Eating Bugs in Korea

It's been an interesting couple of days in Seoul with the other early arrivals. So far, everyone I've met is fascinating, friendly, and just plain nice. I'd like to thank Epik for the thoroughness of their screening process; they've managed to pick some great future amigos for me. Top notch.

And with these friends, I've gone to a bunch of nice restaurants (or street vendors) and have eaten some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. I've watched friends cut meat with scissors for a barbecue. I've torn pork ribs to bits and dipped them in a sort of wasabi sauce, and snacked on crunchy chilis. I've had hangover soup, with congealed blood in it, fried things that taste like vetkoek, samgak gimbap (or "Sushi Burger Samoosa") and a whole lot of kimchi. I've loved all of it.

So, to add to our culinary adventures, someone thought it would be a good idea to bring home some of these little guys:

They're silkworm pupae that have been steamed and boiled, and seasoned. I tried one. According to my friends, most of them were squishy, but I got one that wasn't. I put it in my mouth, and thought 'Hey, this isn't so bad.' So I chewed, and tasted it more. It had an earthy sort of taste, not unlike Andouillette. The segments flaked a bit, and the flakes hit the back of my throat. I tried to swallow. I tried again. I considered spitting but the room was too full for me to get to the bin and things were starting to look a bit desperate in the vomit department.

Finally I got it down, and rinsed my mouth with water to try and get the taste to go away. The taste wasn't that bad though. And the texture wasn't bad either. The combination of that taste and that texture was revolting.

So now that box is ticked and I don't ever have to do that again. I do think it's worth trying, if only to see how brave you are.


I think some flakes of it are still stuck in my throat.

Suzie Q: The greatest bar in Hongdae

I don't claim to be an expert on the subject of bars. In fact, I'm probably one of the least knowledgeable people in the world about bars, except for maybe Mother Theresa or Mahatma Gandhi, although I'm willing to bet they had their own preferred watering holes before they became so... sober. But I do think that our little group of eager-beaver early arrivals has found the best bar in Hongdae.

Located quite close to Cocoon and Gogo's, Suzie Q isn't really visible from the street, except for a small door. But the moment you head down the stairs, admiring the decorative vinyl records lining the walls, and walk through the inner door, you know you're going to have a night that is, mercifully, sans-Gangnam Style.

Having discovered it the night before, we decided to take our whole rowdy group of waygooks to Suzie Q to soak in the atmosphere and have a bit of a sing-along. There were about fifteen of us, so we were looking for something that wasn't too crowded. We had also had two big nights, the second ending with the subway of shame home, so we wanted a light, relaxed evening to recover from it (well, we tried, but never mind that).

On our first visit we had a blast, mixing with a mostly waygook crowd (with some Korean hipsters) and singing and dancing the night away. The second night was a Sunday night. Notably more quiet, but there were enough of us to comfortably fill the bar, so fill it we did. We caught the DJ by surprise as he spun discs alone in an empty room, and he served us as well as playing the music. I'd taken a photo of the DJ the night before, and chatted to him a bit, and he remembered me, so he knocked a few thousand won off my bill, resulting in a free beer. He also milled around, chatting with us, and being generally friendly, but we could see he was taking strain without any other staff there to help him out. Eventually his wife left church early so she could come and run the bar - very generous of her.

Kyu Nam Jo, DJ at Suzie Q, reads through requests for songs.

With as much popcorn as we wanted, cheap beer, a long queue of good music and good times all round, the owner's wife told us the story of the DJ:

As one of the few DJs in Seoul who only plays from his personal collection, Kyu Nam is sitting on an absolute goldmine, and he knows it. But he's not interested in gold. He's been collecting albums since he was seventeen years old. Someone once offered him three million dollars for the collection, but Kyu Nam refused. He's more interested in running the music than running the bar, so his wife and other people do that while Kyu Nam just plays fantastic music.

Name a song, and he probably has it. Typical bar snacks include peanuts, banana chips, biscuits, popcorn and pineapple. Omnom.

He can locate any album within a few inches of a stack on the shelves.

His collection is so big it doesn't fit in my photos.

A good place to unwind and hype up.

All in all, this bar ranks highly in my books as the best bar I have EVER been to, in any country (Club Salsa in Xi'an, China, is a close second with a completely different feel).

Prices - Cass beer is W4000. Cocktails also available, although I didn't get a chance to try one.

Service - Like family, but nicer. English is not quite fluent but if you write what you want to say down, you're fine. Kyu Nam likes making friends, and mentioned a preference for British, Canadian and South African waygooks... 

Decor - There's something interesting wherever you look, and I'd hate to spoil the surprises. An overall vintage charm. It reminded me of the radio cafe from Love Rain.

Vibe - Everyone walks in and goes 'Oh my god! This place is AMAZING!' That pretty much sums it up.

Music - Old school, any genre, your choice. Not much hip-hop. No K-pop. No Gangnam Style (so far).

Clientele - mostly foreigners, not many military blokes, some friendly locals with good taste in music.

Smokiness - smoking is allowed inside, but it was pretty well ventilated so it isn't too bad.

Bathroom facilities - located above the bar, and pretty intimate... Co-ed bathroom with girls having to go past the urinal to get to the squattie. Bring your own TP (throw it in the bin!) and work those thigh muscles.

For a good night try to get your friends to choose happy songs, not songs that make you want to kill yourself. Sing-alongs are a frequent occurrence, with things like Bohemian Rhapsody, Hotel California, and anything by the Beatles or Nirvana. Have a few drinks here, enjoy the music, and if you ever feel like leaving and want to dance, hit one of the nearby nightclubs later on. Good street food nearby too. 

This bar is so awesome it more than makes up for the inability of foreigners to aim their pee properly at a squattie, so it gets 100% anyway.

Getting there: 

To get to Suzie Q walk from Hongik University’s main gate towards Sangsu Station. After passing Club Evans on the right side, Suzie Q is located down a nearby side street.

I think the most interesting thing about Suzie Q is Kyu Nam Jo. To learn more about him, check out the Chincha article about John Weeke's documentary about him, here. They spelled his name differently in the article, but I asked him to write his name down for me and have spelled it as he did (surname first). Often Romanizations of Hangul are approximate, so both are right. Some other mistakes in my original post have been fixed. Directions were copy-pastaed from this Korea Times article.

Trying Soju for the first time.

On Friday night I popped over to Lara's to try some soju. And, well, the best way to drink shots of anything is with a movie drinking game. Low on choice, we decided to watch Brave (drink on every other "Och!") and out came the soju, which she'd brought back with her after her trip.

The brand we had wasn't even anything particularly high quality - it was this stuff, a generic brand from a convenience store:

chummy booze: 참이슬.

As I was the youngest, I poured the shots, holding the bottle in my right hand with my left hand lightly supporting my wrist or elbow. If they hadn't been comfily slouched back in their deep and poofy couches, my friends would have held their classes nicely with both hands. Instead, they hurled mockery at me instead.

I handed out the shots; we lifted them aloft and shouted 건배! I turned away from the oldest male and knocked the soju back. 

I fully expected 소주 to taste like its Chinese counterpart, Baijiu (which we like to call 'Foot Juice' because it smells and tastes like toe jam):

Provided freely by restaurants in China, this will strip away the lining of your intestines before it runs off to beat up your children and set fire to the polar ice caps. 

As the cool liquid flowed smoothly down my throat, leaving a slightly sweet, and slightly vodka-like aftertaste, I was over the moon to discover that Soju is nothing at all like Baijiu. 

Thank God. 

Because I was really worried about that for a second or two. It tastes a bit like if you took some nice vodka and added slightly sweetened water to it. 

The flavour changed as the night went on (and we ate different snacks), becoming tastier and fruitier and more scrumptious as the Ochs rolled in. Our throats and souls warmed, and our vision swimming, we also started to realise how strong soju really is (even though it doesn't taste like it).

A booze cruise of K-Blogs

Depending on how adventurous you are, you may or may not have started reading K-blogs (blogs about foreigners in Korea) to prepare you for your upcoming trip. I think going into Korea with no idea whatsoever of what to expect is incredibly brave, but I also like to be prepared.  I have been a regular reader of some K-blogs for years now, whereas I have only recently discovered others that are so amazing, I feel I need to share them with you.

A brief introduction to K-blogging:  

So far, I've found that K-blogs mostly fall into one of four* categories:

1. The Shout-out-To-The-Folks-At-Home:
These are made by teachers who have just arrived in Korea and want to reassure their parents/friends/family  that North Korea has not yet nuked them. The bloggers are sometimes couples, sometimes single, and the tone is chatty, personal and intimate. The language of the blogs is clear, direct and can feel very honest. Short and sweet, most of them have a very similar flavour, and they're nice for a quick read or to answer a quick question you may have.

If I could drink this, it would be: 

Blog of choice: Maggie Moo Does Korea

2. The Journalist-in-Teacher's-Clothing (to borrow a term from Deva)
The first thing you'll notice with these blogs is that they are beautifully written. These read more like the sort of article one might find on the Matador Network, with poetically descriptive prose that puts you right in the experience. The posts are longer, and a lot more planning, research and editing has gone into them. They also tackle a range of different attitudes and ideas about Korean life, culture and the experiences of expats in Korea. The journalistic experience of the bloggers also means that each writer has a subtle, yet distinctly different style.

By the glass, or by the bottle:

Blog of choice: The Culture Muncher

3. The right-here-right-now webzine
These are collections of contributions from bloggers all over Korea. Most of those bloggers have their own personal blogs (which fall into the 2nd category). The webzines, however, also have a lot more current information and hold a bunch of different points of view and sources in one place. Good to get to know a particular area (of interest or geographical) from a bunch of different angles.

Punchy, vibey and immediate:

Blog of choice: Chincha 

4. The unique-little-snowflake 
Of course, there are some blogs that just don't fit into the other categories neatly, or at all. These are startlingly brilliant and creative responses to living in South Korea and may be in the form of a web-comic, or, um, other stuff. Yeah. I can't really describe this category other than 'misc'. I guess you just need to take a sip and risk it.

Some interesting ones I like to dip into:

#kikinitinkorea

The Dokdo Times

Eat Your Kimchi

In summary, there are bazillions of expat blogs all over the place, and they come in many different shapes and forms. If I really like one, I tend to link to it from this blog so I can find it later - the links are in the nav bar on the right. If you know of a fantastic (and I mean FANTASTIC) k-blog that you think I should check out, leave your suggestion in a comment below.

*I have chosen not to include video blogs in this, for the sake of my rubbish South African bandwidth. K-vlogging is a whole n'uther story