EXPATS AT DOHWA

Dear Leaders

Thailand countdown: four days. Given my current credit card dilemma that may force me to carry only cash in Thailand, I am a little paranoid about being mugged, robbed, pick-pocketed, what have you. So I decided to ask my coworker, who has been there an astounding 13 times, if he thought Thailand was dangerous at all. This is what he said:

“No! Just some gays — because Thailand is very hot.”

Hmm, yes. I see the correlation.

While we are on the subject of ramen, here is an interesting read on the idolatry of the noodles in Japan.

Henceforth, I think this blog will be a ramen blog.

Photo via the New York Times.

(Source: The New York Times)

I have subsisted for the last few days or so on a diet of mostly Shin Ramyun, better known as ramen noodles in the States (and I presume in other English speaking countries as well). But Shin Ramyun ain’t that putrid, vile noodle soup you forced yourself to eat when times were rough in college. Simply put, it’s legit.

I had a Korean-American roommate who would chow down on this all the time (The Korean noodle product is exported to 80 different countries, according to Wikipedia). At first I thought, “What is the deal with these noodles?” Well, let’s just say if coming to Korea has been revelational, it’s because of Shin Ramyun. Or should I say … Shin Ram YUM?

In closing, I leave you with a Ramyun-inspired haiku I wrote culled from the nutritional facts on the back of the package:

Nutrition serving

Calories: 180

Daily value

I can has cheezburger?

“The Fresco Burger” from Jacoby’s Burger in Haebangchon. This is the Eiffel tower of hamburgers in Seoul. You have a moist and richly favored hamburger patty topped with mozzarella cheese, bacon, tomato sauce and a tower of onion rings. It is a beautiful thing to behold and a tad difficult to eat. The crunchy onion rings with the tar tar sauce, plush garlic beef patty, and mozzarella cheese fuses beautifully. After your burger you will be smiling with a halo of shiny beef grease around your mouth. Oh, and you can customize your burger just the way you want. 
Price: 10,000 won 
Phone: (02) 3785-0433 
Where: Haebangchon

Via Seoul Eats.

All right. I admit it — It’s cold. And the more the weather dips into subzero temperatures, the more I look forward to chillin’ bayside in places like this. Thailand in three weeks!

Photo via the Associated Press. Quote via Yonhap News Agency.

South Korea lit up a giant Christmas tree on top of a border hill near North Korea Tuesday amid concern that Pyongyang might attempt to strike down the glowing structure that it denounces as psychological warfare against the isolated nation.

Photo via MilitaryPhotos.Net??? Excerpt via The Washington Post.

“If North Korea really attacks, we’re not going to line up,” another said. “We’re just going to run.”

For at least a few minutes Wednesday, South Koreans everywhere - in border towns and beach towns, offices and schools - play-acted a worst-case scenario. As part of the largest South Korean civil defense drill in 35 years, a dozen fighter jets flew low over the cities of Seoul and Pusan, staging a mock attack.

When air-raid sirens went off at 2 p.m., police tried their best to stop traffic nationwide. Workers, shoppers and tourists were directed into subway stations. Many, including Kim’s students, tried their best to grasp a threat that only recently had ceased to feel abstract.

In light of the artillery fire on Yeonpyeong Island that killed four South Koreans, the past couple weeks have unearthed some important insight from people I will only identify as — and this will sound a little bloated — Koreans with whom we have working relations.

One person has expressed their disagreement with Pres. Lee Myung Bak’s policies against North Korea and called him a “warhawk.” In a way, this comment almost validates the propagandistic claims of the North Korean media that the South is in fact the provocateur here, depending on how you look at it. This person said that under previous administrations, there would not be nearly as many military drills as there are under Lee. In a separate discussion, he told me that South Koreans see the North as their cousins and that in soccer matches, while they root vehemently against the Japanese national team, they often cheer on the team that represents their number one political foe, North Korea.