The Stumbling Engineer: Insadong Day

Today we went to Insadong. But first we had to go to Itaewon again for a "test fitting" of TSF's new suit. While there, we ate lunch at an Australian place called "Syd and Mel's". I made a mistake of ordering an appetizer of "chips" with cheese sauce. I was thinking nachos, but when the plate arrived it was french fries! Delicious, but not what I was thinking. Just when we were finishing lunch, CH arrived from an early morning meeting, and we proceed to Insadong.

The Stumbling Mother was in heaven, as there were lots of craft shops and galleries. We wandered from shop to shop as she closely studied all the offerings from every craftsman in Korea.

For the first time ever in Korea, I finally used an "Auto Toilet". I had heard about these, but never seen one until now.

We had an interesting experience at a tea shop. TSM had a friend at home that recommended we try a certain tea shop in Insadong. The name was "The Old Tea Shop". Well, we found one that was called "The New Old Tea Shop". We went in, and asked the owner if there was an original "Old Tea Shop" (not a New one). She said no, this was the only one. Well, we sat down and ordered some tea. TSM's friend had also recommended a particular beverage, but when we showed this to the owner, she had no idea what it was. We were all about to give up, and conclude that TSM's friend had not remembered things clearly. But there was one more detail, that we finally convinced CH to ask the owner. He called her over, and with great embarassment, asked her "Did you used to have Monkeys running around in this shop"? To everyone's amazement, she answered, "Yes, we did. And Racoons, too"!!! After that, we no longer doubted TSM's friend, because he indeed had told her that there would be Monkeys running around the store. Here we are trying to find the entrance door:

And here is TSF resting his eyes on the sofa just outside the shop:

Finally we were able to drag TSM away from the shopping area, mostly because it was getting dark and the shops were closing! We decided tonight to eat Galbi-jjim (갈비찜), a dish that I introduce as "Korean pot roast" to my fellow westerners. Everyone really enjoyed this. After we were done with the dish, we were too full to have the usual fried rice. But TSM was scooping up the sauce with her spoon and drinking it!