I must attest; these past few weeks in Seoul have been difficult to say the least. A bout of food poisoning from some un-stomach-able spicy squid stir fry, many difficulties surrounding my world of work and most recently, a 3-day long fever riddled stomach flu (potentially caused by exposure to nuclear rain, although, I think that's a long shot). Yet, amongst these unfortunate hours I am fervently forcing myself to forget the ills of today and look forward to tomorrow.
This will undoubtedly not be the last time you'll see me quote this, but in the poetic words of Gord Downey of The Tragically Hip: "Escape is at hand for the traveling man". However, if a traveling man has nothing to escape but his travels themselves, then escaping to the travels of another seem to be entirely fitting.
One of my closest friends, a fearless female of five-feet who has recently returned from her first 'real' travel experience ever...a mere two and a half months solo missioning in India (no biggie), recommended that I check out a program that I'm embarrassed to admit has passed me by until now, called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
Bourdain's long list of accolades begin in the kitchen, progress to the page, the television set, cyberspace, and seem to have no end in sight. No Reservations is a punchbowl of edge and insight, character, cool and all that is unknown, or should be known, about eating what the locals eat around the world. To put it plainly, it is productions like these that continue to motivate me to do what I want to do out here in Korea. To push me towards a career path like that of his own and, hopefully, one day being that dude on TV whose giving you the low down on the best street vendor to eat chao tom (barbecued fish paste on sugar cane) in Saigon, drink the purest caipirinha in Sao Paulo and soak up the sweetest scenes in Sumatra.
It can become frustrating for me to know that the vast majority of my time is Seoul is spent taking care of off the wall tots and juggling the excessive demands of a foreign management that can't actually communicate what they want me to do. However, by the time I do get to leave work and peruse the street vendors, massive marketplaces, restaurants, bars and bo gi stands, I know that at least something seems right.
Living in Seoul, as far as the city is concerned, has been eye opening and unimaginably interesting thus far. Over the next 11 months I can barely begin to hypothesize what will be in store. The culinary culture is a 24/7 mosaic of mysterious meats, funny looking fish, bountiful barbecues and a relentless amount of rice. Although, I am all too limited in the things I am able to order today, I'm confident that I'll pick up enough knowledge, or at the very least, a good crew of Koreans to help me delve in to all the deliciousness that surrounds me.
Meanwhile, I will continue to strive towards someday earning the privilege to be a ballsy and sometimes brash, temperamental yet sentimental, hopefully insightful, intriguingly inquisitive 'acquisitioner' of my very own travel/food show; not unlike Mr. Anthony Bourdain.
"Gun Bae" ("cheers" in Korean) to you good sir, and to all those individuals who take part in the career that I lust for. If you ever need an enthusiastic intern or a dupe to try the shitty stuff first, you know where to find me!
A quick must mention of one of the tastiest Korean dishes I've tacked to date: Sauteed and skilleted chicken large intestine!
The texture is somewhat firm, with a bit of an el dente outer layer and an inside that bursts with robust flavor when you bite into it. I reminded me a little bit of when I tried prairie oysters back when I traveled across Canada except these were done in a spicy chili sauce with the perfect contrast of added sweet sugar that you just wanted to eat with a spoon. These 'tiny' - large intestines were served on a hot plate skillet with white onion, fat cloves of garlic, green pepper, green chilies and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It was sumptuous!
(That's some saucy shit...I mean, the sauce is the best part of this shit...I mean, this shit actually tastes delicious!!)
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