om nom noms

I have two new favorite Korean foods!!  And of course they would be the ones that are covered in sauces and high in salt.


The first is called something like Chimdok, although I'm not totally sure that I would recognize it if it were written on a menu in Korean script.  It's basically chicken legs, noodles, carrots, zucchini, green onion, potatoes and this things called dok that look like little sausages but are made from rice with a cheesy center, all simmered in a large bowl of some kind of soysauce based sauce that can be anywhere from a little spicy to really spicy.  It's freakin delicious.  But also tricky to eat because they only gave us spoons and chopsticks and using your fingers here is kind of frowned upon.  I had quite the time trying to get the noodles on my plate and pull the chicken off of the bone so that I could eat it.  It was still totally worth it.


The second is called tteokbokki (떡볶이 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tteokbokki).  The most basic version is just rice cake in a spicy chili pepper sauce, but the kind I had today had egg, ramen and onion in it and it was very tasty. (Oh hey, remember when Fergie came out with Fergalicious?  Before that song I used to spell "tasty" correctly on the first try.  Damn you Fergie.)  I highly recommend it if you can handle some spice, although frankly, I've eaten salsa and Indian food that has been spicier.  The Korean teacher that I went with was all worried that I wouldn't like it because it was spicy and I only like heat up to a certain point.  It was definitely below my threshold but apparently it is pretty spicy for Korea.


They are really big on bar soap here.  Like really big.  I have not been in a single restroom where they have liquid soap.  Even in the public bathrooms, they have bar soap on little handle things sticking out from the wall.  I mean yes it does cost less, but I'm pretty sure it's less sanitary to have the bar sitting out and having everybody touch it.  I also watched a woman wash her hands with the bar soap for literally at least 5 minutes while I waited in line for the bathroom.  I thought maybe she was OCD or something and was surprised when she had left by the time I was back at the sink to wash my hands.


There is also a plethora of techy toilet seats like this one.  They're warmed and when you sit down on them they start to make a running water noise, I guess to make you feel more comfortable with your pee noises?  They are also all in Korean so I'm always afraid I'm accidentally going to hit a button and end up with water spraying up where I don't want it.  I also half wonder if they talk, but since I can't read the buttons, I can't really find out.


Korean character of the day: ㅓ - eo, sounds like 'u' in 'but'
Korean word of the day: 떡볶이 (tteokbokki) - deliciousness described above