Gotta' love the hot sauce packaging at Taco Bell.

taco bell :: itaewon

Finally, the long awaited journey to the border. And I don't mean the 38th parallel.

Yes, you too can eat Taco Bell in Korea/

street carts :: pojang macha

This is a typical "pojang macha" or street vendor, of in this case, food.

Here's another, this one selling luggage bags.

Baro Goods... Barrel of Goods? Bar'O Goods?!

A lot tidier looking than traditional street carts.

The Q Show

Okay... which one of you Googlers did this...? ^^

Rent-a-Bicycle

To the north-west of Seoul lays a growing city in-itself called Goyang. It is my understanding that the largest sub-city in Goyang is Ilsan. This is where MBC has moved its main HQ in addition to there being a very large lake park. For those somewhat familiar with Seoul, Ilsan is similar to Bundang. It's sort of an urban suburb if such a term even makes sense. Subway lines from greater Seoul run to these urband suburbs, but in reality, it's not Seoul, and the feel of these places is different. Slightly more quiet, less traffic, new families, nicer parks, etc...

While visiting my grandmother and uncle out in Ilsan this past weekend (happy parent's and mother's day!), I came across this bright green sign.

As a part of an ongoing Goyang city sponsored event, the bicycle rental program is being called "F I F TEEN" for reasons none other (at least from what I could find) than the average speed of a bicycle, 15 kph. 

For those with membership, bikes can be rented for the 30 minutes free, plus KRW 1,000 for every 30 minutes thereafter, while non-members can pay through their cell phones at KRW 500 for the first half hour plus KRW 1,000 every half hour thereafter. I believe you can also return bicycles to any other F I F TEEN location.

중무로 [chungmuro]

I tend to pass through Chungmuro subway station quite a bit these days...

aka 'the bat cave'

i missed taking a snapshot of the best part, when the men were pushing the women on the cart as they wiping the ceiling and light fixtures.

there's something about these telephone booths...

there are these sweet digital signs going up at all the subway stations. they give you a quick read of the top headlines, hot search items, satellite and street views of seoul, etc... including free phone calls (while still in beta testing)

Taco Bell [revised]

One thing I used to find hilarious but no longer very funny, is the discussion of one of America's fast food joints that has regained its popularity most recently with the success of the movie, "The Blind Side."

Yes, Taco Bell.

So what's the big deal? Though McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Popeyes, and countless other fastfood eateries have been introduced to Korea, Koreans and those living in Korea have always had to "think inside the bun..."

There has only been one Taco Bell in Korea. One. This one Taco Bell has been sheltered and isolated to the majority of the Korean public only to be found inside the U.S. Military Base. Most Kyopos or those with military friends have had the "privilege" of being escorted into the base to enjoy Taco Bell, or up until recently, strawberry frappuccinos from Starbucks, but to the rest of us who don't desperately need a our fix of Taco Bell, it was sort of, "whatevers."

However! A public and quite large Taco Bell will be opening to the public soon. Located in Itaewon, nicely situated outside of the Itaewon subway station and somewhat across the street from the Hamilton Hotel, this apparently multi-story Taco Bell is scheduled to open its doors "soon." From my little understanding of architecture and construction, my guess would be that it opens its doors in mid-to-late May.
--------------------------

So I have been told by a friend,  legend has it that Taco Bell was introduced to Korea's public in the 90's but perhaps too early for people to appreciate sour cream out of caulking guns.



Rumor has it Yeoksam could be getting one as well...

--------------------------
I can't finish this post any other way: "Yo quiero Taco Bell."

The Everything Truck

In Korea, you'll find many trucks that roll around at 10 kph hollering messages over a make-shift speaker system advertising their products. I remember the first time I heard one of these at work and I thought maybe there was a firetruck outside. There are all sorts of trucks that sell anything from crabs, peanuts, socks, and some even advertise their recycling services of old computer parts. Yesterday in Itaewon, I came across a truck that beats all the rest. A truck that sells, well, everything.

The recorded audio message said, "everything! everything! pots and pans, brooms and clothes hangers, bath products, saws to screws, etc... EVERYTHING.

A Trip to the Arcade

Separating the 100 KRW coins from the 500 KRW coins one by one can be a pain in the butt. Why the machine doesn't separate them for you is out of my mind, but here's a manual way of sorting in a short amount of time.

Mario Botta inside the Leeum

Itaewon, an international neighborhood in Seoul, is home to the art museum and collection of Samsung's President, called the Leeum.

The Leeum is actually a complex of three buildings by three different world renown architects: Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, and Mario Botta.

This was my fourth time at the Leeum. Here is a sneak peek at the interior spiral space in Mario Botta's building:

Korean Folk Museum

After living in Seoul for nearly two years, this was my first time getting as close as I did to the Folk Museum situated just east of 경북궁 [Gyeongbuk Palace]. It looks like a gargantuan pagoda of sorts sitting on top of an enormous stone pedestal. 

This was the closest I got. I didn't go inside the museum. My friend had to use the bathroom, then we left. ^^

수타면 - Hand made noodles

Several Koreanized Chinese restaurants that serve 자장면 [jajangmyun, zazang, etc...] advertise themselves as making 수타면, or hand made noodles. After passing a place with these claims near Jongno, I had to go try for myself.

This place is legit. They have the noodle master throwing noodles in the front window for all people to see. The process consists of taking a long donut-like piece of dough and stretching it, slapping it on the table to pick up flower and while maintaining its consistency and overall noodle thickness, doing a figure-8 to essentially double the noodle count, then repeating the process over and over again to create handmade noodles, 수타면.

My overall impression of these noodles was that they are noticeably chewier than machine processed noodles. The "natural" sense of the noodles in ever so slightly differentiating thicknesses was also a pleasant textural experience, thought thicker than what I'm used to. Yum.

White Therapy

Having recently gotten into radio, I've been hearing a commercial for 비/Rain's brand of cosmetic products, 'Nature Republic.'

I used to like Rain, or at least thought the guy was respectable. He's got such a crazy testimony: his mom passed away when he was in high school, he started as a back-dancer for Park Jin Young, he's known to be an incredibly hard working person, etc... The drama "Full House" is pretty high up on my list of favorites, and his early music under JYP was pretty decent.

But ever since he branched off on his own, I shake my head more and more and am really disgusted by him. His latest publicity images are very ris-kay and even his song lyrics focus on I have no idea how he or his crew came up with this name 'Nature Republic,' but the color are much too similar to another existing cosmetics brand, and the logo looks too much like Banana Republic's.

Anyways, there's been a recent commercial for the line "white therapy." Now what does "white therapy" mean? It means using products to whiten your skin, especially your face! He goes onto say in this very commercial that darker skin tones can be okay since they're a little more "mysteriously sexy," but that whiter skin tones are much more appealing and to his own liking and "clean." Uhm... does this not bother anyone else? I'm not even a girl nor do I wish to please Rain and this really bothers me!

Yes, "feel the nature"...

Royal Pudding

A few weeks ago I went into the new Paris Baguette at Gangnam with my friend Alice (famous author of Mental Poo) and saw her friend buy a small bottle of pudding. I had never seen these cute little bottles of colorful pudding at the older Paris Baguette in my 'hood. Then finally...

They're quite tasty, though I'd have to say that I prefer the chocolate over strawberry. Each flavor starts out with a thin layer of that flavor's creme, followed by the real pudding which lies on a bed of normal vanilla pudding yogurt, finished by the bottom-most layer of jelly. The lid of each glass jar claims: "Hand-made drip method thick and smooth [enter flavor here] pudding." Royal indeed.

Bring in the Boats

At around 4pm, the street vendors roll in all at once. It's actually a pretty cool site to see like 20 people pushing 20 carts covered in tarps down Myeong Dong and pull up to a stop where they will be positioned for the rest of the afternoon and evening. 

In other non-significant Myeong-dong news, I finally saw the new H&M:

Dunkin, I mean Double Donuts

Saw this man selling donuts on my way to the radio station this afternoon near Myeong Dong.

"Same donuts, just half price!"

English > Korean > English

The following are pictures from a rest stop along a Korean highway. 

Beware: this is what happens when you take English words, write them phonetically, then write that phonetically back into English again. 

Hot dog > 핫도그 > Hatdogue   ;   'Fried goods' > 튀김 (pure Korean) > Twigim (phonetic of Korean)

Waffle > 와플 > Wapeul

This one's a bit hard to see, but the very last one is:

Donut > 도넛  > Doneos

And for the ones I haven't explained, they are native Korean words that have been phonetically written in English. What non-Korean speaking person is going to be able to understand those words? Hahaha. Good effort nontheless!

Laughable Laundry

I present to you my drying machine:

While as before at my old place I really didn't have have a dryer, my new place actually has a washer+dryer all-in-one. But because I prefer to naturally dry my clothes (as preferred by mama Kim), I have no place to hang my clothes but on the ceiling fan. 

Anyways, after hanging up my wet laundry last night before going to sleep (isn't that lovely? naturally humidified room via means of drying laundry!), I woke up this morning and tried to wake myself up by taking down my clothes and folding my laundry. Alas, I ended up putting ON my laundry and not realizing how ridiculous I looked in 4 t-shirts until I was ready to head out the door on my way to the palace.

3 musketeers

Three Jongno street cleaning mobiles.

Battle of the Battery Bunnies

I was reminded while watching some Saturday night television of the epic 'battery bunny.'

Coming from the U.S., I was very confused when I first saw a Duracell commercial here in Korea. In the states, we only have one battery bunny: the Energizer Battery Bunny - an ugly looking bright pink bunny who beats his drum and wears a pair of Men in Black shades.

Now I nearly jumped out of my chair when I saw this:

Turns out, the Duracell Battery Bunny actually is the OG (original) and precursor to any battery associated with bunnies. I much rather prefer the Duracell pink compared to the Energizer pink (yes, they are different!) and the rabbit itself it much cuter. In fact, the Energizer battery is actually supposed to be "mocking" the Durcall battery bunny. To make things a tad more interesting, most people in Korea are not familiar with the Energizer battery bunny at all, as is the case in most countries other than the U.S.

Speaking of batteries, here's a bous. Some have asked about a frequently flashed logo I like to use:

He's the old logo for the Korean brand of batteries known as "Rocket."

Palace Pass

So instead of paying 20,000~30,000KRW for gym membership, I paid 10,000KRW for a Palace Pass at Chang-gyeong Palace. I've been making it a regular regiment to go at 9am when the open and exercise with the old folk. It's been awesome.

Hahahaha I took this picture on Monday early in the morning and have been pestering the admission ticket lady about when my pass was coming out since then. She was so excited to give it to me today laughing her head off saying I looked like I was homeless puhahahahaha. I agree.

old folk, pt I

I have this strange fascination with old folk in Korea. My grandparents were around more than most families' growing up in the states - this meaning my grandparents flew over and stayed with us 6 months at a time. Every morning, I exercise with old folk at the palace. The older generation dresses differently and smell funny. The ends of subway cars and best seats on the bus are reserved for old people. There are bunch of crazy and mentally ill old people in Jongno every afternoon.

Then there are the the old folk that play the asian game of "go" or in Korean, "바둑" pronounced 'baduk,' in front of Jongmyo Park. If you're never seen this, then imagine old folk in Central Park playing chess, but totally Asianized. They sit on the ground cross-legged typically on top of flattened cardboard boxes, and carefully lay white and black stone pieces on a square wooden board.

There are spectators too. People simply roaming around observing intense matches, and even police officers to quell any fights or disruptions. My undercover pictures were only able to capture men, but I did see a few women around as well.