Summer rain...

We're now fully immersed in the rainy season... This past weekend was the first weekend in over a month that Gavin didn't have to work BOTH days! Yes. A single day off. But then a small freelance job rolled in and then I had to do some work. Gah! Well, anyway, we determined to enjoy it, despite the rain...

Happily, this weekend coincided with our friends' concert in Hongdae. I mentioned Sunny and Mitch's band The Breathing in an earlier post. On Saturday, they had a goodbye performance for one of their band members who is going to law school. They opened the show with a simple acoustic set that enhanced the intimate atmosphere and was really lovely. Gavin and I finally bought their CD to show our support. I'm not sure if it's available online anywhere, as I'm horrible at navigating Korean sites. But you can listen to their music from the Quicktimes here.

Anyway, the guest performer at the show was a band called 소규모 아카시아 밴드 (the Sugyumo Acacia Band) a little group that is apparently quite well known on the indie circuit in Korea. Their music is an interesting, peppy blend of blues, rock and folk... I'm now a fan. Here are a few of their songs that I like, courtesy of YouTube:



Surprisingly, I understand the lyrics to this one. They consist of a few really simple lines, all vocabulary you would learn in Korean 101:
Red umbrella, blue umbrella, whatever you want I'll give to you.
Brown bag, blue bag, whatever you want I'll give to you.
My name is Yozo. I love you. Whatever you want I'll give to you.



Other interesting events of the weekend:
We've been in Korea for two years already, yet I've never had this type of BBQ before. I can't believe we were missing out on this. Pictured below is kalmegi-sal, or pork skirt meat.

Step 1: First lay kimchi down in perimeter of the grill. There's a special indentation for this purpose. Step 2: The nice ajumma will then come and pour some beaten egg into the well, over the kimchi. Step 3: Top the egg/kimchi mixture with scallions. Step 4: Start grilling your meat. Step 5: By the time your meat is done, the kimchi omelet will be done too! Enjoy...

This excellent kalbi joint is located near Gongdoek Station on Line 5. Get out at exit 8, go straight for a few steps and make a left at the first small alleyway on your left. Here in this little row of BBQ joints on this unassuming alleyway is where pork kalbi was supposedly invented. The meat is high quality, succulent stuff, and the special kimchi omelet is an extra nice touch...

And finally, buried at the end of this post...
I finally tried sannakji (산낙지). This famous Korean live octopus dish is served still-moving. It wasn't bad. I mean, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was supremely weirded out by the octopus squirming and sticking to the roof of my mouth, but I just made sure to chew a lot, and it went down alright. Since it's raw and not really cooked with anything, I found the flavor a little tasteless. Mostly you just taste the salty oil that you dip the fellas in to keep them from clinging too much as they make their futile last-ditch attempts to prevent the long journey down your throat...


And since a still picture can't possibly do this justice, click here to see an animated GIF (yeah, I know that's old school, but I haven't figured out how to compress and upload my video yet...)