"Candy Candy Candy Candy"

"Halloween is not like those other stupid holidays.... ... there's just candy. Boom, you go out and you get candy. Simple. That's me" - Garfield's Halloween special.

October is the month of Ghosts, Goblins, My Birthday, Garfield and candy. I recently downloaded Garfield's 1985 Halloween Special - one of my all time favorite cartoons. It made me think about the random stuff I've been eating here as far as sweets are concerned. Now while I AM trying to be a bit more mindful of my health here, there are just something things a girl cannot say no to - one of those things being chocolate. My first week I happened to find a treat that I used to have as a kid, but they were really hard to come by: pepero


They're about 700W usually ($.50) and are bread sticks covered in chocolate and almond. So small, and yet so addictive - I get them at least 3-4 times a week.

The next thing that I have every now and again also remind me of a type of deliciousness I had as a child - moonpies:


Now these aren't actually moonpies, but they're the next closest thing, and in some cases I think these are better. Not as dry. But for 1,850W (About $1.50) you can get a box of 6 like this.

There's one type of candy bar that I've only had once, but I only picked it up because of the name:


Crunky Chocolate! Ha. It's basically just Korea's version of a Nestle Crunch bar, but I don't find it to be as good. Although you can get it for about 500W (like 35 cents).

Next are the sodas. You can find Pepsi/Coke here pretty easily but that's about it. They have a version of 7up/Sprite called Chilsing Cider which tastes exactly the same and I'm a pretty big fan of that:


The one thing I love about the sodas and juices here are the portion sizes. They come in these 250ml cans which is the perfect amount of liquid. They're half the size of the cans at home, and I never finished them as it was.

So those are just some of the things I have come to enjoy around here. I've seen random things at festivals like Fried Silk Worms, and they give off a smell that is so putrid I have yet to get near one of the little stands to see what it even looks like. The odds of me actually trying these things are slim to none, but the Koreans seem to enjoy them.

Eating is Pretty Much a Guessing Game

I'm really new to this SoKo stuff, but a girl does have to eat in order to sustain life, so this is definitely something that deserves some attention.

I'm finding that there's a fair amount of english going on here. At least most people know enough to communicate on a basic level, and when all else fails, I've definitely used pointing or sign language to get the jist across. I've learned various words... Hello (anyeonghaseyo), Thank you (Kamsanida), tired (anja***), and bottle opener (peontage), but the words for food just are not sticking in my head for whatever reason. I've learned that bap is rice, galbi is beef, bulgogi is beef soup, Chuseyo is 'for me please' and that's basically about it.

We go to a place called Sharon's everyday for lunch at work. We call it sharon's because the little korean woman who runs the place is named Sharon, after Sharon Stone. And i've had various things... Tuna Rice, Mahndu (kimchi filled, or beef filled), ramyan (spicy ramen soup), mahndu ramyan, pork cutlet in some weird bbq sauce, some sort of crispy rice thing with a ton of vegetables, and that's about it. Luckily I've had my fair share of pizza here too (pizza hut, and a place called pizza school make really good pizza).

But the best thing I've had so far is Korean BBQ. There's some cheap stuff for like $3, and then there's some great stuff for like $12. The sides are all basically the same at these places - lettuce, salt, ginger, bean curd, sprouts, kimchi, etc etc. But the grades of meat are basically where the money comes into place. You can tell the difference, but the bad meat is definitely still good. They marinate the meat for 3-4 days before serving it, bring it out on a plate when you order it, and then slab the uncooked raw stuff onto a huge grill of some kind. They bring out tongs and scissors, and you wait to cook it. You can throw some garlic cloves on there, or grill some kimchi, and basically just wait. The meat is then cut by someone at your table, and then people just have it with their metal flat chopsticks (which is an art form, let me tell you).

You can eat just piece by piece, or make yourself a little sandwich like I do by putting a piece or two in a big piece of lettuce, adding some rice, and some random side, closing it up and then consuming. It's really really good.

Anyway, it's about dinner time now. SO when I figure out what more stuff is, then you will as well.



***All words in here are basically my interpretation of how to spell something.