Food for the Seoul

The coldest spots in Seoul are the exit tunnels that lead from the subway stations up to the street. It takes less than a minute to traverse one of these. But in that little time the cold seeps in from the concrete up through your legs, through your spine and all the way through to the tips of your ears. I learned this many times over the past two days.

It's been pleasant enough despite that. Yesterday I went to the Gyeongbokgung palace in the northern half of the city. It was built six hundred years ago. Since then it’s been damaged, rebuilt, damaged again during Japanese colonization, threatened during the Korean war, but still stands today with a quiet dignity that gives no hint of its beleaguered past. I spent the morning tramping through the grounds. The maze of corridored walks was lined with leafless trees and scattered patches of late snow. There were hardly any other visitors, possibly because of the lunar new year festival (and possibly because few others were fool enough to venture out in the cold). The absence of tourists set off the quiet wintry dignity of the building and grounds in a very fetching manner.

The cold did not bother me too much, because luckily I was able to insulate myself from the stomach out. I enjoy Korean food at any time. But when it comes piping hot from a roadside vendor on a frigid day, it is simply irresistible. Barbecued chicken skewers, sweet potato wrapped in a blanket of minced beef and dunked in spicy red sauce, pan-fried buns stuffed with cinnamon cream – and those were just a few of the things I ate. I won’t even bother to mention the food I passed over longingly because I was too stuffed to eat it.

Did I mention the ice cream? I went into a shop and asked for a banana ice cream with cinnamon topping. It turned out that the term ‘topping’ was misleading. The girl who took my order dunked a scoop of ice cream on a cold slab of stone. Then she sprinkled a small heap of cinnamon on top and used a pair of scoops to knead the cinnamon into the ice cream as if she was kneading a lump of dough. Divine! Of course my left hand nearly froze and broke off at the wrist because it was holding the icy cone while I walked down the street at night. But that was an acceptable risk to take for the gastronomic plesure.

I got to enjoy more than just amazing food; I also had one of my more unusual shopping experiences. I was browsing the wares at a stall selling fashion jewelry in hopes of finding something nice for my better half. The salesgirl helpfully asked whether the style I was looking for was elegant or cute. “Elegant”, I repled. “Elegant”, she muttered to herself as with great satisfaction she handed me a pair of Mickey Mouse earrings.

Mickey Mouse! Not even the most ardent Disney fan could call Mickey elegant! He wears red shorts, for crying out loud. The only person who comes close is Superman, and we all know what a dork he looks in his scarlet lingerie. Fortunately for the better half, and even more fortunately for me, I managed to overcome the salesgirl’s attempt at assistance and find something suitable. Something that I considered elegant despite its lack of rodent motifs.

So now I'm back in my hotel, and tomorrow the work part of this trip will begin. I do hope it lives up to the tone set by the last two days, because they were really great!