Saturday Surprise!

After climbing Mt. Suri-San for the second time this Saturday we decided to stick around the apartment for the majority of the afternoon. However, we did end up on our way to a local market to pick up a few veggies for supper. On our way to the market, we came across lots of tents and shops set up on the sidewalk. We took a look around and found everything we wanted to pick up and more and only about 4 blocks from home!

For about 9000W $9 we picked up 24 eggs, a bunch of bananas, a bag of garlic cloves, a package of mushrooms and 4 small packages of tiny mushroom heads with long stems.. mushroom sprouts or something.



The best find were the extendable walking sticks. We were thinking about trying to find some of these earlier in the day while hiking - everyone else seems to have one too. They were just 5000W $5 each!

Good ol' Home Cooking!

So being over here in Korea creates an adventure not only for ourselves, but also for our palates! Everything over here looks like a culinary creation straight from Top Chef (how many times have you eaten quail eggs?) but it doesn't always taste very good.

As you have seen with the pictures from E-mart, that shopping here is sometimes very difficult and just being able to see the food isn't the worst part! Reading labels and figuring out what the vegetables are, to where is the rice (you would think that it would be clearly marked seeing as everyone eats it all the time, but it isn't!) is a challenge and an adventure.

We are managing pretty well, and are trying all kinds of new vegetables (yes Jon is eating vegetables, but only select ones..) like the many varieties of mushrooms, bean sprouts and peppers. Warning if you do not like spicy food stay away!

Here are some of Krista's culinary creations, or see how many different ways you can make rice a main dish....any and all recipes are welcomed!

Here is one of our first meals, like our dishes and mixed matched glasses? The green bits are peppers and they are spicy, much more spicy than a jalapeno, 1 is enough to overpower the entire meal, I have learned to dice them up really fine and then sprinkle them in, then the flavor is evenly distributed.

Yum, this one is one of our favorites! Krista's variation of Spanish Rice with tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, chicken bullion, peppers, onions, garlic, ham and bean sprouts. We love our beans, they are the magical fruit!

The menu at Jackie Chan's restaurant in the COEX Mall. We had awesome dim sum!

The menu just down the street from out school. The food looks awesome and so realistic! The sushi here is called kimbap and it usually has ham in it or just rice and vegetables in it instead of raw fish. We haven't eaten here, but drool over the plates.

For Chusok we each got a Spam and Canola oil gift set, and have grown fond of Spam and eggs!



We will keep you posted on any and all other wacky food we try!

Yongsan Station - Electronics Mart

Yongsan Station is a major railway station in Seoul, South Korea. It is located in Yongsan-gu, and adjoins the Yongsan Electronics Market. The station is the terminus for high-speed and long-distance trains on a number of railway lines, including most trains on the Honam Line, and all trains on the Janghang and Jeolla Lines.
Prior to 2004, all long-distance trains serving Seoul terminated at nearby Seoul Station, but with the opening of the Korea Train Express (KTX), Yongsan Station took over some of Seoul's services.



Yongsan Station is also served by Seoul Subway Line 1 and Yongsan-Deokso Line.
In 2004, a major movie theater was opened adjacent to the station. In August 2006, the whole station building was made into a large department store, called IPark Mall.

The building now includes the train station, subway station, the CGV movie theatre, several restaurants and shops as well as housing the first building of Yongsan Electronics Market. There is a bridge connecting IPark Mall and the Yongsan Electronics Market. (Wikipedia)



Yongsan Plaza Enterance




The terminal area of Yongsan Station



This was one of two levels that sold mainly cell phones. If you thought it was bad having cellular stores all over at home, think again, this is much worse! You can buy the same cell phone / hand phone at more than 5 different booths, not sure if the prices differ. There are a couple major cellular carriers in South Korea - KT and KTF (now branded as SHOW). There are a lot of cool phones with streaming TV and video, these are widely used on the subways.



This entertainment stage is also part of the I Park Mall. Some was there performing for the launch of a new GM Daewoo G2X. Looks pretty similar to a Saturn Sky made by GM in North American.. Click here to take a peak.






Attention all gamers! It's the character from Halo, for the big release of Halo 3, you could play it here in the CGV theater!





L-O-V-E





Night view of Younsan Station







These steps were really cool - they turned it in to a mini waterfall with flashing lights. I tried to get a clean shot, but the little girl would not stop playing on the steps.. so she became the star of these photos.






Click here for more information on the station and the I Park Mall at Tour2Korea