Itaewon From A Different Perspective

I was at the 10 Magazine office in Itaewon today and finally decided to snag a photo of the amazing view from their window. Shame I didn't have my DSLR with me...

Does Vegan Food Need More Love?

I should probably start out this post with a statement about my eating habits:

I love animals, especially the cute and fluffy ones, because they usually taste delicious. I have no qualms about roasting rabbits, braising beef, frying fish, poaching pork, sauteeing shrimp and grilling goat. I appreciate meat and I eat it on a regular basis. However, if you include breakfast, over half my meals are vegetarian or vegan in nature. I don't need meat in every meal. I've had many delicious vegetable based dishes in the past and I'm happy to not eat meat if I'm promised something tasty.

That's where I stand... On with the incoherent waffling!



A friend and I had recently been talking about vegan restaurants and the options available in Seoul. Animal products seem to be everywhere, hiding in stews and sauces in many Korean restaurants. This is a country where ham is not considered to be meat by some chefs and where pleas for an eggless meal may fall upon deaf ears. It can be a daunting task for vegans new to Seoul to find places to eat, but one franchise seems to have taken the country by storm: Loving Hut has over forty restaurants in Korea and seems to be a safe haven for those looking for meatless treats. I'd never been to one of their franchises and last weekend I decided to take the plunge and visit the "Honest Loving Hut" in Itaewon.

I'd heard about the Itaewon branch through the fabulous Alien's Day Out blog. The photos of the "Roasted Veggie Burger" looked incredible. Could it be that a vegan paradise was just round the corner from my house? First impressions of the restaurant were great, it was filled with happy customers, bright, well decorated, it felt like a nice place to hang out.

The menu offers a selection of salads, pastas and burger/sandwich type thingies. I plumped for the "Mushroom Cream Pasta" at 13,000 won. To be honest, I was interested to see how Loving Hut could manage to make a cream pasta without dairy...



First off, vegan bread with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The crusts lacked crunch, but both slices were flavourful.



Then the pasta. Let's take a closer look.



I've seen something similar served at Sorrento. It had the look of a standard Korean Italian restaurant cream pasta dish. Right down to the dried parsley on top.

And the taste? Not bad. The "cream" is made with soymilk and manages to replicate a cream sauce, but I'm sorry to say I think Loving Hut can do better.

Dried parsley? Really? If I'm eating vegan then I'd like fresh herbs. Vibrant green, chopped, fresh parsley would have done wonders for this dish and could have compensated for the bland cream sauce. If you're not using wine or cheese or meat to flavour the soymilk cream then you need to find other options to make the dish exciting. Roasted onions? A little lemon peel? Maybe some fried garlic slices or enoki on top? Just browning the mushrooms a little more would have added to the flavour of the pasta. There are many ways to improve this kind of meal without resorting to animal products.

My dish served its function, but it certainly wasn't inspiring. I'll be coming back to Loving Hut to try the aforementioned veggie burger, but I hope they can improve on their cream pasta or at least start using fresh parsley...



I really want to love Loving Hut Honest... if you want to try their vegan wares then head down to Itaewon station, walk towards Noksapyeong and turn right at the first set of traffic lights you reach. Walk past OKitchen and Michot Bakery, Loving Hut Honest is on the left hand side directly above Chili King. You can call them on 02 795 2111.

Click here for a fantastic map of vegetarian restaurants in Korea.

Spider Cat!

Feline supervillains beware, for you have surely met your match with the fearless fellow I saw near Ehwa Women's University today...



Stuck up a tree, Spider Cat decided to take things into his own paws and using his unique spider powers shimmied his way down.



Don't fall, Spider Cat! You can do it!



He's so fast, too fast for my puny iPhone camera.



His work done, Spider Cat turns away from the Paparazzi, his secret identity must not be revealed...

Finding Amazing Things

As some of you may have noticed I've joined tumblr and I've been looking around and seeing what's what. This morning I came across an astounding photo of a Korean sailor from around 1904. It's part of the Cornell University Library collection and they've very kindly shoved a whole load of their photos on flickr (The Korean collection seems to run from page 99 to 109)...



Possibly the coolest dudes in the whole of Chosun.



The Haechi/Haetae was protecting Gyeongbok Palace back in 1904.



And Monsoon season was a rather serious event.



Some girls went to Gisaeng school.



And some boys carried water.



Music was played.



Rice was pounded.



And doing the laundry was a lot less convenient than today.



Pipes were smoked.



And children were very good at standing in lines.



Their ten pages of photos are well worth checking out if you fancy a glimpse of Korea at the start of the twentieth century.

Changes Afoot!

Dear Readers,

I've not been posting as much as I'd like; I've been lax and I've been using bad puns involving chilis and biscuits. I hope you'll forgive me for those, it's the weather I tell you! The weather! The humidity turns my hair into something akin to an ajumma perm and seems to have a similar effect on my brain. While I love Korea, I am not enamoured with the disgustingly hot and moist summers that we suffer through each year.



In the Ajosshi household we're getting a lot of use out of what I like to call the "poor man's air conditioner". Combine an electric fan with a couple of frozen bottles of water and you may find yourself just that little bit cooler. I should point out that when using the fan we do keep all windows open and until now neither myself, my wife or the cockroaches that live in our villa have expired (fan death shall not claim us this summer, I tell you!).

I have digressed...

Onto the main purpose of this post: Changes are afoot in my little life and today I found myself sitting down at a rather large table, in a rather large office, signing my name all over several pieces of paper. Turns out someone in the pantheon of literary gods must like me as I've gone and signed my first book deal...

This is the bit where I do a happy dance in front of the computer.

It still seems a tad unreal, but I've been tasked with writing a set of children's books over the next couple of months. Writing for kids is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I'm both surprised and ecstatic that I have the chance to fulfill one of my dreams.

There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm looking forward to putting words on paper and having someone else illustrate my ideas.

I'm as happy as the dog that ate the cat that got the cream.

That's it for now. I've got to go and write a review of Transformers 3 for 10 Magazine that is imbued with my passionate hatred for what Michael Bay has done to children's toys and yet is still suitable for a general audience to read.

Lots of love,

Paul Ajosshi

P.S. The delightful Cynthia Yoo has just had her latest article posted on Yonhap. I make a brief appearance where I witter on about translation. Read it if you dare.

Tumbling Ajosshi

I heard all the cool kids are using Tumblr so I decided to ruin it for them and get on there myself. I'll still be posting here on a regular basis, but I'll be messing around with Tumblr posting snapshots and snippets of my life, as well as bad jokes and other peoples pictures.

If you're interested you can find me here: http://paulajosshi.tumblr.com/

But don't worry I'll be posting many exciting things on here in the days and weeks to come including a report on my visit to Miso (not the soup, but a Korean theatrical performance).

I hope you all enjoy the few final downpours of this year's monsoon, I'm off to record some more video game narration.

I've Got Ginger Nuts

DISCLAIMER: I'm in a bit of a punny mood today... Couldn't resist putting these two posts back to back.

I strolled down to High Street Market today to see what goodies they might have in store and Heavens to Betsy they're selling McVities Ginger Nuts for a mere 1,300 won (they normally go for the still reasonable sum of 1,900 won). These are the biscuits I've missed the most in all my time in Korea, I bring pack a packet or two every year and have to ration them out. Even worse, my wife has developed a taste for them, so they disappear twice as fast...

I snaffled up four packets, but there are still a fair few left if any of you, my dear readers wish to purchase them. Their "best before" date is the 10th July 2011, but they should survive longer if stored correctly.

If you've never nibbled on a couple of ginger nuts, then now's your chance to give them a go!

Would You Like To See My Tiny Gochu?

DISCLAIMER: Pun most definitely intended...

Living in the middle of this metropolis is lots of fun, but I do miss having a garden. As such, we've resorted to filling our windowsills and balconies with greenery and we're starting to see the fruits of our labours.



While our tomatoes, coriander, parsley, oregano, bell peppers and salad leaves need more time to mature, our chili plants have flowered and our 고추 are growing at an amazing rate.



While some are in the early stages of development...



Others are starting to look far more manly. Who wants a taste of my knobbly 고추?

Telling Porkies About Bossam

(For those unfamiliar with cockney rhyming slang "telling porkies" means "telling lies")

Up until last night I believed that 보쌈 (Bossam) was steamed pork. I trusted those who explained the dish to me when I first had it and I trusted that wikipedia knew what it was talking about. I'd only ever eaten Bossam in restaurants (though I have consumed hundreds of platefuls over the years) and I'd never questioned the provenance of the English translation.



Last night my culinary world was rocked when my wife decided to make it at home for the first time. She knew the family recipe and when I got home she was busy putting the finishing touches to the meal. The side dishes were being put into bowls, the jjigae was on the stove and the pork was gently simmering in the pot... Wait? Simmering? Not steaming? As everything I knew crumbled around me, I sank to my knees and let out a scream of anguish. I had been lied to all this time. Bossam was not steamed, it was boiled!


My wife has mean knife skills and my photography is sometimes blurry! Yay!



It turns out that the recipes for Bossam in our Korean books all involving boiling the meat. My wife added 된장 (fermented soy bean paste), onions, spring onions, ginger and garlic to the water and then simmered the pork for about ninety minutes or so. It gave the meat a slightly khaki tinge and tasted delicious.



Side dishes were kept to a reasonable number. A selection of beansprouts, sweet potato shoots and pigweed (appropriate for a porky dish).



Plus the always popular dwenjang stew.



It was a supremely delicious meal and worth the crushing disappointment of finding out my culinary ignorance. Unfortunately we didn't have any fermented shrimp on hand (a superb addition to Bossam), but other than that the meal was perfect.



Remember kids: Bossam is boiled pork! Don't let them fool you!

Tiny Six Legged Happiness

Sometimes a glimpse down at the Gangnam pavement can bring pleasure. On my way to 교대 station I noticed this little fellow resting on a leaf. Urban ladybirds make me happy...

Plus they have the best Korean name ever: 무당벌레 (Shaman insect). I love spiritual bugs.