Splashing around at Yeouido Hangang Park

On Friday we joined some friends from the local playgroup at Yeouido Hangang Park for some fun in the splash fountains. Michael was very excited and happily modeled his best Korean picture pose!

Say "Kimchi"!

We started out in the small wading river near Mapo Bridge. There is a heavily used bike path around the park and lots of places to picnic.

The view from the park is excellent - lots of cruises going by and even some water skiers along the 

Han River while we were there.

There were, as always, statues and artwork to be found throughout the area.

Once the fountain turned on, we headed over to the larger wading pool to get even wetter. Kids were using flattened out 2-liter water bottles to slide down the large angled structures along the edge.

A fun and silly day in the sun. We'll probably spend a good portion of our summer at one or more of these water parks in the area - when it's not raining!

A Korean Cuisine Primer

Now that we've been here a few months, we've had a chance to try a few different local dishes. We've only skimmed the surface at this point, but I thought I would do a post for all our friends back East to get a quick "taste".  I've also tried to link an online recipe to each one, in case you're feeling adventurous!

Rule #1 - if it's red, it's going to be spicy hot! Be prepared!

Kimchi - 김치 - a traditional fermented Korean side dish, often cabbage with garlic and red chili pepper. There are mild and strong versions - and Koreans eat it with everything at every meal. We'll be bringing back one or two kimchi pots, like the following, for our home decor.

Kimchi Pots in Itaewon

Bulgogi - 불고기 - Korean Beef BBQ and Galbi - 갈비 - grilled short ribs, are popular meat dishes. Restaurants that serve them are often referred to as "Beef and Leaf", since they can be eaten with a wrap of lettuce. A number of side dishes accompany them - vegetables, kimchi, bean paste, fried anchovies, noodles, salads, etc.

If you finish something, they will bring you more...do not attempt to clean your plates!

Bibimbap - 비빔밥 - a mixed rice dish with sautéed vegetables and chili pepper paste, often topped with an egg and beef. Very tasty and my "go to" dish when I'm out and about. It, too, will come with extra sides and can be served in a hot stone bowl. 

One restaurant had these crunchy little guys as a side - stir fried, dried anchovies.  

Rob was brave enough to try them...I was not:

Budae jjigae - 부대찌개 - Korean Army Stew - After the Korean War, food was scarce in South Korea. People made use of surplus foods leftover from the US Army, such as hot dogs and spam, and incorporated them into a traditional spicy soup. It is still popular in South Korea today. Other ingredients can include vegetables, cheese, noodles (ramen and elbow), ground beef...you name it!

Mandu - 만두 - dumplings filled with meat, noodles, vegetables, etc. Yummy pockets of goodness!

Hotteok - 호떡 - a warm, sweet or savory stuffed pancake - often sold as a street food from the many vendors around town and especially nice during the cold winter months. My favorite is filled with cinnamon, honey, chopped nuts, and brown sugar.

Soju - 소주 - a Korean vodka traditionally made from rice, wheat, or barley. It is strong stuff - and sorry, no recipe for you on this one!  :)

And to finish the list for now, there's Coffee - 커피 - pronounced "keopi" in Korean. Every corner has a coffee house or cafe. I enjoyed this beauty at the Kid's Sand Cafe while Michael played.


Let me know if you try any of these - interested to see what you think!

A Day at Hyochang Park

For Father's Day, we decided to take a mini-trip/walk to a park in our "neighborhood" - Hyochang Park. Click the following link for a full description of the park and the history behind it:  story/video

the park entrance

There are MANY pieces of exercise equipment throughout the park and a full playground with basketball courts. This is a very popular outdoor gym space for the locals and we might just have to become frequent visitors, as well. Michael loves to try each new piece of equipment, so it took us a long time to make our way down the path.  :)

Spider Michael

There are a number of memorials, graves, and shrines throughout the park, as you saw in the linked video. It is interesting to see these solemn pieces a few steps away from a someone lifting free weights.

Statue of the Reverend Wonhyo

sculpture called Jumji, or the Divine Blessing

Tombs of the Three Martyrs

After all of the exercise and walking, someone got tired and hungry, so we headed back home.

On the way, we passed by the Sookmyung Women's University and the street was a typical college area, lined with shops selling food, coffee, clothes, eye glasses, art supplies...you name it!

We stopped at the Big Straw for some bubble tea - mmmmmm.

A nice day and Happy Father's Day to Rob!

"Recompose" at the National Theater of Korea

Rob and I had the pleasure of attending a concert at the National Theater of Korea this past weekend, thanks to the great folks at the KTO, the 3rd K-Performance Supporters, and some awesome babysitters. The concert was titled "Recompose"and composers Baudouin de Jaer from Belgium, Michael Timpson from the U.S., Takada Midori from Japan, and Chihchun Chi-sun Lee from Taiwan reinterpreted Korean classical music in their compositions. 

We jumped on the subway to Dongguk University and then boarded the free shuttle bus to the theater. The theater is located near Seoul Tower, in Namsan Park, so avoiding the hike up the hill was much appreciated, especially when we were under a time crunch and I was in heels!

We had a few minutes to spare before the event, so we were able to enjoy the grounds a bit.  The theater and surrounding building are quite impressive, and there are a number of statues decorating the perimeter.  There are additional theater buildings and museums, as well, that we'll have to go back to explore at a different time.

We headed over to the ticket booth and then wandered the lobby - 

again, some nice artwork and decor to see while we waited.

Inside the theater, which was excellent, I was able to snap a few pictures of the initial instrument setup on stage - lots of traditional Korean instruments were at the ready.

My favorite to see is the Pyeongyeong, a set of sixteen L-shaped stone chimes, often decorated with ornate colors, dragons, and ducks!

The program consisted of four unique pieces, fusing traditional Korean music with varying styles and interpretations from the composers, performed by the National Orchestra of Korea, which was founded in 1995.  Other than some Western instruments in the percussion section and the appearance of a cello and bass in the strings, the orchestra is comprised of master performers on traditional Korean instruments - you can get a sense from their concert program photo:

Concert Program:

Ring of the wind - by Takada Midori, Japan

featuring the composer on various percussion, 

Kim Bo-kyoung on Gayagum (12-string zither) and Min Young-chi on Changgu (drum)

 

Heartbeats by Michael Sidney Timpson, USA

a four movement, jazz infused depiction of the ill-fated day that the Korean Ferry Sewol sank, 

featuring Lee Jeong-sik on soprano saxophone

The Lion Dance by Baudouin de Jaer, Belgium

a tone poem consisting of 36 mini-compositions, featuring Korean and French influences,

depicting a lion dancing in the moonlight and progressing through his lifetime

Blessings by Chihchun Chi-sun Lee, Taiwan

a mix of Daepungnyu (a philosophy of balance with nature), Seungmu dance (a Korean ritual dance featuring drumming), and Taiwanese aboriginal music - all dedicated to a return to balance after the recent disasters in Korea

Two things enabled us to enjoy this concert more than others may have:

1) We purchased a concert program: the music director gave very lengthy introductions to each piece - all in Korean - so we were VERY thankful that there were full translations in English of each composer's bio and the notes about each piece.

2) Having a background of formal music education, I think we were listening differently than some others might to this concert of contemporary music, and we were able to appreciate the special attention each composer gave to various techniques on the instruments to evoke the imagery they had described in the notes. One example was a rubbing effect on the strings that Mr. Timpson used in the 2nd movement of his piece to evoke the sound of wind and waves in the early morning hours.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable concert and we'd be happy to go back for future performances. I also may have to add an instrument to the list of "we need to get that" - the Piri, a Korean double reed instrument - cause what oboist wouldn't love that!?

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And just for fun - on our way home, we grabbed a quick drink from one of the subway platform vending machines. This day's new beverage was a Strawberry Latte - ie. tasty, strawberry milk. Yum!