ZenKimchi AdventuresZenKimchi AdventuresLife in Korea is always an adventure. Started out in 2004 as an English teacher -- my how things are changing! Articles
Loopholios
2011-09-20 16:44:00 Slept in late today. I dreamed that I was doing a one-off Morning Special show with Nemo on a Saturday on location somewhere. We had no scripts, so we improvised until the show ended at 10 o’clock. When I woke up, it was 10 o’clock. Much of the day I wrote. I’m trying to keep ...
I?ll Be Sore Tomorrow
2011-05-28 15:45:00 I got up around 3 a.m. because I just couldn’t go back to sleep knowing I had to be up at 3:50. I washed up and wandered around in my temple clothes. At 3:49 I could hear the beating of the gourd and a procession of monastic voices floating out of the darkness. It was ... More About: Tomorrow
The Travel Host
2011-05-27 13:29:00 It’s coming full circle. Is that the right use of that phrase? Watching Anthony Bourdain’s “A Cook’s Tour” inspired me to go ahead and move to Asia. I always said he had the dream job as a travel host. Now I’m one. Yeah, it’s not The Travel Channel. It’s Arirang. But I’m still living a ... More About: Host
Feelin? a need for propane and propane accessories
2011-04-10 14:30:00 It’s strange. I’ve had an unusual bout of homesickness lately. It started with a trip to Memphis King Barbecue with my friend Mike from Alabama (Jasper). I then went on websites looking at restaurant menus in and around Fairhope. Now I’m watching King of the Hill. KotH, I know, was originally made to make fun ... More About: Accessories
A Little Privatized
2011-03-05 00:23:00 I’ve decided to password protect some of my more personal posts. If you want a password you can ask me on Facebook. But I have to know you first.
Protected: The Last Post?
2011-02-23 16:28:00 There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. More About: Post
Spy Zone 204: Are These Your Treasures (demonstrative pronouns)
2010-11-29 15:53:00 I thought we’d return to the fun-slash-embarrassment of my EBSe days with the 4th episode of Spy Zone season 2. This is where I started getting into the rhythm of the new show format and had fun with the characters. Frogman is a bad Yoda impression.
Korean Post-partum Traditions
2010-11-26 04:58:00 I think I’ve been a bit of an arrogant asshole. My initial feelings of being the only person who knew how to take care of a baby conditioned me to believe that everything Korean s were saying were silly superstitions. I have since changed the word superstition to tradition. Especially regarding the recovering mother, if these ... More About: Post , Traditions
Thankful Day
2010-11-25 06:59:00 I can hear all my parenting comrades gloating. Yes, we’re dealing with the all-nighters with Jian now. She was up from 2 to 8 in the morning. Poor EJ has been stressed. The helper ajumma was anything but. It feels like I’m the only person in this country who knows anything about taking care of ...
The Stuff They Give You at the Photo Studio
2010-10-15 16:48:00 EJ has been wanting to get a studio photo session of her pregnancy. It’s traditional in Korea. She said that the studios offer this for free. Nothing’s for free. The plan was to try one out and then another if this one wasn’t good enough. The studio took up a four-story building near our local ... More About: Photo , Stuff , Studio , Give
She?s Almost Here
2010-10-15 05:47:00 It feels realer all the time. We’ve been spending the past two days washing all the new baby clothes, blankets and handkerchiefs. It’s hitting us now that our laundry load will greatly increase. But also, actually seeing the little shirts, pants and one-pieces make little baby shapes on our porch give us this illusion that ...
Thursday: The FCI
2010-09-24 15:04:00 Last week, I had met Dorothy Cann Hamilton (founder, French Culinary Institute) in Seoul, and she said she wanted to have lunch while I was in New York. Turned out her schedule kept her out of the country this week. But she suggested I still go by and check out the school. ZenKimchi editor Shin ... More About: Thursday
Wednesday: Ultimate Food Nerd Day
2010-09-23 16:35:00 Surprised that I got over my hangover quickly. But I was still frazzled from Monday. Wendy IM’ed me and asked if I wanted to join her at the Union Square Market. At the same time, Jonathan was saying he could get me a press pass for Star Chefs that afternoon. My original plans were just ... More About: Food , Nerd , Ultimate
Tuesday: Eating Our Way Through Queens
2010-09-23 15:31:00 I had scheduled the entire Tuesday to tour Queens with Joe DiStefano. We met at a gourmet diner, M. Wells, where I had my first Cuban sandwich in 10 years and Joe had a quite good pickled pork tongue. We then went to the famous Golden Shopping Mall, where we met Jonathan Forester. Joe took ...
Monday: Night of 1,000 Lotus Lanterns
2010-09-23 14:52:00 t’s done! I woke up around 4 a.m., and I rehearsed and tweaked my presentation until 8. I wanted to go out and get some breakfast, so I packed the camera and wandered around. I’ve realized that I really got lucky in finding this apartment stay. The location is a foodie’s paradise. I’m just a ... More About: Night , Lotus , Monday
Sunday: Wendy?s Rooftop
2010-09-20 10:02:00 Quickly got over that jetlag. I was invited to Wendy Chan’s place for breakfast. It took me a while to get there. I had to figure out the New York subway, which makes me realize how user friendly, clean, modern and high tech the Seoul subway is. The subway has been my only negative experience ... More About: Sunday
New York: Getting Kinda Used to This
2010-09-19 14:08:00 This is the fourth time I’ve made this overseas flight, and it seemed to go much faster this time. It does help that they have more entertainment options. I still can’t sleep on these flights, but I think I did shut my eyes for an hour or two. Oh, and do you need anymore proof ... More About: New York , York , Kinda
About to Head to New York
2010-09-17 02:17:00 After five months, the last two weeks went quickly. I get on a plane for New York tomorrow. On Monday, I’ll give a speech as part of a Buddhist temple cuisine festival for chefs and dignitaries. I’ve learned that I overprepare for things like this. It comes from almost traumatic experiences. In seventh grade I ... More About: Head
Done.
2010-09-06 17:37:00 The greatest change since I started this blog six-and-a-half years ago happened tonight. I am no longer teaching English at a hagwon. Early February 2004, I flew here to find relief from one of the tech crashes. It was supposed to be temporary relief–a distraction from my career. I ended up working as a teacher ...
Under the Bridge
2009-07-12 18:24:00 It all started during the rainy season in my first year in Anyang. I was going to take my usual over-the-river shortcut while walking to Beomgye when I found that the entire footpath was submerged under rushing water. The Haguicheon (Hagui River) cuts from east to west around the southern base of Gwanak Mountain and meets the Anyang River, which eventually flows into the Han River and out to the Yellow Sea while taking a dip into North Korea. I used to do a lot of rafting in my teens and early twenties and even took an innertube down some rapids in the Appalachian Mountains. It’s my favorite outdoor sport by far. I’m a water baby. So naturally, I fantasized about taking an innertube and going down the Haguicheon to see where it went. Each year passed, and I postponed it to the next year. A couple of months ago, I mentioned my fantasy in passing to Chris P. He latched on to the idea. He strived to make it a serious reality. The same day I mentioned it, h... More About: Bridge , The Bridge
Try!
2009-07-03 16:35:00 In one fell swoop–well, faster than I expected–we’ve gotten the wedding plans cemented. Eun Jeong had been researching for a while, and we went down to the folk village behind Korea House to check out their traditional Korean ceremony. It looked fun and cheesy. The one on the stage had the groom riding a horse. I want that! But my begging produced no results. Nonetheless, we’ll have a wedding in one of the little courtyards there. It’ll be open to the public. The big frustration was designating a place for food. Most Korean wedding places have restaurants and buffets. This one didn’t. The only big restaurant in the area was a 40-year-old place that was pretty famous. You could tell that it was old, as in the type of place your grandparents would eat Sunday lunch in after church. Kinda dank ’70s feel to it. I liked the Han Jang Sik option in their meal packages, but they weren’t being flexible with our schedules or...
Friday Night with Young-chol
2009-06-12 18:49:00 Just got back from a nice dinner with my friend Young -chol. We met during the Noryangjin segment of Bizarre Foods, and it’s his brother-in-law’s farm where we had that DMZ barbecue. We’d been working on finding a good night to get together for a while. Originally it was for hong-eo, the infamous fermented skate. But I think that was mostly for Evil Jennifer’s sake. Evil Jennifer has an obsession with the hong-eo. But since it looked like she wouldn’t be able to join us, Young-chol said, “I’m not too wild about fermented skate.” “I’m not either. I have develped a taste for it, but it’s not my favorite.” “How about jogae gui?” “Uh… of couse, yeah.” Jogae gui, grilled shellfish, I have said is my favorite food in the world. The perfection of nature meets the raw perfection of the Korean charcoal grill. Young-chol regularly goes to this one place with his friend, anot... More About: Night , Friday
More TV
2009-06-11 15:18:00 Man, I’ve been lazy on this blog. Well, everyone knows that Eun Jeong and I have gotten officially married, even though the actually ceremony won’t be until October. We’re still working on the–nah, we’re not really working to hard on the wedding plans. We’re too busy with other things. The podcast and other web sites are still going strongly. I’m still meeting awesome people. Eun Jeong had her American debut on Bizarre Foods. She still doesn’t comprehend what a big deal that was. I myself was featured on the Korean station KBS, which Eun Jeong thought was a big deal. We also were both on Arirang. Our lives are busy but not as stressful as before. We’re enjoying ourselves. Our bond has gotten stronger. I think we get along a lot better. We do more things together. Eun Jeong doesn’t completely understand what I do or why I do it, but with calls from KBS and such, she realizes that something special is ...
Changed my Facebook Profile
2009-03-19 13:34:00 Just something under the “Relationship Status” column. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. More About: Profile , Facebook
A Nice Walk
2009-03-12 15:44:00 Just got home. It’s the time of year for goodbyes. Ian Mc is leaving Korea Wednesday with his young family for home in Canada. He hasn’t been back in eight years. He stopped by work one last time, and the whole group, including the Korean support staff, went out to Uncle Don. I had been dying for a burrito. Since I have to get up early for what’s becoming a regular radio gig on Fridays at TBS eFM 101.3 (11:30 a.m.), I just had my burrito, two beers, and called it a night. It was raining when I left the building. My umbrella got claimed by a student in the last shower, so I stopped by the closest convenience store and asked if they had any umbrellas (in Korean). The guy went into the back room and brought out an umbrella display. I got a little cheapo. It was a perfect night. I unwrapped and opened the umbrella, rigged up my iPod, and lit one of the Cuban cigars I got from our Korean friend overseas. It was the perfect walk home. The walk took ... More About: Nice , Walk
Andong
2009-03-09 04:32:00 My new desktop image Way back in December, Roboseyo talked about making a weekend trip to Andong when he returned from China. After a few delays, a date was set for the end of February and was made into a Hub of Sparkle sanctioned outing. Eleven folks ended up going. A train was booked for early Saturday morning. I crashed at Roboseyo’s place on Friday so I could make the train easier. Friday was my 35th birthday. Rob suggested we go grab a birthday dinner. He mentioned a few places, and a Chinese lamb place stood out. We went there and entered on the second floor. The staff told us to go to the third floor, which we did and sat at a floor table. The menu was in Korean and Chinese, but we could read it easily. We knew what we wanted–lamb galbi. We got a couple of Tsingtao beers and waited for our food. And waited… Finally, some teenage boy stopped by and put some grayed charcoal in our brazier. Six small slices of frozen lamb came out. Keep...
For My Eyes Only
2009-02-22 02:36:00 As you can see, the yellow dust season has returned. Dress properly. We’re in good spirits in the ZenKimchi household, but a few things are trying to put the gray cloud over us. The exchange rate continues to worsen as I need to send money overseas for child support to–I don’t know where they are. Ex-wife has pulled another disappearing act. Hat Dave has finally been able to get a visa to work at the school. We had been trying to get him through the system for over a year, but Immigration has been too kind to us. It’s nothing to do with Dave. It’s a mix of regulations and that KBS xenophobic hit piece on foreigners. We had a little welcoming party for him at Uncle Don on Thursday. Enjoyed our burritos and fries and beer. Got home at decent hours without too much damage. Friday was Friend Lee’s birthday party at Irish Dream, so we attended. We joined a long table full of people, and Eun Jeong was the center of attention with the Korean lad... More About: Eyes
A Corporation, a Radio Station, and a Book
2009-02-15 07:53:00 Whew! Just got through a very busy week. I had something scheduled almost every day before starting work. But it’s all been quite exciting. On Tuesday, I met with the manager for the dining division of a major Korean food corporation. He’s enlisted my help in working on research for expanding one of their new restaurant concepts overseas. It looks like the beginning of a great new partnership, and I’m happy. He himself had just started at the company a couple of months ago and was surprised that all these great plans were created with no market research performed. Yeah, yeah, we’ve always suspected and complained about the notion that Koreans market to foreigners arrogantly without any consideration for what the foreigner desires–particularly in tourism and food. So you can believe that I’m mega-thrilled that this one corporation has someone in their midst who is actually trying to do the smart thing. He’s an intelligent worl... More About: Radio , Corporation , Book , Station
Bracing for the New Year
More articles from this author:2009-02-07 12:59:00 I haven’t been posting much. Mostly because I already talk much about my week on the SeoulPodcast, so I don’t feel compelled to write it all out again. Also, a lot of stuff I want to post is stalker fodder. I have various crazy people tracking me. Each time I think I’m just being paranoid, an email will pop up from a weirdo of the past. I’m actually upbeat for 2009, even though everyone’s dreading it to be the worst year in recent memory. As long as the won doesn’t stay weak consistently and the school stays in business, I think we’re fine for the year. We have no investments to lose. We have no house to depreciate. In fact, housing prices in Korea are already starting to drop, as predicted… Oh, yeah, can’t make predictions, considering that the Korean government is arresting bloggers who make predictions. December was quite nice. I got into the Christmas spirit–constant Christmas music, homemade egg nog,... More About: New Year , Year 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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