Ho-dduk (호떡)

It's finally gotten a chilly here, so it's getting harder to pass by street vendors that hawk steamy snacks... Today, feeling a bit grumpy after attending the first class for level 103 Korean at YBM, during which I understood a whopping 25% of what was going on, I spied a long line at a cart in Insa-dong. It was a line about 15 people deep composed of middle school girls. And since this is an almost sure-fire indicator that something yummy (and probably unhealthy) is afoot, I got right in line after them. After all, I had just learned how to say "스트레스가 많이면 많이 먹는편이에요" which means "When I'm very stressed, I'm the kind of person who eats a lot." The cart turned out to be selling a particularly fat and oily version of 호떡 (ho-dduk) which is a flat, round bread with syrup inside. They were being grilled in a pool of oil, which sounds a bit disgusting, but gave the ho-dduk a nice crispy exterior, the better to wrap a sweet, oozy interior with.

I'm back from 6 days in Singapore, where I walked my feet off, got within 10 meters of lions and hyenas, saw a two-headed turtle, and explored the Ten Courts of Buddhist Hell. I'll post my pictures soon-ish -- there's a ton of pictures, and you know... I have to retouch and recrop all of them....