Gastronomic Odyssey

Brenda and I took a weekend trip to Seoul. Our story was that we were going to see the zoo, buy books, and attend a going away party. In actuality, our main goal was eating like pigs. We had three targets: the Hard Rock Cafe, a Turkish kebab, and above all, Mexican food.

We went directly to the zoo, where we were in for quite a hike. The Seoul Grand Park Zoo is pretty large, and follows a twisting pattern up the side of a large hill. I got to see my favorite animals (the elephants) but Brenda was disappointed because they were renovating the gorilla exhibit. We worked up quite an appetite and headed for Itaewon, the main haunt of the foreigners in Seoul.

We went directly to the Hard Rock Cafe, only to find that it was closed due to electrical and water problems. Disappointing, but realistically if they're experiencing difficulties with the sewage I don't want to partake of their cuisine. As a result, we decided to find the Mexican joint. Thanks to confusing directions from another blog (which shall remain nameless), we didn't find it, though we were accosted a half-dozen times by gentlemen offering custom-tailored suits. We settled for Outback when Brenda seemed to be close to fainting.

We found a hotel and splurged on the "deluxe" room because we weren't in the mood to find a cheaper hotel. It was quite nice, with a big screen TV right in front of our bed. After a quick nap we headed for a few drinks at an American style bar . . . and walked right past two Mexican places. D'oh. It was good to visit a full bar, and Brenda was delighted to find her favorite Red Bull-centric drinks. I, too, was excited to finally enjoy a Jaeger Bomb. We then grabbed that late-night lamb kebab on route to meet up with some other teachers. It was delicious.

The next day we grabbed a few books at What the Book?, then hit up the Mexican place. Given the poor quality of Korea's tomatoes (and therefore their salsa) and the fact that the fried rice wasn't really worthy of the name, I don't think the joint would last 5 minutes in Seattle. But when you haven't had a taco in four months, and haven't had Chorizo sausage EVER, it hit the spot. We then went to the massive COEX Mall, where we bought a few more books and Brenda challenged me to read Faulker . . . which I accepted. We also ran into my head instructor Brian and his girlfriend. In a city of 12 million, we ran into people we knew from Daejeon. Small world.

We headed home satiated, though somewhat disappointed we couldn't find room for Cold Stone Creamery.