I spend the day training our new hires on thermal sales and DMA operations. I really need to do a third edition with a total rewrite of some chapters as I keep finding better ways to explain things. First thro, I need to finish the thermal book or that nice lady at Hanser is going to have me killed.

We went out to lunch to a Korean-Chinese restaurant, walking over and enjoying the mild spring day. It is apparently mildly amusing that I am so into pictures of flowers.

Probably because even with my limited color vision, it is so striking. Right there is also this little padoga and a dry fountain with ducks. It was pointed out that ducks are a good model for behavior as above the water they look calm and placid but underneath they are working hard and furious. I bit my tonque and didn't ask about some other duckish behavior and was it also copied? I figured someone would hit me. 

Chinese style dishes served with a local flair here means hot peppers and loads of chili.  I am always amazed at how adaptable Chinese cusine is - it takes local flavors but you still recongize it as Chinese. Lunch here involved a noodle soup the was bright red from the chili in it and whole octopi with really long tentacles. That explained the scissors on the table: you trimmed them off to a reasonable size. Again people are surprised at both the fact I can eat with chopsticks and that I will eat stuff that makes Koreans sweat. Other dishes included dakon radish that pickled to a bright yellow, pickled cucumber, a different type of cabbage, and a seaweed as well as a dish with fried chicken in a hot and sweet sauce.

Lion dogs are all over although they call them tigers.  The set outside of the local office are exceptionally nice. I want a pair for the front yard but I think they would kill my baggage allowance.

We slipped out for coffee as our coworkers took a smoking break. I wanted to try a local joint but they dragged me to a Starbucks <sob>. It was very American in the food choices. Again lots of flowers...

For dinner, I convinced them to let me go on my own. They recommend Grandma's Bassom. It's this little chain that serves a boiled pork with lots of sides. So I wandered down there. First mistake - don't go alone. A teenager couldn't eat the small portion. It was 350 g of pork for about 25 US so I figured - one person with some left over.  Let's look at dinner:



In the center we have a mildly spiced boiled pork sitting on a steamer, the sauces are a chili sauce and a ferment shrimp with chili sauce, som pork on slice of pickled cabbage, the edge of the soup bowl, and green hot peppers and garlic (going across from the left and up.)  That's part. Then there is the sides:



A mildly flavored broth with bean sprouts, the peppers and garlic are on the left. In the back is a red pile of pickled radish in chili sauce, a small salad, wraps from a dakon, from pickled cabbage and the yellow and green rice wrap (Working clockwise around the plate from the red mound.) We take one of the wraps, lay it on a plate, add a piece of pork, some of chili or shrimp sauce, some salad and some kimchi. Than gets folded together like so:



It's small enough you can just pop it in your mouth and wait for the fire to go out. Awesome stuff and the wrap is a radish, which is weird if you think about it. Then on the other side we have buckwheat noodles with veggies around them. Those mild looking sprouts - I think they come from radishes as they bite like anything...



The stuff in the middle under the eggs and peanuts is buckwheat noodles and in the far back you can see the hot sauce to cover them with. Starting with the lettuce we have shredded cabbage, a leafy thing with a spicey taste no one knows the English for, another type of shredded cabbage, pepper sprouts, radish sprouts, and finally bean sprouts.  The mix of flavors was amazing and the heat was tolerable. Our hot food fan, Ben, would love this place.