Lunch in Hogye-Dong

So, i'm home from Kat's in Ulsan... this is going to be a long one... i think. first off, i saw my first Korean perm - what looked a lot like an afro... and then i saw them everywhere... but here's the first, notice the sly look on his face... i thought he didn't know i was taking the pic... until i had a good look at it:it was really weird... and one of those things that as soon as you notice it, you end up seeing it all over the place... guess they want to be north american rap stars or something... this was on the subway on my way to Ulsan... the rest of the trip was rather uneventful. Kat met me at the bus station and we decided to hunt down some lunch...

we started in downtown Ulsan, figuring we could find something cheap and good... we checked out the Marche Movenpick (so bizarre since we used to have one of these in Montreal - it just seemed so out of place here... especially with the pizza hut next to it. it seemed a little expensive (which it was in montreal too) so we passed on it. we found a Dunkin Donuts (no thanks) and the Laval Bar right next to it, and had to get a photo of that one... then we found the giant squid restaurant, but passed on that as well. it does make for an hilarious picture though!!! doesn't really look like a squid does it??? hahahaha!!!

anyway, after searching downtown and finding out that neither of our bank cards were working (still don't know why that happened) we decided to head back to Hogye-Dong - Katrina's neighbourhood - to check a different bank and suss out some food.

We finally ended up at one of Katrina's favourite restaurants in her neighbourhood, to eat a kind of food that she's been telling me about for weeks. i wasn't convinced at first, but after having had it, was amazed at how tasty it is... essentially, it's bacon, but with a twist.This is one of the tables... tons of restaurants in Korea have tables where you sit on the floor. i hate them cause they aggravate my back, but these ones have a place for your legs underneath, so they are much more comfortable.

This is a close-up of the grill that sits on every table - we get to cook our own food! notice the grease tin at the bottom. i'd eaten at restaurants like this before, but never had the bacon... we weren't really sure how to order so we just pointed at the table next to ours... and got exactly what we wanted...

a plate full of bacon rolls.

which we then put on the grill and cooked up, but not before all the side dishes arrived:

this is one of my favourite things about eating out in Korea. if you order one dish, you get ten! notice the garlic, onions, and kimchi - those all go on the grill too. then you have your noodle soup (cold),

potato salad,

mini shrimps (much too salty),

sweet potatoes,

and tofu...

there was also pickled radish, a couple of sauces, and of course, the lettuce and other leaves... what would lunch be without the leaves? see, you have to take a little bit of everything, put it on the leaf and the stuff it into your mouth... that's how the koreans do it! it's absolutely delicious, grilled garlic, onion, pork, kimchi, and pickled radish, on a bed of lettuce, and then it doesn't matter how you get it in... you just stuff it in your mouth and enjoy! it's brilliant... the nasty part is at the end, when the grease is congealing in the pan at the bottom...

it's a bit nasty, but getting there is so good... of course, after eating BACON for lunch, there was only one way for us to justify it... by climbing a mountain the next day... stay tuned for that post...