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Another food post, but with some cartoons thrown in. My friend JI and I went to one of our favorite restaurants this week. They serve a Korean dish which my Korean food website calls "Short Rib Stew". The Korean name is Galbi-jjim. It is remarkably similar to American Pot Roast in the taste. This particular place offers three varieties, normal, spicy, and very spicy (we normally order just the spicy one).

Short Rib Stew (Think Spicy Pot Roast) 

After dinner, we went to one of the nearby bars we frequent. That night, we learned one of the bar tenders was a budding artist. Here are some of her "action" figures:

Don't Eat Me, Please 

Remind Anyone Else of a Suntan Lotion Ad? 

Oh No - Not the Ice Crusher 

We went to one more trade show today, and I captured a few interesting sights with my camera. First, the most amazing one was the Kimchi Pot Speaker system. Truly a novel use for a Kimchi Pot.

Kimch-Pot Speaker 

Electric Kimchi Pot? No - Bottom View of Kimchi Pot Speaker 

I've found the perfect next car. In fact, it would be perfect here in Seoul. You can avoid a lot of traffic jams if you can skim across the Han River or some of the streams. I met one of the designers of this car. He said this year they are marketing them for rescue and fire fighters, and next year they will begin marketing for recreational use. I gotta get one.

The Stumblers Next Car - A Hovercraft 

I ran into a few of SY's friends at the trade show:

This Little Piggy Went to Market... 

...This Little Piggy Manned the Booth at the Trade Show 

Unrelated to the trade show, but I happened to remember the photos today, are the statues. Apparently there is a law in Seoul that all new buildings have an area set aside for artwork, which is typically a statue of some kind. Here you see two such statues, one for our apartment and the other at CH's home:

No Name - How About Balancing Barrels 

"Tree By The Stream" 

Finally, you can get an idea of how important the cell phone is to the average Korean when you see special cell phone antennas placed in the BASEMENT parking garage!

Cell Phone Coverage Even in the Basement 

We had a delicious dinner of grilled eel last night. I forgot to take a photo of the first dish, which had two styles of grilled eel. This was the second dish, and we only ordered the BBQ style. While Korean foods topped with a red-colored sauce will usually set your mouth on fire, this one was not very spicy at all, it reminded me more of an American BBQ sauce. As for the eel, it really was good. It turned out to be very tender with a fish-like texture. Not at all what I was imagining from having eaten such Korean favorites from the ocean like squid and octopus.

Grilled Eel 

Here's one more oddity from the trade show last week. I was too lazy to post it previously. These shelves would be great in earthquake-prone areas like Southern California. The movie demonstrates it best, but here's a screen capture. And sorry, the movie is sideways again.

Leaning Shelf 

Fall has arrived in Seoul, and the weather is MUCH better. I actually wore a undershirt a few nights this week it was so cool. Having a typhoon pass over the country made for some refreshing breezes here in Seoul, although it caused quite some problems in the south and over in Japan.

This post features some odd things, so let's start with the "apple prisoner" liquor bottle. I saw this on display at the bar where SY worked - it was not for sale, just decoration. So far, I have gathered two popular theories about how they got this apple inside the bottle. Theory #1 is that they tie the bottles to the apple tree when the apple is small enough to fit through the neck of the bottle, and the apple grows to full size inside the bottle on the tree. Theory #2 is that a dehydrated apple is squeezed through the neck of the bottle and as it absorbs the alcohol, it swells back to full size.

The Apple Prisoner 

While on the topic of bottles, here is an interesting bottle with a cavity for putting ice. I guess the theory is that the drink will stay cool without being diluted by the ice. However, I can report that it did not work very well, and I ended up putting some ice in my glass. But it sure is pretty.

Strawberry Soju Cocktail 

Here are some interesting side dishes that went well with soju cocktail

Shrimp Wrapped in Potato Strings 

Fresh Salmon Side Dish 

This week we attended a couple of trade shows featuring some new Korean products. A few products caught my attention and warrant a mention here on the Stumbling Blog. To begin with we have the Korean version of a pop-up camper. It apparently sleeps two, although I don't know how comfortable it would be sleeping on your roof.

Korean Version of a "Pop-Up Camper" 

Korean Pop-Up Another View 

One interesting product was a specialized plastic bag that you put your camera in for underwater photography. I have seen large cumbersome plastic boxes before designed for a camera, but this looks easy to use and cheap enough to put underwater photography in reach of the average person. As you can see, it is hard to take a good photo in an aquarium.

My Camera is Underwater!!!! 

I really liked this product. When I first saw it, it looked like some instrument of torture. The handle contains many brass spikes that poke into your hand. Reportedly this will have a health benefit, something about pressure points in the palm. But the best part was the advertising slogan: "Leader's Baton added brass massaging beads on the grip of an existing baton. It is a useful baton that can massage your hands. It is expected to be very popular among teachers, military officers, lecturers, and others who need batons".

The Leaders Baton 

This is an interesting wine bottle holder, almost looks like magic. It is just a piece of wood with a hole for the bottle neck and the end is cut at the correct angle for a perfect balance.

Magic Wine Bottle Holder 

Finally, I saw this game of ping pong being played on the sidewalk recently:

Street Ping Pong 

Not much exciting these days. As the last week of August arrives, I had been told by my Korean friends that the weather would finally cool off. However, we were greeted with news last week that the heat will continue for another two weeks. I have made a small collection of "new products" to post over the past week or so, and Mother Stumbler has been bugging me for a new post, so here goes.

The first new product idea is based on an advertisement I saw recently near our apartment. When I first saw this photo, I thought she was using a telephone handset to scratch her nose. Then I realized it was some kind of nose cleaner, treatment device? Anyway, this got my creative juices flowing, and I came up with the cool idea of a combination telephone handset / ear cleaner. Imagine, hanging up after each phone call with freshly clean ears!

Would YOU Put This Machine in YOUR Nose? 

The next new product slipped through my spam filters this week, and was so funny I have saved the email and the website link. This company sells the FLY-JUMPER product, which allows you to take steps 2 to 3 meters long and also jump 1 to 2 meters high! Besides simply being an amazing product, I was drawn to their statements about beign the only licensed company in China to make these jumping boots. With all you hear and read about product copying in China, it was interesting to read this statement from a Chinese company: "other enterprises are illegal to produce Flyjumper". Be sure to check out the photos on their website, and pay close attention to the marketing claims. I particularly liked "The girl who likes beautiful to own it, not only have pretty body, but also have the fiction of reduce weight", and was amazed to learn by using this product I can have "Benefit to your intelligence, Eliminate hemorrhoids ". And so on....

The Fly Jumper 

Finally, we have the dry ice beer pitcher, a new product which I personally observed and tested this week. It arrived at the table looking like something from a science fiction movie. At first I thought the dry ice was actually in the beer, but after studying the thing for awhile, I believe the side of the pitcher is hollow, and is filled with dry ice and some water before being served to the table. Note the exhaust vent on the top. For those with high speed internet connections, I have posted a short movie of the dry ice beer pitcher (it is much more exciting than the photo).

Dry Ice Beer Pitcher 

Well, that's all. I'm off to the Patent Office to apply for my phone/ear cleaner patent, before someone reads this blog and beats me to the application desk.