Garlic Bread??

A frequent source of amusement, is just how wrong Koreans can get it when trying to write things in English. The most worrying example of this are some of the bizarre role-play conversations in the school textbooks. We constantly have to scan through exercises in advance with a red pen and make changes. Can't remember many offhand, but I'll bring it home and post some to show the fantastic English these poor kids are usually taught. Talking of red pens, it's fun to now be a teacher and have access to the dreaded red pen. It's like my sword when marching into battle. All the kids eye it with fear and awe, as they know that it is with this tool that the judgement of "Excellent", "Very Good", "Good", and.....(shudder) "More Practice", will be bestowed upon them. Of course, a more effective sword for battle would be the big sticks the other Korean teachers have, maybe after a certain amount of months we will be considered worthy enough to dish out some punishment to the hooligans.

Anyway, back to the point of the post, Koreans and their dodgy English. The best example to date, are some of the T-Shirts in the local supermarket that make absolutely no sense at all,I'm definitely buying one.

For your amusement, here is the message I found on a half-loaf of bread.....

"The toast of garlic flavor can be experience only by toasting. In a mouth, the flavor of crunchy feeling of a meal and a garlic spreads!"

Isn't that brilliant!? Clearly I had to buy this bread based on this message alone, and it turns out to be just normal bread, with no hint of garlic at all. So I have no idea what it's on about, but that's why this country is great! Completely random!

Photo Round-Up

I thought I would just do a short post with some remaining photos that have been kicking about. For anyone that reads Lynne's Blog too, these photos will be old news to you I'm afraid! At the end I'll update you on recent news, and there has been much excitement! But for the benefit of those haven't seen these pictures, here we go.......

"You're my besht mate I luv you". This was taken from a night out in Itaewon, where we ended up in a club called Big Electric Cat watching a local band. The band were all piss poor apart from this suave looking fellow, who we got chatting to afterwards. There aren't many Koreans who look like an oriental blend of John Lennon and James Brown, so it was certainly a Kodak moment. Just look at that hair, this is one funky dude. Unfortunately for our bequiffed friend, we were shockingly drunk, so he had to contend with not only understanding our English, but also our drunken gibberish. He coped admirably and drew us up a list and a map for other live band venues close by. Did I ask him for a rendition of "Sex Machine"? I really don't remember, but given my genuine love for his very Un-Korean soulful locks, I wouldn't be at all surprised! Get up-uh, Get on up!
"Kimchi Salute!" Ah now this must be a familiar sight to my friends. Here I am exhibiting all the signs of oncoming inebriation. Do I always look like this when pished? If so, I wish somebody had told me sooner, what a twat! Previous to this pub, we had invaded the table of some Germans, who were fantastically all tucking into some German sausage and sauerkraut. When a language barrier exists, and you're already drunk, it seems like a good idea just to shout out movies from the country in question, and at least share a mutual nod of satisfaction. However, in this case it appeared that Germans dislike German films, and, in particular....Goodbye Lenin! Bloody idiots. I have no idea what is happening in the next photo, but it looks like fun. And I'm guessing the Soju switch had just been flipped.


It's a bit disheartening that while Lynne manages to relatively control herself, I seem to either be melodramatically falling off my stool, or attempting a fairly accurate impression of a neanderthal man having an epilectic fit. Apologies to anyone reading with epilepsy, and don't sit so close to the screen!

Last but not least, we have a picture of our first full Korean meal. It was a shame for all concerned that this meal was spontaneous, and required the removal of shoes and sitting on the floor. My feet were positively reeking, and if Koreans knew what cheese smelled like, they probably would have identified that aroma as I squeezed onto my cushion. This is also the first picture of our Director, James, to grace my blog. He is quite an entertaining fellow, and just like his wife Jennifer, he "LOVES MEAT!" And no, I'm not trying to be witty, seriously whenever the topic of food comes up, Jennifer excitedly exclaims just how much she "LOOOOOVES THE MEAT!", completely unaware of any gutter-minded connotations that could come from that! In general, meat really is a big deal to people here, with whole restaurants devoted to, and celebrating the wonder that is meat, usually decorated with pictures of slightly worried cows. As we had read, a ridiculous 25 different dishes arrived at the table all at the same time, and it was a great chance to try some more bizarre foods. The main dish for myself and James was Bossam, a stack of fatty pork kept on the gas burner on the right of the table. Despite the apparently fatty meat, it was totally delicious and melted in your mouth. There was also a bowl of little fish, with even their eyes still intact. It was literally like someone had taken a net up to "Swanny Ponds", swiped some shoddy looking minnows and chucked them in a bowl. I gamely chopsticked up a couple of the blighters, looked into their dead bulbous eyes, and chewed them up. Tasted like fish but worse. Other delights included what appeared to be a bowl of leaves just plucked off some tree, and tasted pretty much what you'd imagine trees to taste like. And, a massive wooden trough filled with some gelatinous white substance, vaguely like tofu. I really hope it was tofu, as it looked disgusting and could have been steamed dog blubber or something.

Anyway, a brief recap of the last week. After using our Hanguel reading skills we realised that not only were there 4 of Korea's infamous Noreabangs ("Singing Rooms", like Lost in Translation), within spitting distance of our apartment, there's even one in the basement level of our school! We checked it out on Friday night, and I will let you know about that next time! It certainly didn't help my bloody throat though, which still feels like I ate a cactus when I was pished. On Saturday, I met up with Ross and we got drunk-ish and went to see Korn. In case, for some reason, you are reading this entry having not read earlier ones......No, I do not like Korn, we were going for a laugh. However, you might be surprised at how the gig turned out! We also had the chance to check out Dongdaemun, a fantastic area of Seoul. In school related news, Bobby class successfully completed the cutting, colouring, and glueing, of The Alphabet Train.....and goddammit I have the pictures to prove it! This coming Thursday we have a works meal at a seafood buffet. In Korea, that does not mean, some prawn cocktail, scampi, and Bird's Eye fish fingers. This means that it will be a complete nightmare of disgustingness, so we look forward to it with more than a little trepidation. Anyway, all that will be covered next time, take care everyone.

Oh, one last thing..... this is my phone number and address, in case you feel like phoning up drunk, or sending me some presents. I like.....Lemsips, Double Deckers, Magazines (Q, Total Film, Empire, even NME), Baked Beans, Flaming Hot Monster Munch, Walkers Thai Sweet Chili, Red Bull, Scottish Cheddar, Haggis, Any flavour of "Millions", and extra cheap plain T-Shirts (size large). Of course, I'm joking, sort of.

031-977-0288
Chris Waddell
Gyeonggi-do, Ilsan-gu, Jungsan-dong, 1562-5, Sinhyundae Officetel, 607.

A Spring Salute

All of a sudden, Spring is upon us!

(There are 3 more new small updates below this one. Aren't you lucky!)

Ever since we moved here, we have been slightly dismayed at just how dead the park looks next door to our apartment. That's right, we really are lucky, it goes......School, Pizza place, Pub, Pub/Restaurant, Our House, Restaurant, Restaurant,....MASSIVE PARK! We were certainly glad to have it there, they are working on a huge running track and it has 3 tennis courts and stuff, but it just looked absolutely barren of all life until now. Spring hit with the delicate touch of a sledgehammer, and all of a sudden we find ourselves with the ultimate location for relaxation and summer beers. The once dead trees, overnight it seems, have sprung to life in a riot of white, pink, and purple, and we aren't the only ones to notice, as the park is now enjoying use from more than just the usual ridiculous speed-walkers.





The weather, in general, has also changed rather abruptly, and for the first time since getting here we can comfortably head out in short sleeved shirts etc. Even though I am still battling numerous debilitating symptoms, I dragged myself out and we had a mock run for the summer frivolities of all day boozing in the sun. Fortunately, we found a discarded set of mini speakers in Lynne's apartment, so we managed to get our end of the park rocking along to some Tool for a little bit. As you will have seen in numerous films, Asia is fairly famous for it's cherry blossom trees, and they are fairly abundant around the park.....







As well as the ubiquitous pink cherry blossoms, there are many of these trees, in variations of purple or white, with huge blossoms. No idea what they are called, but they look fairly smart nonetheless.




All in all, it's a happy day to realise how cool this park will be. We are so glad we don't live in deepest darkest Seoul, as the sleepy and mellow feel of Jungsan Village is fantastic. I can't imagine living next to one of the many EIGHT lane roads that run throughout most of Seoul. Nah....we'll save that shit for the weekends I think! We also just realised that we have some small mountains to explore only ten minutes from our door. After discovering a small trail winding up into the forest, our curiosity led us to a small oriental gazebo, with a network of unknown trails leading off further into the trees. It looks a little bit too like Pet Sematary, which I'm reading again just now, but we plan on investigating soon! Talking of pets, there may well be some new additions to our apartments before long, I'm thinking a gecko named Gordon might be interesting!

Teacher's Pet

Remember all the mischievious things you got upto in school? I certainly partook in more than my fair share of buffoonery, and look back on this time with great fondness. Wasn't it hilarious to throw things at teachers? Haha! What a laugh it was to hide the pens and erasers! Hee hee! Let's erase the games that teacher has painstakingly drawn onto the board for our amusement! What an absolute rib-tickler! Indeed. That was then, and this is now, and the tasteful Korean slipper is on the other foot. As you can imagine, remembering my own approach to school ("Chris is extremely capable but also interested in silly nonsense" springs to mind), I allow a fair amount of chaos into the class. But when you genuinely have spent your only free period of the day drawing a massive wordsearch (it's hard keeping those lines straight!) on the whiteboard for the following class, only to find it erased or drawn over, it's pretty bloody annoying!

This went too far one day, and I had to bring in the big guns. Subsequently, poor Tony and Chris (every "Chris" I have is a hooligan of sorts, I'm so proud!), who aren't really bad kids, got a whack on the palms from old "Meme" (the cane), and made to stand hands aloft for 5 minutes. They were crying and I felt really bad, but the kids have short memories, and the next day they were laughing and joking, but also behaving! Seriously though, it IS annoying when they mess up stuff you have planned for them, so I henceforth repent all sins committed against my past teachers. I might even email Craigiebarns, and, more specifically....any teacher I had between 1st and 4th Year at Craigie High, to formally apologize. Actually, maybe I should get drunk on Friday and phone them up. Even better, maybe just phone up and ask for Gay May! That'll be lost on a lot of you! I may be a teacher now, but I'm still interested in silly nonsense you see.

Anyway, the character at the top was designed to give the children nightmares and scare them from rubbing things off my board ever again! It quickly got rubbed out though, as I didn't realise some of the morning kindergarteners were still around, and when they came bouncing in to say Hi I noticed a few bottom lips a-trembling! Ooops!

Red Sky At Night.....

As I was lying in bed sweating buckets and popping dubious pills, poor Lynne had to work. She did, however, get to see the sky one night on her way home (round the corner!) and take some very cool pictures of it. As the nice Spring weather creeps in, these instances where the sky appears to be on fire are becoming more frequent, and quite breathtaking. I toyed with the idea of showing off and translating what these sign say, but I can't make out half of the new fangled stupid font. I COULD though, if I wanted to! Honest! Stupid fonts!

Happy Birthday To Buddha.....

Greetings! For those that didn't know, I am falling apart over here and at the mercy of the Korean health service. Apparently, it wasn't just a falling out with bad mad Mr. Soju, I really DID have tonsilitis and gastro-enteritis, and predictably still feel preety crap! Added to this, ever since sneezing a golf ball sized piece of matter out my nose, it's been bleeding incessantly. Oh, and I have toothache, so my favourite activity of going to the dentist is surely on the horizon, I wonder what Hanguel for "please don't extract my tooth", is? Apart from all that, things are great, but due to my poor state I'm just going to do a few short blog updates in order to show some photos that have been kicking around. Therefore, there will be very little interesting reading, very little wit, and......well, what's the difference you might ask! Once I recover from my various illnesses we can return to the usual skewed look at Korea.

Last weekend when we went hunting for Insa-dong, we firstly got lost and stumbled across a temple. It was Buddha's birthday that day, so all sorts of mystical stuff was going on, and the Koreans were bowing their asses off. When they entered, when they left, when they looked up, when they blinked, .....I'm surprised they didn't give themselves whiplash. Of course, we bow at all the appropriate times as well, it's kind of fun to do anyway. Here is a small and cheeky looking buddha, where Lynne made an offering of 1,000W in his little slot at the bottom. Almost sounds rude!
The trees around the temple courtyard were strewn with decorative prayer lanterns, and predictably for a temple, it had a very tranquil feel to it. I think we might organize a "temple-stay" further down the line, and just hang with the monks. Maybe they can play chess, and I can defeat one and obtain some divine wisdom and enlightenment in doing so.





More of the prayer balloons, oooh aren't they colourful! We tried to go into the main temple to wish the big lad a Happy Birthday, but I bottled it at the last minute, sensing we would be seen as intruders or something. Which is of course, nonsense, I'm sure they would have been very welcoming, we might even be buddhists! Richard feckin Gere is a buddhist! But, it looked too cramped, and the nearest spot to kneel was the other side of the room and would have involved trying not to stand on about 50 praying people to get there. So I bottled it, and it was shoes back on time.






Now, I proudly present the most disgusting smelling food known to man, Pondeggi! Remember I mentioned it a while back? Fried silk worm larvae, sold to you in a paper cup, and absolutely loved by kids here. Well, here is a lovely picture of it to get those tastebuds in overdrive. "I, Chris Waddell, hereby swear to try some Pondeggi in the near future, whether intoxicated or otherwise". Well, I bet I'll regret that, but it's just SO disgusting that it has to be done! A picture of me with a mouthful is a must.

An Ode To Kimchi

Ah Kimchi, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.....

Since looking into coming to Korea, it had been obvious to us that one of the things the people are most proud of is Kimchi. Let's begin with a little bit of information taken from a few websites such as Wikpedia, and then I'll follow it with some delicious pictures of the bowl I'm currently munching through.

Kimchi is a product that is fermented through lactic acid production at low temperatures to ensure proper ripening and preservation. It is processed with a seasoning mixture mainly consisting of red pepper powder, garlic, ginger, green onion and radish. Kimchi has been cited by Health Magazine as one of the world's five "healthiest foods", with the claim that it is rich in vitamins, aids digestion, and may even prevent cancer. The health properties of kimchi are due to a variety of different factors. Kimchi is usually made with cabbage, onions, and garlic, all of which have well-known health benefits. Kimchi also has active and beneficial bacterial cultures, like yogurt. Lastly, kimchi contains liberal quantities of hot pepper, which has been suggested to have health benefits as well. While Kimchi is generally identified internationally as Chinese cabbage fermented with a mixture of red pepper, garlic, ginger, and jeotgal (anchovy base broth, in baechu kimchi), several different types of kimchi exist, including several regional and seasonal variations. The Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul has documented 187 varieties of kimchi, known historically or currently.

Our first taste of this little treasure was on the plane, and it sucked ass. In hindsight, I don't think it was particularly bad Kimchi, but the extremely strong and odd taste was just not what we were expecting, and it was a huge disappointment. Now, I can't believe I shunned the Kimchi and gobbled the ill-fated squid. Since then, we have grown to love this strange pickled cabbage, which is a good thing, as you get it free with every meal. And it's fantastically spicy, a fine substitute for my old favourite jalapeno peppers. It must be laced with crack or something as we both just can't stop eating it. Here's what it looks like, not too appealing is it haha! Anyway I'm off to scoff it all, funnily enough we pick up chopsticks before we go for a fork now and we've only been here a bloody month!

(THERE'S ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW THIS THAT IS PROBABLY MORE INTERESTING THAN ONE ALL ABOUT CABBAGE....ENJOY!!)

Doctor Death

Today brought me another Korean "first" in a trip to the local doctor. The reason for this was due to me feeling sick as a dog, and while some of that can be attributed to a Soju fuelled session of the classic"Drink While You Think" game on Saturday, I also firmly believe I must have some little bug on top of it. Playing DWYT with Soju is probably not advisable, and the fact that we were drinking the more palatable Lemon and Cherry varieties made it all the easier to forget the lethality of the bastard beverage!

In short, we spent the day in Insa-dong, having planned to visit the nearby Changdeukgung Palace and being foiled by not having booked into a tour group. Apparently in this palace, you can't just wander around at your own leisure like the last one, but we plan to go back and go on a tour next weekend. Anyway, Insa-dong is a cool area, and given the proximity of the palace and a few Buddhist temples, it has quite a mystical feel to it, with numerous monks there buying incense and candles alongside all the tourists. Pah, I hate tourists, clear off you fat Americans! But I'll post about Insa-dong when I put the photos on.

Back to the possible reasons I ended up in the doctors waiting room today. After Insa-dong, we were quite drunk and got the last subway home, drinking 2 small bottles of wine en route. Now, don't be shocked! You are allowed to drink anyway, anywhere, anyhow in Korea, so it's not completely minky drinking on public transport, and in certain circumstances (such as an hour trip between being drunk, and carrying on drinking), it's pretty much neccesary! However, this "traditional Korean wine" was the most shockingly vile shit I've ever tasted, and if it hadn't came from the presumably reliable Wal-Mart (which Koreans all pronounce "Wah-Mah-Tah"!), I would swear it was 5 years out of date. Off wine sometimes has a leafy taste, and this was like pureed ferns and cat piss all mixed up. Of course, I drank it anyway, because I'm a retard.

After getting back to our beloved Jungsan (which just enjoyed the opening of 2 new restaurants, a pizza place, and a frozen yoghurt place this weekend, quality place!), we went into our little Hof you heard about in the previous post. It was just us and the Ajumma (you can safely call any slightly older woman Ajumma, literally meaning Auntie. Derived from Koreans feeling they are all part of the same family), and as usual she spoiled us with beer and nibbles and tried to impress us with her few western CDs. This time it was Michael Bolton followed by Celine Dion. I'm actually struggling to think of a more offensive musical tag-team, if the Hof wasn't so cool it would be like some auditory torture chamber. Using the menu we also practised our rapidly improving Hanguel reading skills, we basically can read everything already, but still sometimes get the pronounciation wrong. This is very good going by the way, give us a clap! After numerous drunken exclamations of Mashisossoyo ("delicious!") to the Ajumma regarding her omelettes, we went upstairs and I foolishly drank another bottle of the fern/piss concoction while terrorizing people with phone-calls. If you didn't get one, believe me, you should thank the Lord or something as I was a complete disgrace. I'm sure my Mum will agree.

Well, to fast forward to today (yesterday obviously being similar to the "cold-turkey"scene in Trainspotting), and it was doctor time for me. Koreans refer to the doctors as the hospital, so already I should have been prepared for the overkill and dramatics to follow. After an hour wait with our boss James, who claimed this was a "famous doctor" (I'm sure Harold Shipman was a famous doctor too), I was seen by said celebrity who could thankfully muster up a bit of English. Now, I knew there was something wrong with me, not just a loooong hangover, but I presumed it was just a "run-down" sort of bug. However, after a thorough exam the doc decided I had tonsilitis AND gastro-enteritis! Bad luck eh! I really really doubt it. Maybe he is just the most pessimistic doctor in Korea. I got sent into a little room and injected in the arse with god knows what, and sent off with a presription Ozzy Osbourne would be proud of. I've no idea what was in the needle, or what this mountain of pills are, as thats where the language barrier kicked in. I'm sure I'm in safe hands though, he IS famous after all. The picture below shows the 15 pills I've been prescribed each day, alongside the 2 sachets of pink goo I'm also required to take.



I've not seen someone need so many pills since Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, so either I'm actually very ill and really need it all and they didn't know how to explain, or I'm a little bit ill and Korean doctors are mental. It remains to be seen, but I better go back to work tomorrow, ill or not.

In other unrelated news, I have located a nearby Bosingtang (dog restaurant). Still unsure about all that, especially after hearing that it really smells and tastes like, well..... a wet dog, but knowing where one is would be the first step. For those of you who know Ross (for those who don't he and his girfriend Amy are friends who have been working in Cheongju for about 10 months), our schedules finally allow us all to meet up later on this month. Ross and I are being a pair of idiots and getting tickets to see Korn. I almost can't believe it, how embarrassing haha! But for the sheer novelty of it being in Seoul, and of course the nostalgia, I bet it will still be a really good laugh. Would I go see Korn if they were playing Glasgow SECC? Don't be stupid, but like everything in Korea, it will certainly be an "experience"! Our love of Kimchi continues to grow each day. Looking for tickets to Thailand for Xmas proved fruitless at first glance, turns out everyone books multiple seats ages in advance as there's no booking or cancellation charge. Bollocks, will keep looking. Hope you are well, bye for now!

It's Writing Class!

Of course, it's not all games and colouring, from time to time I also encourage the little monsters to learn some English! This weeks theme is "Animals", and I have cemented my position as the best animal impressionist in the world, possibly. My goat noises always get much laughter, and my penguin "waddle" launches a chain reaction of thigh-high imitators. If anyone has any suggestions for what noise a giraffe makes I'd be very interested. Most of all though, my gorilla impression is uncannily accurate, and earned me the affectionate moniker of "King Kong", which, at least, I think is preferable to "Shrek". But at some point, playtime must cease, and the pencils must be used for something other than throwing or bogey picking.

Let's focus on Jane Class, who are no longer as autistic as I once feared, and have their own entertainers among them who are starting to shine. First up we have another of the unfortunate victims of the naming ceremony the Korean teachers must have held.....Grag. Sounds more like some alien from Jupiter, but at least it's close to a Human English name. I'm still trying to figure out where they got the "English" names Helia, Meric, Gold, Ustina, and Bip. Anyway Grag seems quite young even compared to his classmates, and I never expect wonders from him.

As you can see, Grag didn't understand the instructions to write "Snake" five times, "Rabbit" five times, and "Frog" five times. Instead we have one "Snake" (backwards N a popular mistake), a "Rabbit", a "Swake" and what appears to be a "Ftibgbr", which is completely lost on me. Maybe some species indigenous to Jupiter? There's not a frog in sight, tut tut. Also he wrote his name in Korean which is fair enough given his English alternative.

Next we have Benny, who has quickly turned into a very cool little guy, and is pretty good at English when encouraged. Apart from a row of backward N's it's a decent attempt, and I certainly can't fault his name at the bottom.

Lastly we have Allie showing the rest of the class how it's done. Actually there are quite a few decent kids in Jane class, but because I lazily let them draw on the back of these papers when they were done, I had a hard time getting any of them back in the end. But, considering these kids are either 4 or 5 years old, you have to be impressed at them writing english to this standard.


In a forthcoming school post, you can hear about the best classroom discovery yet, the workout regime I have created in place of any local gym to attend. Basically, this involves me lifting kids, sometimes 3 at a time in a variety of techniques you would find at a gym. They totally love it and see it as their reward for completing various English speaking exercises, the favourite one being me lifting them off Teachers chair and doing a "Power Ranger" mid-air lap of the class. Seriously, I wake up each morning aching, so hopefully it will pay off eventually!! Plus it's obviously lots of fun. If it starts to take effect, I might even move on to giving Fat Jimmy some more height in his leaps! In case you hadn't realised, there's a new post underneath as well. Cheerio!

C For Cuttlefish

On Friday, we had the urge to get drunk, but also wanted to be relatively fresh on Saturday to continue exploring Seoul. We decided to plan a very bizarre and entertaining experience combining a few different ingredients. The backbone of this plan, was to visit our first Korean cinema, an entertaining experience in itself. Add to this, copious amounts of beer and soju beforehand, and a packet of peanut buttered dried squid, and much hilarity can ensue. The film in question was V For Vendetta, and we were fairly lucky to have something decent to watch, as the Korean film board still impose a regulation that each cinema must show at least 80% Korean films. So we were certainly lucky that the choice wasn't between Runaway Bride 2 and the latest Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Stiles teen rom-com which is bound to exist somewhere.

For those that have seen the film, you will know that it's pretty good, but due to the soju I can hardly give any kind of review. It was very funny, however, to see on the menu right next to the regular stuff like popcorn and nachos, the aforementioned Buttered Cuttlefish!

This was obiously an open invitation to choose the absurd, and at just over £1 a pop it really had to be done. I notice now that I could have sampled some chestnuts, that's my snack sorted for next time! By the time we sat down we were really quite drunk, and as I'd noticed on previous occasions, the soju has a tendency to give you a permanent grin accompanied by ridiculous giggling. Therefore with every bite of dried squid (will I never learn?), I couldn't contain my laughter at how disgusting it was, and forced myself to scoff most of it in some episode of drunken masochism. Peanuts and dry fish, what an enticing combination. To make things even worse, I was picking bits of vileness out of my teeth for the next 2 days.


As you can see from the remains, I did a pretty decent job of polishing it off, and with this very practical packaging I'm sure I could send some to anyone who is interested. In other food-related news, we made a disappointing discovery in one of our local Kimbab shops. They are the really dirt cheap Korean restaurants we use quite a lot. I stirred this free soup we always get with our meal, only for it to let one of its treasures float up from within, a nice severed octupus tentacle. Since then the soup hasn't had the same appeal, but at least it's free!