Sunday, September 22, 2013

Photo Blog 10: Beauty in Randomness

Happy Birthday Omma. 

The stillness of day..
with random cold chills in sight..
harks the question
could this still be one of the delights.

Random little things..
no meanings..just things..
Bashed.. threw.. just little things.. petty things.. 
especially in this stillness of day..

Yet.. what goes yonder..
is simple beauty 
in all of all its magnanimity..
These little things..these little things 

Hardened and toughened 
molded and crafted 
with random cold chills 
 replied to that query 
 at one sight. 
  


Who said the world upside down is bad?


Weeping building.

She stands out.

Beauty in Revery

Beauty in stillness

Agochim... Not for the weak hearts

 Saturday is like a date day for us with our friends - Sunny and David. We would tarry along with them to practically anywhere, do some sightseeing. They would also introduce us to really great Korean (and most of the time) very spicy Korean dishes like 2 Saturdays ago.

아구찜. Agujjim was the name of the dish  we had from this restaurant. It capitalized on the monk fish's meat with little bit of crunchy shells (yes.. because you could eat the soft cartilage like shells with some kind of meat in it and more). Even though the fish (based from Sunny's description) wasn't really that great looking.... and looked somewhat like a piranha, it still tasted absolutely great.
... there's no turning back.. lol.
The monkfish for 아구찜/ Agujjim is displayed on
the right side of the glass pane. Pretty isn't it?
    As always, we were served up with an array of side dishes. A bowl of cold kimchi soup, cucumbers with chives, a dipping sauce with wasabi (which you could mix in or not), a small plate of pickled anchovy, anchovy sauce (binagoong isda) and more.

The anchovy sauce (and I guess it's the same with other restaurants is true) was very salty. A small bite of it would make you go bleck and drink lots of water.

Few minutes later, the good ol' waitress brought the main dish to our table. A sweltering, bright hot red dish on a huge platter with some basil of some sort to amp up the spiciness.... *drum roll please*.... The Agachim.


Yes, it's called Agachim. Believe it or not, from a not-so-good-looking kind of fish (monk fish) to mouth watering, blazing hot food for good friends to partake. It's so good that David couldn't seem to take his eyes off from the plate (lol).
My husband didn't need any further encouragement from everyone. He helped himself, just like everybody else in the following photos.



The dish was absolutely hot, it made everybody's noses runny. The weather btw was a little bit chilly and we could sort of feel it in the restaurant. But a mouthful of this dish, I swear, felt like we were back in Summer.

It didn't take long to empty out the platter. By the time were done, we had also finished several box full of table napkins and pitchers of water. lol.


We were later served with chilled rice washed water with bit of sugar (we call this 'am' in Philippines) and rested for a few.

Here's how my plates and bowls looked like plus rolls of tissues on the side lol.


Would I come back again to this restaurant for another round of Agochim? Maybe. We'll play it by ear.







Tuesday, September 10, 2013

PhotoBlog #9: Post Birthday Celebration snap shots

It's been awhile since I last wrote something on my page. Apart from house chores, I've been fairly busy going out with some of the new friends I've made here in Korea.

Without batting an eyelash, two of my very close Korean friends (Sunny and David) treated me out to a wonderful birthday bash together with my hubby. They had absolutely taken the time to be with me a week after my special day. They brought took us to one of the most beautiful and serene (and by far the biggest) Buddhist temple in Daegu- Dongghwasa.

Donghasa (no idea though what it means) is a temple complex spanning from one mountain to a couple more. You'll have to excuse me for lack of a better word to describe the complexity of the area.

Sunny took us first to some of the smaller temples in Donghwasa. These are located at the food of the mountains. The entrance way (picture on the left) leads to the smaller temples within the vicinity. The monks live in these areas and are pretty much in charge of maintaining everything. All temples within the vicinity can be checked out by tourists except for some temples where they are used as study classroom by the monks.
 
 It was midday when we got and most monks where inside the study temples. There was hardly a sound heard except from shoes rubbing against the pavement. There were a number of birds that chirped but their chatters was mostly concealed behind the spawning trees and bushes. In front of the temple entrance way was a gazebo of some sort of lanterns. Devotees and tourists can hang a prayer can write their prayers and hang it on the lantern. I don't know though how much you're suppose to pay but I think it's not that expensive


Lanterns full of prayers.

One of the temples housed a traditional Korean stove. I say, it was not different from ours way back then.


One of the smaller temples within the Donghwasa (I don't know the name.. ugh, sorry) 

A colorful tree waiting for autumn. The sweltering heat has kissed Korea for the last time and now.. everyone awaits for the cool blast of autumn..and dread the winter.


 
The temples are self sufficient. They grow most of their foods, including chilli! They also have ponds full of fish.. but they're not meant for eating.


Before we took off for another set of temples in Donghwasa, we pat the blessed Buddha's belly good bye. 

more to come...