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Well, after missing the special menu during my Thanksgiving trip to Outback, I was sure to ask for it last night when I went there again for Christmas. Steak Wellington was a steak cooked with a layer of bread around the outside. It was really delicious. The sauce was surprisingly good, since in my previous Outback experiences their sauces weren't very good. This one had a hint of red wine taste,...

I remembered suddenly that we have a small artificial Christmas tree. John bought this back in 2004 when we first came here. It's been sitting in a box for a couple years. I'd forgot I had it until this afternoon (Chrismas Eve) when I saw it sitting on top of a cabinet at the office. So, for one night I have a small taste of Christm...

I found a notice on my door the other evening. I was invited to an Christmas Party for the International Residents of my building! Since I only know of one other foreigner here, I was surprised there were enough to make up a party! But it turns out there are four homes with foreigners here, two from Canada, me from the United States, and one family from Columbia! Plus at the part, a friend of...

As I went to bed last night, I saw a lot of smoke coming from a small building, and the fire trucks were all there with their flashing lights and spraying water on the fire. Well, this morning I had to to walk by and see what had burned. It was a small warehouse structure, with an electronics shop in the front (which seemed to have taken most of the damage).Somehow these images turned up to bright....

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As I have in the past for Thanksgiving in Seoul, I headed off to the Outback Steak House at Balsan. I usually have a Ribeye Steak, which is what I had last night.Along with a salad and baked (jacket) potato:I had been interested in a steak that I saw advertised on TV. It is a steak wrapped in a layer of bread. I didn't see it on the menu, so I ordered the Ribeye. But after I ordered, I saw a separate,...

Been meaning to update my night view. Since this post in March, the skyline has changed slightly. That is, the Samsung Tripalace has been completed, and is well illuminated at night. Looks pretty cool, much better in person that my camera can captu...

Ran into these new breath mints the other night. All I can say is unusu...

Trevor and MY will be temporarily closing Beer O'Clock for three months. They had wanted to relocate, and were in the process of looking for new places. Suddenly someone came forward to buy the current place. I'm guessing it was a good offer, because they decided to sell and wait until after MY gives birth in January to open a new place. Saturday will be the last day at this current location....

I was going to meet my friend JI for dinner on Saturday, but his mother needed sudden heart surgery and understandably he couldn't join me. I decided to go by myself anyway, and get some Mexican food at "Dos Tacos". I have mentioned before about taxi drivers ignoring me, presumably because I am a foreigner. Well, this night I had a first - the BUS DRIVER refused to stop and let me on! I've never...

I've been delaying making a post, because my phone/camera seems to have gotten a virus! But by using photos that don't have to be rotated, I can proceed to make a post. We went back to the bank last week, on a Thursday, when the coin change counting machine would be operating. And it was.You slowly pour the coins onto this small conveyor belt, and the coins are gobbled up by the machine. It makes...

I saw this car on the street last month. Ssang-Yong is a Korean automobile manufacturer that's been around a long time, although recently they were purchased by a Chinese company. The Musso is one of their popular SUV models. But this car has a Mercedes-Benz logo on the back! I thought this fellow just wanted a Benz, and stuck this logo on his car. But as I searched on the internet, apparently...

...NOT. I don't like coins. In Korea and in the USA, I empty my pockets into a box or container at the end of each day. In the USA, I used to get Young Stumbler #3 to sort, count and roll the coins, for which I would give her 10% of the total. In Korea, in the past I gave them to CH, who would take them to a special bank branch that had a automatic coin counting machine. In Korea, as best I can...

These are the Red Ginseng "pills" that I recently began taking. I was feeling completely drained of energy for about a week, and my Korean friends told me I needed to take some Red Ginseng.There are many ways to get Red Ginseng here in Korea. You can get an extract, tea, candies, and I even say Red Ginseng alcohol. However, I don't like the taste of Red Ginseng, so I chose these "pills". Look...

I've been visiting this convenience store, GS-25, in our office building occasionally since we moved here in February. I really don't shop there very often, but they gave me a point card to use. Furthermore, this point card is only good at this one store, not other GS-25 stores. Here in Seoul I have a variety of point cards, but in almost every case I have no idea how to use/redeem my points. ...

One of my friends who has left Korea told me where I could buy some more canned tomatoes, which I used recently to make a Burrito. There is a small shop inside Hyundai Department Store which sells a selection of foreign foods. I found these cans of tomatoes, which includes "chilis and spices". Should be great for Burrito, I think.Then nearby I saw this BOX of corn! I've never seen corn in a box...

As a kid, I remember The Stumbling Parents had a couple of small cast iron grills called "HIBACI's". This drawing I scavanged from the web is as close as I can find to those long ago grills (unless The Stumbing Brother still has them collecting dust somewhere in his basement):You couldn't cook a lot of food fast, but they were very portable. Which is just what my neighbor G and I were looking for...

I met a foreigner a couple weeks at at the sandwich shop where I sometimes eat breakfast. Turns out he is on a team staying here in Seoul, contracting to a large Korean company. Their office is just around the corner from my apartment. We made an appointment to meet at Trevor's bar Beer O'Clock last night. Honestly in the afternoon I was feeling so tired I almost wished I didn't have an appointment....

Dishes, that is, not a course number. This week's Joongang Daily reported that Agriculture Ministry will unify the English names of 102 Korean dishes. Since I know everyone has been waiting for this, I wrote to the reporter, and was sent a list of these 102 foods and their new names.I apologize for the poor formatting. I had hoped to get a link to the government's website, instead all I got was...

Realed to the Taxi Theory of mine, I have developed the Elevator Corollary. Whenever The Stumbler arrives at the elevator on the 6th floor, wanting to go down to the main street level, there will always be someone on the elevator going UP to the very top of the building, say the 25th or 26th flo...

There's an ongoing shakeup of my Korean satellite TV these days. CH received a call this week, saying they were going to quit providing the HD channel. That in itself isn't such a great loss. They didn't have a lot of good programming on that channel. On the other hand, there are a LOT of satellite channels that are transmitting original HD progams in standard definition, so you think they would...

The last time I went to the bar, I absolutely could NOT believe what I saw on the bar tender's hand. She had a metal letter "D" attached to her fingernail by a small chain which passed through a hole in her fingernail! I was told this was a new kind of "accessory" girls are wearing these days!I asked her if it was any problem. I'm imagining a lady getting her "accessory" caught in the elevator...

The week leading up to Chusok, the Korean "Thanksgiving", many people, families and companies give Chusok presents. In the stores there are huge displays of various Chusok gift sets you can buy. These gifts can be many different items, honey, meat, SPAM, olive oil, etc. Or, if you are like my Canadian friend G, you might get fish. His boss gave him a package of special Jeju Island Mackerel. Unfortunately...

I was treated to this interesting sauce at lunch time recently at one of the restaurants here in our office building. You can see the obligatory dish of Kimchi on the left...

Today started off okay, until I went to the dentist office. I was supposed to have a final imprint of my teeth for the permanent bridge/crown. What I didn't realize that they were going to do some additional drilling and preparation of the two teeth which will hold the bridge. That in itself wasn't a problem, but what was a bit odd was the novocaine anesthetic. He told me that one of these teeth...

I was listening to some Canadian friends describe the hotel breakfast buffet at their vacation in the Philippines. Suddenly we realized there weren't any pancake restaurants in Seoul (feel free to correct me if anyone knows of any). And since then I've been craving pancakes. Turns out I had all the indgreients except syrup. I quick trip to the store solved that problem last night, and this morning...

A few random observations from 2 weeks of on and off summer Olympic watching from Seoul.This ain't my father's handballWhen I was a kid, I was introduced to racquetball and handball at the place where my Father worked. To me, handball is just like racquetball, except played with a slightly smaller ball (not unlike a squash ball) and the players just use their hands, not racquets (they do wear padded...

Or as we spell it in the USA, Ramen. Actually, I think what we ordinarily buy in the states as Ramen is a Japanese product. The Korean product, Ramyun, is basically the same food modified to suit Korean tastes. For all I know the Chinese have the same dish as well. I was watching some Olympic coverage tonight from home, and decided to prepare some Ramyun. As I've posted before, my Korean friends...

Our friend from a few years ago, SC, had moved to Busan a few years ago, opening a successful Curry Restaurant. SC used to work with us, and served as a part-time travel guide during a family visit back in 2005. He came to Seoul this month to visit, so we all got together Friday night for dinner and to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics at a sports bar.(You will notice SC is wearing a Curry-colored...