2003-02-06 - 1:15 a.m.

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

What is pibimbap? It's assorted vegetables served over cooked rice, with a red bean sauce for spicing it up. The vegetables are usually grated carrots, grated cucumber, bean sprouts, bracken fern (gosari), and sometimes dried laver (also called nori). You can add some slivered lean beef, too. The red bean sauce can be made by mixing miso with sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, ginger and red pepper. I realize I'm using the Japanese names for some ingredients, but that's how you'll find them in supermarkets, unless you have a Korean grocery store nearby. Every family and restaurant has a slightly different recipe for pibimbap. You can use any leafy or root vegetable, such as lettuce, cabbage, radish, or onion. I'm enough of an iconoclast to toss in broccoli flowerets or chopped celery.

Dolsot pibimbap is served in a thick stone or pottery bowl (heated in an oven to about 200 degrees C / 400 F) and it continues to cook at the table. Usually, an egg is broken over the stone bowl pibimbap just before serving, and it cooks while you stir the food around to cook everything. {I love to play with my food! } Yes, it's an "at the table" stir-fry!

You can serve it with a cup of soybean paste soup or beef and radish soup.

Dolsot pibimbap is a winter dish. The summer version is served in a cold dish with lots of lettuce (no egg) and is like a tossed salad, with rice added.

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

My students wanted to make sure that I went to the "welfare office" after class. Eungee emphasised, "It's a good surprise," with a big smile. So we all trooped down there after class. Kim Ja-ok and Mrs. Hwang, the interpreter, presented me with a large box of Sollal goodies, seed cakes and honey pastries. They are too kind!

I may never get used to this Corean custom of giving generous gifts on all sorts of occasions. And I sure as heck don't know the proper protocols for saying "Thanks." All I can do is say "Kamsahamnida," smile and bow a lot.

Today, weatherwise, has been very cold, -7 degrees C / 19 degrees F, with a 15 mph wind right off the Arctic tundra. The sky is sparkling clear and the air is very clean.

I wore my heavy corduroy pants and knee-high stockings with a thick sweater under my winter coat, and so survived the open-air train platforms at Shingil and Doksan quite comfortably. All of us passengers huddled in the lee of the stairs, though. I really felt for one businessman with only a suit and sweater-vest. Even the guys with wool topcoats were turning up their collars and shoving their hands deep into their pockets.

Most of the women over forty had on fur coats of one kind or another. The most striking one I saw was a mink coat made in the style of a "bomber jacket," using paw skins in an intricate criss-cross pattern to replicate the gathers of the elastic waistband and cuffs. The main part was "cut on the bias" so the pelts made a chevron pattern on the front and back. Most fur coats are more like car coats, cut in an A-line down to the upper thigh.

Most women under forty have wool coats. If they have a baby in the traditional quilted carrier, the baby is under the coat, snuggled up against mom's back. The greater part of the students (boys and girls) wear Eskimo-style Arctic survival jackets with fur-trimmed hoods and lots of deep pockets. For young office workers, the ankle-length eiderdown coat is more practical. I don't know how the young ladies get over the icy patches in high heels and sheer black nylons (and how they resist sitting cross-legged to keep their feet warm). They didn't look comfortable today, that's for sure!

Lunar New Year

Saturday, I went to June's for Sollal. The "Buddhist Ceremony" ( as she called it) was inviting the ancestors to come and eat with us. The doors and windows to the apartment were opened during the prelude, when all the food was dished up. The eldest son placed chopsticks ("chokora") and spoons ("soojuh") on the food. All the menfolk, down to the eight-year-old grandson bowed and welcomed the spirits.

Photos of Ancestors: The most prominent picture displayed was of the father who passed on only 5 years ago. I met his widow who was very sweet, but with a strong spirit herself. Once the men finished, all the girls and women gathered in the living room (it was barely big enough), and did their bowing and greetings. Then we closed the doors and windows, all sat down and had a big feast.

Afterwards, I played "Yut," the stick-tossing game which the Koreans have in common with Native Americans. Now there's a good game, been around for thousands of years. It has luck and strategy both. The Mongols play it too, they're distant cousins of the Koreans.

Monday, February 3, 2003

Our demonstration class went superbly today. All the parents signed up their kids and paid the first month's tuition. Cho and I worked together as if we'd rehearsed. We were "winging it" and filling in little gaps so smoothly! He charmed the mothers and I charmed the children.

When they got restless, I started a little game of "Gossip" very quietly. Passed a flash card to one child and told her to say the word to her neighbour and pass it on. They caught on right away. I passed out all the cards and then went to the other end of the horseshoe seating and listened to the last children as I collected the cards. They did very well. I'd written the Korean name of each picture as well as the English name, since I'm not that great an artist. ;-)

These youngsters are between eight and eleven years old, and have all had at least a year or two of English in school. They're intermediate to advanced level. Just right for me, because we don't have to get over the hurtle of starting at Square One in communication.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea

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