#lots of asian countries have hands as the standard for eating rice

[kingneptunesthinninghead]

How much do you weigh? what a weirdly personal question

If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? sitting in the shade reading a book

Do you think you can love someone without trusting them? yes but not in a way that will ever be truly fulfilling

What’s your opinion on people who go hunting for sport? i live in a very rural area so i grew up with hunting for sport extremely normalized but once i actually developed and used my critical thinking skills i realized how morally reprehensible it is. literally just begging these people to use their brains.

Do you have a fairly fast or slow internet connection? eh its pretty fast

Have you ever been someplace tropical? florida lmao

Are you sensitive to caffeine? somewhat. i dont really consume it that much

How do you usually get around? driving myself

Have you ever been accused of being too clingy? no bc i’m generally pretty independent unless i reallyyyy like someone

What do you think about Kim Kardashian? neutral

Can you speak any French? je parle un peu français

Favorite yogurt flavor? i’m lactose intolerant so i recently tried dairy free yogurt and i hated it sooo i guess none

How much money do you have in your wallet right now? i dont have any cash in my wallet rn lol

What bottled water brand do you like? deer park or aquafina

Your favorite way to eat chocolate? brownies

How often do you listen to country music? sometimes.

Linkin Park or Avenged Sevenfold? neither

Last surgery you had? my wisdom teeth surgery

Have you ever played guitar? no but i wish i could

Is there someone in your life whose career/life choices you find immoral/unethical? Have you ever told that person your views? Do you find it difficult to support them (emotionally or otherwise) because of their choices? um i dont think so

What trait do you feel you lack that you wish you possessed? a little more confidence

Have you ever considered writing your memoirs? maybe

Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? i dont have very many online friends anymore but when i had a bunch i loved talking to them

Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? only for something i really like.

Do you have any stickers on your laptop? a bunch

Would you rather have a job for which you had to go in early in the morning or one you had to stay late into the evening at? early in the morning so then i have the rest of the day to myself when i get off

Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? i have a workout app but that’s it.

Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? my mom, sister, and my 2 best friends

If you could’ve been at any historical event, which would you have liked to witness firsthand? probably the women’s suffrage movement or the civil rights movement

Is there something that you really want to do but are afraid of doing? If so, why are you afraid of doing it?i want to tell him how i feel but i’m afraid i’ll ruin the friendship

What is something society “expects” you to do that you don’t want to do and/or don’t plan on doing? wear a tampon i’m sorry but i can’t do it

Have Jehovah's Witnesses ever come to your door? no

Are you well-known by people in your area? eh somewhat

Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? no and i dont want to

What's your favourite type of bird? owls!!

What tv show(s) have you been watching currently? i’m watching loki, hsmtmts, planning to watch s2 of never have i ever, and i started one piece but i haven’t watched in a while

Have you ever dated a smoker? no but that might change😳

Do you share a middle name with any of your siblings? no

Have you ever been a member in a band? No.

Can you cry on command? If so, have you ever used it to your advantage? No.

Do you have separate emails for personal and business? i have my school email and personal email

Have you ever missed a flight? no

Have you ever seen a lunar eclipse? i think so.

Have you ever taken a ride in a convertible? i literally rode in my best friend’s convertible last night lmao

Why did you last need to use a band-aid? i dont remember

What fruit do you eat most often? bananas and clementines

Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? maybe my great uncle?

Has someone ever tried to start an argument with you over Facebook? What happened? no but i’ve been in a few on insta and twitter.

Have you ever had an unusual type of milk (eg. oat, rice, almond)? i don’t straight up drink milk but i love things made with almond milk.

If you could experience life as a Disney princess for a week, which princess would you pick and why? elsa i want ice powers

When you’re at home, do you spend most of your time in your room? sometimes but normally during the day i’m in the living room with my family

If you like to sleep in late, have your parents ever told you off for doing so? No.

Do you find piercings attractive? Yep.

Do you like potato chips? Loooove 'em.

What’s the most stalker-like/creepy thing you’ve ever done? If you don’t think you’ve done anything like that, what’s the most stalker-like thing someone’s done to you? i’ve looked up a few people’s houses on zillow in my day.

Do you think it’s a double standard that a woman can hit a man and expect to get away with it, but if a man hits a woman it’s assault? absolutely, you shouldn’t hit anyone

What’s your favorite old Disney movie and favorite new Disney movie? my top 3 are princess and the frog, tangled, and frozen 2. i also love the little mermaid

Name something “trendy” or popular that you dislike. idrk

“Dirty talk” in the bedroom…love it, like it, don’t care, dislike it, or hate it? it depends on what it is. it should also be mixed with some loving or praise talk imo

What is/are your favorite type(s) of ethnic food, and what’s your favorite food within that type? i LOVE italian food specifically fettuccine alfredo and i also love asian food such as general tso’s, sweet and sour chicken, lo mein, shrimp fried rice, LUMPIA 🤤

How would you describe your relationship with your hair over the years? i’ve always liked my hair color and thickness. i always go back and forth between growing it out long and cutting it short bc i can never choose which i like more also it has lots of red undertones so i’m thinking about dyeing it a deep red

How do you feel about your SO daily/regularly checking up on a couple of his exes on social media? hypothetically it would be a red flag to me. a clear sign they haven’t moved on from the past

Do you prefer your guy to wear cologne or not? a good smelling cologne on a man will quite literally make me bust a nut.

Ladies, how important is it to you that your SO wears/would wear a wedding ring? i’d want them to unless it didnt fit or something

What was the turning point that led you to decide for or against having children? i’m very close with my family so i’ve always loved the idea of having one of my own with my future spouse

Is having your “dream” wedding really that important to have? i definitely have ideas for my wedding and i would want it to go a certain way according to our plan but in the end if things go wrong or plans change it wouldn’t matter as long as i’m marrying the loml.

Do you consider it cheating if your SO goes to a strip club and then doesn’t tell you? i wouldn’t consider it cheating if he was just watching but i would be angry that he hid it from me

How old is too old for trick-or-treating? i dont think it matters unless ur posing a danger to little children

Do you sleep with your arms over or under the covers? depends but mostly under

Do you own any t-shirts of your favorite band? i have nsync and harry styles shirts but thats it

Fries or onion rings? Fries.

True/False: you’ve had an odd dream this week. all the time but most of the time i forget them right after i wake up

Do you find tattoo sleeves attractive? depends

Do you like carving pumpkins? Yeah.

What’s an animal you want to have as a pet but can’t? i think raccoons are adorable but its kindaaaa hard to domesticate them

Have your parents ever caught you drinking? no bc my parents let me drink in the house and i’ve told them abt every time i’ve drank at college

How would you react if your celebrity crush came to your door? i would absolutely piss and shit on myself.

Has your mom/dad ever walked in on you kissing or anything more with someone? no

The person you have a crush on is drunk and goes to kiss you, you know they don’t realize what they’re doing, but do you kiss anyways? i would stop it even if i want to bc i don’t want them to regret anything and i wouldn’t want them to kiss me if they don’t like me bc it would hurt too much.

What would you prefer to get from a guy/girl: flowers, a hand written poem, a picture he drew of you or a nice night out? i would love them all but something abt a guy taking the time to write a poem for me makes me melt

Do you any shirts with any kind of images of food on them? no.

Which holiday is the most fun to decorate for? halloween

What was the first website you had an email account on? gmail

Have you ever written a fanfic? YES AHSHDH.

Tattoos or piercings? tats for sure.

What’s the last gross movie/show/video you saw? the scene where alexei breaks the inmate’s wrist in black widow is SO GROSS i cringe every time

Would you rather live in a huuuge house or a little cozy one? definitely a little cozy one

Do you have a tutor for anything? No.

Who’s the best kisser you know? i’ve only kissed one person.

Has anyone ever threatened you with a knife? No. I'd like it to stay that way.

(If you’re a girl) Has anyone ever called you "shortie" instead of girl? no and i hope they dont

Do you have a deep voice? not really

Do you play games with boys/girls, like 'hard to get’? no thats dumb

Is there a Sonic where you live? yes i’m a whore for sonic

What do you like on your pizza? pepperoni or sausage

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/sports/from-tattoos-to-hi-tech-loos-your-travel-guide-to-japan/

From tattoos to hi-tech loos, your travel guide to Japan

Arriving in Japan there’s a sense of culture shock. Everything is a bit different and however much you’ve prepared, it takes a while to get used to.

Language, signs, the people may at first seem unusual but you soon come to appreciate the contrasts that make Japan such a great place to visit. Teeming streets and crowded bars are matched by serene shrines and temples right beside the main streets as little oases of calm where people refresh themselves for the day ahead.

Go with the flow — make the most of your time here but find moments to be quiet and think about it too.

Welcome

You might wonder what sort of welcome you’ll get in this country which seems so different. The Japanese are naturally polite, friendly and welcoming people and the fact that their call for volunteers was many times oversubscribed will mean that you get a very warm welcome both to the Rugby World Cup and to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

READ: Remembering the shock of the century when Japan toppled South Africa

Japan’s ‘No-Side’ volunteers are expected to match those at London 2012 which set a benchmark for major sporting events. The phrase ‘No-Side’ is used at the end of a match and has become a symbol of respect, hospitality and solidarity.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And to make sure of a warm welcome here are a few tips.

Do

Open your mind and your eyes and embrace the very different culture

Enjoy the differences — Japan is unlike anywhere else in the world

Learn a few words — as in most countries just saying please and thank you makes a positive impression

Be polite and respectful of different ways of doing things — washing your hands at shrines for example

Use the wonderful convenience stores — there are over 50,000 and they do snacks, coffee and all sorts of things you may need

Travel by train as they are a phenomenon

Get reception to give you a card or write the name and address of your hotel and any restaurants you plan to visit by taxi — English is limited among taxi drivers

READ: Why Georgia has rugby on its mind ahead of the World Cup

Don’t

Be afraid of hi-tech loos — a down-below wash and blow dry is amazing

Worry about signs — train, subways, major street signs are in English — but see above with regards to addresses

Wear shoes indoors where there are tatami floors

Eat in the street except right by the stall where you bought your street food

Miss out on the experiences that await beyond the stadium — here are a few ideas

READ: Meet the rugby team fueled by 250kg of food

Go see

Apart from the match venues try to take in some quintessential aspects of Japanese culture:

Take time to visit a shrine or temple or both

Stroll in a Japanese garden or city park

Relax in a hot spring or onsen

Book a karaoke session in one of the hi-tech studios

Feast your eyes and your stomach in a department store food hall

Eat and drink in a neighborhood bar or izakaya they are much more fun than the standard restaurants, good as those may be with more Michelin stars than any other country.

Food and drink

While we’re on the subject you can always decide what you’d like to eat from the wonderful plastic food plates displayed outside or in restaurant windows. Oh and it’s not all about raw fish although sashimi is one of my favorite dishes.

Try set meals — many places offer these combination trays with rice, pickles, soup and a main dish

Drink some sake — you may need advice as there are many types. The higher the positive number, the drier the sake.

Look out for craft beer outlets — it’s a fast growing sector in Japan and very good beers abound

Eat noodles — ramen, soba, udon all delicious inexpensive meals with many sauces and toppings

Try to find some okonomiyaki — a kind of pancake cooked in front of you it’s delicious and fun

In the street takoyaki (octopus balls), yakitori (chicken skewers), gyoza (dumplings), dorayaki (pancakes), senbei (rice crackers) and mochi (sweet rice cakes) are all well worth a try

Sport

The Japanese enjoy their sport. They love the success that Kei Nishikori and Naomi Osaka are having in tennis. Baseball is the big one with players switching to and from the USA major leagues.

They are proud that the Samurai Blue have been at the last six FIFA World Cups and they are mad for sumo wrestling and golf.

READ: ‘The carpet was pulled from under me’ — ex-player on tackling depression after retirement

Rugby is growing fast and will become really big with Japan being the first Asian country to host the World Cup. It already has over 3,600 clubs and with 125,000, the fourth largest number of players of any country.

It’s appropriate that the first recorded game was in Yokohama in 1866 where this year’s final will be held. An early version of the game called kemari played from about 600 AD using a ball made of deerskin with the hair facing inside and the hide on the outside.

Locations

All the venues are in great stadiums and in interesting cities. Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido which hosted the 1976 Winter Olympics is a lively city with great shopping, eating and nightlife.

Kamaishi has a brand new stadium built as part of its recovery from the tsunami of 2011. It’s in the north of Honshu, the main island in a city set amid fabulous coastal scenery.

Tokyo

Tokyo is a city with so much to do and see it’s hard to know where to start but here are a few things you shouldn’t miss.

Go up the Tokyo Skytree and see the metropolis from the air, it’s breathtaking. Alternatively do the same from the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, it’s free and on a good day you can see Mount Fuji. Stay on in Shinjuku for the neon extravaganzas of Kabuchiko Street and the thousands of bars, restaurants and clubs in the streets surrounding the world’s busiest railway station.

Cross the road in Shibuya at the famous scramble crossing where 3000 people cross the junction at each change of lights at busy times.

After the hustle of the busier parts of Tokyo spend some time in the peaceful surroundings of the Meiji Shrine or in the north of the city very close to the Skytree, visit the Senso-ji Temple at Asakusa with access via the crowded and fascinating stalls of Nakamise Street.

Japan is famed for its gardens. You can experience these in Tokyo as well by going to the Shinjuku Gyoen which has a traditional Japanese, French and English gardens all in the middle of one of the busiest parts of the city. Other great parks are Hibiya, Ueno and the Imperial Place East Garden.

Kansai

The region south of Tokyo is called the Kansai and here you’ll find the venues in Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city, and Kobe.

Both are great port cities with excellent food, shopping — Osaka has the longest indoor shopping street, Tenjinbashi, in Japan — visitor attractions and entertainment.

READ: Could ‘adopted Welshman’ Warren Gatland coach the All Blacks?

Kyushu

There are three venues on the most southerly of the four main islands. It’ll be warm down here in September. Like most of the country Kyushu is very mountainous with the active volcano Mount Aso, last eruption 2016, in the center. Kyushu grows 60% of all Japan’s bamboo and they use a lot of it.

The venues are further north with Fukuoka a busy city with excellent shopping, eating and interesting museums. It’s full of sea air and green spaces, friendly, safe and clean.

Oita is on the east coast looking across to Shikoku and Honshu. It is in the highly prized area for hot springs centered on Beppu so don’t miss a chance to get in the hot tub. Oita is also famous for toriten — southern fried chicken — so try that in an izakaya.

Kumamoto is a bit further inland and surrounded by mountains. It has one of Japan’s best castles, a former samurai mansion and the peaceful Suizenji garden which includes the old route from Kyoto to Tokyo and a miniature Mount Fuji.

The town has two extensive examples of shopping arcades which are a feature of so many towns with chain and individual stores, coffee shops and bars. The city had huge success with a bear mascot it launched in 2010 so you are bound to come across Kumamon.

Taboo Tattoo

You may not see many of these. Players have been asked, and have agreed, to cover up tattoos.

Japan has a long tradition of intricate tattoos but in the 1960s they became associated with crime syndicates known as yakuza and since then everyone else avoids tattoos or keeps them covered up in public.

More than half of the hot springs and resort hotels ban people with visible tattoos from using their facilities. It’s a case of ‘when in Rome’ respecting local preferences when it comes to showing off your tatts.

And finally

It may seem weird at times and it’s certainly wonderful so just embrace the differences and enjoy a great experience of sport, cuisine and culture.

[sojourners-truth-blog]

Old Enough to Teach, Young Enough to Learn..

My body clock is all the way thrown off because right now in Bangkok it’s 1:22am on Friday morning, while in Houston, it’s 12:22pm on Thursday. Even without an alarm clock my body naturally gets up around 5:00am-5:30am (this is all thanks to TFA institute!) but it has never had to adjust to THIS big of a time change.. Because my sleeping and eating patterns are out of whack, I’d figure I’d be somewhat productive and blog in the meantime..

So, prior to actually arriving here in Bangkok, me and the other fifteen teachers spent three days in Boston, Mass. for pre-departure orientation. The purpose of this was to become somewhat acclimated with the language, culture, ideas, food and hot button political issues prior to actually being in Thailand, which I appreciated a lot. We also had a chance to meet the other participants and become somewhat familiar with each other before leaving. 

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, I was concerned that I would be the only black participant, and my suspicious were certainly confirmed. Don’t get me wrong, this is not my first time (and definitely won’t be the last) being the only African-American represented at a conference, meeting, invitational, etc. I just think with the current state of race relations GLOBALLY, blacks definitely have to be a bit more cautious and aware of the world around them. Even in 2017, there are many places globally where it is not advisable for blacks to travel, something that my white and Asian counterparts will likely NEVER have to consider or experience. Being in a country where over 95% of the people are Thai, and blacks being virtually invisible, it’s easy to feel “othered”.. 

Even in the airport, I’m sure NO one else in my seminar group noticed that I had some folks doing double takes.. I don’t know if it was because of my skin color, the fact that my hair is short (I big chopped, AGAIN!) or because they thought I was a baddie! Ha.. Either way, I already peeped the stares..

Moving on, before pre-departure orientation, (in true Type A personality form), I had already googled and researched some things about the country, but there was SOOOO much that I didn’t know.  I knew that it would be HOT, but I’m coming from Houston, where it was 101 degrees when I left, so I felt like I was prepared. I also knew that similar to other Southeast Asian countries, skin bleaching is a REAL thing. Lastly, I had read that Thailand was considered “The Land of Smiles”, because of the people’s hospitality, so that was something I was looking forward to..

NOW, onto the things I didn’t know, and learned during PDO (pre-departure orientation):

King Rama IX:

Thailand is currently in mourning as their revered King Rama IX passed away in October of 2016. He was the longest reigning monarch, serving over 70 years in his position. Many Thai people saw him as a father figure, while others thought of him as a deity of some sort. Either way, EVERY household in Thailand has a picture, or shrine of King Rama IX. Also, we were warned about specific laws that prevent ANYONE from speaking ill against the king or the royal family, and is punishable by law. This means that not even in casual conversation, on social media, whatever should the royal family be spoken against.

King Rama IX’s oldest son will be his successor, and there are concerns from Thai people that he will not be as a great as a monarch as his father. His father was a monarch, a political leader, a community activist, a father, and so much more. Even when our program directors spoke about him, they would become very emotional speaking about his death and the impact he’s had on their lives.

As a result of his death, the whole country is in mourning and wears only dark colors to show their reverence and respect. This will continue for the course of the year until cremation in October 2017, a full year after his death. As a tourist, we aren’t necessarily expected to wear all black, but was suggested to wear darker colors and very modest clothing (dresses/skirts to the knees, no shoulders out, no open toed shoes certain places) to show respect

Comparison Statistics

70 million people reside in Thailand but it’s not very ethnically diverse (74% being native, 14% Chinese born Thai, and 12% other being Malay, Khmer or Hill tribes) VS. In the United States where there’s 320 million people and 72% are white (16% identify as Hispanic/Latino), 13% African-American, 5% Asian and 9% mixed race. 

In regards to capitals of influence, Bangkok is pretty much the capital for everything, VS. In the United States where DC is the political capital, New York is the business/finance capital, LA/Hollywood is the entertainment capital, Silicon Valley as the technology capital, Boston/Cambridge as the education capital, etc.

In politics, Thailand has been under a constitutional monarchy since 1932, but is also currently under a military coup since 2014, which arrested power from the civilian government and is responsible for ensuring harmony, unity and peace among civilians. While in the U.S…. I don’t even feel like discussing American politics right now, moving on!

Over 95% of Thais are Buddhist while in the U.S. 70% identify as Christian (including Roman Catholics, Protestant, Methodist, etc.) while only 1% identify as Buddhist.

 Greetings and Popular Sayings

Ben yung ai? Or Sabai dii? – How are you?

Farang – Westerner, white person, European (debatable whether this is a term of endearment)

Khop khun kha – Thank you (Just realized I was telling all the hotel staff Hello, instead of thank you! lol)

Mai pen rai – no worries, you’re welcome, don’t worry about it

Sawatdee– Hello, good day, good morning, good afternoon, goodbye, etc.

Aroy – delicious, yummy

Sanuk mai? – having fun? Enjoying yourself?

 Race Relations

There is propaganda all over Asian media, TV, commercials, billboards, etc promoting skin bleaching. We were actually warned before we came to NOT purchased sunscreen here in Thailand because many of them have bleach as an ingredient. I’m not trying to be out here looking like Sammy Sosa, so I heeded their advice. When talking about this with my seminar group, I posed the question “well, if the standard of beauty in Asia is very pale, white skin with European features, what is the perception of blacks or heavily melanated people?” The crickets! Haha! Nah, someone went on to explain that in Thailand it has nothing to do with racism, but is more a class issue. Meaning that people in rice fields have darker skin because they’re out in the sun working hard, while people who are very pale and have white skin are likely of a higher class, and have careers and job in office buildings. More on this later..

Food

Despite popular beliefs, Pad Thai is not the most popular food in Thailand but Papaya Salad is

We were all advised not to drink the tap water (which my Dad refers to as “city punch”,, Ha!). They said that the water here would mess up our American stomachs.. Also, because of septic issues, we were asked not flush anything but waste down the toilets, including tissue, meaning we have to wipe and put the tissue in a trash bin (this totally should not be under the category of food, but it’s about water, soooo, we flowing)

 European/American Influences

Thailand was one of only a handful of countries who were never colonized by European powers (other countries include Ethiopia, Liberia, China, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Iran, Bhutan and Afghanistan), HOWEVER, the influences are very evident in each country

American missionaries played a huge part in the social development of Thailand including their introduction to public schools and scholarships, public health and modern medicine (including vaccines surgeries, x-ray machines, etc) and the instruction to the printing press

This was only THREE days of learning, and I feel like I gathered SOOOO much information in those short days. I can only imagine what the next 30 days have in store for me..

[rescheduledblog-blog]

The hunt for GF products.

If there is one thing that KL has an excess of, it is shopping malls.  We have been to over 10 since we have arrived and most of them are anchored to train, LRT, and monorail stations so if you are heading street level,  you will most likely need to stroll through a mall at some point to get there.    

I have have a guilty pleasure fascination with malls and think of them as urban bio-spheres and if there were beds showers, green space, and kitchens - I could pretty much live in one full-time with out suffering. But that is me,  I like malls. 

Like any Asian country,  after one mall you have kind of seen them all since they have all the same brands and shops, and the set up is pretty standard.  Top floors are the cinema and fitness gyms, there is a always a plastic surgery / day-spa / medical facility floor, the electronics and books floor, tops brands floor, elite fashion and jewelry floor, and then a Supermarket and food court on the basement level floor.  Pretty easy to navigate. 

We generally spend a lot of time in the basement supermarkets while traveling and since trying to eat out in KL has been such a challenge and disappointing, I am pleased to say that of all world cuisines, I found myself food-inspired again after visiting a Isetan, an upscale Japanese Department store supermarket when Luis came running up to me with GF ramen!  Japanese cuisine is not typically gluten free and I was thrilled to actually see the words GLUTEN FREE on a product in Malaysia.

Our momentum returned and we quickly developed a knack for finding the GF needle in the food haystacks  and had some luck with some other supermarkets like Jaya Grocer and the fancy Aeon in the mid valley mall.  To be fair,  we found many places to purchase GF flour and cake mix, but our studio is oven-less and I did not feel like pioneering the way towards microwaved GF bread.  

Here are some of the great GF products we found! 

GF Udon!  White or brown rice versions.  It is amazing!  There is also ramen (but  I are it already). 

Super single use Dashi for ramen base - kelp &  mackerel. 

Single serving Bulldog veggie sauce - tastes like Katsu sauce which is addictive

Tom Yam Paste - this with coconut milk or creme with a touch of pal sugar is a great curry sauce with chicken for topping off  boring rice or rice noodles. 

Sweet and savory rice crackers - I put a package or two in my bag for a snack while out running around. 

OMG - these are amazing mini poppadoms and curb my potato chip cravings.  Plus protein and fiber!

Today we found the holy grail of all things gluten - Organic GF Tamari sauce wiht is basically soy sauce sans gluten (wheat).   We have been looking for it for the last 6 days and were able to find it today at the Aeon Supermarket and Mid Valley Mall.   

I was so thrilled that we celebrated by christening i’s opening at Sushi Jiro!!  

Words cannot describe the unpleasant lackluster experience of eating a sushi with our soy sauce... As a GF veteran, I have several times and it just is not right.    My GF tamari will be traveling with me for the reminder of our trip. 

I arrived to KL with high food hopes and was knocked down a bit by my overwhelming frustration with the limited amount of food I could safely consume here, but was able to turn the beer parade into a ramen, udon, faux Korean bibimbap bowl, Japanese / Thai  / Indian food experience all cooked with my own hands and 100% Gluten Free and delicious packed! 

Basically, I turned my food frown upside down. 

NOTE:  I mention single serving sauces, these come in handy while traveling because lets face it gluten free airline meals are horrible and they are generally a 3-in-1 which is a Diabetic, GF, and Low fat meal so you may not be getting gluten in your food, but you are also not getting any flavor!   I  always carry single serving travel packs of fish sauce, ketchup, mayo, and GF Tamari to help put some taste back into my meal. 

[vietnamtour-blog]

6 Reasons to fall in love with Da Nang, Vietnam

6 Reasons to fall in love with Da Nang, Vietnam

Danang is a fantastic city that has everything. From fabulous mountains to famous beaches and forests, Danang also has spectacular Hai Van Pass and a booming number of modern hotels, resorts, shopping malls, amusement parks, this city has it all. No wonder it has attracted so many tourists recently. Undoubtedly, Danang is truly a unique and perfect destination for every traveler.

Nowadays, Danang has become a must-go spot. It holds onto a lot of top luxury hotels and resorts and embraces the long and romantic beaches. You might be amazed because of the incredible modern facilities combined with the spectacular nature here.

In 2019, Danang was chosen to be one of the 52 best places to go by The New York Times. Early this year, according to Google’s research, Danang is the Top 1 Google Trending Destinations in 2020.

This article will show you the reasons why this beach city could grow rapidly to Top 1 destination to visit in  Asia.

1 – Danang owns the best sandy beach

Danang is dubbed the Hawaii of Asia. It is truly a beach city as it is embraced by approximately 30km of beaches and shorelines. My Khe beach is also known as one of the appealing locations and ranked Top 10 Asian best beaches (Source: The Australian Magazine & Sunday Herald Sun). This is a beautiful stretch of white sand and crystal clear water. Besides, lying on the sand, you can comfortably rest your eyes on the greenery of the Son Tra peninsula. My Khe beach is also among the safest beaches for kids and the elderly in Danang due to its less salty, warmer water, long, gentle slope, and waves during the year.

Morning on Da Nang beach. Photo: Da Nang FantasiCity

There are plenty of luxurious hotels and high-quality resorts, international standard villas, as well as free access and the ticket for both locals and tourists. You can layout on a gorgeous coastline to get as much as possible of vitamin sea or take a sun-bathe from the magnificent hotels viewed to the sea.

2 – Numerous attractions including Golden Bridge – a walk through the god’s hand

Even though the Golden Bridge is new, it is a must-go place when traveling to Danang. This unique bridge, which is held by a rocky hand, is the inspiration for majestic Instagram pictures. It is also the newest footpath added to Ba Na Hills and Sun World Amusement Park, which has modern accommodations and interesting outdoor games.

Besides, Danang is well known because of the spectacular Hai Van Pass. With the crooked path, one side is mountains, and another is the sea, you will have a chance to admire one of the most marvelous sceneries that are the whole view of Danang beaches. Passing by Hai Van location looks like passing by the cloud in the sky. You must be very excited when getting through this fantastic path.

The so-called “ribbon of perfection”, Hai Van Pass. Photo: Flynow.vn

Another impressive destination is the Marble Mountains, that have 5 mountains represented for 5 factors: Iron, wood, water, fire, soil. Every mountain has its own cave inside. Nowadays, there is only Water Mountain open for tourism. You can climb on it, discover the story of Sun Wukong, and contemplate beautiful nature.

Buddha Statue in Marble Mountain. Photo: dhpdaedalus

As Hanoi has the Red River, Danang has the Han River, which has numerous exciting bridges and a lot of water performances. You must drop by Han River because of its history and landscape as a symbol of Danang.

Besides,  there are a ton of beautiful beaches for you to choose such as Tien Sa, My Khe, Non Nuoc, etc. They are all famous and ideal beaches you can visit. Don’t worry because each beach has its luxurious accommodations, as well as hotels in budget and other facilities. You also must take a visit to the Son Tra peninsula, which is well known as Monkey Mountain. From this location, you can easily have an overlook of the entire bay of Danang and explore the diversified biology of plants and animals. Come to Son Tra Peninsula; you can visit Linh Ung Pagoda and other destinations such as Chess Desk Peak, Buddha statue as well.

Son Tra (Monkey) Mountain. Video: Eviva Tour Vietnam

3 –  Shopping paradise for local specialties and quality goods

Han Market is a famous market where every visitor who travels to Danang must come here. This market dates back to 1940 and it has become more modern, cleaner and crowder at the present. It is full of standard goods such as silk, shoes, clothes, bags, souvenirs, and seafood, dried food. Visit Han Market, you will experience exploring and buying products from a typical local market.

Spices and local smiles at the Han market.  Source: danangfantasticity.com

4 – Ease of access & connection to Vietnam’s best attractions

As Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Danang is a travel hub in Central Vietnam. It connects 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites: Hue Citadel, Hoi An Ancient Town, and My Son Sanctuary. Danang is truly a hub to go almost everywhere not only in Central but also entire Vietnam or other countries.

In addition, Danang has various international and domestic flights that totally come to 35 international routes and 10 domestic routes. Danang harbor is also easy to access.

Da Nang airport. Source: vietnamairport.vn

5 – Heaven for foodies

Danang is a combination of traditional culture and growing-up countries such as Korea, Japan. That is why the cuisine in Danang is really diversified.

There are a thousand special dishes in Danang that you have to try such as Bun Cha Ca, green mango, rice paper salad (bánh tráng trộn), steamed rice cakes (bánh bèo), thick noodle soup with spiced fish (bánh canh cá lóc), My Quang Ca Loc, savory Vietnamese Crepes (bánh xèo), etc that are very delicious and reasonably priced. It is very easy to find Western restaurants if you want as well.

You might love this: What to eat in Da Nang

My Quang. Photo source: 2foodtrippers.com

6 – Remarkable events

Danang is full of outstanding festivals. It is referred to as the Leading city of Events and Festivals in the region. Exciting events are all year round, from the International Firework festival, Ironman Championship, Miss World, International Marathon. Check out Eviva’s updated list of International Events in Vietnam.

The annual Da Nang International Firework Festival. Photo: Danang FantastiCity

In the end, as you can see, Danang is growing up rapidly. With the spectacular scenery, luxurious facilities and the rich traditional culture, Danang must be on your bucket list today!

Should you need further information, please contact our travel consultants at consultant@evivatour.com.vn.

Source: https://blog.evivatour.com/6-reasons-to-fall-in-love-with-da-nang-vietnam/

[bestchopstickscom-blog]

The best chopsticks

Are you a fan of Asian cuisine? If so, you are probably using a chopstick set (or at least you want to do so)!

Whether you want to know more about the differences in the sticks coming from  China, Japan, and Korea or you find it more important what material they are made of – metal, bamboo or plastic – we got you covered! Here you will find the best chopsticks currently for sale online.

What do you need to know before you buy chopsticks?

Chopsticks are kitchen and eating utensils used to pick up pieces of food. First invented by the Chinese during the Zhou Dynasty, they have spread in all East Asian countries and nowadays there are used across the globe by people from all countries, which want to enjoy some delicious Asian food with them.

There is no single set that has been accepted as the best chopsticks out there, but there are plenty of options to choose from. Their prices, authenticity, quality, and purpose vary, but we will explain to you everything in detail. First, let us show you why it matters which country your sticks come from!

Authentic chopsticks by country of origin

Chopsticks are used in many parts of the world. While principles of how they look like a kind of similar, there are some differences from region to region.

Japan

The Japanese chopsticks that are 12 to 16 inches and called “ryoribashi” are used for cooking deep frying foods. The ones that are 9 inches long are the real chopsticks that are used for eating. It is common for Japanese sticks to be shorter for women and children. Usually, the chopsticks in Japan have circumferential grooves at the eating end that makes food stop slipping.

By tradition chopstick sets from Japan are made of wood or bamboo. They are also usually lacquered for decoration and waterproofing purposes. Other production materials include plastic, bone, metal, ivory, jade or porcelain. For the people that prefer luxury, the metal chopstick pairs are considered the perfect gift.

Korea

Korean chopsticks of medium-length with a small, flat rectangular shape are paired with a spoon made of the same material. The set is called Sujeo and is used in traditional eating. They are usually made out of flat rust-proof stainless steel and come really handy for hot pot and daily meal use.

Many chopsticks from Korea are ornately decorated at the grip. In the past, materials for Sujeo varied with social class – one could find sets made of gold, silver, cloisonné and so on, but common people used wooden Sujeo. Nowadays, sujeo is usually made of stainless steel. Most Koreans use the chopsticks for side dishes and the spoon for rice and soup.

China

Chinese chopsticks are traditionally 11 inches long and lightweight. They are non-slippery and easy to hold any Chinese food, salad, hot pot, other East Asian cuisines, sushi, noodle soup, BBQ, Pho, etc. Sticks made in China have gained a great reputation and are sold all over the world becoming one of the signs of the Chinese world heritage.

In the traditional culture of China, authentic chopsticks are primary tableware and they also reflect of manners and education of the people using them. With squared or rounded sides and ending in either wide, blunt, flat tips or tapered pointed tips. Blunt tips are more common with plastic or melamine varieties whereas pointed tips are more common in wood and bamboo varieties.

Vietnam

Vietnamese chopsticks are used as often as a fork, knife, and spoon are. There is a great mixture of Western-style and East Asian dishes and some of them such as rice or noodles are eaten with sticks, which are similar to the ones originating from China.

Thailand

Thai chopsticks are actually only used for noodles or other dishes with Chinese origin. That is why the chopsticks look a lot like the typical Chinese ones – rather long, simplistic and wooden. However, Thai people use a combination of spoon and fork for most of their dishes and Westerners sometimes get surprised when served with these in a restaurant and not with sticks.

The different types of chopsticks by the material used

There are plenty of materials used when making different chopstick types. Price, quality, culture, and intention of the purchase (whether it is a gift or not, whether it is a luxurious collector's item or just a standard set for eating). The most common materials are metal, plastic or wood, but let`s dive in each of these in more detail.

Metal

The metal chopsticks are usually rugged, square hollow, and have a non-slip texture with the tip of a chopstick that makes it easier to pick up food. They range between 9 and 10 inches.

Because metals are easily cleaned, these sticks are environmentally friendly and could be cleaned in a dishwasher. They are corrosion resistant to various acids found in meats, milk, fruits, and vegetables. Most importantly though, stainless steel, which is the most commonly used metal, has no chemicals that could get into your food.

Silver

Lightweight and heat insulated, the silver chopsticks are actually made of stainless steel but have a silver finishing which makes them look more elegant. They are also eco-friendly and durable and have a polished texture with smooth touch feeling. If you would like to have real silver chopsticks (as with the precious metal silver), be prepared to pay a substantial fee as they are not produced in great quality and the price of silver is quite higher compared to stainless steel.

Wooden

The wooden chopsticks are usually made of hardwood such as boxwood, chestnut wood, ebony wood, and either ironwood or padauk wood and they are much more durable than bamboo. Hardwood has no splinter and it is lightweight, durable and dense, it won’t swell or absorb water. Hand washes recommended.

Very handy when you have sushi, noodles, BBQ or any type of Asian cuisine, wooden chopstick sets are ideal for any Asian-style dinner party and a Sushi night. Some of them are varnished with natural lacquer from the lacquer tree.

The thermal conductivity of wooden chopsticks is considerably lower than that of metal chopsticks so using wooden chopsticks is preferable when having hot meals like noodle soup.

Plastic

Plastic chopsticks are probably the most widespread reusable chopsticks for sale on the market. There is a great variety of these in the different price segments.

The chopsticks made of plastic should be break-resistant and durable. The material is dishwasher safe and will not melt or chip away easily. However please be careful with that when using plastic chopsticks from the lower price segment as they might have issues.

Recently plastic has been used to create merchandise such as Star Wars-themed lightsaber chopsticks.

Bamboo

The disposable chopsticks are usually made from natural bamboo inside their own paper sleeve. The sticks are 8 to 9 inches long and as a one-time use product, this product helps to reduce the time it takes to clean up after meals. Smaller package quantities are perfect for enjoying take-out or home-cooked meals. A full case of 1000 pairs is ideal for large events, caterers, restaurants, and more!

The bamboo chopsticks are biodegradable and they can be thrown out with the regular food rubbish. Bamboo products are considered better for the environment than wood. Bamboo is a grass and does not need to be replanted after each harvest. It also has greater tensile strength than wood and is less likely to splinter and leave uncomfortable shreds in the mouth.

Others

Chopstick sets can be made of plenty of materials. Some of the not so common include:

The jade in the Jade chopsticks could be mined anywhere, but then they are hand-carved in China. Every piece of jade is different, each carving will have small variations, but will be of the same quality for a specific product line. They are relatively expensive and are a great gift and collector’s item.

Usually produced in Jingdezhen (the capital of porcelain in China), porcelain chopsticks are common for a gift set that includes one or two beautiful white pairs with blue or red pictures. They come with porcelain rests as well and although they could be used as standard chopstick sets, they are better stored by hobby collectors.

Training chopsticks for kids and adults

Are you tired of being the only person on the table with the fork? Do you love sushi, but can’t handle the chopsticks? Or would you like to see your child eat Asian food like a pro?

Then there are plenty of easy-to-use chopsticks available online that are suitable for you. By learning to use them, you can create a cultural dining experience that the whole family could enjoy. From kids to adults, everyone can have great fun eating with а set of learning chopsticks.

Kids chopsticks

Every parent would be proud of seeing its child handle Asian food like a local. That is why there are a few brands that offer children's chopsticks for training purposes. They might look like a toy, but in reality, they are the perfect instrument for learning how to eat with chopsticks for all levels of users.

Little hands can easily control them while developing fine motor skills, which makes the whole process look like a child game. It is easy and fun and depending on the brand and model, the training chopsticks can be used with left and right hand. Usually, the tips of the sticks are scored, which makes picking up the food easier. That is a great advantage for kids that use chopsticks for beginners.

Learning chopsticks for adults

Although mostly used by kids, there are lots of training chopsticks on the market that adults can also choose from. The beginners who want to take food using chopsticks with no difficulty will be pleasantly surprised that they can learn how to use them very fast with a pair of the right ones. Once you are confident in using the training ones, you can always switch to regular ones and impress your friends and family.

In order to enjoy your favorite Asian meal in style, get yourself the right chopsticks and start practicing. Fans of the Korean, Chinese or Japanese cuisine will add an element of fun to the dining experience. If you have already mastered using them, they are also a great gift idea for anyone that wants to learn the chopsticks technique!

Custom chopsticks sets

There are custom chopsticks set for sale that are very stylish and practical. People who prepare for weddings or other special occasions might find these personalized and unique gifts depending on the interests of the recipient. The sticks usually come along with one rest and they are placed in a carry case for a graceful and outstanding presentation.

The handle area of the personalized chopsticks can be engraved with laser and painted with custom names, initials, dates, messages or even logos sometimes. The sellers usually contact the buyers via email to get the specific personalized engraving request.

If you really want to make high-end luxurious gifts, few companies on the market offer designer chopsticks, which are associated with a higher price. However, the visual appeal is a lot more attractive and such gifts are really well received especially by Asian people.

Reference:

https://chopsticksreview.com/

[drtanstravels]

I’ve spent a lot of time in South Korea, but the bulk of that was working in Daejeon 12 years ago. However, I’ve made several trips to Seoul as recent as December last year and every time I’ve been I haven’t needed to travel too far out of my way from where we were staying or if I have, I’ve had someone showing me around. This time we would be traveling for another of Anna’s conferences, but we would also be in a position where we had to try to find everyone else we wanted to meet up with by ourselves. My friends, Andy and Hayley, were still living in Seoul and in recent months I’ve had quite a few friends from Singapore move to Seoul for their work with General Motors, namely Tom Cargill and his wife, Leonie Brown, joining him, plus our mate, George Svigos, and his family. Add to this the fact that mutual friends of all of us from Singapore, Peter Gratz, and his girlfriend, Ray, had timed their Korean holiday to coincide with ours, plus an old colleague of mine from Daejeon that I always enjoy catching up with, Christina Eunjoo Kim, would make the trip down as well. It looks like we had a fun couple of days ahead of us.

Thursday, October 17, 2019 We arrived at Incheon International Airport at around 7:00am, got in a taxi, and made our way through the crazy Seoul traffic for about an hour or so to our hotel, Lotte Hotel World in Jamsil-dong. It was too early to check in, but we were able to dump our bags, get changed, and spend the morning and early afternoon trying to navigate the labyrinth that is the adjoining Lotte Department Store and Lotte World Mall. As is always the case when we land at this time in the morning, the first port of call would be anywhere besides Starbucks that sells coffee. Once caffeinated we explored the supermarket and food area of the mall, looking at the live seafood, marvelling at seeing beef being aged underwater for the first time, and weighing up our options for lunch before walking around both the mall and the department store. The department store was pretty much all luxury brands, not really our thing so we stuck to the enormous mall until it was time to check into our room and grab a bite to eat. A stroll around Lotte World Mall and our hotel:

A small sampling of the live seafood in the food section

Anna’s hand next to a lobster for perspective

This thing was gigantic!

Wet-aged beef

Dried fish

I can’t imagine a child from a western country wanting broccoli-themed toys

Maybe they should’ve checked Urban Dictionary before naming their brand

I wonder who their demographic is

Inside our room

The view from where we were staying

A bad photo, but Anna wanted one of me with this sign

Anna and our lunch

Me doing the same

That was some damn fine clam rice

After lunch we caught a cab down to where we had stayed on our previous trip to Seoul, around Gangnam and Sinsa-dong to do a bit more shopping, but in an area with more of the type of stuff we like. Because of the insane Seoul traffic it took a while to get there and it was quite late, but we finally made it and had a great time just shopping and looking around for a bit until we were hungry again. Andrew and Hayley weren’t in town, Peter and Ray weren’t arriving until the following day, and Tom and Leonie were both working late so we were left to do our own bidding that evening. First of all there was dinner to think of and one of the things I love in South Korea is all of the fried chicken and beer places that are everywhere. Sure, they sell other stuff too, but the main reasons to go to them are the cheap beer and the Korean fried chicken. The only downside is the condition of the toilets, but that is a small sacrifice when the food is this good and the beers are such a bargain. The chicken is served with all of the side dishes that come in any restaurant here, but we learnt our lesson last time when we clearly over-ordered, the servings are massive, so we just got a plate of chicken, some vegetables, and a 2.7 litre (91.3 fl. oz.) jug of beer to get us started.

Once dinner was done the next step was to find a bar to settle into so we found a shisha bar, grabbed a pipe and some drinks, and kicked back for the night. There were free flow pretzels and I’ve had a habit while eating them that dates back to when I was bored at Christmas as a child — I always try to chew them in a way that they form letters to spell things out. My name is easy to do and when Anna saw the initial result of both of our names, she wanted to get in on the act and add the name of our dog, Kermit. We got it done, however, it took many attempts to get the photo right, but here’s a look back at our first night in town:

Anna warming up

Showing her how it’s done

Dinner is served

Mission accomplished

The carnage afterward

I wasn’t kidding about the toilets, it was unisex, too

The view from the shisha bar

Just starting out

My initial creation

Finally got the picture right for the camera on the front of an iPhone

Anna’s contribution

Friday, October 18, 2019 Anna would be spending the entire day at her conference so I would need to occupy myself. That wouldn’t be all that hard, because there were plenty of errands to run, the first being finding an ATM that would accept my Singaporean card. Normally this isn’t too difficult in most countries, but it wasn’t particularly easy in the Lotte maze. I used a credit card to buy some coffee and then spent the next three hours trying to find an ATM or bank that could deliver the cash, all while hopelessly lost again. There weren’t a whole lot of ATMs around and I couldn’t withdraw from the bank either, but five ATMs later I found one that would do the job. Now it was just a matter of finding out where I was and getting a cab back to Sinsa-dong to have an extended look at some stores I had seen the previous day that would have Anna probably quite bored, but no taxis would take me. Instead, I opted for the subway and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, only taking a little over 30 minutes, instead of being caught in traffic jams for an hour or more. Once there it was interesting walking around this particular neighbourhood. Last time I was here I wrote about how prevalent cosmetic surgery is in Seoul:

Plastic surgery in South Korea is socially accepted. Double-eyelid surgery (also known as blepharoplasty) creates an eyelid crease that makes the eye look bigger and is the most common cosmetic procedure performed in South Korea. Due to the differences in the facial bone structure of Asians, who have a flatter facial bone structure than their Western counterparts, facial bone contouring surgeries are quite popular. V-line surgery (jaw and chin reduction) and cheekbone (zygoma) reduction surgeries are used to change the facial contour. Many celebrities are required to undergo these surgeries to trim their cheekbones, jaw, and chin to create an oval shaped face.

South Korea has also seen an increase in medical tourism from people who seek surgeon expertise in facial bone contouring. Korean surgeons have advanced facial bone contouring with procedures like the osteotomy technique and have published the first book on facial bone contouring surgeries. There was a 17 percent increase in the sales of cosmetic surgery from 1999 to 2000, reaching almost ₩170 billion (Korean won) (US$144 million).

Oh, and vanity isn’t just restricted to women here:

While expectations of female beauty usually outweigh male expectations, South Korea is notable for the standards placed on men. Many of male standards are similar to that of female beauty – the body is slim and the skin is clear. Idols and celebrities especially are expected to not be too traditionally masculine and often adopt androgynous traits, such as a lack of facial hair and use of makeup. In 2012 20 percent of male beauty products were bought by South Koreans.

Sinsa-dong is one of Seoul’s capitals for plastic surgery and I took photographs last time of just a handful of the clinics offering their services in this part of the city, but those were all taken at night and until this trip I had never experienced this area in the middle of the day. I discovered it’s not unusual to walk around Sinsa-dong and see people with swollen, bandaged heads or pairs of friends who had gone for matching nose-jobs and are now shopping with the tape, plasters, and bandages still intact. These people are everywhere here during daylight hours, I even saw one girl out shopping who still had all the lines from a consultation for the procedure she was going to soon undergo drawn on her face with a marker!

Anna had a dinner for her conference at 6:00pm at Lotte World Tower so I got to the station at 5:00pm to give myself plenty of time to shower, put on a suit, and walk over, however, there was a small problem; when I arrived the subway station was packed, but I couldn’t just use my size to bully my way onto the train, like is the standard procedure in some other countries. People line up properly in two lines in Korea and politely wait until they can fit in the carriage so I would just have to wait until enough trains had passed and I had made my way close enough to the front of the line to be able to board. This took some time and when I was finally back at the hotel I had a shower-in-a-can, got changed, and met Anna for the dinner. The first event of the night would be going up to the viewing platform of Lotte World Tower for a look over the city:

Lotte World Tower is a 123-floor, 555-metre (1,821 ft) supertall skyscraper located in Seoul, South Korea. It opened to the public on April 11, 2017 and is currently the tallest building in South Korea, and is the 6th tallest building in the world.

We stood for a while in a queue to get in the elevator, but once inside it took only a minute to make it up to the fully-enclosed viewing deck on the 120th floor, stairways accessing higher floors, all offering a breathtaking view of Seoul:

Looking over one side of the city

Now over the river

Straight down

Standing on a glass floor 123 storeys up

Proof we did it

The dinner was actually quite fun, there was no cringeworthy interactive beatboxing display for a bunch of professors this time, but I get the feeling that the organisers this year believed that not many people attending would eat Korean food. Anna had told me that lunch was all Italian with the main dishes being pasta and it turned out that dinner would be predominantly French.

The dinner finished up at 9:30, Pete and Ray were now in town and neither Tom nor Leonie were working so we went to meet up with them in Hapjeong-dong, but there was just one minor problem — The insane Seoul traffic again, even at that time on a Friday night. We thought our ride would take about 30 minutes, but it was the best part of an hour before we arrived to meet the other four at bar nearby called Cream. We all had a blast catching up while requesting terrible songs at Cream and then we switched things up a bit after a while and went to a small bar that Tom loves called Wolf Bar for a few more at the end of the night. It wouldn’t be the only time we would visit either place over the course of the weekend, but here’s how the second part of Friday night looked:

What we’d be eating at the dinner

I always feel proud when I see Anna’s work posted around the place

Outside Cream

Going up the stairs

Now inside with the guy who’d be taking our requests

People draw stuff and pin them to the wall…

…and some of them are really impressive

Probably Pete’s idea

Now doing shots with the owner of Wolf Bar

I guess Tom went a little too hard before we arrived, because this was not long after he got home

Saturday, October 19, 2019 Anna still had to go to her conference for a bit on Saturday, but there were still a few plans for the day; we were going to change hotel so it would be easier to meet up with our friends, but I also had another buddy to meet up with. Just like the last time we came to Seoul, as well as a couple of times when she visited Singapore, I was going to meet up with my old friend from when we both taught at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Daejeon back in 2007, Christina Eunjoo Kim. Christina’s plan was to catch a train to Seoul to spend the day with me and then stay with one of her other friends in a different part of the city that evening so I checked us out of our hotel, stored our luggage, and met her at Jamsil subway station. We always have a great time when we meet up so the first plan was just to grab a coffee, stroll around Lotte Mall for a while, and then have some lunch, bibimbap this time. We were walking around again for a while after lunch when Anna had a gap in her schedule so she met up with us for an hour before heading back to the conference.

Me at each subway exit

After that it was walking around a nearby lake and taking in a weird Korean European dancing display until it was time for Christina to leave and this was another occasion where I got hopelessly lost. I wanted to get back to the hotel and wait for Anna to come back, but I also mentioned earlier that this entire Lotte complex was massive and nigh on impossible to navigate. Most subway stations in Seoul including the nearest one, Jamsil, have eight exits so I thought I’d try and use those as a landmark for getting back to the hotel, all I would need to do is wander around and find the right one. I stumbled upon the nearest one, walked up the stairs and could see the hotel across the rather wide road that, from a distance, appeared to be behind exit number three. I tried to make my way through the mall to that exit, eventually found it, but when I exited I couldn’t even see the hotel, I was now around the side of a completely different building. Back down into the cavernous mall I went to find another exit, locating one that now had me diagonally opposite the hotel. Fortunately for me, the next exit would be a charm and I would be back at the hotel a mere hour after I made what should have been a 10-minute walk to get there. A look back at a fun afternoon with an old friend:

Having a bite to eat with Christina

Lunch!

Anna joining us for coffee later

This soft-serve in coffee kind of looks like a poop

Walking around the back of the mall

I’m not sure if they’re supposed to be European or just pirates

The lake behind the mall

Now looking across the lake at Lotte World

We seem to be encountering a lot of geese recently

Looking up at Lotte World Tower

Anna soon met me at Lotte Hotel World so it was time to get in a cab, check into our new hotel in Jung-gu, and then meet everybody else at Tom and Leonie’s place to watch Australia take on England in the semifinal of the Rugby World Cup before heading to dinner at 7:30pm. We left our hotel at 6:10pm, but even on a Saturday night it took us over an hour to make the 14km (8.7 mile) journey to our new residence for the next couple of nights, L’Escape, leaving us to check in 15 minutes before we were supposed to be at dinner. Luckily for us there was a screen in the cab showing us a terrible K-pop reality show to keep us amused along the way. Once our bags were up in our room that looked as if it were co-designed by Noel Fielding and Jack the Ripper, we were going to take the subway to avoid the horrendous Seoul traffic, but we still knew we were going to be at least half an hour late regardless, because according to Google Maps we had to do the following to get to the restaurant:

Walk 11 minutes to City Hall Station

Once the train arrived ride six stops on the subway to Hapjeong Station (12 minutes)

Walk six minutes from Hapjeong Station to the restaurant

There was one major flaw with this plan, however — Google Maps doesn’t really work that well at the best of times, but it essentially doesn’t work at all in South Korea, because they want you to use their own online map app, KakaoMap, an app we didn’t have. When using Google Maps in South Korea, besides randomly relocating the user and having them floating through buildings as it does anywhere in the world, it has a couple of other problems; A lot of streets in Seoul have the same name, but are numbered, however, Google Maps doesn’t show the number of the street. Also, the directions don’t show you a route using roads and streets, it just draws a direct line through buildings to where you need to be, as if it were designed by Archimedes himself. This meant that not only did we have to figure out the general route by ourselves, but the usual Google Maps errors initially had us facing in the wrong direction, leading us to walk about a further 15 minutes away from the restaurant, crossing over several exceptionally busy roads and back again in the process. It was close to 9:00pm before we made it to 미담왕파족, our barbecue restaurant for the night, and everyone else had finished eating, but were more than happy to stick around for more beers and soju while we cooked a lot of beef (there was no pork due to a recent swine flu outbreak), recalling hilarious tales from the past, mainly about falling through ceilings, and then trying to decide what to do with the rest of the night.

Once dinner was done we headed out, sans Leonie who was suffering a migraine. We went to the same haunts as the previous night, but it took a lot longer than usual, because we kept having to stop and wait for George. George has a wife and kids, his wife is cool and knew his friends were in town so he wanted to make the most of his night out with old mates, but there was one problem; George gets really distracted when he ‘s drunk. He was constantly just stopping and talking to random people, including yelling “You’ve got this!” in encouragement to a girl who was trying to help her absolutely inebriated boyfriend back to his feet. Once we got to Cream we thought we had lost him again, only to turn around and see him taking a photo for a table of girls in the bar. We went to a few other places and finished up at Wolf Bar again, Tom checking out relatively early because he had to catch a flight to China for work the next day. Naturally, Pete thought doing shots several times was a great idea, but it was a hilarious night out.

That day my pedometer said I had walked a grand total of 18km (11 miles) and I guarantee about half of it was spent hopelessly lost, but here’s how the rest of Saturday looked:

Entering our room at L’Escape

It had a kind of murderous burlesque feel to it

The bathroom

Out the front of seafood restaurant en route to Cream

At the barbecue restaurant. Back row: Leonie, Tom, George, me, Anna. Front row: Peter, Ray, Andrew, Hayley

George distracted again

Me wearing Whitty’s horrendous 80s cap

George secretly taking over the music at Wolf Bar

Sunday, October 20, 2019 We were now staying in an area that had some great hole-in-the-wall type food places and, although we had had Korean barbecue the previous night, Anna still wanted more proper Korean food. While we were having coffee near Namdaemun Market I noticed a small laneway across the road called Hairtail Alley that could have some potential. It turns out I was right. When we walked in we found several stalls selling galchi jorim, a red, spicy stew with hairtail fish, and it looked damn good so we joined the long queue for a table in one of the tiny stalls and waited our turn. Slowly we progressed to the head of the line where at any given time there were multiple pots of the soup boiling on a stovetop with a giant container of fish fillets nearby to keep the service as fast as possible in the minuscule eatery. Once at the very front of the line we started to get curious as to why, despite the fact that they were aware that there were only going to be the two of us eating there, the staff kept taking Korean couples lined up behind us, generally older people. Were they worried that if people saw foreigners inside it may ruin the credibility of their extremely traditional restaurant? Nope, one of the older men working there tried to explain in his very best, but extremely basic English, accompanied by some hand gestures, that they had to wait for a seat in an area big enough to accommodate me to become available. Once we were seated inside I saw the problem he had faced; there was an upstairs seating area, but I wouldn’t have made it up the stairs or most likely under the ceiling. In the main area a lot of the seats were in front of walls and it wouldn’t be possible for me to pull a seat out far for me to even fit at the table. They also brought in other customers to share larger tables once other patrons had finished eating, yet they wouldn’t be able to get me on a shared table, because I wouldn’t fit between someone and the wall, but if I sat on the aisle side, I would block it. We just had to wait for an entire table to become available and when one did we were glad we had waited. The soup was fantastic once we figured how to eat the fish without having the inside of your mouth pierced by tiny little bones and we also had steamed egg which was great as well. See for yourself:

Anna when we first got to the market

As soon as I saw that little alley on the right, I knew we’d be having lunch somewhere down there

The sign above Hairtail Alley

Getting bowls ready before customers have even sat down

Just keep ’em coming

Not a lot of room inside

This was after we had progressed a fair bit in the queue, it was even longer behind us!

They go through so much fish so quickly they just leave the container out once it’s taken from the fridge

We finally have a seat and our lunch is served

Anna looking a bit blurry, but also excited

Me in a seat with a little extra space (except to my immediate left)

Once it was time to pass our table on to the next patrons we explored more of Namdaemun Market, first the food section near Sungnyemun Gate, which was still selling plenty of pork products despite the swine flu outbreak, and then on to the massive Dongmyo Flea Market that runs several blocks and is described as:

Dongmyo Flea Market started life in the late 1980s. Every day an array of street stalls open up along the stone walls of Dongmyo Park. The main items bought and sold here are antiques of every type, including items such as wallets, electronics, old books, film posters etc. Recently vintage clothing and shoes have become the main area of interest. Prices are typically around 1,000 won so you can have fun browsing and shopping without worrying about the cost.

There are all kinds of items from everyday miscellaneous goods to antiques. If you get peckish while shopping, boiled duck’s eggs cost just 1,500 won each or bindaetteok (mung bean pancake) make very satisfying snacks. The market is always crowded with people at weekends. The most popular item in Dongmyo Flea Market is used clothing. When new stocks arrive, the market is packed with people looking for bargains. Prices are normally around 1,000 won, but leather items or furs reach around 10,000 won. Designer labels can reach over 100,000 won. The best time for shopping is on weekend afternoons.

That description brings up clothing several times and maybe it was just because winter was rapidly approaching when we visited, but one thing it fails to mention is that an extremely high percentage of the infinite stalls were solely selling secondhand jackets. It honestly seemed like about two thirds of the stalls were selling just jackets and each one of these stalls had a flock of people trying to score a bargain. We also found some other great stuff there besides jackets, but when it comes to clothing and just about any items in general in Dongmyo Flea Market, it’s amazing how many had the Supreme logo on it. That stuff is huge there, whether it is legit of counterfeit! We saw a lot of really cool stuff as well, including a man working in a jacket stall that was wearing a full, powder blue, velour San Diego Clippers tracksuit from the late 1970s, before the team moved to Los Angeles, and a store where I picked up a very rare Korean copy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in great condition for next to nothing!

After hours of exploring the market we caught a train back to Hapjeong for dinner and a quiet drink. Leonie’s migraine was gone, Pete and Ray were spending their final night in Seoul before heading down to Busan, but Tom was now in China for work, George had to hang out with the family, and Andy and Hayley were back at their place far out in the suburbs. Ray wasn’t feeling all that spectacular so we opted for ginseng chicken soup, always a good choice and it seemed to help. Once dinner was done we found a cool little bar to have a drink and a chat, but it couldn’t be a late one, we all had important things to do the next day. A whole bunch of photos from the markets and a bit of our dinner:

God, I love chilli

Fine or coarse

Not sure what is going on here

Sungnyemun Gate

Don’t let swine flu stop you from selling pig heads

If you look closely you can make out some pig faces

I wonder how long they’ve been sitting there

Walking down one of many streets in Namdaemun Market

Merely a handful of the jackets on offer

Stone statues of people doing it

One of many antique stalls

“Duct tape. I need it for… taping something.”

Just a pile of toiletries

Is that a Louis Vuitton / Supreme collaboration fire extinguisher?

Seems legit

This flamboyant looking man was the king of the jacket sellers

Harrison Ford seems younger than I remember. More Asian, as well

My dinner, abalone ginseng chicken soup

Anna’s soup

Monday, October 21, 2019 We were going to be flying out in the afternoon, but we still had time to have a look around the mall across the road from where we were staying, particularly the supermarket and food court. I love kimchi and all of the other side dishes and we both love the local soups so we wanted to stock up on a heap of those, as well as have one last proper Korean lunch before we returned to Singapore. We checked out of our hotel, stashed our suitcases, crossed the road and went down to the basement where all of the good stuff was. First we bought a toasted cheese lobster tail to snack on and Anna had a craving for cold noodles so I kept our table, one of the only free ones in the extremely crowded foodcourt, but there was one problem; our table was specifically for customers of a nearby stall, but none of the staff were capable of telling me that at first. Eventually an employee was able to so I apologised using one of the very few Korean phrases I know and went to find Anna to tell her we no longer had a place to sit. Our food soon came so we both spread out to hunt down a table in the massive foodcourt and after a couple of minutes a staff member from where Anna had bought lunch was running up to me from another area, trying to convey the message that Anna had found a table. I’m really not used to being served by people in a new place that are genuinely helpful who don’t want anything in return, it’s kind of refreshing. It also helps that I’m easy for them to see in a crowd, but even after we had sat down some girls on the next table showed Anna the best way to eat those noodles and then just went back to chatting to each other. Once we were finished with lunch we went around the supermarket looking for snacks, soups, and sides to bring back to Singapore, but we had to be rational, we had limited space inside our check-in luggage, however, we chose well. Our last meal for this trip to Seoul:

I love this dried seafood

Cheese and lobster is a great combination

I’m probably drooling in this picture

Hell yeah!

The noodles weren’t bad, either. Or the dumplings

Our stay in Korea was over, but I’m always proud when I go to Anna’s conference dinners and see the praise that she gets from her peers, as well as seeing her work pinned up around the place. This trip was made even better by getting to meet up with some old friends that I haven’t had the chance to see for quite a while. I always appreciate the effort Christina makes to come see me whenever I’m in Seoul, I’m glad Tom and Leonie have hit it off so well with Andy and Hayley, It was great of George’s wife to look after the kids for the night so he could have a night out with us all, and it was cool of Peter and Ray to make their holiday coincide with our stay.

Until next time, Seoul, geonbae!

Meeting friends and shopping in the most inconvenient ways possible I've spent a lot of time in South Korea, but the bulk of that was working in…

[businessweekme]

The 16 Dishes You Should Have Eaten in 2018

The year 2018 has not been a great one for the food world. There was the loss of two of the brightest people in the business, Anthony Bourdain and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles critic Jonathan Gold. Likewise, it was hard to find one new, unifying restaurant that captured everyone’s imagination.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t captivating dishes. In fact, these 16 were positively remarkable. They run the gamut from just-caught king salmon in Alaska to exquisitely aged Irish beef in London. There’s a lot of bread—it was, after all, the 2017 dish of the year and still looming large—but no noodles. New York introduced two places you’d assume would make the cut: Missy Robbins’s pasta-focused Misi followed her breakout, Lilia, and David Chang reimagined ramen at the new Momofuku. Yet different dishes stood out more on their menus instead.

To find out what those dishes are, and the 14 other most outstanding ones, read on. And grab a snack while you’re at it—you’re going to get hungry.

Sukchae | Atomix, New YorkUnlike most dishes that feature a dollop of caviar, what grabs your attention with this exquisite Korean omakase counter’s cooked vegetable course is not the pricey fish roe. Chef-owner Junghyun Park layers tender celery root on a bed of fresh, yogurtlike buttermilk cheese—and adds the caviar, sure. But then comes the unforgettable component: creamy, softly sweet hazelnut sauce that Park pours over it all to finish the dish. It balances the saline pop of caviar, the silkiness of the celery root, and the tang from the cheese.

Whole Roast Duck With Duck Confit Salad | Spoken English, Washington, D.C.This small, standing-room-only restaurant (literally) is hidden in the groovy Line hotel, a new D.C. hotspot that once was a church. The dining room consists of two short counters, which are an extension of the kitchen; it’s like snacking at a friend’s house. On the menu are twisted classics such as chicken skin dumplings from chefs Erik Bruner Yang and Matthew Crowley, as well as the best duck I ate this year—a time when there’s been a lot of good duck out there. Here it’s cured in tea for four to five days before being roasted over wood and carved up. The legs are confited and tossed into a salad, the breast is thickly sliced, and the supple tortillas to roll it all up in are made with duck fat instead of lard.

Roasted Tomatoes With Hot Honey | Misi, BrooklynA few years ago at Lilia, chef Missy Robbins made a long, curly stretch of malfadini noodle with buttery pink peppercorns New York’s most sought-after dish. At her new place, Misi, in the southern reaches of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, the best thing isn’t pasta but oven-blasted tomatoes. Roasting for a couple of hours intensifies their sweetness, which is then hit with a drizzle of Calabrian chile-infused honey, further punching up the shriveled halves. A licorice bite from the cracked coriander seeds and fennel, tucked into the oil, takes it over the top.

Maine Chutoro Hand Roll | Mr. Tuna, Portland, MaineInstagram: Mr. Tuna on Instagram: “End Labor Day…

Forget lobster and oysters. The local bluefin tuna belly that Jordan Rubin gets in late summer and the fall is the seafood standout in Portland, Maine. In mid-2017, Rubin bought a hot dog cart and started making hand rolls and sushi burritos on the downtown streets. His operation quickly grew into a mini food truck empire that now includes a space in the Portland Public Market. The hand roll’s nori wrapper is notably crisp because Rubin keeps it warmed in an electric toaster before wrapping it around tangy rice and fatty, melt-in-your-mouth chopped fish mixed with sea salt, scallions, and potent fresh wasabi sauce.

Poulet Roti | Frenchette, New YorkTwenty years ago the roast chicken at Balthazar, carved tableside, made the bird chic in Manhattan. Now the chefs who helped put it on the map there—Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr—have reintroduced it at their beyond-buzzy Frenchette. Not simply a vehicle for crispy skin, it’s a superbly juicy and supple bird served in a shallow casserole. Standing alongside is a separate pot of pommes purée that’s approximately half butter, and often garnished with roasted maitake mushrooms, giving you all the earthy flavors on one table.

Panna Cotta | Brawn, LondonFor those who think they never want to eat panna cotta again, it’s time you taste the triangular wedge at Columbia Street’s cult favorite wine bar, where it’s served as if it were a cake. The custard is infused with piquant cardamom and topped with charred orange slices that offset the sweetness. But the beauty of this dish is the rich double cream that chef-owner Ed Wilson sources to make it, lending a texture that’s not too gummy, not too loose—just perfect, like the best ice cream made ever-so-slightly more solid.

Aged Beef Sobrasada on Toast | Bright, LondonAt this spare new Scandi restaurant and wine bar, chefs Will Gleave and Peppe Belvedere rely on their neighbors—specifically the great local butcher shop, Hill & Szork. They take Irish sirloin that’s been aged at the shop for 45 days (there’s not enough room at Bright to age it themselves) and then grind it with funky aged beef fat and salt, pepper, and paprika. It’s served on sourdough toast brushed with more of the fat, then topped with capers and chives macerated with elderberry. It’s the platonic ideal of beef tartare.

Blum’s Coffee Crunch Cake | Valerie, Los AngelesValerie Gordon may have gained notoriety for her chocolate bars, now a common sight at coffee shops across the country, with their bold packaging and flavors such as salt and pepper with crispy rice. But the real standout of her eponymous confectionary are the classic desserts she re-creates out of fear they’re fading into oblivion. Blum’s cake is an architectural masterpiece, studded with shards of chewy, coffee-infused honeycomb that superbly contrast the coffee whipped cream oozing out between layers of tender yellow cake.

Cheese & Crackers | Elske, ChicagoThe deceptively simple dish at Michelin-starred restaurant Elske has just three components: cheese, jam, and crackers. The cheese is Wilde Weide, a two-year-old aged raw cow gouda with crystallized streaks. The jam is vanilla-infused tomato dolloped into a nest. And the crackers are made from a yeasted dough that’s doused in olive oil before baking, which gives them a superbly flaky, buttery texture, like a French pastry you didn’t know existed. Together, they’re unstoppable.

Slow-Roasted Lamb Neck Shawarma | Bavel, Los AngelesAmong the slew of promising new Middle Eastern restaurants across the U.S. is the greenery-filled Bavel in downtown L.A. Ori Menashe takes an underused cut—lamb neck—and coats it with a paste of tangy sumac and caramelized onions. The meat is roasted for hours until falling-apart tender, and the rub is baked in. It’s served with an array of sides including pickled vegetables and creamy house-made tahini, as well as the flatbreads for which the restaurant has rightly become famous.

Fried Blue Prawns | Momofuku Noodle Bar Columbus Circle, New YorkDavid Chang is on a mission to get you to eat the whole shrimp—shell, head, all of it. To accomplish this, he and his crack chef team of Tony Kim, Matthew Rudofker, and J.J. Basil have created a scintillatingly spicy coating at the new Noodle Bar in the Shops at Columbus Circle, aka the Time Warner Center. A blend of cumin, togarashi (the Japanese version of chili powder), sugar, salt, and Sichuan peppercorn is plastered onto the delicately fried shrimp, making it impossible not to eat the wafer-crisp shell along with the sweet meat inside. A spritz of lemon and an accompanying bowl of yuzu mayo cools it all down.

Dilliwala Butter Chicken | Adda, New YorkNormally, butter chicken is a forgettable staple of Indian takeaway. That all changes at the thrilling, no-frills Adda in Long Island City, Queens. The dish is recognizable only by name, and it makes you realize that all the versions you’ve had before are lame. The deep orange sauce is lit up with darkly sweet fenugreek, cardamom, cilantro root, and a generous hit of red chiles, making it much hotter than usual. The biggest difference: the local tomatoes and honey that replace the standard canned tomatoes and sugar, lending the dish a punchy freshness that cuts through that classic slick of butter on top.

Pork and Shrimp Bao Bao With Fried Egg | Kym’s, LondonWell-made dumplings are enough for most people, especially when the filling is a mix of juicy seasoned pork and chopped shrimp in a tender wonton wrapper. But at Kym’s in the Bloomberg Arcade, chef Andrew Wong, who heads the Michelin-starred A. Wong, ups the ante by frying them with eggs for extra unctuousness. The result is an Asian-style shakshuka with golden, crispy bits of white and creamy yolk enriching the already rich dumplings. The final touch is a sprinkling of scallions, sesame, and chili oil studded with alluring bits of fried onion.

Grilled Ivory King Salmon | In Bocca al Lupo, Juneau, AlaskaChef Beau Schooler of Juneau’s In Bocca al Lupo calls his dish simply “salmon offcuts,” which may be true, if perhaps a disservice to the quality of what you get on your plate: a combination of the collar, belly, tail, and head, depending on what was caught in the last 24 hours. There’s never a guarantee that he’ll have white king salmon, but if he does, order it. The incredibly fresh fish has a cleaner richness then common salmon. Salted and drizzled with olive oil, the fish gets popped into a wood-burning oven, right next to the coals, so the skin chars. The accompaniment is an equally elemental charred lemon wedge, a garlicky parsley pesto that’s intensified with a blast of fish sauce, and a finishing sprinkle of Alaskan sea salt from Sitka.

Ibérico Katsu Sando | Ferris, New YorkIt’s been a big year for sandos in New York, the most high-profile being the $185 version of the Japanese sandwich made with wagyu beef. But pay attention to the one crafted by chef Greg Proechel at Ferris that costs about one-tenth the price. Made with succulent acorn-fed Spanish pork, about ¾-inch thick, it’s egged, breaded, and fried to medium rare so it’s crunchy but still supremely juicy. The toast is judiciously brushed with a fruity, hoisin sauce and is just thick enough to keep the cutlet secure.

Ilaria Pie | Una Pizza Napoletana, New YorkPizza prince Anthony Mangieri figures he’s tried every buffalo mozzarella in the U.S. and half of the ones in Italy. He came across his favorite outside Naples—it’s grassy and slightly animal-y—and along with that classic “mozz,” he brings in a quantity that’s been wood-smoked to star on Una Pizza Napoletana’s simple, standout pie. The Ilaria, named for his wife, is a doughy delight, like a lightly charred pillow. It features pools of that smoky mozzarella paired with the refreshing snap of cherry tomatoes and arugula.

The post The 16 Dishes You Should Have Eaten in 2018 appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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[seouljourning]

Host Country Report: South Korea

Intro

My country of choice is the Republic of South Korea (ROK), better known simply as South Korea. It is located in East Asia, with Japan to the east, China to the west, and North Korea as its only border country. Seoul, located in northwestern SK, is the capital and the largest city. Busan, on the southeastern edge, is the country's second largest city and has the largest port. Incheon is the third largest city and has the second largest port. It’s located in the northwest near Seoul and has one of the busiest international airports in the world. Lastly, Daegu, the fourth largest city, is in the southeast and is home to 3 American military bases.

History

To give a brief history of South Korea is to give most of it; the country is only about 70 years old. Japan had control of the peninsula prior to its division, but that control ended after WWII. After that, communist powers took control of what was above the 38th Parallel, and democratic powers took control south of that. The Korean War, which happened during the Cold War, was a result of the South becoming the Republic of South Korea and declaring independence in 1950. The North became the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Since South Korea's creation, it's had 12 presidents. The eleventh was the first female president, but she was impeached last year because of a scandal.

Demographics

Korean is the official language of SK. There is standard Korean (called Gyeonggi), which is spoken in and around Seoul and used in media, and 5 major dialects, called satoori. Those dialects are spoken in cities like Busan, Jeju, and Jeolla. English is taught in elementary through high school but because the education doesn't focus on verbal communication, it’s typically not spoken. In big cities where tourists frequent, Koreans are more likely to speak English. Politically, South Korea is a presidential republic. About 57% of the country has no religion, and the rest are Buddhist or Christian. However, many practice Confucianism, regardless of their religion or whether they even have one. KRW (Korean Won) (₩) is the country's currency, established in 1962. 1 KRW is well under 1 USD; to put it into perspective, 100 KRW is equivalent to about 1 USD. The most recent series is 2006-2017.

Social class is determined by wealth, education level, and career. Roles like child care, housework, politics, and career positions are open to both genders. Men take care of the children as well as women, and women can hold leadership positions. However, pay is not equal and there is still some discrimination against women in the workforce.

Media

The dominant newspapers are "Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, and Jung-Ang Ilbo which have conservative ideals. Hankook Ilbo is moderate, and Kyunghyang Shinmun and The Hankyoreh have liberal ideals. In South Korea, conservative newspapers are more widely read. Maeil Business Newspaper and Korea Economic Daily are major business newspapers." Dominant TV stations are KBS, SBS, MBC, and EBS. The same four also run radio stations that are dominant.

Korea has a successful film industry, and some of their movies (The Host, Train to Busan, Old Boy) even became popular internationally. According to the Korean Film Council, whose box office data dates back to 2004, 8 of the 10 highest grossing movies were released in the last 5 years. A few of those are: Ode to My Father, Miracle in Cell No. 7, Roaring Currents, and Assassination.

Transportation

Between the convenience and reliability of subways, buses, and taxes in Korea, you don’t have to worry about getting around. If you stay within Seoul or other tourist spots in the country, most transportation will have English along with Korean station names and instructions. Many citizens don’t even have cars because it’s so easy to get around.

Food/Cuisine

Korean cuisine includes a lot of meats, veggies, and rice. Spicy, fermented, or pickled foods are also synonymous with the country’s cuisine.

·         Meats: Pork belly, called samgyeopsal, is a popular meat in SK found at ever-popular K-BBQ places along with bulgogi (beef), galbi (beef ribs), and dak galbi (chicken).

·         Rice is a staple part of all meals. Kimbap, seaweed wrapped rice rolls with meat and vegetables, are a very common food you can find in convenience stores and at street food venders. A popular rice dish, called bibimbap, literally means "mixed rice." The dish consists of a bowl of rice with (usually) meat, vegetables, and a spicy chili paste on top. It is intended for you to mix it all together before you eat it, hence the name.

·         Noodles: Another staple. Examples for noodles are ramyun (instant ramen), jjajangmyeon (noodles with black bean souce), japchae (glass noodles), and naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles).

·         Soup/stews: Yet another very common part of Korean cuisine. Examples include tteokguk (rice cake soup), kimchi-jjigae (kimchi stew), budae-jjigae (army stew), and miyeokguk (seaweed soup that is often eaten on birthdays).

·         Koreans are known to like spicy foods. They are well known for kimchi, cabbage (or other vegetables) that have been fermented with spices. You will find kimchi with almost every Korean meal. Kimchi is a common part of banchan, side dishes that are served with many meals. There are many types of banchan, but common ones include seasoned bean sprouts, pickled radish, radish kimchi, and lotus roots.

Meal times are not very different from here in America, and it is common to eat in restaurants or at street stalls. It's not hard to get a decent meal for a low price ($10-$20). You often see people eating together in pairs or groups but eating alone is becoming a popular practice. In families and social groups, sharing food is a normal. At family meals, especially ones that include elders, it is customary to make sure the elders eat first and even for younger family members to prepare and insist to feed them the first bite.

Greetings

When greeting strangers or others for the first time, it is customary to slightly bow; if the person is older or of higher status, the bow should be a bit deeper. In addition to bowing, hand shaking is common. Different from handshakes here in America that are firm, Koreans lightly grasp and shake hands. Women will often use both hands to clasp the other's. Verbally, you generally say "annyeonghaseyo," the most standard "hello" in Korean. You can greet friends with a wave, and if they are an older friend like an upperclassman, you lightly bow or nod your head. You can say "annyeong" to them, which is a more casual "hi."

Intercultural Communication

South Korea is a high context culture, like most Asian cultures. Non-verbal communication and reading between the lines is important, since indirect cues are the norm. Because of the shared and similar cultural and life experiences of Koreans, much is implied and relies on that in order to fill in any suggestions or implications in communication. Compared to the US, which is very time and schedule oriented, South Korea is both punctual and a bit time relaxed. Basically, always be on time but don’t expect things to always end on time; one Korean student said, “We have a starting point, but we don’t have a finishing time.”

Nonverbal Communication

Knowing what attire is appropriate is important. It is best to dress fairly conservatively in this country. Definitely no cleavage, shoulders, or really short skirts. Showing too much skin is inappropriate.

Eye contact: With friends, it is okay to maintain eye contact during conversations and discussions. With superiors and elders, it is rude and seen as a challenge to hold eye contact, so avoid it with them.

Volume: As in most places in the world, don't be loud and obnoxious; you will get stares.

Personal space: Touching between unfamiliar people is a no-no, except for unintentional contact on busy streets and always crowded transportation. Shoving and bumping is so common in those situations that it's not even impolite to skip an apology. It is appropriate to keep your limbs close to you (cross your legs, don't spread your arms) to avoid getting into someone's space. But between friends, hugging and linked arms is normal.

[oselatra]

Natives Guide: West Little Rock

Chains, yes, but parks and puppies, too.

While it's tempting for the Hillcrest/Stifft Station/Heights crowd to see West Little Rock — which we're defining as anything west of Interstate 430, from the Arkansas River in the north to Interstate 30 in the south — as a white-flight wasteland of rich folks, ritzy burbs, big box stores and bland strip malls, there's actually a lot going on in terms of what you can see, eat and do. Like a lot of Little Rock neighborhoods, West Little Rock has seen exponential growth in recent years, and not just the amoeba-like blob of gated communities that seems intent on stretching ever-westward toward the horizon until it finally pinches off and forms an uppity new city called Chenal. There's plenty to eat, see, drink, buy and do out there, so don't let your fear of appearing bougie keep you from exploring.

While I'm loathe to recommend too many chains, they're a lot of what West Little Rock is about, so I'll make my one genuflection to our corporate overlords first thing in the morning, with a plug for breakfast at La Madeleine (12210 W. Markham), the Little Rock outlet of the country-French restaurant chain. One can only imagine the shade an actual, Gauloises-smoking Parisian would throw at La Madeline, with its precious decor and employees who give a Southern-fried "Bonjour!" to folks when they walk in the door, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an underappreciated breakfast spot with a big menu featuring quiches, pillowy croissants, crepes, omelets, egg dishes and some of the best coffee around, all of it reasonably priced. Definitely recommended if you're not in the mood for IHOP.

Once you've gotten breakfast out of the way, there's plenty of shopping to do in West Little Rock. If you're at all geeky, be sure to check out Game Goblins (1121 S. Bowman Road). It's the area's largest retailer of card games, role-playing games and board games, with over 6,000 square feet of nerd heaven, plus a constantly updated slate of tournaments and tabletop gaming get-togethers to help gamers break out of their Xbox-driven isolation and be among the living again. Hit its website, gamegoblins.com, for more information about selection and events. If you've spent too much on Dungeons and Dragons by then but still need some stuff, head on out to Goodwill (16924 Cantrell Road). While there are other Goodwill stores in Little Rock, this is clearly the goodest Goodwill, featuring higher-end donations from the surrounding neighborhoods to create a constantly circulating selection of sturdy furniture, cute clothes and shoes, kitchen items and accessories. (There's another good 'un at 9700 N. Rodney Parham.)

By then, you might be ready for lunch. If you want to try to eat your weight in sushi without having to take out a second mortgage, Tokyo House (11 Shackleford Drive) is a good place to try. Featuring a big, fresh sushi buffet and a separate hot bar of Asian-inspired dishes like dumplings, baked fish, fried rice, tempura shrimp and more, it's quite a few clicks in quality above your standard strip- mall Chinese buffet, but at a similar price point, which makes it twice as nice. If you'd rather go Latin (and have a designated driver so you can enjoy a few margaritas) try the ever-popular Local Lime (17809 Chenal Parkway), a Yellow Rocket Concepts eatery. Fresh, chic and friendly, Local Lime features upscale takes on tacos, fajitas and salads. Co-starring at Local Lime are the drinks, including several different styles of margaritas. If you've got room after all that, head on over to celebrated pie shop Honey Pies (315. N. Bowman Road). Featuring lovingly baked pies in a seasonally rotating variety of flavors, it's the perfect place to quiet a sweet tooth.

If there's some wiggle room on your credit card by then, go spend a few hours strolling The Promenade at Chenal (17711 Chenal Parkway), the high-end shopping extravaganza featuring stores such as footwear haven DSW, the technology money pit that is the area's only Apple Store and quirky, locally owned shops such as Saggio Olive Oils and Vinegars (which sells, yep, you guessed it, high-end olive oils and vinegars by the pint or gallon). It's a great place to lose a few hours and some of your disposable income.

If all that shameless indulgence in capitalism leaves you feeling a bit empty and lonely, seek some unconditional love at the Humane Society of Pulaski County animal shelter (14600 Colonel Glenn Road), where dozens of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies are up for adoption to the right owners. After that, unless a trip to the pet store for toys and kibble is in order, try one of the several excellent parks out west, including Two Rivers Park or Pinnacle Mountain State Park. With plenty of great views and beautiful paved and unpaved walking trails, either is perfect for burning off the excess calories or spending a moment pondering life's mysteries.

The meaning of life then discerned, head for a meal at The Pantry (11401 N. Rodney Parham), chef Tomas Bohm's phenomenal Czech and German restaurant. It's open from 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday. Featuring a stunning (and stunningly delicious) variety of scratch-made soups, sausages, cheese plates, sandwiches, burgers, flatbreads and more, it's definitely one of the better dining experiences in all of Little Rock. If good ol' home cookin' is more your speed, try Franke's Cafeteria (11121 N. Rodney Parham) just up the street. Opened as a bakery in 1919, Franke's transformed in 1924 into a downtown cafeteria and it's been dishing up simple favorites ever since, including roast beef, fried chicken, liver and onions, candied sweet potatoes, eggplant casserole, fried okra and more. If a steak is more to your liking, another fairly old-line Little Rock joint in West Little Rock is The Butcher Shop (10825 Hermitage Road). Opened in 1982, the temple to carnivorousness has built a well-deserved following around a simple formula of serving up great appetizers, hand-cut steaks grilled over hickory charcoal and slow-roasted prime rib.

West Little Rock happens to have several stellar places for nightlife. If you're looking for a cozy joint to have a beer and a friendly chat in a place where everybody will soon know your name, head to Khalil's Pub and Grill (110 S. Shackleford Road). Be sure to talk a friend into riding the mustache-shaped teeter-totter with you while you're there. For something a bit more upscale with maybe a little food on the side, head to the sleek Petit and Keet (1620 Market St.). Featuring a menu chock-full of goodies like artisanal cheeses, shrimp and cheese grits, succotash and burgers, plus a drink menu of innovative cocktails, Petit and Keet has deservedly landed at the top of a lot of local "Best Bars" lists. Another great West Little Rock option for blowing off some late-night steam is Thirst N' Howl Bar and Grill (1710 Cantrell), the popular watering hole named for the snooty rich guy on "Gilligan's Island." It features live music Wednesday through Saturday nights.

Or if you're eager to take the party home, a West Little Rock shopping trip is incomplete without a visit to booze mecca Colonial Wines & Spirits (11200 W. Markham St.), Central Arkansas's most well-stocked liquor store.

Natives Guide: West Little Rock