Travel - Boshintang and Other Korean Specialties

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Travel

Boshintang and Other Korean Specialties

Gyeongbokgung Palace.

“Don’t eat it,” said one of my colleagues. “They will know.” I had just mentioned that I was going to South Korea in late February 2011 and the country was famous for its boshintang or dog meat soup. And I normally eat what a place is famous for. “Once you eat it,” another colleague added, “dogs will follow you around.” According to a 2007 article in The Korea Times, dogs are not considered livestock under the law and are grouped together with animals like donkeys, rabbits, horses and deer. What this means is that they do not undergo the usual sanitation inspection that livestock go through and their slaughter is not regulated in the same way as the slaughter of cattle and other edible livestock. In fact, the issue of dog meat as food appears to be a grey area under South Korean law. I subsequently found out that a proposal in 2007 by some South Korean members of parliament to amend the law to regulate the processing of dog meat as food was eventually dropped due to fierce criticisms from animal rights groups in the country and abroad.

Actually, human consumption of dog meat does not just take place in Korea. The Filipino dish, aso adobo, is actually dog stew and dog soup in China is euphemistically called xiang rou tang, ie fragrant soup. I have also seen dog meat (and heads) on food displays in Cambodia. Dogs are actually lucky (except in the places where they are eaten) because of their special place in human history. One British writer has pointed out that dogs live with all the benefits of the most civilised humans, eg they have their own doctors and holiday homes, their own laws, their own human police force (the RSPCA) and even their own professional association (in Singapore, it is the Singapore Kennel Club). My research shows that they even have their own international federation, the Federation Cynologique Internationale (or World Canine Organisation). I think Jerry Seinfeld said it best: “Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, and one of them’s making poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge?” Anyway, South Korea is much more than boshintang.

Seoul, South Korea

For the people who follow trends, they will know that South Korea is on the ascent. K-pop (Korean pop music), Korean movies, Korean television programmes and in fact much of Korean culture is on a path of world domination. And I have not even begun to talk about their cars, electronics and other manufactured products. Even when it comes to design and technology, Apple’s only real competitor is the South Korean conglomerate Samsung. The day before I arrived at Incheon’s International Airport, the main airport serving Seoul, it was named the Best Airport Worldwide for the 6th year by Airports Council International (Note: It was named Best Airport Worldwide for the 7th time in 2012.) Since I flew on Asiana Airlines into Incheon, I was also flying on the reining Skytrax Airline of the Year.

In the Global Cities Index of 2010, Seoul ranked number 10. It was also named the 2010 World Design Capital by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. However, Seoul is also deep in historical significance and sights, being home to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the famous Changdeokgung (or Changdeok Palace) that I visited. During my trip, I also visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, Insadong (a hip and happening neighbourhood), Bukchon Hanok Village (a small village of restored traditional Korean houses), Namdaemun Market (a famous clothing and food market), Myeong-dong (arguably the city’s most fashionable shopping area and a bit like Tokyo’s Shinjuku) and Itaewon (a cosmopolitan neighbourhood just outside the American military base in Seoul). My trip also included visits to the magnificent National Museum of Korea and the inspiring Seoul Museum of Art.

South Korea is also well known for its non-verbal performances and I enjoyed tremendously the performance of Nanta (Cookin’) since it was a humorous food-based kitchen utensils musical, ie the music comes from kitchen utensils. It is apparently the longest running show in Korean history and won a best performance award at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival. It would have been perfect if they could have served what they cooked on stage. I also caught another popular non-verbal performance that blended martial arts with comedy called Jump. As I was in the country towards the end of the winter ski season, I went to the Elysian Gangchon Ski Resort, the ski resort nearest to Seoul, for a day of snowboarding as well.

Korean Food

The first thing I noticed at Korean dining tables almost everywhere were the stainless steel cheot-ka-rak (chopsticks) and soo-juh (spoon). I found out that this dates back to the Joseon Dynasty in the 14th Century when royalty were paranoid about security and used silver utensils with their food to detect poison. Silver is supposed to neutralise poison and the ancient Greeks even used silver for water purification. Apparently, there are studies to show that silver also has anti-bacterial, anti-biotic, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties and you can even purchase a silver supplement for consumption in pharmacies in Singapore. Anyway, silver was too expensive for the common folk and so stainless steel became the alternative although I am not aware of similar properties in stainless steel.

Korean food was of course one of the highlights of my visit. Like many Singaporeans, my first taste of Korean cuisine was Korean barbecue, kimchi and bulgogi (grilled beef). Fortunately, I did have Korean clients who introduced me to Korean meals with other banchan (side dishes), guk (soups) and jjigae (stews). Apart from boshintang, the other Korean dish that raises some eye-brows is sannakji hoe (live octopus). These small live octopuses are often eaten whole and can be a choking hazard for diners – I did wonder whether it was mandatory for the waiters who serve the dish to be trained in the Heimlich maneuver. For seafood lovers, Noryangjin Fish Market is the place to visit and naturally, I went there during my trip. Noryangjin Fish Market is the largest wholesale fish market in the country and is open 24 hours. It seemed to be not much smaller than Tokyo’s Tsukji Fish Market (the largest fish market in the world) and had almost as many kinds of seafood. I ate a dozen fresh oysters and a plate of hwal-eo hoe (slices of raw fish) at Noryangjin for 22,000 Korean won (about S$25) and enjoyed my meal very much. If the report in the 23 February 2011 edition of JongAng Daily (a leading English language paper in South Korea that is sold together with the International Herald Tribune) is accurate, the price of seafood has skyrocketed by nearly 50 per cent in the past year. This is primarily due to the rising demand and smaller harvests. This also means that my meal would have been cheaper had I gone there the previous year.

During the trip, I enjoyed a wonderfully rich samgyetang (ginseng and chicken stuffed with rice soup) with insamju (ginseng wine) at the highly recommended restaurant Baekje Samgyetang (50-11 Myeong-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul). According to Frommer’s South Korea, 2nd edition (2010), the chefs at the restaurant use only young spring chickens, which have the tenderest meat. I also had some tasty mandu (Korean dumplings) at Sadong Myeonok (Insadong 5-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul), another eatery highly recommended by Frommer’s. The queue and the ajumma (Korean auntie) at the window that Frommer’s mentioned were there too. In addition, I had delicious galbi (barbecue ribs) and bibimbap (a bowl of rice mixed with vegetables and red pepper paste) at eateries near the Hongdae area guesthouse where I was staying.

As for drinks, I did try some South Korean soju (rice liquor) in Seoul but did not enjoy it. On the other hand, the bottle of North Korean red wine (bought from a gift shop in the DMZ) I drank turned out to be fabulous. Apparently, some of the best wines come from grapes grown in the harshest conditions. That probably explains why that bottle of Egyptian red wine that I bought in Cairo the previous year also turned out to be great.

Sanchon

The best restaurant meal I had was at Sanchon (14 Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Insadong, Seoul) located in a hanok (a traditional Korean house) at the end of a narrow alley off Insadong-gil. It serves what Frommer’s says is “fantastic, traditional temple fare”. The entire meal is based on wild vegetation foraged from the Korean woods and mountains and the menu varies depending on what is seasonal. These include vegetables, mushrooms, ferns, herbs and other plants. Most of the dishes are either raw or parboiled or lightly and simply cooked with soy sauce, sesame oil or garlic. The restaurant was founded by Kim Yeon-Sik, a former Buddhist monk and had been praised in an article in The New York Times in 1986. Unlike most other Korean restaurants, the chopsticks there were wooden – I suppose Buddhist monks did not have to worry about being poisoned. My delicious multi-course lunch had 18 courses including fried kelp, seasoned wild mountain roots and soybean stew with mushrooms. At 22,000 Korean won (around S$25), it was a steal and easily my best meal in the country.

Jeonse

As someone with an interest in property law, what fascinated me about South Korean real estate law was the jeonse system. Jeonse is a uniquely South Korean system for the leasing of apartments. Apparently, lending secured by a mortgage is not that prevalent in South Korea and many property owners utilise the jeonse system as a source of funds. Landlords there would normally require a jeonse payment as consideration from their tenants instead of rent. Although the jeonse deposit is refunded to the tenant without interest at the end of the lease, it may be used by the landlord until then. That might seem like a good deal for the tenant until you realise that the typical jeonse payment can be close to the value of the property leased. The thought that occurred to me was that if I had that much money, I would have bought the property instead of renting it.

When I was in South Korea, there was a report in the 24 February 2011 edition of the JoongAng Daily that more landlords were now demanding rents in addition to jeonse payments. This combination of monthly rent and a jeonse deposit is a variation of the system called banjeonse. Kookmin Bank, (South Korea’s largest bank) estimated that about 40 per cent of the rental housing is subject to banjeonse. This was reportedly due to the low interest rate environment coupled with the shortage of housing. Like landlords elsewhere, landlords in South Korea are not a very popular group.

DMZ

Another highlight of my visit to the country was a day trip to the Demilitarized Zone (aka DMZ). This is a strip of land approximately 4 kilometres (“km”) wide and stretching for about 241 km that separates South Korea from North Korea. It is a buffer that roughly cuts the Korean peninsula into two equal parts. The middle of this buffer is called the Military Demarcation Line and it represents the frontline of the Korean War. The DMZ was created in 1953 after the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement providing for a cease-fire in the Korean War and the pulling back of each side’s troops. It is surrounded by barbed wire and fencing on both sides and is monitored by a Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission set up under the 1953 Agreement. As the Agreement only provided for a cease-fire, the two Koreas are technically still at war. I signed up to join a tour to the DMZ because it was not easy to go there as an independent traveller due to the various security and other checks along the way.

After being picked up from my guesthouse very early in the morning, I was taken by coach to Imjingak, a little place consisting of small buildings, some exhibition areas, a monument and a park. Imjingak marks the departure from the area under civilian control. Imjingak was apparently developed after the famous 1972 South-North Joint Communique to work towards a peaceful reunification of the country. One of the brochures I came across mentions that this area has approximately three million visitors annually.

Our next stop was the Unification Bridge where South Korean army soldiers boarded the coach to check our passports. We were then taken to the Dorasan Observatory, South Korea’s nearest point to North Korea. From there I could see the North Korean city of Gaesong. Another stop was the Dorasan railway station, the northern most railway station of South Korea. It is located about 700 metres away from the Southern Boundary Line of the DMZ and was meant as the rail gateway to North Korea. Like many of the participants, I had a photograph taken next to the track going to Pyeongyang, the capital of North Korea, which was about 205 km away.

The highlight of the DMZ tour was the visit to the Third Infiltration Tunnel, a tunnel that is about two-metre high, two-metres wide and 1.635 km long. There are actually four known infiltration or incursion tunnels dug by the North Korean army but the Third Infiltration Tunnel is the longest. It was dug by the North Koreans through bedrock at around 73 metres below ground and was discovered in 1978 as a result of a tip-off by a defector from the North. The Third Infiltration Tunnel was capable of allowing an entire army division (ie about 20,000 soldiers) to move through in one hour. It was clearly meant for a surprise attack on Seoul, which was about 44 km or less than an hour’s drive away. Walking down the tunnel was an experience I will not forget. We had to put on safety helmets and the air was quite stale below ground. I walked in a hunched position for what seemed like a large part of about 1.2 km (ie 600m down and 600m up) and kept wondering during the walk how the North Korean soldiers managed to dig the tunnel through the bedrock.

Incidentally, the DMZ tour also brought me back to the topic of boshintang. I was told by a fellow tour participant that someone had died from a mad dog disease after eating boshintang. There is apparently a canine equivalent of the mad cow disease. At first, it did not ring a bell but then I remembered rabies. However, I did not know that you could die from eating a rabid dog in addition to being bitten by one. So, did I eat boshintang? Well, you might want to check whether dogs are following me around the next time you see me.

► Richard Tan Ming Kirk
E-mail: [email protected]