Merry Christmass

Christmass is coming... You might have noticed that due to the omnipresent crazy caps, hats etc the poor franchise employes have to wear. That there are more memorable Christmas decorations i would like to prove with theses two pictures:

With this let me wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year :)

p.s. The crib was especially surprising because it's located on the backside of a small parking lot next to a little Catholic church. If you want to visit the location is tagged to this post.

New Art Installations at SNU

Please have a look at this lovely installation. It can be found in front of the fine arts building (200 meter inwards behind the soccer field). Around there are a few other new installations which a worth a look.

Cellphone cases

I haven't been to the west in quite a while. However when i went last time you couldn't get things like these. Enjoy the pics :)

Contrast

As the title says: Contrast.

Spring loaded contraptions of death

Apparently there is a mechanical engineering class at SNU where the final exam is to build something as dangerous as possible shoot a golf ball as far as possible. Its a mechanical engineering class so unfortunately no chemical energy source may be used ^^. The final exam was held near the amphitheater and ranges of 100 meter were common.  

Lassagne

I'm a big fan of lasagna, especially al forno. However most italian restaurants in korea offer only koreanised, so called 'oven spagetthi', which are eatable but nothing more.
You might understand how surprised i was when i found this instant Lasagna al Forno at Homeplus:

For around 5000 won you get 280g lasagna and an obscene amount of calories ^^. My expectations were not high because mostly pre made stuff is only convenient but not authentic. However this one blew me away. Good strong tomato sauce, much cheese which might even be mozzarella, al dente pasta plates in the middle and lo and behold: béchamel sauce under the cheese. Especially the Béchamel under the cheese was very unexpected (until now i only found one restaurant in seoul making their lasagna properly with béchamel).

In clonclusion i can say this one is well worth its price. Less then 300g doesn't sound like much but its very heavy and therefore enough for one person. The overall taste is very nice but of course not as good as a good fresh lasagna. However compared to the common oven spaghetti this dish is clearly better.

Try it out :)

Personalized Advertisement in Korea

We received an advertisement from the GS supermarket in seoul. I agree that that wold normally not warrant a blogpost, however this was quite special in the way that it was personalized. This advertisement contained 10% discount coupons for the items we most frequently brought at GS. In the order of frequency, so ham was on place one, followed by milk, eggs, laundry detergent, chicken meat, cornflakes, cheese, butter and kim. 

I didn't really decide yet if i like that (are they also saving which brand of condoms we prefer? when do they delete these data? do i want my landlord to know what we buy?), but I'm quite fascinated. The woes and wonders of modern technology....

Graduation Day at SNU

Monday, 29th of august was the graduation day at SNU. Congratulations to all graduates :)

Apparently most graduates want a picture with the front gate in the background. Also the remaining campus was crowded like hell.

Caffè Pascucci at SNU

We suffered for the last year...  i had to walk more than 100 meter to the next coffee shop. No, seriously, i think there are no people who complain about to few coffee shops in the SNU main campus, but more variety is always a good thing. So now we have also a Pascucci at SNU. While the prices are quite high, students get a 20% discount, which makes it still not a cheap coffee shop but at least acceptable.
The ice-cream is quite good, fluffy-creamy, not like the baskin robins ice-cream which is ice-.....  ahem yes just ice ^^
also do your self a favor and try the gelato honey toast... delicious :)

Gelato honey toast. Served with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate or caramel syrup 

I really like that building style :)

Cheer up

The perfect item for research students, authors etc.:

What would The Church do?

I like the song 'What would Brian Boitano do', from the old south park movie. The song is a parody of the phrase 'What Would Jesus Do'. So i decided to see where people look actually for guidance. Not only comparing this parody with the original saying but if possible with the various ranks in the church.

Now when i looked into the ranks of the church i found it very difficult to simplify. Therefore i compare only to ranks within the catholic church and even there i have to simplify. Interesting is also the wikipedia article on the hierarchy of the catholic church.

Figure 1: Google hits for the phrase 'what would * do'. Sorted roughly by ascending level within the hierarchy of the catholic church (from left to right). Articles were included in the search query when necessary.

Well... the winner is obviously 'What Would Jesus Do'. Now the next question which comes to my mind is where are people interesting in WWJD? The answer was obtained from google via regional interest search for the phrase 'What Would Jesus Do'

Figure 2: Darker color indicates higher search volume for WWJD

Obviously the regional search is not statistically relevant. Mainly due to search volume measured in english. So please refrain from citing this figure for anything than fun purposes ^^.

What really surprises me is the high position of Jamaica. Anybody an idea what they scored high?

Two Panoramas

I had a few days of and went with my wife on vacation. First to Sokcho (which is in the far north east) and then to Busan.

This is the view from my old dormitory in Dong Seo University Busan. One of many reasons why i stayed in korea ^^.

This photo was taken at an rest area half way between Seoul and Sokcho. 

DNA Sculpture at SNU Suwon campus

I went to the Suwon campus to attend a lecture a while ago and saw there this DNA sculpture / installation  thingy.

And in case you didn't know, yes SNU has a Suwon campus. Its in a techno park from Gyeongie province and consist of i believe 3 buildings. Originally it was intended for the Business school, but somehow they belived it not fancy / convenient enough so the higher ups sent the school of converging science there. The campus is conveniently reachable by a SNU owned shuttle bus. 

Instant Paratha at E-MART

We found some instant Paratha at E-MART, and couldn't stop ourselves from trying. Our expectations were not really high, mainly because until now all indian instant food we tried (except the CJ instant curry) was horrible. So without further ado the conclusion: This stuff is quite good. Quite heavy.... yeah its paratha what do you expect? ^^ Tastes very original but is a bit on the expensive side... i believe one pack of 5 or 6 for around 5000 won.

Now the next thing i expect is a decent stuffed Paratha. :P

The difference between Germany and the USA

The German and the US booth at the Seoul Intenrational Book Fair at Coex:

CJ Sausages

Among korean food manufacturers CJ is my favorite. This comes on the one hand from the high quality, but more importantly from the wide range of products. CJ focuses more on the high price segment in combination with a bit more international stuff. Worth a try are especially the CJ Udon noodles, as well as the CJ curries (which are by the way excellent).

It must be already one or two years since CJ started its 'european series' line of sausages. Their first was a normal 'wiener', very authentic in taste, but maybe a bit less juicy then the ones you would get in europe / germany. Now we saw two new additions to this product line: the 'Regensburger Frank' and 'Herb Flavored Frank'.

Call me ignorant but i never heard of Regensbugrer sausages... and i doubt that there exists something like a Regensburger Frank(furter) sausage ^^. A bit of internet search revealed that i am indeed ignorant ^^. The original Regensburerg sausage is a thick sausage intended for cooking (in germany known as knacker). Here the 'Regensburger frank' was thin, a bit short well salted and with a nice meat taste. Also positive was that the sausage had some bite. Cooking fitted the sausage well but frying destroyed the smoke taste. 

I guess in germany this one would be sold as wiener. 

After i saw green, curry and tea flavored sausages in korea im always a bit skeptical when seeing something claiming its herb flavored... however i was positively surpirsed about this 'Herb Flavored Frank'. ITS A REAL SAUSAGE!!! meaty, salty enough, smoked, well spiced, this sausage is just good. The herb taste they claim is nothing special, it's just majoran (or might be oregano - difficult to differentiate, but classically it would be majoran). Which you would expect in every good sausage ^^. This sausage could be fried but cooking brought the taste out better. Also the skin didn't brown well when fried. 

This one you could be classified in germany maybe as well spiced bockwurst.

All in all, both sausages are quite nice but the 'Herb Flavored Frank' is a real treat. Worth trying. 

SNU protests, a students view.

Today during lunchtime i got down to the administration building and wanted to know what students there are thinking, what motivates them and what they hope to achieve. Here is the transcript of a small ad-hoc interview with one of the students occupying the administration building:

Alex: Hello, my name is alex and im just curious what you are doing. So what are you doing?

Roah: We try to put a halt to the privatization of the SNU because of its characteristics, the privatization itself is wrong, and at the same time the way that it is implemented is also wrong. The university hasn't considered the students opinion on the privatization and they are not following the due course. Thats why we try to put a hold on it.

Alex: Can you tell a bit more in detail what you think is wrong about the privatization of SNU?

Roah: In my personal opinion if this university becomes a corporation, those departments that make money would be enlarged and those that can't would be reduced. Because after the university becomes a corporation they can pursue profit for them selfs without intervention from the government. i don't really know well about the specifics, but im pretty sure about the thing about the profitable and unprofitable departments.

Alex: Under which circumstances would you say i'm satisfied? What would be a reasonable outcome for you. When would you say 'now its enough, i will go home'?

Roah:  First of all the law that is enforcing this corporation should be revoked. If that law is revoked than the privatization committee is obsolete. If the law would be revoke that would be enough.

Alex:  what do you think about the demand for the 50% cut in overall tuition fees? Is that a reason why you joined here, or is that a separate issue?

Roah:  Personally i think there is some correlation, but its not highly correlated

Alex: So that is not your objective right now?

Roah: Thats right.

Alex: What do you think will be the outcome here? Will you succeed or will you fail?

Roah: I hope that we get some results in this month. If there are no results until july, i think i will be a bit hard for us to continue because the number of students who are interested in our cause are decreasing, we are loosing some initiative and there aren't many events, that we can use to mobilize students to participate in this more, during july and august. I think it will end in this month, after this it will be a bit hard for us.

Alex: And the last question, what was your personal reason to join?

Roah: Personal reason?

Alex: Were you outraged by the injustice, or were your friends joining, so you joined too. what was your personal motivation?

Roah: Im not really, like, outraged about this, but i think its wrong, it hasn't followed due course, and i was disappointed by how the administration reacted to out attempts to talk with them. I think these are the main reasons.

Alex: Sorry that wasn't the last question, the really last question is: would you consider yourself more conservative or more liberal? left wing, right wing... whats you general political orientation?

Roah: (laughs) Trying to be liberal.

Alex: Thank you for your time.

p.s. to avoid possible repercussions, the student who gave the interview chose Roah as his nickname. 

Protests at Seoul National University

This is a topic which is a bit underrepresented in the english media in korea. Since a few month there is a controversy raging whether SNU should become a corporation or remain under government control. The cooperation way is favored by the SNU president and the current korean government while the other solution seems to be more popular with the students. There are basically two arguments: competitiveness / quality of education vs. Tuition fees. The corporate side claims that a university free of government control can become more competitive, acquire more money which also will lead to better education. The examples they offer are often the ivy league universities in the states. This argument is often countered with the examples of Korea and Yonsei university, the two other universities of the SKY (SNU / Korea / Yonsei) group which are considered koreas best universities. The korea and Yonsei university are private but are far behind SNU in most university rankings.
The plans for privatization are pushed forward in a time where in korea the tuition hikes are a big topic (student unions demand a nation wide 50% cut to tuition fees). Fears are that instead of decreased tuition fees the privatization will lead only to higher tuition fees due to lack of government control. Another concern is that non profitable departments will suffer after the privatization.

There is an additional problem making the situation at SNU more complicated: the privatization is not only planed, it is already decided. the government passed already a law and the only thing to do is to implement the privatization of SNU. For this, a privatization committee was formed which hopes to privatize SNU by next year. In other words the protest come to late.  However there are hopes that student unions might get a say in privatization process or at least get more binding promises that tuition fees will not be raised.

Another problem is that the university administration, namely the university president neglects to talk to the student unions. Much anger is also directed at the tradtional conservative newpapers of korea which mostly take side with privatization supporters.


Currently the administration building, including the presidents office, is occupied by students. As far as i heard there was a support event planed for friday the 17th but in its infinite wisdom SNU government tried to stop that by blocking the roads leading to the administration building with university owned busses. 

further readings you might find here:
Marmot's Hole
a good example why i think that the JonagAng Daily is a crap paper you can find here.

Hosuabi Dongkase

I noticed that i didn't share yet my most often visited restaurant. I will correct that mistake now.

Dongkase or better 돈까스 is the korea version of a cutlet or schnitzel. It came to korea by way of japan where it was called donkatsu. In korea there are two different 돈까스 styles: the korean and japanese style. Korean style is more like a schnitzel. Very flat hammered breaded cutlet with special 돈까스 sauce slightly similar to ketchup or worcestershire sauce. They are cheap and if you are hungry they help you to avoid starvation. but thats basically it.
The japanese style 돈까스 are thicker, have a fluffier crust and, if well made, are fantastic. It is difficult to say wether japanese donkatsu in japan or japanese style 돈까스 in korea a better, but among all 돈까스 restaurants in korea as well as japan Hosuabi, near SNU, is the best.

Here you see a meal for 4500 won. one delicious cutlet, appropriately spiced in fluffy-crunchy crust, one bowl of miso, shredded cabbage with a remoulade like salad sauce. The small drop next to the brown sauce on the right side is wasabi which is mixed into the sauce. The sauce itself is quite special, reminds a bit of ketchup mixed with worcestershire sauce and a slight fruit taste.

Hosuabi is a chain restaurant but unfortunately the quality varies between different places. Interestingly you also can eat vietnamese noodles there. or try a set menu with 돈까스 and vietnamese noodles for 6000 won.

Hosuabi can be found in Nokdu / Goshishon, 10 min from the SNU front gate. See here.

p.s. i said that Hosuabi is the best, this is largely true but a very close competition is a 'chicken katsu bern' in a small restaurant near the front gate of kyoto university.
p.p.s at hosuabi you can get free salad refill.

The Kitchen

When looking for italian food on the gwanak campus one has two choices: the fancy and expensive restaurant oposit the 501 building, or the much more resonable priced 'The Kitchen' behind the sports field.

They serve sanwhiches (far too small), burgers (definetly too small), pizza (also too small), pasta (a bit small) and risoto (guess what: not to small ^^).

While all things are pretty good, most dishes are just too small. To walk away from the kitchen well fed, as a man one would have to order around 3 sandwhiches or 2 burger minimum. However if one is on a diet or genereally likes smaller servings i would recomend the burger. Nothing fancy here but pretty decent meat.

The pasta is pretty good but nothing special, they offer the common fare of cream sauce, seafood and tomato sauces. Where the kitchen excells are the risotto. They are creamy, with some bite to the rice grains, well spiced and the servings are very fair. For less than 6000 won they are a good meal. Especially i would like to recomend the tomato / spinach / bacon risotto.

As far as i know the kitchen opens only for meal times, so no food before 11.30 am. The interior is nice but its often a bit crowded and noisy. But still until now the best risotto i had in seoul.

p.s. you also can find the location here

Grocery Stores in Korea

When first comming to korea, most western wonder where the grocery stores are. Well... there are none ^^. At least not in the way europeans or north americans are used to. Here are basically two places where you can groceries: supermarkets and traditional markets.

On traditional markets you get mostly only the basic veggies like potatoes, carrots, onions and salads as well as cabbages. Traditional korean food used a wide variety of leafs, be it salad, cabbage or more exotic leafs like the korean mint. And these things you mostly find on the traditional markets. As for the prices... the traditional markets are generally cheaper, but sometimes don't write the prices down. It might therefore happen that the halmoni (old lady) tries to rip you off. On the other hand it might also happen that the shop keeper is happy to see a foreigner, strikes up a conversation and gives you some vegetables for free... you will never know :)

Supermarkets and departments stores offer mostly better quality, better but still not overwhelming variety and especially a nicer shopping atmosphere. Prices are higher here than on the traditional market. While average supermarkets and large ones like Homeplus and E-MART  are just a bit more expensive than the traditional markets, the department stores are offten prohibitively expensive.

Generally vegetables are in korea quite expensive. Crazy it becomes with fruits, here a single pear might go for as much as 8000 won, just to name an example. This means that you cant always get what fruits you like but you have mostly to rely on traditional market and get what is in season.

Another useful thing are the trucks driving around and selling fruits. often they are even cheaper than the traditional market and bring stuff fresh from the fields. However this seems to hold only for fruit trucks, not for vegetable trucks.
if you experience otherwise please let me know.

So where to go from SNU?
Near naksongdae station is a traditional market, which is the closest. However the traditional market a bit north of the seoul national university subway station is better. Not necessary the closest but most conveniently reachable Homeplus is located at Mullae subway station (there is an entrance from the subway station - don't have to go out, its nice when raining) and the best E-MART is located at yongsan subway station. The closest department store is most likely Lotte at Boramae park, at 10 minute walk north of Sillim station. But lotte closes quite early, i think at 8.30 or 9pm while Homeplus and E-MART open at least until midnight.

I updated the map in this post.

Hattip to Helen for the post idea

Dabuji Budaejigae

Budaejigae is a left over of the korean war. When faced with either starvation or the need to incorporate food donated by the UN / Gi's into something eatable, supposedly people in busan came up with this interesting dish. Basically its everything thrown in a pan and cooked until a smooth taste develops. Common ingredients are sausage slices, ham (or rather spam), potatoes, beans, bean paste, instant noodles and green onions. Served its normally with rice.

When looking for budaejigae you most likely come across a noolbudaejigae restaurant. They are your standard fare. Acceptable priced with ok taste and you find them virtually everywhere.

However they are nothing special. Neither outstanding tasty nor very cheap.
So from that buildup you must already guess that this post is about a better restaurant. This one:

With 5000 won per person free rice and refill as well as free potato croquettes, again with free refill, this restaurant is significantly cheaper than noolbudaejigae. Oh and one ramyon is 500 won. That aside it also tastes better and has friendlier staff and atmosphere. In other words: definitely worth visiting.

p.s. i updated this post, it now includes the location of this budaejigae restaurant

Pizza at E-MART

Recently we found imported, frozen pizza at E-mart. I have to confess that i miss the frozen pizza available in germany, and these were from Italy and Australia respectively, therefore we gave them a try.

To put it in a nutshell: all 3 were quite decent. Reasonably priced and tasty. 

Pizza Prosciutto: Italian style crust with much ham and mushrooms and sufficient cheese but unfortunately not enough tomato sauce makes this pizza well eatable but a bit dry. 

Something what i personally didn't liked so much was the ham. It hat a nutty, pungent aroma like you would expect from an air dried parma ham. Some people like this, but i am not among them. 

Pesto Pizza: Same brand and therefore same crust as the prosciutto pizza. More (and therefore enough) tomato sauce, combined with large pieces of mozzarella and some fresh tomatoes. Special here was a substance which was supposed to be Pesto Verde.  It tastes interesting but the pizza could well do without.  

Overall the pizza was the best among the three, large enough for one person, juicy, with a lot cheese. The only minus point was that the pizza was a bit too salty. 

Pizza Hawaii: Different brand then the two before. We ordered these pizza via home delivery and were quite surprised when this one came out at around 200g gram and mere 20cm diameter. The other pizzas were of 450gram and regular size. However the amount of toppings was quite ok. Here also a bit more tomato sauce would be appreciated. Pineapple pieces were numerous but a bit dry. The crust is not napoli style but was praised by my wife as the best among the three (seems to fit korean taste better than mine). Here again the ham had some nutty aroma which i don't really enjoy. 

Conclusion: All three pizzas were tasty. The Hawaiian pizza was for its price (around 5000 won) definitely to small (but compared to Pizza hut & Co still reasonably priced). The Prosciutto and Pesto Pizza are, with 450 gram, one complete meal and very reasonable priced at less than 6000won. The pesto pizza was the best among them: juicy, crispy with much cheese. I will buy this one again. 

p.s. the pizza was prepared in an oven. On the box they say you could also use a microwave, but i doubt that the result would be eatable.

Bell at Seoul National University

Quite a bit hidden, behind the Law school building hangs a bell. Its not a place where you normally pass by so most students never saw this bell. I don't know why that is but bells as well as large drums have somethings fascinating about them... and one of the best things about this bell is that there is nobody around trying to stop you from ringing it ^^

p.s. i also added the bells location to the map in this post.