Meanwhile in Korea

Last week, I visited Korea. Wanted to bring some books, clothes, spices, and to meet family, friends, and my cats (crucial). 

Korean style seasoned fried chicken, or Yangnyeom chicken (양념 치킨). Fried chicken itself is never a unique kind of food, even when it's seasoned. However, it's not true in Korea. Yangnyeom chickens are the best and therefore unique (which should come first? I don't know). They have everything: they're sweet, hot, rich in protein as well as fat (from which the 'deliciousness' comes from). Of course there are tens of variations. From fire-hot to tongue-melting sweet, and from plain to garlic, and none of them can be found in the ordinary chicken restaurants in other part of the world, as long as I know. It's not served in KFC, not in yakitori restaurant, but in Korea. One must try it if there is an opportunity. Of course jokingly is it, but Yangnyeom chicken is even worshiped on the internet as the sole god. (They say) Yangnyeom chiken is healthy, good for diet, delicious, makes the world peaceful, can solve every kind of conflict, and so forth.

Cup noodle is also popular in Korea, just like in Japan and other countries. However, it is 'hotter' in Korea. Maybe the hottest in the world... It's called Buldak-bokkum-myeon(불닭볶음면), which means fried noodle with hot chicken. And as can be easily seen in the picture above, they are super hot. Seriously. And addictively delicious. I can't say why it's so addictive, but it is. Even tear drops are coming out from my eyes, I just can't stop putting the noodles into the mouth. After several cups of the noodle, I managed to finish it without drinking a sip of water. Well, at least I used to. Just two month of living in no-hot-spice country (Japan) was enough to turn my immunity to extreme hot spices into nothing. I almost cried eating it. So sad. But I think I'll try again after permanently coming back to Korea.

It's the original of Yakiniku, bulgogi(불고기, 'firemeat' to translate it word-to-word). Yakiniku and bulgogi are direct, word-to-word translation of each other, but quite different. It's because while bulgogi refers only to a certain type of grilled meat, yakiniku refers to grilled meat. So the coverage of yakiniku is much larger. What is funny is that in Japan, bulgogi would not be included in yakiniku, because bulgogi comes with soup and a lot of seasonings and vegetables, but yakiniku is served with meats only (except side dishes).

And it's Nangmyeon(냉면, cold noodle). As it's served cold, it was traditionally made only in the northern part of Korea during winter. It's peoples favorite in summer, of course. I like to put a lot of sesame on it. It's taste is not strong, but that is the attractiveness of it.

Dakgalbi(닭갈비, galbi made of chicken) is surely one of my most favorite. It's full of vegetables and chicken, with a bit hot but sweet sauce. It's not difficult to cook, Just put all the ingredients you want, and grill them until it's well-done. And it has no reason to be expensive.

Yeah, I can't miss kebab. Yes, it's Turkish. It's not that popular in Korea too, like in Japan. But I think it is more popular in Korea. It it difficult to find a kebab place in Sapporo... Maybe it's better in Tokyo. Anyways, I really love it. Chicken, tons of vegetables (especially lettuce), delicious sour sauce, the bread wrapping it... Ummm.

Above are Chinese foods in Korea. It's well-known, I think, that Chinese food differs quite a lot from country to country, according to the national taste. And it's the Korean version. They are quite oily and usually sweet. I think that's the feature of Korean Chinese food. In Europe, it was usually salty, as I remember. The one above is fried pork, and the bottom is noodle with... uh... everything. Cucumber, shrimp, meat, carrot, onion, bud of bamboo, and so on. And it's spicy for sure.

In a cafe with my best friend, with a piece of Belgium waffle and a cup of 'Dutch'(cold brew) coffee. I was a bit disappointed after finding out that there are not so many cafes in Sapporo, especially those provide electricity, wifi internet, and nice seats to stay and study, chat, spend time, and so on. There are a lot, really a lot in Korea, and they're still in a kind of excessive demand. Maybe it's because there are not many things to spend time with in Korea. Well, whatever. I like reading and writing while enjoying a cup of nice coffee.

I took a picture of the apartment my family lives in. It's a nice place. There are almost everything in the building. Maybe hospital is the only thing missing. It's nicer inside. What I don't like is that I should be careful about the noise I'm making, because I often play guitar in the late night. But it was way better than the dorm I'm living in now. Though, I don't miss my home too much, but my sister and cats :(

Those are my guitars. One is electric bass, and the other electric guitar. I also have a nylon guitar and an acoustic guitar, but they need repair. Ah, I really wanted to bring 'em to Japan, especially the bass. Well, I already bought an electric guitar set. I don't know about buying an electric bass...

Finally, just like when I was coming to Japan, I was the first passenger to enter the airplane :D

What I Wanted to Eat Today and What I Ate Today: Korean Seasoned Fried Chiken and Ramen

Yesterday, I decided I go to try Korean style fried chicken. I love it so used to eat it like once in a week back in Korea, I couldn't do so in Sapporo. Well, there was a hope called Seoul Chicken, located 5 kilometers from my home (yes, the dorm). 

At first, I tried to go by bicycle, but I faced a 'blizzard', or the first snow of this winter (or, more properly, 'fall'), in other words. So I just changed to the train. It's JR Sapporo station.

Got on.

Got off at Kotoni, the center of Nishi(West) district.

Just like any other places in Sapporo, it's full of bicycles.

I walked down to the south, about for 15 minutes.

And finally reached the place,

whose shop closing day was Monday, including today (even more, it was a national holiday). How kind it is to write it on the door? And how poor am I? I spent half an hour and 200 yens (+ 300 yens for hot drinks and snack) to find the restaurant closed.

Despite the coldness and the snow, and even though it's not 'rational' to consider the sunk cost, I chose to walk around and find a nice place to eat.

I went here and there.

A ordinary, but a little bit more better-looking house. How will it be like to have such a house as the home of one's own? How will it be like to live here, as a Sapporo-ian?

A few tens of meters ahead was this antique antique shop.

And another few hundreds meters later, having found this subway station, I gave up and determined to pay for another 250 yens for the transportation cost.

For there is an many-people-recommended-to-me ramen restaurant beside JR Sapporo station.

I bought a ticket at the machine,

And my ramen was served in one or two minutes, as I remember. Super fast. The taste of soup was so strong and a bit cheesy, but still nice. Ironically if my strong preference toward meats considered, it'd have been better if I did't add the pork slices, both in terms of taste and price. Well, a good place indeed, I think.

What I Ate Today: Curry Rice of Serendipity

After Japanese Kanji class has ended, I and a friend of mine, Nimar, went to eat lunch together. Menu? Curry rice. Venue? Somewhere in front of our university's hospital. Lunch time, 500 Yens. Name? As I remember, it was 'Curry House'. Not sure. 

Nimar looking into the display cupboard full of vintage stuffs, from wrist watches to documents, and from compass to abacus. In addition, a lot of old cameras.

On the right side, there are some documents. The one in the middle was from Taisho (大正) 12, which is 1924 or 1925, or sometime around that, I'm not sure, but either way, which IS old times. It's even before the WWII! Wow.

Clocks. I want to know the past of this restaurant and the chef. What kind of person would she have been? And this place? Why are there so many old things? I didn't asked though. Maybe I'll get to know as I frequent here.

And old playthings, which was reminding of the childhood even for me. I myself also used to play with those paper-based toys, though I'm not that old (at least I believe so). Information technology has changed even the children's culture, you know.

The foods are offered at moderate prices here.

Another carte, but handwritten.

The restaurant was not so clean and modern like high-level or franchise ones, but that's not why people visit those places. An old lady, the chef, talked to me as if I were a frequenter. News was coming out from a radio somewhere in the kitchen, loudly, saying that the first snow (初雪, Hatsu Yuki) came today, which is 11 days (!) earlier than average. The kitchen was open to everyone, just like others in Sapporo, but it was even revealing the spices, ingredients used here, and so on.

Actually, I had expected just a dish of curry rice, but what was served was a full set. And it looked really nice. Oh and yeah, it tasted good. I enjoyed the chicken, and the miso soup was also great. And the slices of apple, which are the red-thingy on bottom-left, tasted unique, sour, and sweet. And it comes only for 500 Yens. I don't know, really not, why we were the only customers. Maybe it becomes crowded during the evening? The chef was preparing quite a lot of meats, probably for dinner.

Anyways, I'm just happy that I found a place to have a nice, full meal with only 500 Yens - less than the money I usually spend at student cafeteria!

What I Have Eaten Recently: Yakiniku Tabehodai, Cup Noodle,and Napolitan Sapaghetti

Last Saturday, yesterday, and today, I've tried some 'new' foods here.

1. Tabehodai of Yakiniku.

Tabehodai basically has same meaning as buffet. That's it. Easy. Of course, compared to buffets in Korea, there's something different: time limit (that actually has an effect). This time, the time limit of the place I visited was 90 minutes, which means that I can order and eat any meant that are available for Tabehodai service, without any worry about the price becoming extremely expensive. 

Yakiniku can be translated directly as 'grilled meats' in English, and Bulgogi(불고기) in Korean. In fact, Japanese did not use to eat meats before modern times. What does it mean? You can say that it's actually Korean kind of food. 

You can see that from this sign. In the middle, it says 和牛カルビ(Wagyu Karubi), which means Karubi (Japanese way of writing 갈비Galbi, which means ribs) made with Japanese beef. Well, enough for history or something. It's 3,500 Yens per person for 90 mins and for 'unlimited' amount of meat. It seemed expensive. I thought so.

Oh and it somehow included Nomihodai, a free-drink service. And I chose melon soda. I've never drunk it in Korea, so for me it's so Japanese. In the end, I drank 3 cups of melon soda in total.

To eat Yakiniku (or 숯불구이Sutbulgui, I prefer, a Korean word), one has to grill it by oneself. It's the most important part. For the fire, charcoal is used, and it adds its unique smokey smell onto the meat.

It might be a bit difficult for the 'beginners', especially when it comes to judge whether it's well done or not. With a few times of 'failure', most of which will be edible anyway, one can get a sense.

Oh, there's an important difference. It is... yeah, it can be considered as steak, but it is not; it does not 'have to be' medium rare or rare. Well done is just the standard. Well, it'd be virtually impossible to make it even medium, because the meat is so thin. Of course it's up to one's taste, after all.



2. Cup noodle. Personally, I've eaten cup noodles for more than 10 years back in Korea. However, such experience does not help at all in Japan. The 'ideal' of each countries' cup noodle is different, and the brands are also completely different.

In Korea, most cup noodles are spicy, and there are a lot of variety of tastes so that one can eat a cup noodle which is almost 'customized' according to the one's taste. And the probability of failure is also low, as the tastes are basically similar. Of course there are variations like Udon, but in general terms.

In Japan, conversely, I've noticed a few 'categories': Soba, Ramen, Chinese, and curry-thingy. True, I haven't tried most of them yet (actually, only one have I tried for now). Though, there is an image on the cap.

Like this. It's a Soba I tried. There were several kinds of Soba, another several for Ramen, and yet another for curry-thingy, and so on; this way, there are more options to choose, but less space is left for 'fine tuning'. My opinion.

Well, nothing is special about making a cup noodle. Just pour some hot water in it and wait for a few minutes. Done. Bon appetite.
The taste was much different from that of the Soba I tried at a 'real' Soba restaurant. But it was good in its own way. Not bad. Now I have a Udon cup noodle left. Gotta try it some time soon.

The best aspect of cup noodle is its price. It costs just around 100 Yens. Usually, it costs more than 650 Yens to eat in a regular restaurant. During lunch time or with a discount coupon, though, it can become 500 Yens.



3. Finally, it's my first 'real' Napolitan. It has nothing to do with a Italian port city, Naples. It's completely and definitely Japanese.

With grilled cheese, fried egg, and Hambagu (Japanese hamburger steak) on it, Napolitan (ナポリタン) looks like this. The noodle was a lot thicker than I expected. It seemed like 2.0 mm or so.

One cannot say its taste is decent; but it's, again, good in its own way. For Japanese, they say, it reminds them of their childhood. As it's made with tomato ketchup, it's quite sweet, and the noodle is hardly al dente (which is not a flaw when it comes to Napolitan).

It costed 950 Yens. That's because I added 3 toppings for 350 Yens and 100 grams of noodles for 100 Yens. Thus, basically, it's 500 Yens. Not bad, not bad.

And the exterior of the restaurant looks like this. One can see how the restaurant would be, I believe.

Where I Visited Today: JR Tower Sapporo Station

The sky of Sapporo is dynamic, I've been thinking since my first step here. Indeed, sky always changes, clouds come and go, rain starts and stops, and the sun hides and seek come out. Maybe because Sapporo is flat, maybe because there are not many tall buildings, maybe because I'm in a foreign country, the sky of Sapporo feels especially rapidly changing, and the clouds seem to be much closer to me. 

Today, as a friend of mine already had done (see http://nimar-blume.de/blog/2014/a-visit-to-the-sapporo-station-jr-tower/), I decided to visit the observatory of JR Tower Sapporo, and do some homework there. 

I wandered Paseo, Stellar Place, Sapporo station, and so on, for about an hour in a search for the elevator to the observatory. When I finally reached it, I was amazed even before the real thing began: it costs 720 Yens to enter the observatory.

Having no choice, I paid the money and got on the elevator, which you can see right above. Only 5 buttons. Simple and easy, huh? I had to wait for about a minute or a half, I guess, before I reached the top.

And the city welcomed me. Much, much better than I expected. Honestly, I was disappointed when I first saw the scenery of Sapporo back in Korea. But this city is always becoming more and more beautiful. And the ambient music in the background 

perfected it. Even though it's 'just' 38th floor, it was as if it was above the clouds. Silent, peaceful, a bit spacey, and beautiful music is definitely the best background music I've ever heard. 

It was quiet, with only a few people chatting with each other in silence, appreciating the scenery. 

Me. Yes, it's Bayern Munich. And if you recognized it, I bet you know why I 'had to' wear it in such a cold weather but was so happy. 

Son, the world is never fair. If you are a male, you can enjoy more than a female. Yes, this is a toilet, and no, there was not such a observatoilet for women. 

How nice it is! Instead of looking at and deciphering the old, dirty drawings on the wall of observatory, you just need to look outside, and the parking lot will tell you the directions. Awesome.

There is a forest in the middle of a concrete-100% city. It's 'my' university, Hokkaido University. I'm so lucky. 

You are now seeing a part of the route from my dorm to the school.

The sky looks angry. It's overwhelming. 'They' are coming.

The city doesn't care the sky, though. The people just live everyday their everyday lives.  

On the green rooftop of the building in front of me, there is an interesting, colorful pattern. No idea what it is.

And the sky is still overwhelming. They dominate.

But there's nothing much to worry about (for now).

As time goes, they fade away. Quite soon. (You can see the Sapporo TV tower, which has a digital clock on it. Check the time of each photo.)

From cloudy to sunny. Let's just ignore the fact that the sun is already on the mountain, and about to go over it.

I like pictures out of focus. You don't focus on a certain thing, but you see it as a whole.

And the time keeps going. As always.

Farewell to the sun. また明日！

And the city becomes alive when the sun is set. 

O Sapporo, you are urban.

By this time, the observatory became quite crowded, and I hungry. 

So called "the best snack ever (unless you bought it yourself)", Jyaga Pokkuru (じゃがポックル) is finally in my hands. 10 packs of 18 grams of fries of pieces of potatoes, and ca. 850 of Yens. A snack of luxury, it is. 

 The food of convenient stores, especially Hot Chef by Seico Mart, is not an expensive way to deal with the problem of survival. But it becomes expensive if you add something else e.g. a bowl of salads. Well, the taste was nice, and that's it. Not bad. Satisfactory enough was it.