Thursday, May 30, 2019
Today was filled with art, in many forms. We began our day at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. The plan was to see a modern art exhibit at the Mun gallery featuring a modern Korean artist. Unfortunately, our timing was off, and the exhibit wasn’t going to be open until later in the day. That was a bit disappointing, but wandering around the design plaza was cool. The space used to be a baseball stadium (notice the lights) but now it’s a cool museum campus.
Last week, we ran into some scheduling problems where occasionally we had lunch much later than a standard lunch time. This week, we were much better about staying fed on a regular schedule, and today didn’t disappoint. We walked over to the Kwangjang Market. Whereas many of the previous markets we have gone to had been shopping focused, this was ALL about food.
If you have seen the nextflix series street food, you may recognize the lady in pink. She is featured in the Seoul episode and is famous for her hand-cut noodles. It took us a while to find her, but it was worth it.
We tried her hand-cut noodles and two styles of dumplings, meat (I think pork) and kimchi. So much kimchi in my life. Everything was delicious. I was happy to have a bowl of not spicy noodle soup in my life. It was reminiscent of chicken noodle back home. I could eat her noodle soup for days. I was also really hungry, and was pumped to try it from the show, so I may be biased but hey, it was good.
I’m sure the many stands around her offering the same menu are as good. I’m not sure why Street Food chose her, but I’m happy with the decision.
After lunch we checked out The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. I’m a fan of art museums, and we are pretty lucky to have the Art Institute back home. When we arrived, we were told that Korean modern art and American modern art are different. Back home modern art is, well, weird. The main artist featured was Park Seo-Bo. He was a pioneer in Korean contemporary art. Contemporary art means something different here than back home. Throughout Seo-Bo’s exhibit, the pieces were filled with lots of muted tones. That’s not really what you think about back home when the phrase “modern art” is thrown around. Funny how things are different halfway around the world.
The Korean pieces were cool, they were something that would fit in a room nicely. But there was some funky stuff in the museum too. One of the exhibits was of Asher Jorn, a Scandinavian artist. In the 50’s and 60’s we would buy up old pieces in French flea markets and “modernize” them. Odd, but interesting.
One of the coolest exhibits I saw was a three-team soccer court. The court seemed too small to make a real game, but hey, to each their own.
Next up on today’s wild adventure was a private soju tasting at Samhaesojuga Brewery in Seoul. You may remember soju from day 2, it’s kind of like a vodka but traditionally made from rice. At our welcome dinner, we tried a commercialized brand of soju, today, it was the equivalent of going to a craft brewery or distillery. All of the drinks we had today had a base of rice, malt, and water, and take at least 100 days to reach the final product.
The tasting was really cool, we were able to meet Kim Jae-In, the primary distiller of some of the best soju in the city. He not only talked us through what we were drinking, but explained the historical significance of each of the nine we were sampling, some of which are really cool.
The first one we tried was very odd. It’s a drink, but a solid. Back in the dynasty times, women weren’t able to throw drinks back like men. It was considered inappropriate. They also wore many layers, so going to the bathroom was very difficult. That’s why they made this drink into a solid. It was kindof like a yogurt or a butter, but tasted like the drink. I ate mine on a cracker. You can still find it in high end restaurants. I think it would be smart of them to turn it into an ice cream. Drink number two was a type of makkoli. Soju I had previously had has been clear. This was milky, but had a light taste, with a bit of bubble. Kind of like champagne, but also tasted like how a brewery smells. Not bad, but not amazing. While drink one (the paste) was for royalty, this was a drink for common people. Three was called called Yakju. It is the same base as number two, but has gone through one more cycle of distilling. It makes it a bit clearer in color and is a really light flavor.
Four had an extra ingredient in it – mushrooms. The drink overall tasted a bit like a chardonnay. I don’t usually like chardonnay, but this was pretty good. If the bottles had been cheaper, I probably would have come home with one. The mushroom comes from a pine tree in Korea, and have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Five was made with a chrysanthemum tea instead of water. It definitely tasted floral like. Some sips I liked it, others I didn’t. It was a bit odd, but not terrible. I will stick with regular wine I think. Six was what the shop was most known for – Samhae Soju. It was similar to whiskey, in my opinion. Most soju has to be kept at a specific temperature to maintain the flavor, though it does keep better than Japanese saki. This version can be kept at a variety of temperatures and still keep its taste.
Seven got into some pretty strong stuff. They compared it to a cognac, and let us know that there was grape flavor in there. I could taste the grape. It wasn’t like wine grapes, it was like grape candy. And it was so, so, strong. I didn’t like that one too much. Eight was even stronger. It was the same base as number five with chrysanthemum, but was distilled once more, making it stronger than five. That one will get you. The ninth one was called Samhae Guiju, nicknamed the terminator. It clocked in at 70% alcohol and, wow, yeah, it was strong, but surprisingly smooth. We asked about pricing on our way out and it sounded like all of these bottles (which was about half the size of a traditional American wine bottle) were 76,000 won or about $75. So, I passed on bringing any of that home.
Up until now, you are probably thinking, “Wow, what a cool vacation day!” You should actually be thinking, “Rebecca, that much soju in the afternoon, what about your project?!” Yep. I still had some of that to finish up. I had to walk off some of that soju, so off to dinner. We went over to the Sinchon area, near the spot we have grown to refer as the “magic straws” I’m not sure why magic, but that’s what they are. And we found some more street performers. The combination of the walk, the music, and some hot noodle soup (in temperature and spice level) helped get me back to a good school state. Thanks little noodle shop near school!
