Last week, my friend asked me why I was going to Korea. Training? Hiking?
Nope. I was going to eat. Oh, and shop. We’re not out to save the world here.
Fat Girl’s Food Guide, one of my favorite blogs, basically singlehandedly convinced me that Seoul should be my first foreign leave. Her pictures of three-tiered brunches and meringue topped lattes had me obsessively mapping routes between restaurants. Only two meals survived long enough to have their picture taken before being eaten.
Street Churros
THIS WAS THE BEST CHURRO I’VE EVER EATEN. I GREW UP IN SAN DIEGO AND HAVE BEEN TO MEXICO MULTIPLE TIMES. I’VE BEEN TO THE DEL MAR FAIR. THIS CHURRO WAS THE BEST THING AND I ALMOST CRIED. I didn’t mean to order it over raspberry ice cream–that was a language issue, but I wasn’t mad about it.
Pizza Muzzo, Itaewon
This meal was a little bit confusing: caprese panini with polento fries? Definitely adorable, but this is not what I picture as a panini, and the fries had the texture of cornbread with the taste of a cheez-it. Again, not mad about it.
Korea Shopping
Friends of mine who had been to Seoul told me about Korea’s wide selection of beauty products, especially face masks. For about $10, I bought 12 sheet masks, some with cotton, some tea tree oil, some honey. As my free gift, I was awarded four masks with essence of snail slime…um. I guess snails do have pretty moist slime.
In a store called Lush, I had my hands and arms washed by a very attentive sales girl. She brought out a new coconut shampoo and offered to let me try it in their back room shower; I declined. When I saw a few other shoppers step out looking refreshed, I definitely had some regrets, but there is a part of me that just can’t shower in the middle of a shopping day in a strange country. Not mad about it.
Korean makeup was a big thing too, but because white skin is the ideal, I was unable to buy any foundation or powder. Even as a generally fair white person, the Okinawan sun has made me too dark for anything Korean and I was banished to the eyeshadow aisle.
Again, not mad about it. I shopped/ate my little heart out.
Churros+ panini+snail mask+art museum+war memorial=sweet vacation
Currently reading: Go, Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
The market in Pusan Korea was whete I bought a pair of athletic shoes in 1979: red box, big swoosh,tou know the brand. Except these ones said “NICE” instead of the more familiar ones that encourage you to just do it. They looked good. You could buy anything at that market: jewelry, clothing, CDs, electronics, live animals, formerly live animals – all of them knockoffs. I’m pretty sure that the goats where really sheep underneath.
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