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Our Brains, the Little Corporal in the Evolutionary Battle

Note to Gord Sellar: Fish species are lifetime growers, and most organisms exhibit immense, continual plasticity throughout their lives. Doesn't that sound like grist for an entire science fiction series? The compelling notion of this lecture is, that the brain is a microcosm of evolution, adapting to environment, experience, and its own [...]

The Breakaway Republic of Kebapistan

Turkish House is a classy restaurant in Okpo that doesn't put kimchi and picked turnips on the table. It looks quite modest from the exterior, but every chair is upholstered and the air is clean and fragrant. And, Turkish House, unlike every Turkish joint in Busan, has baklava without a reservation. All the times my [...]

A month of soondaes: Kimchi

I recently posted about Soondae, the Korean blood sausage that is a staple of street food stalls right across the country. Then I found it to be a good addition to the genre and definitely worth trying, but a little too jelly-like in consistency to have me running back for more.

I thought that was it for soondae, until that is I discovered these boys selling out the back of a van by our apartment.




I’d never actually heard of Kimchi Soondae, and half hoped that this was a meatier sausage more like the ones we’re used to in the old country (despite being a nation of pork lovers, Korea is notoriously bad in the sausage stakes.)



When I knuckled down to eat some the stuff however I found it to be a different story altogether. Kimchi Soondae has a firmer texture than the black stuff, due no doubt to having a lot less glass noodles packing it out than the original. They also seem to have thrown some onions in, mixing it up a little consistency-wise and making it resemble uncooked chorizo. This for me, made it a little more palatable.

As for the kimchi component, I found it gave a good spiciness to the sausage without being too in your face, though I did expect a better showing from the garlic (I guess it was busy stinking out the subway somewhere else instead.) I also found the small intestine casing to be a little bit too true to its original form for my tastes, but I’m going to fry it up next time to see how it goes.

As before the soondae came with a bunch of tripe and other bits, of which the steamed liver particularly stood out and to my mind was worth the 3000 won on its own. I’ve never seen it anywhere else and would love to investigate it further.

All in all it was a pretty good tray of body parts, and coming on the same day as a particularly bad pork experience, managed to almost erase the trauma from my mind.

And I reckon I’ll go back for more.

Leave the Party with the Allies You Brought

James Mann debunks the China-as-savior meme on TNR-TV. My only question is, whether an American assurance not to camp on the Yalu would satisfy Beijing's dread of an American military presence on the peninsula. Powered by ScribeFire. alternate frame of change©2009 Left Flank. All Rights Reserved..

Twitter Updates for 2009-05-30

lfSend In the Anti-MacArthur - http://tinyurl.com/kjexm9 # @KimcheeGI I agree with Barnett's 1,2,4, but NK is symptom of Sino-Japan rivalry and even a retreating US needs to prepare for a real crisis in reply to KimcheeGI # Props to A Roh Eulogy I Can Appreciate ( http://tinyurl.com/mo4fns ) # @KimcheeGI I don't agree PRC is the sole solution [...]

Mother Playing at Lotte Cinema Seomyeon with English Subtitles


Mother

The Lotte Cinema in Seomyeon is screening Bong Joon Ho’s “Mother” with English subtitles. Bong is one of Korea’s most celebrated and (at age 39) youngest visionaries. He quickly established himself as a leading light in Korean cinema when he made “Memories of Murder” (2003) a unique take on South Korea’s first serial killer case and the police procedural genre. He later went on to break local box-office records with his hugely successful monster movie, “The Host” (2006). His latest film, about a desperate adjumma determined to prove her son’s innocence after he is accused of murder, premiered just weeks ago at the Cannes film festival where it was generally well-received. Lotte Cinema is offering a rare opportunity for foreigners living in Busan to see a current Korean movie by an internationally well-regarded director in theatres.

Screening Times:

Friday May 29 – 18:40, 23:50

Saturday May 30 – 9:10, 11:45, 14:20, 16:55, 21:50, 24:25

Sunday May 31 – 9:10, 11:45, 14:20, 16:55, 21:50, 24:25

Monday June 1 - 10:30, 13:00, 15:30, 18:00, 23:10

Tuesday June 2 – 10:30, 13:00, 15:30, 18:00, 23:10

Wednesday June 3 – 10:30, 13:00, 15:30, 18:00, 23:10

Lotte Cinema is located on the top floor of the Lotte Department Store in Seomyeon.


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