To Korea and back again in under 3 hours

I order thai food on Monday night after having a particularly stressful allergic reaction towards the end of the day. Well, it wasn't so much the reaction itself as much as the fact that I had to chow down some Benadryl on an empty stomach, which is always so much fun.

By the time I got home, I was dizzy and tired and had a massive headache. It was cold outside, and the wind made me wish that I had thought of wearing my winter coat that day like Accuweather.com told me to.

So I ordered Thai off of a place nearby through seamless.com. I got crab rangoon (which were delicious because, come on, they're crab rangoons! But otherwise passable in terms of rangoon quality itself) and chicken pad thai (which was also slightly disappointing). About five minutes after I order Thai food, I realized what I really wanted was Korean food. This reminded me that M and I have been planning to go eat at Korea Town in Manhattan since we discovered M lives really close to Korea Town, but hadn't actually done it yet. This led to M and I making plans to go out to Korea Town on Tuesday for Bibimbap.

So we did.

Stepping into Korea Town is a weird experience. It is like turning a corner and finding yourself on a street that definitely belongs in Seoul and not downtown Manhattan. Even the Citibank on that block is marked in Korean characters. Neon is everywhere. There are some traditional Chinese characters advertising Chinese food being served alongside traditional Korean dishes. M and I stick out like a sore thumb amongst the small throngs of Koreans that mill about the street speaking in fast Korean. Some give us a few quizzical glances. We clearly are outsiders.

We cruised around Korea Town for a bit, looking for a good place. We joked about doing post-dinner karaoke but wisely decided against it. We avoided the seedy restaurants in second floors of buildings and decided on one named "Miss Korea BBQ". It has a nice modern design but still evokes a bit of that Asian quality. It looked clean. And the prices seemed reasonable. We duck in and order Bibimbap. M orders some wine which she doesn't like. We eat our fill of food served in a stone pot (I scrape away at the bottom of the pot to catch the pieces of rice that have stuck there and formed bizarrely crispy delicious little rice bits) and try a little of every appetizer put in front of us (I nearly choked on a spicy pickle). It was nice.

I mean, there's no bibimbap like the ones I ate regularly in Qingdao, or like the one I had in Nanguoluxiang in Beijing, but the one in Korea Town will do just fine.

Afterwards, we duck into a Korean cafe, order two Honeydew Melon Bubble Teas and walk over to Herald Square and sit in the cold sipping our neon-green drinks and desperately checking the score on the Rangers-Penguins game on M's phone. The Rangers won so M was happy. And I was too, if only because I'm a Rangers fan by association. I think M and S might disown me if I supported any other hockey team. I find myself wishing it were world cup season so that I could go nuts for the soccer teams. Last World Cup I was a passionate supporter of The Netherlands, because, c'mon, it's the Dutch. They're badass by definition. And they should have won. Whimpy Spaniards....they'd throw themselves on the ground whenever a Dutchman would come less than 5 ft close to them. I mean, they're a good team. But the Dutch are better.

And totally should have won.

THEY SHOULD HAVE WON, OKAY?

Next World Cup, I hope I'll be able to root for Ecuador again. But that's assuming the national soccer team gets its act together and plays strong through the prelims. But that's another year away still I think. So I'm just going to be happy being a Rangers fan by association. For now.

Categories: hockey, Korean Hot Pot, NYC, rangers

Beijing (Or How I bought everything inside the Hongqiao Pearl Market)

March 19, 2011 - Beijing, China

I'm siting on the plane heading back to Shanghai for the night. Seems very bittersweet, all things considered. I'm significantly poorer from my exploits in Beijing but mostly because having to detour there because of the earthquake (and subsequent nuclear crisis) in Japan has been expensive. I mean, staying in LA or Chicago or even Shanghai would have been (admittedly) worse but my pocket currently hurts a little. That's ok though. My parents keep telling me that I'll make enough money to pay it off pretty quickly when I get back to Quito.
I think so too.
I've decided to stop worrying about it too much.
I blame the bigger expenses on the Swisshotel Beijing ending up costing me $130/night instead of $115 for two nights and the fact that I just blew through a good amount of cash at the Hongqiao Pearl Market. I won't have to worry about presents for any female acquaintances of mine though (which is super nice).
Also the Hongqiao Pearl market is also one of the only places in the world where I will buy jewelry for myself. I did very well I think. I got myself a pair of really lovely pearl necklaces (one in assorted green, brown, and eggplant purple irregular river pearls and one in two long strands of black, white, and dark grey irregulars) plus two sets of earrings. I love the small earrings I got last time because they're tiny and discreet but classy and fun (I have a pair of eggplant purple ones and I got some forest green iridescents and rose pink iridescents). They're also cheap (going for 10 RMB a pair which I bargained down from 25 RMB per pair). I also bought a really cute purse and a ton of iphone covers (they were 45 RMB each!) and my brother's graduation present: a name-brand set of really nice headphones that usually go for around $200 (and I got them for $71).
See what I mean about loving the Hongqiao Pearl Market/?
Anyways, that wasn't quite the highlight of my trip to Beijing. What was was the Hutong Cuisine cooking course I took on Friday March 18. I consider that to be some of the best $50 I've ever spent in my life. Xia and her family were good instructors. I had tons and tons of fun and learned how to properly make dumplings and Sichuan noodles and cucumber salad. I also learned the importance of having good soy sauce, good vinegar, and good wine to cook with as it makes a world of a difference. I also learned how to properly select vegetables at the market and tell if they're good (an art previously reduced to me staring at the cucumbers for 5 minutes and then arbitrarily picking one up and nodding wisely while muttering "Yes, this one is good"). An excellent experience overall and one that I highly recommend for anyone spending some time in Beijing.
After that, I met up with a Vassar Alum (don't you love the fact that we're everywhere?) and we talked about the Chinese Film Industry. The perspective I got from him is sort of invaluable. I am really happy about that. Then we discussed the situation in Japan and China's salt-buying and food-stocking frenzy. He told me that he himself had gone out that morning and stocked up on Ramen noodles and other non-perishables. The Chinese are frightened that the situation will worsen and the winds will shift. If that's the case, cities near the coast or on the coast of China (like Beijing or Shanghai) might be severely affected. My fellow alum (and now friend) pointed out that there were rumors saying that if things go awry and worsen and the winds shift, people in Beijing, for example, might be confined to their houses for a few weeks to avoid exposure to radiation fallout. I got a little scared, I'll admit...Mosty because I realized that if something like that does happen, I have to connect back to the US through Shanghai and that might not be a great idea. I quickly made a contingency plan - to either stay in Xi'An with Wei Ningqi or connect to Amsterdam via Hong Kong (I promptly called my aunt to ask if that was ok). Not that I think anything will necessarily happen, but better safe than sorry is a good rule to follow in some situations I think.
After being a little freaked out, I went to walk around Beijing for a bit. I decided to hail a cab and go to Nanluoguxiang (a suggestion made by my fellow alum), a Hutong street that is very hip and happening and not that touristy. It is full of young locals and expats living in Beijing. It has a bunch of interesting trendy little stores and restaurants and bars.



I had a lovely meal of vegetarian Korean Hot Pot and Korean Cinnamon Tea for 59 RMB (about $8.70) at Saveurs de Corée and had to stop myself from buying hats and leather-bound notebooks or porcelain coffee mugs with rubber lids that look like take-away coffee mugs.



I was really tempted to get one of the latter actually but decided against it when I realized that I would definitely already be hauling along 4 coffee mugs (from Beijing, Hong Kong, Xi'An, and Chicago) from Starbucks (it is a thing that I do). But other than that, it was a really really cool place.
Anyways, I will miss Beijing.
Definitely.
I'm kind of sad that I'm going back to Shanghai. I don't like Shanghai as it stresses me out.
Ah well.
Onwards to Hong Kong and Xi'An I suppose!

Categories: Beijing, Hongqiao Pearl Market, Korean Hot Pot, Nanluoguxiang