Spring is just around the corner

Tomorrow is Korean baseball's Opening Day, so today is a good time to post some flower photos. Every year I've been here, this has been an obligatory post in late March, starting with 2009. (This post is worth reading for the interesting information it contains.)

The first flower to boom here is kenari, the Asiatic dogwood.


Next comes the maehwa, the Chinese apricot.


A bit early this year, the Korean magnolia, mokryeon, first in front of my school, the second in front of my local E-mart--the same one that used to be local between 2008 and 2012, and is again.

Variety at E-Mart

My local E-Mart (that's directly across the street) has really expanded its beer selection; you can't necessarily count on getting a particular imported lager, but you can count on a few you've never hear of before. At reasonable prices. Some photos:


It also offers a large number of baseball caps with misspelled, non-sensical or just wrong English sayings or slogans on them. The latest batch:

Why is the current Queen of England's seal on this "golf cap"?

Qualityest?

No idea.

Polisce.

Pizza and Beer

It's time for the "World Beer Festival" at your local E-Mart, well, my local E-Mart anyway, so I toddled over to see what they had on offer. Several varieties, like Singha, Kirin and Budweiser, were only available in multi-packs, so I forwent those brands and picked up one each of the "World" brands one could pick up only one of.

I needed something to need all that beer to wash down, so I got a big slice of the Combination pizza. You can see there is no corn or sweet potato on it, and the toppings are plentiful. The crust gets a bit soggy in the middle but I'd say this is as good as any reasonably priced pizza I've had in Korea, and better than most.


Beer: W20,970 total; Pizza: W2,500 per slice

Shopping for Seollal

Seollal, 설날, is the Korean lunar New Year Festival.  This is the time when Koreans return to their ancestral homes to see their relatives and tend the graves of their ancestors,  Since it's a lunar thing, the dates can vary considerably--this year it's Wed., Thur. and Fri. of next week.  Lots of Seoulites are taking two vacation days Mon. and Tues., so if you don't work Saturday it's a nine-day vacation--virtually unheard of here! 

Seollal really does tend to empty out the city, and the streets can be eerily quiet.  Not today or tomorrow, of course, at least not on the two main streets of my neighborhood: Yeomchang-no is a main connector to the Olympic Parkway and points west, and Gonghang-no is the direct route to Gimpo Airport; they are both bumper-to-bumper.

When Koreans travel home to visit their relatives, they take gifts.  Nice gifts.  Expensive gifts.  Like Spam.  And mushrooms.  Anf coffee.  But seriously, things like ... Spam, and mushrooms, and cofffee.  But for the purposes of gifting, these products are all wrapped up in nice cardboard gift boxes and exhorbitant pricetags attached.  And hawked by pretty ladies (도움이, doumi) in traditional hanbok.  To wit (from my local neighborhood E-Mart):



The whisky doumi

 

I'll have the Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam.  I like Spam.



If you don't want that much Spam, have the Spam--well, the Housewife brand of "luncheon meat" ,  mild (water-packed) tuna, and soybean oil



Or, the Spam with huge packs of laver, aka, dried seaweed

A gift box of soap, toothpaste and shampoo products sends your loved one a not-so-subtle message

Industrial size packages of instant coffee mixes, beloved by Koreans

Korean red ginseng extract, noted for its virility-enhancing propertes

Raw ginseng, noted for its money-extracting properties (those packs are roughly USD 200-400)

 

Assorted fungus and nut gift boxes

Some kind of mushroom

"King Crab Set", 3.6 kg of frozen King cab legs for about USD 95

Candy assortmets, presumably for the children

This blog post should not be considered an endorsement of E-Mart, Korean red ginseng or any of the other products pictured here, except King crab legs.  And maybe Spam.  Oh, and I do like whisky okay.  Further, this blog received no remuneration or other consideration from E-Mart, Shinsaegae corporation, its parent companies or subsidiaries, more's the pity.

New Food Court

The Gayang E-Mar-tuh has been in the process of remodeling for about a year, expanding upwards. The new Food Court is finally open, having moved from the ground floor to level 3. As you can see in the photo above, the Burger King and Baskin-Robbins are still with us, but alas! the Popeye's is gone, replaced by a 돈가스 donkaseu counter--that's schnitzel or breaded pork cutlets. This food court also has bibimbap (rice and vegetables), naengmyeon (iced noodles) and a traditional cuisine restaurant.


In a Korean food court, the Western-style restaurants work like usual--you walk up to the counter, place your order and wait for the counter person to put everything on your tray. But to eat Korean food, you first decide what you want by examining a glass case at the entrance containing models of all the food. Each choice has its name, the price and a number.



Once you decide what you want, you go to the cashier and tell her the number(s) of your choices, and tender your payment. She gives you a receipt with your order number on it. You find a place to sit and watch the digital display until your number comes up. Pick up your tray--remember to get your sucheo (utensils) as well; then enjoy.

The big news with the food court is the addition of an "Italian" restaurant called Spaghettia Classico. I was anxious to try it (I really like Korean food, but not for every single meal), yet I did not get my hopes up.



I ordered grilled chicken with mushroom risotto and a classic Caesar salad to go with it. Together with a glass of house white, the bill came to just under 30,000 W--quite pricey, but in line with what you'd pay in Itaewon, for example.



The presentation, as you can see, was quite good. And the taste, I am happy to report, was even better. The salad had the right amount of dressing, fresh parmesan grated by the server, and plenty of big tasty chunks of bacon. The chicken was delicious, and the big serving of risotto also savory, even if someone did get a bit heavy-handed with fresh-milled black pepper. Still, I happen to like black pepper.

This is the fourth installation of the Spaghettia Classico brand in Seoul, owned by Sun at Food, which is responsible for the Tony Roma's, Bistro Seoul and Mad for Garlic franchises, among others. The Spaghettia menu boasts pizzas, gratins, a variety of pastas and some steaks, so I'll be back to try some other items later. Losing the Popeye's doesn't seem so bad.

The Price of Tea in China

Well, make that The Price of Fresh Veg in Korea. I snapped this shot a few days ago at E-Mart, and things have only gotten worse:


That's right, 22,800 W (about USD 19) for a single, solitary mango. Albeit cellophane-wrapped and neatly labeled in English as well as hangeul. Peaches, which were already high at about a buck a pop three weeks ago, have practically tripled in price, and watermelons, some kind of giant green delicacy here, have done the same!

Yesterday's Dong-A Ilbo gives many more examples and then tries to explain the situation:

Park Yeong-gu, a researcher at Korea Rural Economic Institute, said, “Prices of agricultural products have soared due to a bad harvest stemming from abnormally low temperatures in spring and high temperatures and drought in summer.”
“If high temperatures continue next month, the prices of agricultural products will also likely continue to rise for the time being.”

The dude's right about the weather. Jangma (the East Asian monsoon) was practically non-existent this year, though it has rained frequently the last few weeks. It has been unbearably hot this summer, and we had practically no springtime, as winter overstayed its welcome--Koreans say ggot sem chui, meaning 'winter is jealous'. Disruptions to the seasonal cycle can certainly wreak havoc on other natural things. I'm just grateful there's no such thing as global warming.

Hats Off to E-Mart

Most Koreans don't feel properly dressed unless they're wearing an item of clothing with something vaguely English-like on it. The hat bin at E-Mart is a veritable treasure trove of Konglishy slogans (as I posted once before).

Here is an all-new collection of caps:


Huh?


Find out Rocker, that says. No, I don't know either.



Two for the directionally-challenged. Like Indonesian Muslims.


The modernlife style--spaces optional.

E-Mar-tuh Impor-tuh

I will be doing a lesson titled "Shopping with Mr Bean" so I went to E-Mart yesterday to get some photos of various departments (kitchenwares, bedding/linens, electronics, etc) for the vocab review/introduction.

While there, I snagged some cans of this special offer, imported German "wheat" beers for W1,650 per 500 cc.


The price is not quite as good as store prices for local rice beers like Cass and Hite, but is pretty exceptional for an import. For comparison, a 500 cc Korean beer is W2,500 in a restaurant, while imports start at W5,500 and go to W9,000. The 5,0 represents the alcohol content, actually 5.2%.

Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the taste of the beer is in the drinking: I have now had one of each, and they're all decent to good, with the Neptun winning my vote, but not by much.

I'm going to wed the beer to some chili for dinner tonight thanks to a Carroll Shelby's Chili Kit that my pal Jim in Itaewon picked up for me because he has on-base privileges. There's not a lot I miss from home, but generally speaking they are in the food arena. I love Korean food, but I miss: kosher dill pickles (sweet pickles are available here in profusion, but that's just not the same thing); a wide variety of reasonably priced cheeses (friends who came to dinner at 150 Boone were invariably presented with a cheese board appetizer); pastrami on rye; my own really good chili (I just can't find the chipoltles, some other peppers, and good chili beans); and grilling out on the back patio with my great view and a handful of friends.

It's Beginning To Look About As Much Like Christmas As It's Going To Look

Back in the States, Santa Claus and his Elves start to come out of hiding a bit before Halloween, and Christmas accoutrement have taken over the public square completely by the day after Thanksgiving.

Christmas Day is a legal holiday in Korea, but without most of the fanfare that proceeds it at home. Some stores will put up a small tree or a wreath, but some will not. Cakes are a big part of the Korean Christmas, so it makes sense bakeries have a little more elaborate window-dressing (Tous les Jours in my building):


My E-Mart has put up its Christmas decorations, consisting of lights strung through the trees:


... ceiling hangers, spaced throughout the store, with this year's theme:


... occasional small-scale displays to remind sharp-eyed shoppers of the season:




... and the obligatory gingerbread house scene in the bakery dept:


There is a small selection of live trees and decorations in the floral dept:


But most of the gewgaws are pretty similar to the standard ones you'll find in America, except for the 290,000 W tree (about USD 250) on the left, which has a little pump and spinner to create a snowfall of styro pellets over the tree. A collector umbrella underneath funnels the pellets back to the pump. It was out of order when I visited today, not a hopeful sign.




From now until next Tuesday we have final exams at school. I have to show up for about 2 1/2 hours. That is followed by about two more weeks of classes, for some reason. I'm going to show How the Grinch Stole Christmas one week, then do a lesson on New Year's resolutions.

At Daiso--the five-and-dime store--I bought this little thing for 1,000 W and hung it as a wreath on my apartment door. Cute.