korea

Visiting Korea after an almost 12 year absence was surreal. The city that had become familiar to me after living there for 2 years during high school had undergone a complete transformation to the point where once familiar streets were unrecognizable. In every direction was a newly erected skyscraper or signs of Western influence and a booming economy, e.g., Starbucks on every corner, BMWs and Mercedes abound. One thing that had not changed, however, was the food! From the moment my mom and I stepped off the plane, we were in gastronomic paradise. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.

We took the high-speed KTX train to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Busan, the second largest city in Korea located on the Southern coast of the peninsula. This shot was taken at one of the scenic lookouts overlooking the ocean. Of my 3 aunts in the photo below, can you figure out which one is my mom's sister?


Look who we ran into in Korea! Actually, my mom and I planned our visit to coincide with Vic and Mike's trip to Korea. This was TK and YK's first trip to Korea, the purpose of which was to show off their cuteness to relatives who had not met them, including great grandmas on both sides of the family. Here's a photo of TK in his Korean car seat.


This is the view from Mike's house in Gahoedong, a neighborhood famous for its Korean-style (han-ok) houses. It's one of the few areas in Seoul with this kind of landscape ...


... unless you consider this to be authentic.


While we pigged out at a restaurant in Ojangdong famous for its nengmyun, we put TK on one of the sitting pillows. He had no idea what he was missing out on.


Here's a photo of Mike waiting in line for ddukboki, another one of my favorite Korean eats. According to my cousin's wife, this place is so renowned for its ddukboki that people come from Japan just to eat there. (However, although Mike had grown up right around the corner, he had never heard of it, hehe.) It only took about 10 minutes for this line to appear behind us. The ddukboki was totally worth the traveler's diarrhea!


One of the highlights of the trip for YK was riding the subway. Everyone must have thought that we were from the shigol (Korean for country, in the pejorative sense as well) given the number of pictures we were taking.


This was a dream come true for YK, who is obsessed with trains.


One of my top must-eat items in Korea was Red Mango, the supposed originator of the Pinkberry trend, which had recently invaded New York. As I expected, Red Mango was the real deal. The consistency of the yogurt was smooth and creamy without any hint of that Pinkberry iciness. Given my addiction, it looks like I'll have to move to LA since the first U.S. Red Mango just opened in Westwood!


Here's one last photo of me, Vic, and TK at the Coex underground mall.