Things I've Eaten in the Last Week.

Fried chicken from BBQ, a Korean chain that is only a few short years away from total world domination. Seriously, look at their website. Their parent company, Genesis, which began in the 90's with just BBQ and now has 10 other chains, wants to have 50,000 locations worldwide by 2020. They started in Korea, making "Olive Luxury Chicken," whole chickens that are freshly chopped up, battered, and fried in olive oil. Plus, here at least, they deliver! Though most fast food chains do here so that's no big thing. We got the regular and one with some sort of sweet sauce. The regular was super crispy, flavorful, and moist without being at all fatty. The sauce was really different too, I think it had some allspice in it, was sweet and rich, with a little bit of tang. Yum! My cousin's husband works for the company; I'm pushing for Seattle as their next US location.

Ah, to be drunk in Seoul. Late running public transportation, and a plethora of 24-hour fast food joints like this one, where we sampled some excellent odeng, or fish cake. Not as gross as it sounds! I don't know the exact formula, but it's basically fish and flour with various spice and/or vegetable add-ins. Something more familiar might be those pink and white slices you sometimes get in a bowl of Japanese udon. In Korea it's prepared many ways: in soups, stir fries, thrown into spicy rice cake dishes, and for those busy people (sober or otherwise) on the go, boiled or deep fried and served on a stick. Most places that offer it will either have someone dishing them out or just leave a warm pot and a bowl to collect the few coins it costs to eat one.

We also bought a couple of rolls of kimbap to go. Kimbap is like sushi, Korean style. Instead of vinegar, the rice is mixed with toasty sesame oil and sometimes the roasted seeds themselves, filled with a variety of sauteed meats and veggies, fried egg, pickled radish, and sometimes deep fried, barely-there tofu or a thin rope of artificial crab, then wrapped in nori that's also been painted with sesame oil and salted. This particular one had beef, hot dog, egg, radish, sauteed carrots and spinach, and some sort of tasty mystery food. It's unbelievably satisfying, starchy, meaty, vegetable-y, tangy, and toothsome. Seriously, excellent drunk food (Or you could just call out for some fried chicken), and probably fairly healthy.

These late night restaurants and carts are everywhere, and sell all manner of foods. They're great for students and business folk, many of whom work until after 9 or 10. They're cheap and fast, so you can grab a quick bite while waiting for the bus, or sit inside and keep the party going. Have I mentioned that I think these places must be great for nights out drinking? Because I really do.


Some free cookies at a tea shop I visited in Insa-dong. I have no idea what the ones on the left are made of, other than air, honey, and the innocence of children. On the right is yakgwa, made with flour, maybe eggs, sometimes spices like cinnamon, and honey or liquid yeot (a Korean sweet, essentially a cooked sugar where the starting liquid is made from fermented rice or other grains). The little biscuits are shaped and then fried, giving them a crisp, glossy outer layer and soft, malty sweet insides.

Yakgwa translates literally to "medicine biscuit," and was considered to be beneficial to the health because of its ingredients. These were about an inch in diameter, but they're usually much larger, maybe 3 inches, and quite hefty. Because of the work required to make them, they've become mostly mass produced and sit on store shelves for ages, bland to start with and further drying out and becoming completely wasted calories. When they're freshly made in a small batch, they're lovely, like these were.

And in anticipation of the next three weeks of eating, it's now time for me to hit the gym.