Deoksugung Park and Seoul Museum of Art.....

Last weekend I finally got to see a bit of the traditional ancient Asian architecture at the Deoksugung Park outside of the Seoul Museum of Art. Saturday might not have been the best day to go, as it was quite busy with tourists (am I allowed to call others tourists since I actually live here now?). Anyway, despite the crowd, it was an enjoyable day of sightseeing. Here are a few of the photos I took while walking around:

Entrance into the park....:

Inside one of the temples:

Here are some photos of the Museum itself.....

This Guy....

I was out walking around Hongdae the other night and came to a little park with an amphitheater  where this guy was pumping out some tasty acoustic covers. Lots of British stuff; Oasis, Blur, Smiths, etc... but my favorite was his rendition of "Creep" by Radiohead. A somewhat sad song already, this dude made it devastating!! Despite the fact that he didn't really know the lyrics all that well and the only lyrics he did know clearly, he would proclaim, "What the hell am I doing here? I don't beRong here," it was still moving. This was just a random Tuesday evening. This is why, thus far, I am loving this city....  

Mad For Garlic = New Favorite Restaurant!!!

Two nights ago while Shane (one of my fellow teachers) and I were strolling through Mok-Dong (one of the city's many suburbs) looking for one of the infamous bootleg dvd salesman (there are 2 or 3 in the city who apparently have the best bootleg dvds/cds for incredibly cheap), we stumbled upon the restaurant "Mad for Garlic". Mad for Garlic is a group of restaurants here in Seoul (there are a total of 5 in the city, I believe) about whom I had read many positive things. Shane had eaten there once or twice and confirmed its deliciousness. So, with some money in our pockets, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. I had no idea that I was in for perhaps easily one of the top 15, potentially top 10, meals I have EVER had in my life. Everything on the menu looked so good that we couldn't decide on any one particular dish. So we agreed to split as many things as we thought we could eat (and yes, we did eat everything). Here is a brief picture documentary of our meal. 

*apologies for some of the dark photos. I didnt want to use my flash inside of the restaurant.

Classy entrance with nice outdoor patio seating.....

As you walk in you are greeted with literally a barrel of garlic cloves and some of the night's featured wine....

Very rustic, European middle-age/medieval inspired interior decor....

Obviously you can see they specialize in wine.....

So, of course we had to order a bottle (Vintage 2002 Casa Silva Merlot, Angostura, Chile)....

Here is Shane enjoying our selection.....

For our first course, we ordered steamed mussels in a garlic and red chile pepper sauce...

Here is the sauce, post-mussel consumption.....

Here are the huge chunks of fresh garlic and red chiles nestled on the bottom.....

We saved the sauce and used it as a dip for our "Garlic Snowing Pizza" which consisted of sweet garlic, shrimp and pineapple. Those big pepperoni looking objects are shaved garlic flakes that have been seasoned and then toasted. Underneath the mozzarella cheese is a sweet pineapple sauce and on top is fresh shaved parmesan. 

Our first entree was the mushroom risotto which had spinach, mushrooms, a roasted garlic puree sauce and topped with roasted chicken. 

Our other entree was a crab and lobster meat linguine in, of course, a garlic cream sauce topped with fresh rosemary. Arguably one of the best pastas I've ever had.

 

Here is the end result:

                                             

I am a little disappointed to find out, however, that Mad for Garlic (though not quite yet) is in the process of franchising itself internationally after it was recently purchased by Sun@Foods, which here in Korea owns the Tony Roma's franchises. I suppose it's nice that more people will be able to have this sort of dining experience, but it seemed a little more special thinking these restaurants were unique to Seoul. In the end though, I was basically blown away by both the atmosphere and food, and certainly plan on making Mad for Garlic my mainstay for special occasions.

(yikes, that last sentence sounds like a magazine review...). I wonder if MfG will give me a free meal if I send them a link to this post......

Long Days....

It's not always a vacation here, as I sometimes make it out to be. 

Yesterday (Monday), I worked from 9am to 8pm (classes from 9-6, then a 2-hour staff meeting).

Today I have a similar schedule: classes from 9 to 7 then phone teaching (which is basically just calling your older elementary grade students and asking them questions over the phone) from 7-8pm). 

Tomorrow is back to the 9-5 schedule, but man, these 12-hour days get to you. Especially when your at it non-stop trying to both educate and entertain children. Holding the attention of a 5 year old who doesn't really speak your language is harder than it sounds. 

POOL PARTY!!!

On Friday we all packed our trunks (and swimming caps) and headed out to the pool (as you'll recall, we have a pool in our playground!!).

Here are the results: