Many of the photos I share on Etsy were taken on my way to or from work. Others came from walks around my office. They show places close to my everyday routine, although I hadn’t really noticed some of them before. When I’m rushing to work, I miss a lot. Looking at the same streets…
A beef soup with cow’s blood in it, served at 7 a.m. two minutes from Sinsa Station. The rice comes on its own plate. That is the whole point of the name, and nobody respects it.
A 31,000-won set for three on the second floor of a building next to a coffee chain in Sindang. The crepe is the size of the plate. The scissors are the Korean part.
For eleven years I have closed the books for four companies and never opened my own. What changed was losing money, first in stocks and then in crypto. This is what happened when I finally read my own card statement the way I read a company’s.
A buckwheat noodle place on the second floor in Sinsa-dong, open since 1961. Four versions of the same noodle, all translated on the menu board, and the translations tell you nothing useful. One of them arrives as parts you are expected to assemble. Here is what is in each.
The kettle came to the table first. I thought it was tea. I poured some into the paper cup and drank it. It was broth, and it was cold. Nobody told me. At a momil restaurant, nobody tells you anything. I ordered pan-momil. It came on a bamboo tray, two piles of gray-brown noodles, cold….
Kongguksu is sold for about three months a year and seasoned at the table, which is where the trouble starts. Most of Korea adds salt. Jeolla adds sugar. Nobody has ever changed sides.
Three sessions of Potenza with Juvelook in Seoul, about 1.5 million won, and three months of waiting. My skin texture improved for a while. My pores did not change.
Ultherapy PRIME 300 shots and XERF 600 shots, both on the same day in Seoul, for about 3.5 million won. It worked. I’d pay for it again — just not on the same day.
Gamja means potato, but the pot is mostly pork spine bones. Nobody can explain the name, including Koreans. What ugeoji is, and why the bones — not the spice — are the hard part for foreigners.