Gwangju

As you probably know, we live in Gwangju, South Korea - it is part of the title of our blog after all! Ever since we moved to Korea last August we have been talking about writing a post about our city, but haven't actually gotten around to it until now. So at long last, let us tell you a little bit about Gwangju.

Gwangju is in the Jeolla Province in the south end of Korea. It is about 3.5 hour bus ride from both Seoul and Busan, and contains about 1.5 million people. This makes it the 6th largest city in Korea. Gwangju is well known for its food (especially it's kimchi - some of the best in Korea!), maple soju, culture, and being the education center of Korea. Most importantly, Gwangju is known as being the birthplace of democracy in South Korea. On May 18, 1980, hundreds of civilians - primarily students - were massacred by the army during a pro-democracy uprising opposing the South Korean dictatorship.

Compared to other parts of Korea, Gwangju has just recently seen a surge of foreigners, so it is not uncommon to walk into a restaurant and have the waitstaff burst into a fit of giggles at serving a foreigner for the first time. However, because of the large foreign population there are multiple bars and restaurants aimed at the foreign community.

We both love living here and would recommend it for anyone moving to Korea to teach English! If you want to know more about Gwangju the Gwangju Guide can tell you almost anything you need to know about everything from how to get around to where to get a haircut. The Gwangju Blog is also a great resource as it is frequently updated with posts about new places to explore, events, Gwangju news, restaurant reviews, and more.

Our neighborhood. The roads are constantly under construction. 

Don't forget your free hug with your beer and soju! 

Fresh fruit (and often fish) for sale a minute walk from our apartment. 

The main road our street is off of. 

Part of the downtown area. A picture can't quite capture the experience of walking down these streets with music blasting, regardless of swears and racial slurs in the songs. 

Some stores just have the strangest names...

There are some tranquil places inside the city, like this reservoir where the cherry trees are starting to bloom. 

And even temples scattered here and there.

Food

After promising for months to post about food we have finally collected enough pictures to do so! What follows is a selection of foods we love, as well as a couple we don't but are strange enough we thought we would share them.

First, Korean food! The following are common foods we eat fairly often.

Ohm Rice (오므라이스) is fried rice wrapped in a thin layer of egg and served with gravy on top.

Galbi (갈비), known as Korea BBQ in the States, is beef or pork that you grill at your table. This picture is from our favorite galbi restaurant where there is an egg moat surrounding the grilled meat. Once the meat is done, you can dip it in a variety of sauces (e.g. fermented soybean paste - much more delicious than it sounds!) and wrap it up in a lettuce leaf with onions, garlic, kimchi or other side dishes.  

Kimbap Nara (김밥나라) is the name for what amounts to a Korean diner. This is where you can get filling meals for less than \5,000 ($5 USD). This is the interior of our neighborhood Kimbap Nara where we go so often the women who work there know our orders and our favorite table. In fact, when we come in alone or don't order our standard dish they seem confused. Click here for a good representation of the average Kimbap Nara menu.

Banchan (반찬) refers to small side dishes served with every meal. This can be as basic as those pictured above (pickled radish, sprouts, kimchi), which are common at a kimbap nara, or more elaborate when dining at a nicer restaurant.

Mandu (만두) are a type of dumpling which can have a variety of fillings and be prepared different ways. The mandu pictured are mulmandu (물만두), which means water (mul) mandu since they are boiled instead of steamed.

Cheese mandu (치즈만두) were a recent discovery.

Gunmandu (군만두) are pan-fried mandu served with soy sauce or in a sweet and sour sauce as pictured above. 

Ddokbaegi bulgogi (뚝배기 불고기) is beef soup with veggies and rice noodles served boiling hot.

Kimbap (김밥) is Korea's take on sushi. Standard fillings include pickled radish,  egg, cucumber, carrots, imitation crab, etc. This particular kimbap is chamchi kimchi kimbap (참치 김치 김밥) which is filled with tuna, kimchi, and vegetables.

Cheese donkkasu (치즈 돈까스) is fried pork cutlet with cheese.

Cheese Kimchi Dolsat Bibimbap (치즈 김치 돌솥 비빔밥) is a hot bibimbap that we love. Bibimbap simply means mixed rice so it can contain a variety of ingredients. This particular one is mainly kimchi, cheese, and some other vegetables.

Bibimbap (비빔밥), as mentioned above, is mixed rice. This is a standard bibimbap containing an egg, various vegetables - most notably sprouts -, and beef. This is from Jeonju, a town about 1.5 hours away from Gwangju which is famous for its bibimbap.

Ramyeon (라면), pronounced ramen back home, are Korean noodles many of us are quite familiar with. This is a picture of the ramyeon isle at our local grocery store, and as you can see, there is quite a variety. The biggest difference to Ramen back home is that these noodles have quite a bit more flavor. Olivia tends to go for cheesy and Michelle goes for this Black kind that is on the spicier size.

Some Korean foods just don't make sense to us and this is one of them. Served as a side dish, it is lettuce and cabbage with a sweet dressing and sprinkles - That's right, sprinkles! - on top. Why this strange combination? We will never know. 

Snack food is plentiful here and we thought it deserved a mention as we are both always trying new foods from the 7-11 just to see what they are. This one was a winner, with cookie sticks to dip in chocolate that had strange "Fun Words" written on them.

Korean food can get a little repetitive and every once in a while we just want a change of pace. Sometimes we go out for Indian or Vietnamese, but more often then not when we are craving something different we just go with good old Western Food.

These chocolate muffins were our saving grace when we got here as we weren't ready to embrace Korean-style breakfast of ramen or rice when we got here. 

Burgers and fries are easy to find in Korea, although sometimes they can have a slightly sweet taste. Pizza is also common, but can have odd combinations and is often littered with corn. Luckily for us, The Alleyway is a foreigner-run restaurant in Gwangju that can give us our western food fix, serving pizza, burgers, tacos, caesar salads, etc. 

Although we didn't order it ourselves, here is a perfect example of an odd Korean pizza which has large pieces of meat on each slice and is covered in corn. 

So there you have it, what we eat day to day in Korea. Of course there are always new things to try and if we find any particularly strange ones we are sure to let you know about it.