Thursday, April 28, 2005

To Do Soju



Last night Z and I picked up Karen and Brett at work and the four of us headed out for dinner and apple soju. We ended up at a Mexican place that was actually pretty tasty. K and B work until 10PM and by the time we got organized it was 11PM, which is fairly late to be walking into a restaurant on a Wednesday evening. Since the Mexican place was open, that is where we dined.

Afterwards we went to FAS (Fruits Alcohol Shop), one of K and B’s favorite bar. They serve the most delicious fruit flavored soju.



Our first round was apple. As you can see they bring you a large bowl of soju and you drink it out of hollowed out apples. Yummy.



We ordered pineapple soju for our second round. Same idea except you drink it out of a glass and the soju is served in a hollowed pineapple instead of a bowl. We plan to return this weekend to try out the watermelon, kiwi and possibly tomato flavors.



After soju we were all feeling good. I especially was feeling elated, despite suffering some difficulty blinking with both eyes at the same time. Classy.

We came back to the apartment around 2AM and eventually passed out watching a terrible movie – “Constantine.” Snoozer.

Today we woke up fairly chipper and headed out for lunch with K at a local joint that we have visited before. Then Z and I headed out to Insadong again (the art center area of Seoul) to try and see the Palace.



Luckily the Palace IS open on Thursdays, so we were able to see a bit more this time. As we expected, the tour left much to be desired. Although the buildings are beautiful, they lack the sense of history that many other similar sites in other countries have. Since the Japanese destroyed almost all of the Korean palaces and monuments during their brutal occupation in the first half of the twentieth century, the buildings that exist today have all been restored very recently. In fact, almost all of the buildings we saw were built in the mid-1990’s. A historical site loses something when all of the structures are younger than you.

After touring the Palace we popped into an exhibition of a korean artist, Kwon In-kyung. Most of his pieces depicted cityscapes, primarily in black and white using Chinese ink on canvas. The style was partly old-world and partly 1930s pastiche. The subject matter was urban life. Cool stuff.



Then Z and I walked about a mile or two south of Insadong to Korea’s traditional shopping place, Nomdaemun market – a six-hundred-year-old market. The retail and food vendors formed a chaotic collage of bright colors and smells.

By the time we had made our way through a quarter of the market, we were beat. We returned to the apartment and will be heading out again soon to pick up K and B at work for some tempura and a bit of late night bowling.

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