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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Street food for dinner


I was waiting to cross the street, after work, when I got ambushed by teenagers selling sweet potatoes from a stove- a bag of 6 of them for 3 USD. I was reluctant, but the kids' enthusiasm, and the sample- hot and "sugar taste," as they put it, won me over. The potatoes were more moist than the ones I had with Chung Lim Jang outside the amusement park.

I took the long route home, passed a bakery and found myself at a street stand, inquiring about chunks in orange sauce, which I always surmised were pork or some other meat I wasn't interested in trying. The woman selling them laughed and said, "rice, rice! You from Russia?" I bought 1USD worth of rice cakes.

Everyone asks if I'm from Russia. The windy country is close by, so Russians with money often visit Korea. There are Russian prostitutes who work in Korea, so it could be an insult- I think I was well covered in my parka and mitts! ; )

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a common sight for Russian women for prostitution. I don't think they mean any insult - rather the opposite. If you're young, relatively slim, and pretty, they'll assume a Russian woman. The relatively fat ones are stereotyped as North Americans.

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

Hahaha, thank you. That's good to know. One time my students asked, "are North Americans all beautiful, or fat?" They don't know which to believe: Hollywood or medical reports!

Anonymous said...

Hey, you will not believe but there are plenty of Russians (whole Russian families) living in Yeong-Tong. Adults usually are very well paid engineers working for Samsung plants in Suwon, Kiheung or Hwaseong areas.
Their women are usually well-looking and polite with Koreans. Probably, you looked and behaved in a pretty good way - so they asked if you are Russian.