Gwangju FC Home Opener

      Saturday marked the Gwangju Football Club's home game opener at World Cup Stadium in Gwangju. Although a little tired from my birthday celebrations the night before and despite freakishly cold weather (you wouldn't believe it is March here!), we managed to make it for opening kick off and watch the whole match. As we are foreigners, and well at the risk of sounding pretentious, foreigners get a lot of perks if you know the right people, a group of 6 of us were given free tickets to watch the match. Now the best thing about watching a Gwangju FC game, and this is the same for baseball games as well, is that you are allowed to bring your own food and drinks into the stadium. So not only are tickets cheap, even sometimes free, but you aren't forced to pay and arm and a leg for food and drinks (say goodbye to 8$ beers).
   Conveniently enough, the Gwangju World Cup Stadium is attached a huge department store called Lotte Mart. As such, we headed there before kick off and grabbed two extremely large pizzas and several beers at a mere 10 bucks per person. After stocking up, we went into the stadium to enjoy the match. Although the quality of the soccer itself is perhaps a little underwhelming, it is a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the neighbourhood. 

Cheerleaders!

Dak Galbi

     One thing is for certain about Korea: the food is incredible. Stemming from the wisdom of the great Anthony Bourdain, Korean food is perhaps one of the most underrated foreign cuisines available in Western society. As such, before I left for Korea, I had barely even heard of any Korean cuisine, let alone had the chance to eat it. It seems for most, Korean food can be summarized simply with the word 'kimchi'. Although yes, kimchi comes with every meal, it really functions as more of a side dish or a complement to the main dish. 
     What Korean food is really about is the experience of eating. First off, a lot of the meals are interactive in that you are served raw meats and you cook them on mini barbecues either on or embedded in your table. Secondly, all the dishes are family style. Everyone eats kimchi (and all of the other sides) from the same plate and often you don't even have your own plate in front of you. This means that if you want some kimchi or radish, you just grab it off the communal plate and eat. Although this doesn't sound that strange, they also serve salads and soups like this. Usually there is one or two bowls of soup or salad served with dinner and everyone dips their chopsticks/spoons into them. Once you get past the put-off-by-germs phase, it's actually quite an enjoyable way to eat. Lastly, meals both at home and the restaurant are meant to be thoroughly enjoyed. Meals can last hours, becoming a real social gathering rather than a need for sustenance. However, sitting on the floor cross legged for this long can become a bit cumbersome!
        Currently my favorite Korean dish has to be Dak Galbi. It is a dish made by stir frying diced chicken marinated in chili pepper paste combined with sliced cabbage, potato, onions, and rice cake. The waiters bring over a huge pan filled with all of the ingredients and you cook it in the embedded table in front of you. After a while all the ingredients cook down into a almost stew like consistency. Although it doesn't sound like much, it is glorious. The chili pepper paste makes the dish considerably hot, so this dish isn't for the faint of heart. One of the best parts is after you are finished you can order cheesy rice. You cook the rice in the same pan as the dak galbi so the leftover sauce coats the rice and makes a spicy yet cheesy crispy fried rice. Another great thing about this dish is that it is very inexpensive. It originated as a food popular with university students. You can have a meal of more than enough food for under 10 bucks. 

I apologize for the lack of photos! But trust me, this pot cooks down into a fiery, red stew that is amazing!

Weekend in Daegu

     This past weekend I travelled by bus to the interior of South Korea to the city of Daegu to visit my friends Sashah and Lydia who are also teachers. At almost 1 million more people than Gwangju, the city itself felt a lot more metropolitan. The city is well-established with wide lane streets, an established subway, looming skyscrapers, manicured green spaces within the city, and a major train station. Another notable feature is the amount of foreigners. As Daegu has a pretty large military base, there are not only more foreigners but also more foreign food and clothing options. One street in particular, where most of Daegu's popular nightspots are housed, is almost like a mini-Itaewon. 
    I arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, and after briefly dropping off my bags, we headed to Daegu's biggest market, Seomun Market. Here they had the standard range of Korean market findings, from seafood to bad knock-off purses, and from stacks of dried kelp to beautiful pottery. Although we didn't buy anything (shocker I know), we did munch on a delicious snack of handmade waffles filled with cream and jam. At night, we partied with an awesome group of Daeguers at least 7 different bars, returning to our home after 5am. Lydia and Sashah also surprised me with a wonderful, yet kitschy, birthday cake as an early kick off to this week's celebrations. All in all, it was a great trip and the girls were fabulous hosts for a trip that I hope will be the first of many to visit them.