Reading Terminal Market

This was an interesting downtown location with all sorts of restaurants and little shops. It kind of reminded me of Pike's Market in Seattle, but only more condensed and better in my opinion.

Mutter Museum - Philly

This College of Physicians museum has on display all sorts of medical oddities. Google it and
look at the images for yourselves. It was really interesting.

WTH is Scrapple?

Scrapple (per Wikipedia):
Locally called "everything but the oink" or made with "everything but the squeal", scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. The meat, finely minced, is returned to the pot and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, black pepper, and others, are added. The mush is formed into loaves and allowed to cool thoroughly until set. The proportions and seasoning are very much a matter of the region and the cook's taste.
Can't say that I liked this much. It wasn't so bad as to make me gag or dry heave, but it's got a pretty strong taste and a lot of seasonings.

Man Vs Food Philly (AKA lying SOB)

Man Vs Food went to Philadelphia and raved about Dinic's roast pork sandwich with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. I thought that this might be one of the highlights of my Philly/DC trip. I don't remember what kind of disappointment I might have had once I figured out that Santa was fake and that I'd been lied to, but I will distinctly remember the near dismay I felt upon taking my first bite after all the hype. It didn't taste much better than the Scrapple.

After the Marathon - SLC food

The Red Iguana is a popular SLC restaurant that is especially popular for it's different types of moles. The plate in the middle of the table with the seven different dabs on it is the sampler plate to see which type of mole you prefer. It was a damn good place.
We also went to a Korean restaurant which was pretty good. I went with the bulgogi (the marinated meat on the bottom left of the picture) which pretty much everyone likes regardless of nationality.

Top of Utah Marathon

Probably not my best idea, especially since my knee had been hurting and I wasn't able to put in proper mileage beforehand. At least I finished under 4:20 (10 minutes per mile). My apologies to the little kids handing out water (right next to the port-a-potty) at the 23rd mile station. My innards weren't liking the long abuse I was putting myself through either and put on an impressive display of displeasure. It's pretty bad when you can't even look kids in the eye on your way back out.

Afghan Dumplings (Mantoo)

I've been curious about Afghan food after trying it for the first time in San Fran with aunt Evelyn. This is a recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com. It's a pain to make the first time, but Sylvia and I both really like it and I've made it a few times since.

Habanero Pizza

Every August Flying Pie offers the Habanero Pizza. Sylvia could only manage a couple bites while I managed to down several pieces. It did take lots of water though and I felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the gut afterwards. Luckily the fiery sensation burned itself out before the grand exit.

Sun Valley 1/2 marathon

Everything about the event was great except for the run itself. The higher elevation and hills kicked my ass and my time was a minute per mile slower than my time in Seoul, though this wasn't unexpected. At least I was still under 2 hours.

The race started and finished right in the backyard of where we were staying, so that was convenient. It had rained heavily the night before so I was afraid of getting drenched but we had really nice weather the day of the race.

Little did Sylvia realize that she was about to get felt up by the big flamingo in pink cowboy boots shortly after this picture was taken.

Goldy's in Boise

How did I not know about this place? It was voted by Bon Apetite Magazine as one of the country's top 10 breakfast restaurants. Even though they don't take reservations and you are pretty much guaranteed a lengthy wait, it's well worth it once you get in.

I remember when I first tasted hollandaise sauce and fell in love with it. It seems that lately I've been like a junky chasing a high, anything with hollandaise that I've had has been OK, but not anything like that first time. Goldy's finally helped me find what I was looking for, the sauce was decadent.

Sylvia's spinach florentine was also great. On a recommendation from a friend I tried the stuffed french toast. It was good but a little too sweet for my tastes.

The Last Dinner (of the trip)

The kind of pizza looking stuff is called pajeon, and in this case it is actually haemul (seafood) pajeon. Kimchi pajeon tastes good as well, and Sylvia makes it for me once in a while.

I don't know exactly how to explain what pajeon is. It is sometimes called a "Korean pancake", but that isn't really in the ballpark. The ingredients are put in a batter and then cooked, but that is about the only resemblance.

Unfortunately, the paejon at this particular restaurant that I've been to several times before seemed oilier than in the past. I probably won't be going back when I visit Seoul again.

The thinks on the wooden skewers are spicy chicken skin. Imagine the best part of friend chicken (the skin), minus all the other junk. I think that these are baked or broiled rather than fried, but they taste great. I will have to remember to look for a Tudari (chain restaurant name) the next time that I'm in Seoul.

Blatant Lie

Here are two of Jon's favorite places in Seoul. I forgot which place he told me that he got a footlong weenie from though...

Sylvia's siblings

In the first picture we have Sylvia's brother along with her younger sister and her husband. In the other two pictures are Sylvia's two older sisters and their husbands.

The Little Loogie

You can't say I didn't think about work while I was on vacation. While waiting to meet Tina (next post) near a busy subway exit, I saw someone hawk this rather nasty loogie on the ground.

My first three thoughts were: 1) Eww, nasty! 2) Now it is contaminated and we couldn't use it for any kind of testing. 3) Too bad we can't use it, it would have been a great specimen and would have made an excellent gram stain.

Rather curiously no one stepped on this for about 20 seconds, but then back to back people stepped in it and it was gone. But it's OK, I have this picture and it's story to retain in our memories.

Meeting a Former Coworker

I worked with Tina at English Friends in Seokgye from 2003-2005. She met me along with her husband In and her daughter Hannah. Hannah was not shy at all and I think that I have a friend for life now after buying her some chocolate ice cream.

The samgyeopsal (pork) that we ate was really good. I'm not usually big on kimchi, but when it is grilled it takes on a different taste. Along with the 2 types of mushrooms and bean sprouts, plus the necessary samjang pepper paste, the samgyeopsal was excellent.

The Outfit

I met my longtime friend Han's cousin Kyung along with her friend Hyo Jung and her fiancee. It was good to see Kyung again, she helped me a lot when I lived in Seoul.

While waiting to meet them in front of a large department store, I noticed this guy directing taxis and other drivers. Myself, I would not be comfortable with so much pink. You wouldn't even catch me gardening and wearing the hat even if I thought no one would see me.

Masked Bandits

This picture was taken along Seoul's version of the Boise Greenbelt, this is a path along the Han River. This is actually part of the course that I ran during my half marathon.

At different points during the race I would see people on bikes pass by wearing bandannas. I guess that the purpose of this is to breathe cleaner air, like when you see people wearing surgical masks (mostly an Asian thing). Still, it just looks a little odd and got bemused chuckles out of me.

If they were going to rob a place, what kind of place would it be?

Korean Foot Torture

I think this is worse than Chinese water torture. There are many different textures of stone paths to walk on. When I tried this years ago, some were tolerable while others were simply painful. Not my cup of tea.

Tea time

Sylvia and I went with her younger sister, Hyung Joo, to Insadong. This is a part of downtown Seoul that is very touristy/artsy. We went to a tea shop and my tea tasted like lemon and was wonderful. Sylvia's tasted like medicine and utter shite, but I guess it was supposed to since it was healthy.

Dad you probably remember this area from all the haggling you did when we went shopping there. I didn't know you had it in you.

Pics from around Sylvia's parents' home

The first picture is a miniature version of a mountain range in N. Korea.

I'm not sure what kind of flowers the red ones are but they looked very pretty. I probably could have found out since there were little tags on all the flowers/tree with their names written in Korean, Latin, and English.

Interesting store names

Probably the less I say the better.