Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Two Things I Like and One Thing I Don't Like

Thing I like one:

These birds, feeding on the rice a dude scattered for them, near the Anguk end of Insadong, and scattering whenever something startled them.



Thing I like two:

These fiber-optic Christmas lights, in Myeongdong, Seoul. I'm bummed that the usual Christmas Lights were not up over Chunggyecheon Stream this year (Girlfriendoseyo said they were cancelled due to the bad economy... I say boo! I didn't notice myself, because I was on vacation in China. [sucka])

Previous years, absent this year:

(Image from Seoulman)

Lights I like, from Myeongdong this year.


Thing I like two point five:
Also: an impressive Christmas Tree I saw in Beijing, where I traveled. (Yeah!)
In front of a Lotte Department Store, on Wangfujing Street (hope I spelled that right).



Finally, something I DON'T like.

I'm looking around Seoul for a really good Spanish paella rice, and as I have learned, when one goes to a Spanish restaurant, one really ought to order the Sangria.

Twenty minutes after the pitcher of Sangria arrived for our party of four, we were left with this.



Rather than rant for two hundred words about it, all I'm gonna say is, I'm not paying for ice, nimrods. I can make that at home.

And that goes to every single place serving me cold drinks, too, all the way from the fancy schmancy Spanish place in Itaewon, to the Starbucks down the street, to the fast-food butt-burger. I want drink, not ice, and that watery no-longer-tastes-like-the-drink-I-ordered spuzz in the bottom of the cup twenty minutes after the drink is served? It might just convince me never to patronize your place again. thanks for listening.


roboseyo out

11 comments:

melissa v. said...

cool! miss you.

Anonymous said...

Fatman has to say, that was some freakishly expensive ice ~ and a real shame, because otherwise the sangria was quite decent.

Anonymous said...

2 things:

- you don't say "paella rice". It's just paella.

- did they have strawberries in the sangria??? Bastardization process in full action! Sangria has only slices of orange and lemon, and pieces of apple. No bloody strawberries!

Anonymous said...

Oh, pish, of course it may. There's no standardized set of fruit that must go in or can't go in - in southern spain they often add nectarines or peaches. Brandy or other spirits, alongside carbonated water, cinnamon, and whatnot are added in some areas, but not in others. Sangria is simply the Spanish name for a wine punch that's been popular all over Europe for centuries as a way to doctor not so tasty wine. Nobody, not even the Spanish, are going to pitch a fit over strawberries.
Incidentally, they were apples, not strawberries anyway.

Roboseyo said...

Yeah. The apples had taken on the color of the red wine.

Sorry about the butchering of Spanish food names, Renato... a purist I guess I ain't, but I sure do like a good Paella.

Anonymous said...

I'm not paying for ice, nimrods. I can make that at home.

Couldn't agree with you more on this. I usually don't care for ice in the first place, so more 'self-serve' beverage machines would certainly make my day. Of course, sangria from a (soda) fountain probably wouldn't taste the best ...

Roboseyo said...

not long ago, I saw sangria in either a can or a paper carton (can't remember which) in a corner store.

I regret not buying it, just for the blog-worthy train-wreck of flavours it probably was.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a mission for Fatman!

Roboseyo said...

get on it like a comet!

fine dining in Korea:

andong jjimdalk kimbap triangle, and a canned sangria.

Anonymous said...

Roboseyo, was that sangria-in-a-can (or carton) something you came across here in Korea? It does sound rather ... intriguing.

Roboseyo said...

Yeah, Samedi. It was in Seoul. Near the bottled wine in one of those Kwik-E Mart kinds of places.