Dog day afternoon

Shindang-dong - Jung-gu
Photo : "Dog Day Afternoon" (200406 Stephane MOT)

People selling dog meat don't like to be taken pictures of. These lads do an even less pleasant job : they raise and kill the said dogs.

You cannot see the animals. Only hear them cry and scream behind doors and walls.

Or you see them dead, as dog meat or "gaegogi". In a stew or on a counter. In a stew you cannot tell for sure (I actually had some once without knowing what it was), but on a counter there is no way of mistaking.

Photographs

Follow me on Instagram:

- @stephanemot

- @TheSeoulVillage

ADDENDUM 20230226

A few shots from my series 'The People of Seoul' will be exhibited at KOTE's Joseon Salon during the "KOTE Potluck Art Festival 2023":

 

 

20070709 - INITIAL POST

A few memories from Korea :

These pixes are in low resolution because uploading originals would overload this poor website, and in low quality because I'm a poor photographer.

You may prefer great pictures by real photographers. For the forgotten people of Seoul, I recommend KIM Gi-chan, who caught the soul of the city during the sixties and seventies, and naturally CHOI Min-sik, Korea's great master from Busan.

Seoul Village 2007

ADDENDUM 201307: YouTube and Vimeo channels

. watch Seoul Village channel on YouTube
. watch my channel on Vimeo

Also:
- Noonbit Editions (in Korean only).
- Seoul Village's pixes at my place in that other village, Snapvillage.com, but that space is about to close
- Some pictures from Seoul come as illustrations for my book "dragedies", including the one in the header : "Consommables" ("consummables").

Last Cig (2005)

Photo : "Last Cig" (2005 - Copyright Stephane MOT)

This old man, probably born and raised in the countryside, looks closer to the end than to the ground.

2007

The Gaon (Seoul)

Gangnam-gu - Shinsa-dong - 631-23 beonji 135-895 Seoul

The Gaon (restaurant)

Tel : +82.2.3446.8411

Photo : "Gaon Gimchi Clinic" (at Gaon, the preparation of Gimchi requires surgical precision - Copyright Stephane MOT 2004)

To my humble opinion, the reputation of Korean cuisine should normally surpass that of Japanese cuisine within 15 to 20 years. Koreans clearly don't play in the same league and the Japanese know it (they adore Korean food). They can fool Westerners with their sense of presentation but as soon as the public tastes actual Korean cuisine, the game is over - for good. Unfortunately, up to now no Korean restaurant could really visually match their cuisine, but for some prestigious places embalmed in the cult of Tradition.

Gaon created the very much expected precedent, setting from the start the standards at the highest level. To me, Gaon is simply the very best Korean restaurant in the World* because it perfectly honours the great Art Culinaire of Korea. The chef manages to reinvent the classics and masters to the perfection each element (taste, flavor, color, texture, temperature...). And to make it even more sublime, each course is presented in a dish specially designed for it by a great master in ceramics.

SM2003

* if you find a better one, please send the address ASAP

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addendum 20081210 :

Sad, sad, sad news about The Gaon : "Annus Horribilis".


see other restaurants in Seoul and Korea.

Sejongno

Seoul - Jongno-gu - Sejongno
Photo : "Sejongno Caricatures" (Copyright Stephane MOT 2006)

When I first came to Seoul, pedestrians were basically parasites tolerated in a city embracing the cult of Car Almighty. New cars kept piling up at the rate of 400 per day, and I would witness a major crash every other day. Needless to say I could spread thick traffic jam on my toast anytime, not only for breakfast.

Back then, Sejongno (downtown's central axis) was a highway paved with ugly monuments built during the Japanese occupation, but guarded by the statue of the local hero, Admiral Yi Sun-sin. Seoul Station, City Hall et al are still standing, but the country has mercifully removed the massive horror deliberately erected to hide the Gyeongbokgung and destroy the beautiful Bukansan perspective. The National Museum's great collections were offered a (slightly) better shell in Yongsan.

In a relatively near future, passers-by should be able to walk peacefully across the stream (right now, the safest way to survive the walk from one river to the other is to go through the underground maze). Traffic will be limited to two times two lanes ; I just saw the first drafts of restoration projects and I wonder when these brilliant architects will consider building things meant to last over a few years. For Gimchi's sake, something nice can be done at the core of this city. You want to enjoy your walk from the palaces to Insadong.

*

I had just been a Seoulite for a couple of days and was going out for lunch behind the Kyobo Building with colleagues from the French Embassy, when I felt something pass just inches from my head - then I saw a policeman dodge the bullet... We were in the dead middle of a war... the mother of all snowball battles : maybe a hundred police and military playing like kids, laughing their masks off.

Our offices were next to the US Embassy* and if you like to see uniforms, that's the place to be. The most impressive line up of policemen I ever saw was for the visit of George H. W. Bush (the Elder, a.k.a. 41) : one man posted every meter for a couple of miles, all the way from the Gyeongbokgung to Samgakji Station. No wonder Dubya's Dad got a little bit dizzling later that day.



200706

* at the Leema Building - the Economic Mission moved to Gangnam a few months later.

Damyang

Jeollanam-do - Damyang-gun (담양군, 潭陽郡) - maeul

An almost deserted maeul just a couple of miles off Damyang.
We're welcomed by a scorching sun, a cripled dog and this old lady.

Only traditional houses - hay and bamboo sticking out of parched walls.

A her friends place, a traditional oven outside at floor level, and sesame grain drying up.

It definitely beats nearby Sunchang, a gochujang (red pepper paste) theme park. Damyang-gun markets itself as a bamboo county (you are surrounded by forests of them, you swim in it in spas, you even eat your rice in it). Quite a few cultural spots (better off season), including Soswaewon garden.

200706

Photo "Open up sesame" (20040827 - copyright Stephane MOT)

Carrefour Junggye

Seoul - Nowon-gu - Junggye - Carrefour Junggye

Photo : "Carrefour du developpement" (Copyright Stephane MOT 2004)

The World's #2 retailer decided to leave Korea in 2006. Carrefour was eventually starting to earn something (and to export varieties of fresh products from small to medium sized Korean producers for its stores in France), but it just couldn't replicate its usual business model : you are not allowed to make purchases at the group level and thus make a difference at the logistics level. Even Wal-Mart failed. Price killers do exist though : you always find ways of crushing producers.

I'm not worrying for Carrefour. They got more than they could dream of from E.Land, who launched a weird mallish concept called Homever late last year.

It's just that you don't find big juici Nashi pears in their Paris store anymore. And Homever's bookstore is less fun to watch : each time I passed by, tens of kids would be sitting everywhere (even in shopping carts - see pix), reading books and not often of the comics / manga kind.

20070622