Cycle 5 – Item 107
22 (Tue) April 2014
Fusilli in Meat Sauce
2.5
by me
at home
-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with DJ + IZ
Home Visit 4: Break + Housekeeping (Day 7)
- Day 1 (5.101 Chicken Inasal with Garlic Rice)
- Day 2 (5.102 Potato & Corn Croquettes)
- Day 3 (5.103 Mul Naeng Myeon x 2)
- Day 4 (5.104 Donggeurang-Ddaeng)
- Day 5 (5.105 Haemul Jjim)
- Day 6 (5.106 Spicy Taiwanese Crab Stir-Fry)
- Day 7 (5.107 Fusilli in Meat Sauce)
- Day 8 (5.108 Grilled Seabass)
- Day 9 (5.109 MIL’s Typical Korean At-Home Meal)
Concluding my initial 3-month contract with WHO, now extended 5.5 months, I’m back in Korea to take a break (contract break and personal break) and attend to various housekeeping matters – mostly for the (personal) break.
One of Korea’s greatest regulatory achievements is the management of garbage in big cities. Non-recyclable refuse must be disposed of only in government-issued bags available in all supermarkets and convenience stores – a 20-liter bag, for example, costing 500 won (about USD 0.50) – not a big deal, more of a hassle, but it does compel citizens to set aside bulky bottles and such for the recycling bin. Violations up to 300,000 won, but I don’t know if it’s ever enforced. Regardless, everyone that I know complies. In every neighborhood and apartment complex, recyclable bins are made available by type. Even in fast food restaurants (e.g., McDonald’s), the trash receptacles are customized with different slots for food wastes, plastics, and miscellaneous waste. Campsites follow the system, although the rules don’t apply to them. And to reduce the use of paper/plastic, stores are required to charge 50 won for each shopping bag or may opt to sell the official garbage bags at cost or give away empty merchandise boxes; as a result, customers often bring their own reusable shopping bags. I don’t know if any of these efforts really make a difference to the environment, but it feels like it will.
At least in part, I’m in Korea to clean house, quite literally. Our apartment complex arranges for recycling just once a week – long ago, for esthetic reasons, the residents voted not to have permanent disposal bins, except for food and certain other items, so the guards set everything up ad hov – begins on Tuesday evening and runs through Wednesday morning, when the garbage trucks come to pick up their loot. This was the first time since January that I’ve been here on a Tuesday – and no, W doesn’t deal with things like this – so the recyclables have been piling up. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)