mountain dining to club hopping

deery-lou.
saturday started off with hyun-sik and i heading off to go eat at san ma eul boribap which is located at the bottom of gwanak mountain. we took the 4 line to beomgye station which is only seven stops from my station. from the station we set out on foot for what seemed like an hour. the book said it was only a 20 minute walk. LIES!!! the walk wouldn't have been too bad had it not been so hot. eventually our efforts paid off as we found the restaurant. san ma eul boribap is a traditional korean tradition. and the best part is that it's in the hills. translation: no giant buildings, noisey cars, or neon signs. instead you have birds, water running, and fresh air. smeb even has a traditional decor. the roof is straw and the building is make of logs. inside there are various tradition knick knacks likes tools, masks, lanterns, etc. the food was amazing. the main meal was purple rice with various vegetables on the side to make your own bibambap. there were also tons of side dishes too. i was amazed at all the food they brought for two people. we had torti [acorn] jelly with quail eggs, yellow seaweed [at least i think it was seaweed. hs thought it was some kind of ocean worm], eggplant, sweet potato noodles, bulgogi, fish [i actually tried both of them], pumpkin, soybeans, and various types of kimchi. it was all delicious. after the eating we had a sweet tea drink which has become my new favorite thing. they have it in cans at the market near my house so i always keep some in the fridge. after all this food we just relax for a bit then started to head back. we caught a bus to the train station. we were now off to seoul, more precisely insadong. hs's friend chen lie, who's not asian but australian, was having her second solo exhibition at galerie gaia. we got to the gallery around 7pm. thats when the opening party was starting. there was lots of food and endless amounts of red wine. i don't even like wine but found myself drinking glass after glass. chen's artwork was great. she takes a photograph that she took and transfers onto paper. then mounts the transfer to a canvas and paints it. my description doesn't really do it justice. take my word for it though. her stuff rocks and so does she. here's a sample, its called sweet respik:


there was a really good turnout for the exhibition. a lot of foreigners. i ended up meeting alot of really cool people. we hung around until chen was ready to close up. i think that was around 11pm. then a group of us went off to hongdae to continue to celebrate her exhibit. i actually bought one of her pieces too. i can't wait to get it. so excited. our first stop in hongdae was u.s route 66. packed with foreignors too. go figure. we had long island teas which were a bit too sweet. although that didn't stop me from drinking it. i had a really great chat with chen. she told how she was inspired to paint the picture i purchased. it was cool getting some background info on the piece. from there we went to tinpan. i had been there once before. its the place that has a mr. big poster on the wall. not sure how long we were there. after tinpan we went to maryjane's an 80's bar. LOVED IT! i got to hear some smiths, rem, depeche mode, etc. you could request songs. although there were two non-eighties song thrown into the mix. i'll let it slide this time. maryjane's will definitely be getting a return visit from me. we ended the night at ska club for more dancing. a couple of people had got hotel rooms in insadong so we crashed there. i believe we got back to the room around 4am. it was definitely a long day. today i got back to ansan around 3:30. watched a movie then made some soup.

be well…

snaps from san ma eul boribap

links

• san ma eul boribap