<commit_before>---
layout: post
published: false
description: "walking through my stomach's tour of Seoul"
headline: ""
modified: ""
categories: 
  - travel
tags: "Seoul, South Korea, food"
imagefeature: ""
mathjax: false
comments: true
share: true
title: Seoul food
---

I had a trip to South Korea in September, for a fusion engineering conference on Jeju Island ([my work was... OK](http://www.mae.ucla.edu/jon-van-lew-wins-best-student-award-at-isfnt/)). 

After the conference I took a side trip to Seoul to visit some old Korean friends I hadn't seen since 2008. Back in '08, we were all studying Chinese at Nanjing Normal University in neighboring classrooms and we quickly became friends. As a small group we would go out to eat together practically every day -- often to Korean-style restaurants around Nanjing. That was my first introduction to Korean food and I was immediately in love with it -- at that time it was bibimbop that ruled over all.

Living in LA, Korean food is everywhere and I now eat it regularly, but somehow I just stuck to the mainstays: bibimbap, galbi, and bulgogi. Though I was introduced to, and subsequently obsessed with, [soon tofu stews](http://www.tofuya.la/).

What's the point of this introduction? That all I really wanted to do in Korea was eat food. I had a lot of extremely delicious classics and discovered some new favorites. Below is my ode to Korean food, listed in a kind of top 10

## No. 10: Flavored soju
The night-before-last of the conference in Jeju, there was a gala dinner during which soju was freely given at everyones table. Me, some colleagues, and quite a few higher-up type folks got absolutely blottoed on the soju. That was fun but not exactly sustainable in terms of enjoyable drinking outings. So I was pleasently surprised when in Seoul and The Koreans got some not-exactly-soju soju. It was flavored with peach, orange, and I think even grapefruit. It was also only a bit stronger than a normal red wine which meant that drinking it to wash down the hot-ass green peppers wouldn't leave you crosseyed and bleary. I am a definite fan.

## No. 9: Some pile of desserts
![DSC_0997.jpg]({{site.baseurl}}/images/DSC_0997.jpg)
<commit_msg>Update 2015-10-01-seoul-food.md<commit_after>---
layout: post
published: true
description: "walking through my stomach's tour of Seoul"
headline: ""
modified: ""
categories: 
  - travel
tags: "Seoul, South Korea, food"
imagefeature: ""
mathjax: false
comments: true
share: true
title: Seoul food
---

I had a trip to South Korea in September, for a fusion engineering conference on Jeju Island ([my work was... OK](http://www.mae.ucla.edu/jon-van-lew-wins-best-student-award-at-isfnt/)). 

After the conference I took a side trip to Seoul to visit some old Korean friends I hadn't seen since 2008. Back in '08, we were all studying Chinese at Nanjing Normal University in neighboring classrooms and we quickly became friends. As a small group we would go out to eat together practically every day -- often to Korean-style restaurants around Nanjing. That was my first introduction to Korean food and I was immediately in love with it -- at that time it was bibimbop that ruled over all.

Living in LA, Korean food is everywhere and I now eat it regularly, but somehow I just stuck to the mainstays: bibimbap, galbi, and bulgogi. Though I was introduced to, and subsequently obsessed with, [soon tofu stews](http://www.tofuya.la/).

What's the point of this introduction? That all I really wanted to do in Korea was eat food. I had a lot of extremely delicious classics and discovered some new favorites. Below is my ode to Korean food, listed in a kind of top 10

## No. 10: Flavored soju
The night-before-last of the conference in Jeju, there was a gala dinner during which soju was freely given at everyones table. Me, some colleagues, and quite a few higher-up type folks got absolutely blottoed on the soju. That was fun but not exactly sustainable in terms of enjoyable drinking outings. So I was pleasently surprised when in Seoul and The Koreans got some not-exactly-soju soju. It was flavored with peach, orange, and I think even grapefruit. It was also only a bit stronger than a normal red wine which meant that drinking it to wash down the hot-ass green peppers wouldn't leave you crosseyed and bleary. I am a definite fan.

## No. 9: Some pile of desserts
![DSC_0997.jpg]({{site.baseurl}}/images/DSC_0997.jpg)

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