First Meal in Korea

After touching down at Incheon and the subsequent one-hour "limousine bus" ride to COEX, Jieun's sister and family picked us up and took us to dinner at 명인등심. The plan was to get Galbitang because it's supposedly good there, but it turns out that they only serve that dish for lunch. In any case, my first meal in Korea was a success.



The name of the restaurant means something like "master fillet," referring to the grade of their meat. The BBQ beef that we enjoyed was incredibly tender and flavorful. It could also be Sean's masterful skills on the grill. I found out later that it was also reflected in the premium price of our dinner—not cheap at all.



If you're familiar with Korean cuisine, you know that the side dishes, or banchan, are a staple. One of the banchan was this delicious scallion salad. Evidently, it's a typical accompaniment to KBBQ. The bowl warming up on the grill is Jangjorim, a classic side dish containing beef, garlic, soy sauce, and quail egg—one of my favorite foods!



Towards the end of the meal, they brought out this hot and tasty jjigae that they then mixed with rice to make a porridge. It was a satisfying end to a great dinner.

숭례문 - Sungnyemun

Also known as 남대문 (Namdaemun), Sungnyemun is one of the eight historical gates of Seoul. Sungnyemun means Gate of Exalted Ceremonies while Namdaemun means Great South Gate. It is considered Korea's national treasure number 1.

It was on my list of things to check out before our trip, but every time I tried to find it on Google Maps, all I could see was this big white building. As it turns out, some crazy old man burnt it down five years ago and the white building housed its reconstruction. We saw part of a documentary showing how the gate was rebuilt by hand by master craftsmen using traditional techniques. Lucky for us, the restored Sungnyemun was reopened to the public the day before we landed.





Right before our trip, I was doing more Google searches and I stumbled across a Lego Architecture rendition of Sungnyemun. I didn't expect to find it, but when I did see it at an eMart store in Korea, I obviously had to pick it up. Below is a photo of the finished product and here is a time-lapse video of its construction.

덕수궁 - Deoksugung Palace

Deoksugung is the first of many palaces on our Korean sojourn. It happens to be the very first stop on the Seoul City Tour Bus loop, so it just worked out that way. Lucky for us, we were able to catch one of their changing of the guard ceremonies.

G'morning Gangnam

Yesterday, I woke up at around 330am. This morning, around 430am. So I guess that's progress! I'll make use of this awake time to get started with the blog posts. We decided to go for an early morning walk to find breakfast.



I tried to take several panning shots, but this dude on the delivery bike takes the prize. The dyed hair and cigarette hanging from his mouth clinched the title.



The broom matches his shoes.



You'll find these delivery bikes throughout Seoul, breaking traffic rules along with the best of them!



Ding Dong! Hooray for being able to read.



We were headed for a specific restaurant, but we discovered so many other places to eat nearby. This live octopus tank particularly caught my attention.

Children's Day

One more blog post before I leave for Korea. I had never heard of Children's Day before. In South Korea, it's celebrated on May 5, which happens to be when we land at Incheon in a few days. Not that it means anything to us adults-sans-kids.

But in honor of the day, I decided to share a few photos that I took of Jieun's nephew last October. We will be seeing him again very soon!

Vachellia Farnesiana

Obviously, I had to look up the name of this tree—I am no botanist. At least, I'm pretty sure this is the name. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Here is a web site that seems to support my conclusion, as well as the Wikipedia article where I got the alternate name:

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=acfa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachellia_farnesiana

I took these using the inverted 50mm lens trick. I haven't done any macro photography in quite some time. I was walking Bawoo and these caught my attention as a perfect subject.

24-105 = -81

When you type 24-105 in Google, you get a calculator with -81 as the appropriate answer. Of course, I was really searching for information on the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS lens I just purchased.

For a long time now, my camera bag has been missing one good walk around lens. I finally decided it was high time for me to get one with the Korea trip coming up soon. These photos are just from playing around with it and testing out its capabilities. The last photo is the most pedestrian, but also the most important—you just know I'll be foodtographing the heck out of everything I eat in Korea!