The Seoulite

The Seoulite is expanding his online offerings… now all kpop fans can unite… and date each other! Tired of so-gae-ting? Want to find someone new? Need to just waste some time online by flirting with fellow kpop fans? Well, well, well… go to my new website: www.kpopsingles.com.

Everything is free. You can chat, send messages, do video conferencing and even browse through the kpop zone. We’re just getting started so if anyone wants to volunteer to update the kpop pages with more recent stars, let me know. I only put up my favorites from back in the day…!

A love like this... how romantic.

A new president cannot have too much good advice, so BBC World News America is asking personalities from various walks of life to tell president-elect Barack Obama what they think he should do when he takes up his new job on 20 January.

But where is PRESIDENT LEE MYUNG BAK’s invitation! Well, after seeing other people give their comments on theseoulite.com blog right here… he decided to send us his special message for Obama! Here are the other two dudes thoughts…. as if they can hold a light to the honorable President of South Korea!

Notes to Obama: Jorge Ramos

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7820540.stm

Jorge Ramos
Mexican-born anchor for Spanish-language Univision News
Author of several books, including The Latino Wave
One of the most influential Hispanics in the US

Notes to Obama: Joseph O’Neill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7821443.stm

Joseph O’Neill is the author of three novels Netherland (2008), The Breezes (1996), This Is The Life (1991), a number of short stories and a non-fiction book, Blood-Dark Track: A Family History, which was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002 and a book of the year for the Economist.

President Lee Myung Bak

Leader of a $1 Trillion Dollar a Year Economy
Military Head of the longest war conflict in modern history.
Mayor of Seoul
Hyundai CEO
Poor peasant boy
He is one tough bad ass mofo..!!!

Below is his ‘Note to Obama’ exclusively given to theseoulite.com.

Where do Seoulites go if they want to get all the latest wrapping, baking and gift supplies? You go to Bangsan Market… a ‘dongdaemun’ style market district for professional businesses and ambitious home-ec housewives.

Here is the entrance. The closest subway station is Ulchiro-4-ga exit #6 (을지로4가역 6번 출구).

Do you fancy yourself a cookie cutter?

Boxes of all shapes and sizes. But you have to buy in bulk.

There are many variations on packaging and custom designs are a phone call away.

Trendy wooden cutlery.

I wish someone would have told me I could come here when I was tearing the city apart trying to look for a KitchenAid Mixer.

Want to start a carry-out business? The Seoulite is glad he can choose to use British English in Seoul if it suits the linguistic style of the moment.

Or a coffee shop!

Or you can make your own soap with these molds.

Take a survey of the goods and prices from several shops before buying. Negotiate if you're buying in large quantities.

On the way to the Bangsan Market is the sewing machine market. Just so you know... if there are any future clothes designers out there.

So what kind of results can one have with an armed and dangerous kitchen and stockpiles of frilly boxes?

First, make some bomb-diggity cookies.

Enlist the help of those with decorative skills... girls!

Turn your room into a factory! Wuh Shang Mai Gong Chan!

Patience, trial and error. Turns the ordinary... into...

Into something beautiful!

Local ingredients create quite a challenge for baking - an art that is very close to a science. These were my final product and did not go into the gifts we gave out. Many apologies if yours were subpar! The Seoulite has now found the perfect cookie recipe and is done with experimenting with various blends of sugars, flours and special ingredients. On to the next challenge... cupcakes!

Here is the contact information of some of the baking shops at Bangsan Market… and the article of one very ambitious writer here in Seoul that also gives more information on the shopping experience.

Seoil Total Bakery System
02-2267-0871
suhilco@naver.com

d & b
02-2267-4000
www.bakingmall.com

Happy Baking
02-2268-6009
www.happybaking.com

경훈공업 Kyoung Hoon
02-2275-5902
www.kyounghoon.com

의신상회 (Weishin Sanghee)
02-2265-1398

Hmm… where’s the corner market in a neighborhood of million dollar condos? It’s Star Super of course at Dogok Station! This supermarket is run by the Shinsegae company and has an impressive array of cheeses, produce, meats and imported goods. The Seoulite was on a mission to find his vanilla extract and imported flour… but none were to be found here. However, his friend was able to find all the fresh ingredients to make a gourmet meal.

Freshly made rice cakes, side dishes, live oysters, fresh fruit... everything is here. The potatoes and carrots are flown in from Jeju Island! They look like they're from the farm with all the mud still attached.

Dried fruits, spices, sauces. Seasonings and toppings are the 10% that make something taste 110%!!

People use compact hand basket carts here. It makes it much more comfortable in an already spacious environment. But want dem apples? $12 please.

The Seoulite would have taken more photos… but his camera phone was occupied as he received news that the video he made in college with some friends including Tablo blew up on the net. Someone just ripped it off his Youtube or his previous posting and put it on their kpop blog and then it spread it to Cyworld. It wasn’t ‘leaked’ as they say. Youtube was the easiest way to upload the video for this site.

Also, he had to hunt down obscure items for his friend… who needed fresh parsley… but French parsley. Of course they didn’t have it but she claimed that they had it before.

I guess there is a big difference between the two. French parsley is on the left. English parsley is on the right. The French variety is also called flat-leaf parsley and chefs say it is easier to cook with.

What does one do with French parsley? You can make a delightful pistou… which is French pesto! It originates in Provence, the south of France… and witnesses say it is quite powerful. Here is the recipe.

* 6 cloves garlic
* 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
* ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
* ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
* ½ cup olive oil
* 3-4 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Press the garlic, then whisk the tomato paste, basil, cheese, oil, and parsley with it in a blender til it is a rich paste.

Convenience is a major turn on for a Seoulite. You can hop off the subway and walk directly underground to eat at a restaurant, watch a movie, go shopping, and even get a set of keys made or your shoes polished all without seeing the sun. Well… let’s not limit ourselves. If you want a swimming pool, ice skating rink, hotel… and amusement park added to all of that… your destination should be Lotte World! Go to Jamsil Station off of Subway Line 2 and you can walk directly into the madness of the Lotte Group: Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotteria and Lotte World!

Start at the Lotte Department Store!

Here to greet you is a replica of a Greek or Roman ruin complete with fountain and classical music.

When it is time for a crazy sale, they will put merchandise right out in the foyer. Korean ladies are notoriously aggressive when it comes to sales. Don't be alarmed if you feel a lot of elbows.

I almost died taking this picture. Do not occupy someone's space in front of sale merchandise if all you're going to do is act like a tourist! For your safety!

Here's the secret to efficient shopping... particularly for male Seoulites who don't like to spend a lot of time shopping. Since department stores are so accessible, periodically go in and take the escalator to the men's clothing floor. There are usually special sales racks like this one with heavy discounts. Be sure to check both floors - there are usually two - and both the up and down escalator platforms. If it's perfect, get it. If not, then just ride back down. It's the best ten minutes you can spend if shopping pains you. You'll end up with a really nice wardrobe that doesn't take a lot of time and money if you do this consistently over time. It's so awesome. For girls who like that whole hunting and discovering part of shopping... carry on. I will never accompany you though.

Here are shirts on sale. By the way, Seoulites refer dress shirts as a white shirt... it doesn't matter if it's blue, checkered or pink. If it is a dress shirt that's what it is... a white shirt. So if a sales clerk asks if you're looking for a white shirt, don't say no... I'm looking for a green one. Just say yes.

And these are the best white shirts in the world... Brooks Brothers no iron slim fit. You will never have to go to a dry cleaners again. Currently 30% off... price is still mucho inflated than the US... the Seoulite admits he wandered from the escalator. They got perturbed that I took this picture though. Yes, 'perturbed' because it was a prissy type of mad. Don't they know I will be sending thousands of people to their store now? Who knew Brooks Brothers was at Lotte Department Store in Jamsil?

Relax looking at this pretty fixture upstairs in the food court... which is really a bunch of restaurants. A true food court in a US mall type of fashion is usually found in the basement level of a department store right next to its grocery section.

Women's floor. I will only look at it from a distance.

Entrance to Lotte World! It feels a lot like Disneyland... but right in the heart of Seoul. It is so easy to get here.

Admission ranges from 20,000 - 30,000 won with discounts after 5pm. The park is open 365 days a year until 11pm. An annual pass costs 150,000 won.

Want a flavor of what it's like inside? Just go towards the ice rink and look up. The third level is Lotte World... the indoor portion. The second and first floors are publicly accessible parts of the mall and skating rink.

This is a great ice rink. One caveat. The air in here is very stuffy. Not enough oxygen. It's like living in a biosphere.

The inner rink is reserved for young skating prodigies and their trainers. These little Seoulites can twirl on a dime!

Lotteria... the Burger King of the Lotte empire. Never eat here. It is so disgusting and bland. If you're going to eat fast food... better eat it right... like at the Krispy Kreme a few stores down.

Do you need a vacuum cleaner or toothpaste after going to the amusement park? Head into Lotte Mart which is a few steps away from the entrance to Lotte World.

And get a souvenir before you leave.

Who is Lotte Group?

Lotte Group is a large South Korean chaebol (conglomerate). LOTTE Co., Ltd. was established in June 1948 in Tokyo, Japan by a Japan-based Korean businessman, Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호) also known as Shigemitsu Takeo (重光 武雄). Its head office is in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.

Lotte Group consists of over 50 business units employing 38,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Lotte has major operations in Japan where its head office is located, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, USA, and Russia and continues to expand. Today, Lotte is the largest candy / chewing gum manufacturer in both Japan and South Korea, and is South Korea’s 5th largest conglomerate.

The source of the company’s name is neither Japanese nor Korean, but German. Shin was impressed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ (1774) and named his newly-founded company Lotte after the character Charlotte (also the name of a new brand of deluxe movie theatres run by Lotte) in the novel.

That is one major accomplishment.

Inner beauty. Outer beauty. It’s hard to ignore both and for most people, it takes good work on both ends to make your natural self shine. Where do Seoulites - male and female - turn to for tools for outside beauty? Up until the recent past, Seoulites would flock to expensive foreign skin care and cosmetics - made even more expensive with import taxes. Or the most expensive local products. Reasonably priced beauty products made in Korea still lacked mojo. But it appears significant advancement of the Korean cosmetics industry has uplifted the quality of budget brands too.

Observers often wonder why so many Koreans obsess over outer beauty. The Seoulite doesn’t care but always wonders how much money these companies are making. Apparently the South Korean beauty market is $5 billion US dollars per year. It is the seventh largest beauty market in the world (compared with thirteenth largest overall economy in the world). Per capita consumption is even more impressive at fifth largest in the world.

Aritaum is the latest stand-alone ‘road shop’ to hit the beauty market… with its ubiquitous advertising campaign featuring a catchy song performed by Bobby Kim. Its defining feature is that it does not seem to focus on selling its own proprietary line. It has a keen taste for importing foreign lines that get high marks among the Hollywood set - Peter Thomas Roth, Mario Badescu, Dr. Bronner’s, etc.

Here are some of the other famous chains. They are all very reasonably priced and the quality can be exceptional - though some purchases can be hit and miss.

Missha is the king of the ‘knock-offs’. If there’s a popular product dominating the trends, you’ll see it replicated here - everything from the Body Shop to Estee Lauder. But don’t expect any products to stick around. If you see something you like, get lots of bottles. It will probably be extinct the next time you go to the store.

Skin Food markets itself as a line with natural ingredients for your skin to eat. I believe the parent company has been around for quite some time, but the brand itself is relatively recent - kind of like old Soju companies reinventing themselves with a newly-named soju every few years.

The Face Shop will be in almost every subway station you walk past. Some people say it’s good. The Seoulite has never tried. It is the third largest cosmetics company in South Korea. Number one is Amore Pacific.

Where do fancy Seoulites go grocery shopping? At the department store of course! If you’re looking for something of high quality or imported and can’t find it anywhere else, you can go to the basement level of any major department store (Hyundai, Lotte, Shinsegae) where you will find a paradise of food.

There are also grocery stores at discount stores like E-Mart. E-Mart and Shinsegae are owned by the same company and sometimes the two grocery stores of each are linked together. They seem to almost have the same products but just charge more at the department store! For a real bargain, shop at the little family owned grocery stores. There’s one across the street from the Lotte Department store at Hanti Station in Daechi-dong. It’s a big long alleyway of home-prepared banchan, fresh produce, fresh fish and meats, and also Korean pastries.

The following photos are from the Hyundai Department store in Apgujeong. (I just took pictures. The Seoulite doesn’t cook much these days.)

Delicious fruits and vegetables. Make sure you get your bag of vegetables or fruits weighed on the spot. The saleslady will put a sticker with the price on the bag. There are no scales at the checkout counter and they will send you back to get a sticker.

Sample the meat before buying!

Variety of meats.

Cook your own deep fried pork cutlets.

Premium pork!

Choose your own kimchee.

Of course who doesn't miss their nacho cheese sauce? Two different kinds too!

Olive oils from every country!

You'll find some imported goods from Europe, Asia and America all mixed together. So it will still be a taste of exotic foods even in this section!

You can also find prepared foods and treats... like this Rotiboy store!

The Red Velvet Cupcake craze has finally made it to Seoul.

These are the fancy cupcakes everyone 'tasted' at the Thanksgiving party!

Quality is high most of the times at the department store. But sometimes it seems a waste of money. However, I have to say that over the summer, the cherries my aunt bought me at the Lotte food hall was amazing. I thought they were only 4,000 won for the package. But turns out it was 4,000 won per 100g. That made the bunch of cherries over 30,000 won! I saved the seeds so I can one day plant them and eat these cherries for free. So be careful! Koreans will pay much more for food than you might expect.

Who wins in the exchange rate battle currently pommeling the South Korean won? Dollars coming into Korea. It’s a GREAT time for US travelers. Visit Korea if you’re a tourist and go shopping because everything will be literally on a massive sale. If you’re a saver, then buy some Korean won to sit on until the exchange rate shifts back.

If you’re in Korea, may heaven be with you if you have send money over to the states. One year ago, the exchange rate was approximately 1,000 won / dollar. So, if you saw a pair of shoes for 100,000 won, it would cost approximately 100 dollars. Today, if you see the pair of same shoes, they would cost you 66 dollars. I’m not kidding… the entire country is 33% off!

For Koreans who have to pay tuition in dollars or anyone who wishes to send money over to the states, their buying power has been cut in half. The horror! On this side we’re screwed. But for those on the other side of the pond who want to make good use of their money, the smartest thing to do is send money to Korea where you get an immediate 50% return because of the exchange rate and put it into a one-year savings account which currently gets about 7% in interest (much higher than US CD rates).

Check out the latest exchange rates in the Asia Pacific Region on Bloomberg here. It will only give you the basic rate though so if you can read Korean, type in ‘환율’ into Naver.com because there you can see the bank rates for cash and electronic transfers - including the differing rates when buying vs. selling.

This is of course based on the assumption that banks won’t fail and that the won will one day return to its 1,000 won / dollar level as it did after the last Asian Financial Crisis ten years ago. If not, then let’s meditate on this if any medication is not nearby at hand.

Looking at the sky makes material problems seem so immaterial.

Where can you get 10 floors of an electronic retailing mecca? Technomart off the Gang-byon (강변) exit on Line 2. It is directly connected to the subway. You can look for everything from digital cameras, cell phones, computers or robot vacuum cleaners here. This is similar to Yongsan Electronics Market in concept. But unlike Yongsan which is a business district comprised of separate shops, here you have sellers all in one building.

Expect to haggle and bargain. The salespeople are all at various levels of salesmanship skills. This place should be visited only when you’re in the mood. It gets tiring looking at the same stuff and bargaining away. At the Seoulite’s age, it all seems so trivial to fight over the price of electronic goods… that is until he really wants something! But generally people here are very nice and they’re all just trying to make a living.

Cameras.

Phones.

Expect cat calls and people trying their best to make a sale.

Plenty of food and coffee. There's even a grocery store and movie theater in the building.

View from the top. Don't let the escalator fool you. Take the elevator to get to the top floors. Otherwise you'll miss some great stuff.

Technomart
Line 2, Gangbyeon Station
www.tm21.com

The Seoulite is happy to report that Halloween is celebrated here in Korea. However, it’s not easy to find Halloween costumes for sale as it is in the states. The holiday is more of a fixture for young children who want candy and young expats who want an excuse to dress up and go nuts.

But with the resourceful insight from one of the Seoulite’s co-workers, we found amazing costumes at a place that normally rents to television productions. The name of the business is called Gag Si Tal and it is located in a non-descript glass building on the 3rd floor in Banpo-dong. The closest subway is Non Hyeon Station. This is the website: www.gagsital.com.

Fancy a Fiona Outfit?

There are rows and rows of costumes from period pieces (and we're not talking only European here) to cartoon characters to movie pieces.

You can try on hanboks - traditional Korean clothing from the Chosun Dynasty. If you've got a princess complex, they even have the gold crowns from the Shilla Dynasty... you know the ones that delicately vibrate and twinkle?

This was the best costume by far. A Korean General! Our bets are that this will have a good shot at winning the costume contest.

This was the only Lee Myung Bak mask they had and of course I had to get it. One of my dreams - now fulfilled!

Please support the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement!

I wasn't sure if I should include this, but Korean people don't really know that this mask is racist. In fact, black people have a PR problem in Korea. Koreans have bought into too much of what American television says about blacks... and you know what... it's not good. Sometimes it takes coming out of the country to see how much racism we aren't willing to admit is there.

Go Obama!

Gag Si Tal
www.gagsital.com
02-545-5860

The managers said they will be moving to a bigger location right after Halloween. But here’s the address of the current location anyhow:
Seoul, Seocho-gu, Banpo-dong, 718-8 Samho Building, 3rd Floor

Hi, I’m Sean Lim, an American expat living in South Korea.  This is my blog about becoming a Seoulite.

What is a Seoulite?
A ‘Seoulite’ (서울깍쟁이) is a citizen of Seoul, just as a ‘New Yorker’ is a citizen of New York. Of course the label ‘Seoulite’ doesn’t simply denote a place of residence [...]