee. I tried the “pine needle tea.” As I was drinking it I was thinking, ‘if my mother read the description she’d hate it but if she drank it she’d love it.’ It was so scrumptious, this tea, so sweet—don’t let the word ‘pine’ turn you off. Bori had “date tea” (as in dates, the Middle Eastern fruit), and it was even better. When most Americans think of tea they think of Lipton. But when you drink real tea, brewed from real herbs, you realize how Lipton is garbage. There are so many deep, rich, medicinal teas out there that I’m never going to drink crap like Lipton again. And by the way, another tea I discovered here (actually, it was recommended by my ENT in Greensboro, who has been to Korea) is “bori cha” (barley tea). And in case you’ve never tried barley tea, drop what you’re doing and go out and get some. It is so good! And, if you Google it (as I did), you’ll see it has numerous real health benefits.

Next we headed to a traditional Korean restaurant, the name of which I didn’t catch. This restaurant, like many, offered a “royal banquet” which consists of a wide variety of banchan (side dishes), most of which are vegetarian. [Please see the photo, and remember that everything you see cost less than $25.00). Also, part of the banquet was bulgogi, which is traditional Korean beef served on a sizzling plate with onions and peppers. They way to eat bulgogi is so cool—you take a big piece of romaine lettuce, add some bulgogi and vegetables, and top it off with some sweet-spicy sauce. Yes, I admit, even though I am a vegetarian, I wanted to experience this native dish. And yes, it was delicious. Oh, and one more thing: since this was a traditional Korean restaurant, they offered dongdongju, the traditional fermented rice drink served in a large bowl with a ladle. Let me tell you something—it’s very deceptive. You start drinking it, thinking, “hey, it’s just a rice drink,” and then a few cups later, you’re drunk! It is such good stuff! I will miss it when I return to the States.