Whew, after an exhausting work week, it was time for play and no rest. Thankfully, after an unusually long winter, it's finally spring in Seoul and the flowers are in full bloom, especially the cherry blossoms.
Friday night, I met up with Carol at Top Cloud Restaurant. It's a restaurant cocktail lounge located on the top floor of Jongno Tower, a landmark in itself because of the unique architecture.
The 33rd floor (top floor) has a 360 degree view of central Seoul, and it looks phenomenal in the evening. (One of the most stunning views of the city is from the women's restroom. Needs to be part of the Bathrooms with a View list).
After a lovely evening of champagne and kir royal, returning home was a different story: We could not catch a cab. Over 30 empty cabs pass us and it wasn't just us with a problem hailing cabs. For some reason, the drivers would quickly switch the "available" sign to "reserved" and wouldn't stop for anyone. WTF? We finally got a cab driver to stop after 30 minutes, and told him he needed to drive us because we were freezing to death. Once he let us in the car and were comfortably seated, I started interrogating the driver to determine why the taxi drivers wouldn't stop for anyone. He said that the cab drivers didn't like to pick people up from that corner because most people were drunk. In addition, he said that taxi drivers were one of the three professions that people looked down on, so they try not to pick up passengers between 11pm and 1am on Friday and Saturday evenings. (I think the other two "disrespected professions" are [1] obese dictators that spend $850 million on a failed missile launch program with money that can feed the starving citizenry for six years and [2] middle schoolers who spend their Saturdays waiting for a star sighting in front of the kpop agency instead of studying for college). I'm not really sure how they are getting more respect by not picking up passengers during peak times, but it doesn't sound legal or logical.
Sunday was Rosa's birthday, so I volunteered to make dinner for her and her family. One of my uncles, who lives in Pohang came up with his wife and joined us too. I ended up making a greenbean cauliflower casserole, lemon parmesan pasta with clams, chicken artichoke piccata, and made-from-scratch key lime pie.
It took me all week to find ingredients for this dinner, such as visits to the department store food floors, a trip to High Street Market, and included a request to my friend to get some stuff from the commissary. Why? Obviously, they only have hot dogs and kimchi at the supermarket and don't sell the following items: greenbean, sour cream, cheddar cheese, French's fried onion, lemon, parmesan cheese, canned clam, fresh herbs, marinated artichokes, capers, graham cracker, and lime.
Side note: Limes are not very common in Korea. I paid $9 for two limes, whereas back in the U.S., limes go for like 8 for $1. Methinks it's going to be even more difficult to find a Corona or margarita happy hour considering that Cinqo de Mayo is coming up soon. None of my cousins ever heard of or tasted key lime pie before, but they loved it. My new mission is to infuse lime into this culture . I'll start with singing "Margaritaville" at the karaoke bar and then have people take SoCo and lime shots at the bar. I'm currently looking for investors to open a key lime pie bakery in Seoul.
Anyways, Rosa's birthday was a great excuse for the family to get together, almost like a Thanksgiving in April. We enjoyed each other's company so much that my aunt has now dubbed me the Happiness Virus. I will take that as a compliment, even if I am a virus.
And what happens in Itaewon on Saturdays stays in Itaewon. ;)
Friday night, I met up with Carol at Top Cloud Restaurant. It's a restaurant cocktail lounge located on the top floor of Jongno Tower, a landmark in itself because of the unique architecture.
The 33rd floor (top floor) has a 360 degree view of central Seoul, and it looks phenomenal in the evening. (One of the most stunning views of the city is from the women's restroom. Needs to be part of the Bathrooms with a View list).
After a lovely evening of champagne and kir royal, returning home was a different story: We could not catch a cab. Over 30 empty cabs pass us and it wasn't just us with a problem hailing cabs. For some reason, the drivers would quickly switch the "available" sign to "reserved" and wouldn't stop for anyone. WTF? We finally got a cab driver to stop after 30 minutes, and told him he needed to drive us because we were freezing to death. Once he let us in the car and were comfortably seated, I started interrogating the driver to determine why the taxi drivers wouldn't stop for anyone. He said that the cab drivers didn't like to pick people up from that corner because most people were drunk. In addition, he said that taxi drivers were one of the three professions that people looked down on, so they try not to pick up passengers between 11pm and 1am on Friday and Saturday evenings. (I think the other two "disrespected professions" are [1] obese dictators that spend $850 million on a failed missile launch program with money that can feed the starving citizenry for six years and [2] middle schoolers who spend their Saturdays waiting for a star sighting in front of the kpop agency instead of studying for college). I'm not really sure how they are getting more respect by not picking up passengers during peak times, but it doesn't sound legal or logical.
Sunday was Rosa's birthday, so I volunteered to make dinner for her and her family. One of my uncles, who lives in Pohang came up with his wife and joined us too. I ended up making a greenbean cauliflower casserole, lemon parmesan pasta with clams, chicken artichoke piccata, and made-from-scratch key lime pie.
(There's also three types of kimchi on the table. You can't separate Koreans from their kimchi, even when serving pasta.)
It took me all week to find ingredients for this dinner, such as visits to the department store food floors, a trip to High Street Market, and included a request to my friend to get some stuff from the commissary. Why? Obviously, they only have hot dogs and kimchi at the supermarket and don't sell the following items: greenbean, sour cream, cheddar cheese, French's fried onion, lemon, parmesan cheese, canned clam, fresh herbs, marinated artichokes, capers, graham cracker, and lime.
Side note: Limes are not very common in Korea. I paid $9 for two limes, whereas back in the U.S., limes go for like 8 for $1. Methinks it's going to be even more difficult to find a Corona or margarita happy hour considering that Cinqo de Mayo is coming up soon. None of my cousins ever heard of or tasted key lime pie before, but they loved it. My new mission is to infuse lime into this culture . I'll start with singing "Margaritaville" at the karaoke bar and then have people take SoCo and lime shots at the bar. I'm currently looking for investors to open a key lime pie bakery in Seoul.
Anyways, Rosa's birthday was a great excuse for the family to get together, almost like a Thanksgiving in April. We enjoyed each other's company so much that my aunt has now dubbed me the Happiness Virus. I will take that as a compliment, even if I am a virus.
And what happens in Itaewon on Saturdays stays in Itaewon. ;)
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