May-June 2023

Seoul Food

A teenage student tried passing me on his bike and crashed into my leg. I had separated from my girlfriend (and translator) so I couldn’t say anything in Korean to him, except “I don’t speak Korean.” He said, in English, “ok,” gave me a thumbs up, hit me with the “sorry,” bowed, and left.

And then I had the best meal of my 2 week trip to Korea. Korean fried chicken, delivered to a park bench right on the Han River.

Food is something that has become really special to me — whether it’s an act of service cooking a bento box for my girlfriend before her big exam, or as an excuse to reconnect with my parents every so often — food has become an important tool for communication.

My trip to Korea was filled with food: authentic, modern, and international. Everything was turned up to 11. Pizza, ice cream, chicken — casual foods but make it gourmet. 3 meals a day didn’t cover all I wanted to try, so a second trip is definitely in the works, which me and my camera will gladly oblige.

I (shockingly) kept my camera out of my bag at least half the days I was in Korea. I wanted to spend the time undistracted and to see through my eyes and not only my lens. While I missed out on a few photos, I definitely didn’t have a shortage of instagrammable content to edit on the plane ride home.

Speaking of the plane ride home, how in the world did Koreans figure out how to make plane food taste so good? Shoutout Korean Air.