insadong

insadong is the new old korea. here you can get a commercial glimpse of what old korea was like, but without leaving the city. various shops sell ceramic ware and tons of trinkets: masks, keychains, bookmarks. it's a tourist attraction, but not an overwhelming one.

ceramics:

colorful keychains:

running with dalki and gang, korean characters:

i was reminded of justin timberlake, 1) cut a hole in the box:


dduk, a traditional korean food, is made from rice flour and filled with various centers, from sweet bean mixtures to an even sweeter sesame and brown sugar filling. when i was younger, my mom made the sesame centered dduk and it always made me happy. i loved biting into the soft and chewy cake, eager to get at the center with its sticky sweetness. homemade, as in made from scriggity-scratch, can be exhausting work. in insadong, the dduk man gave my friend amber and me a hand at pounding the batter. the dduk stuck to the giant wooden mallet with fierce force! i laughed at amber when she scrunched up her face trying to raise the mallet. and when it was my turn, i made the same exerted face! deceivingly hard work!

amber, victorious with the dduk mallet:

smack down! (dduk man, taking a break)