Lunch at Sariwon in Seoul

A certain Israeli coworker claims that "Beijing has better Korean food than Korea". But then he has never been to Korea. Nor does he ever think before he talks. And even if he does, he still does not let that stop him from claiming complete nonsense things that may or may not be true.

Oops, going off on a tangent here. Back to food!

This here is an empty grate, to be filled with delicious meatz later.



These here are pickles (including best kimchi EVAH!) to entertain you while you wait.







And here are the meatiest meats you have ever had.







The meatz are delicious but only somewhat plentiful (depending on the number of digits you are willing to put up with on your check. We drew the line at 5). Therefore, these here are the filler materials you get to make sure you leave satisfied.

The first are cold noodles in cold water. They did offer wasabi-mustard to add flavor.



The second is a better choice: cold noodles with spicy tomato sauce. Although we still prefer the meatz.

Waiting for Wolfert

Nothing to be done.

After going to Wolfert's presumed hotel twice on Friday, leaving messages although they tried to send us away saying that they did not know him (who doesn't know Wolfert? WTF?) we got an email from Wolfert on Friday evening saying that he was actually leaving on Friday, but would not arrive until Saturday. Oops.

I'm beginning to come round to that opinion.

So we left another message at that hotel on Saturday morning with a time and place to meet that evening. Guess who did not show up? (Hint: it was not us.)

All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything.

Dejected and hurt (okay, actually we were physically hurt from the hike, but we were hurt nonetheless) we went back to our hotel that evening, to find another email telling us that "Things are complicated". It turned out that the organization of the jazz festival changed the hotel, and Wolfert and Joost were actually staying one hour outside of Seoul.

And I resumed the struggle.

So, on Sunday we made our way towards the mountains, where the festival was being held. We were told that they would do a sound check at 2 o'clock. Well, we were there.

So there you are again.

And at three, we finally met the elusive duo!









Am I?

We were even treated to a great concert, that was very well received. (Korean people make the awesomest audience in the world, as far as I have seen!)







I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever.

Here are some more impressions from the festival. First of all, a swine flu kiddo:



Me too.

And then a picture of the main stage. I don't know who this bass player is, but he was pretty awesome, and I overheard him tell an ambassador that his son had cancer ("he's fine now").



Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how?

Then we tried to go back to Seoul together, which turned out to be another feat. In the end we chose to curl up all together in one taxi, with all the luggage, as other options seemed unavailable. After an hour we arrived in Seoul, where we had some supper, and beers, and it was just like old times. (Okay, actually we normally have wine.)

Seoul Food

Hotdogz on Saturday ate we in Seoul as breakfast:



After hurting our nimble bodies with a small hike, which made us realize that they might not be so nimble anymore, we sought consolation in fried foodz:



Still not being consoled enough, we brought out the big guns: some hardcore Korean BBQ.



It was not cheap, very very meaty, and so worth it.



Obligatory Korean side dishes:

Seoul Impressions

On Saturday we went for a nice little hike on a mountain that basically is part of Seoul. We took a subway there, and were amazed by the huge amount of business people in suits, whose pores seem to ooze alcohol.



Here is a prime specimen, who is, as an added bonus, wearing the awesomest tie evar! You may not be able to fully appreciate it from looking at the picture, but this tie is colorful and glittery, the perfect attire for snoozing while badly hung over in a subway on Saturdays.

We went up the mountains, and enjoyed the fresh air and the view of Seoul.







After our little hike we went into the city again. This is Dongdaimun:



And this is some guy on a bike trying to save us:





Also we ate a lot of foodz. I am afraid we will have to keep you in suspense about our culinary adventures, as well as about whether or not we finally found Wolfert and Joost, as we have to check out of our hotel soon. To be continued...

Kimchi!

Thanks to all of you who prayed to the swine flu gods, we made it to Seoul. We even made it here in style, because for some completely unknown reason we were upgraded to business class.

We had no idea they give you a little table cloth and actual silverware. Also, we found the chair highly entertaining, with all its shape shifting capabilities. I am afraid we demonstrated that we are not chique enough for business class upgrades and that this will never happen to us again...

So far in Seoul, we have looked for Wolfert. It turns out he will only be arriving today, which helps explain why we were not successful in finding him.

Also, we ate. Pickled things obviously.





We tried the green bottle that you can find in any supermarket where we live (many Koreans in Beijing). It was pretty good thought A, but it made F feel like his swine flu was raising its ugly head again.

We later switched to beer in an adorable little izakaya. Does Korea have izakayas? Anyway, it was a little place where you eat snacks while you drink too much.