A New Place

A New Place

Finally, after ten months I am out of Dongjin Officetel, thank god!

Yeonso, my boss, told me early last week, to be at work a half hour early. I thought that it was time for a little chat, maybe I had done something wrong, but she surprised me quite a bit when she told me a little later that we were going to see my new house.

I had known that I would be moving but thought it would be a lot closer to the end of my current contract.

When I got to work the next day I was pretty surprised to find out that I would be living right next door to the school, on the fifth floor of the local orthopedic hospital.

It turns out that I shouldn’t have worried about anything, the apartment that I am now in is really nice, one big L-shaped room with a separate bedroom that is fairly good size. It is by far the largest place that I have lived in so far in Korea and I really like it.

The best part about the place though, by far, is the view. My front wall is all tinted glass, pretty smart actually because it faces east, and overlooks the huge lighted bridge and the sea. If I look to the north I can see the whole skyline of Sokcho, which isn’t much but is pretty, and if I go on the roof, the huge spacious, perfect for Bbqing, great firework watching roof, I can look to the west and see huge mountains, to the east the sea, to the north the skyline of Sokcho, and to the south, the main coast road.

Pictures
1. Kitchen and entryway
2. Living Room
3. The view out the back door, Buyoung apartments and mountains
4. View from the roof to the sea. I have almost this same view from my front window

An Ode to Tofu

So I have always been a meat eater, I love steak, lamb, pork, roasts, any kind of dead animal, other than fish is great to me, and I have always been suspicious of this pressed soybean curd called tofu, but today, I am a convert.

Tofu has been used in Asian cuisine for centuries, probably a millennium or two, and the stuff you get out here is so different from the pressed, processed junk you can purchase at any store in the west.

The tofu here, the big block in the picture, costs about a dollar. It is pressed locally, probably by a farmer deep in the countryside, you can see his brand on it, and sold in the market from a big red tub in which rests kilos of the soft white curd

The flavour of tofu that I have had before coming here is what had always turned me off from it, tasteless and bland. Here, when you cut it, you can smell the beans that the stuff is made from, and when you cut it it forms nice soft chunks that hold their shape through almost any cooking process.

Tofu curry, my current favorite meal.

Ingredients

A couple of tomatoes, cut into chunks

Small onion

A big chunk of cubed tofu

Three cloves of garlic

Turmeric

Salt

Soy Sauce

Curry Powder

Olive oil

Ginger

Eggplant

Cut the onions into chunks, through in some crushed garlic and some crushed ginger into a pan that has a good dollop of oil in it and fry lightly till the onion is translucent, don’t burn it!

Add the tomato, tofu, and eggplant, a dollop of soy sauce, a little salt, some turmeric and curry powder and stir if around on medium high heat for about five-ten minutes, serve over rice.

Serves 2-3