11.148 Grilled Hanwoo 1+ Deungsim

11.148

1 (Mon) June 2020

Grilled Hanwoo 1+ Deungsim

4.0

by me

at the cabin

-Changchon, Seowon, Hoengseong, Gangwon, Republic of Korea-

with the Family

Quarantine Day 1 of 14.

On the way in, we dropped by the regional health center for COVID-19 testing. It is extremely uncomfortable – they stick a cotton swab way down the nasal passage, where no foreign matter is ever supposed to go – not exactly painful, but maybe worse.

Flying out of Manila at midnight yesterday and landing safely in Incheon at dawn today (see previously 11.147 Bulgogi), we are now repatriated. As per Korean regulations, we are required to spend 14 days under quarantine. Fortunately, we have a family cabin, so it’ll be more like a long holiday, a well-deserved vacation. Even if we didn’t have to quarantine, our new apartment will be empty until our stuff arrives from the Philippines, sometime towards the end of the month, so we’ll be quite comfortable here for the time being.

154 km door-to-door from the airport to the cabin, the longest taxi ride in my life, and most expensive.

Blue skies, literally here and figuratively ahead (I hope).

My mother was kind enough to stock the fridge and pantry with food, including top-notch hanwoo, enough to keep us well fed for the fortnight. She laughed when I had sent specific amounts (e.g., 9 kg of rice, 3.5 kg of pasta). I replied, “Mom, I’ve been doing this and keeping records for 75 days; I know exactly how much food we eat on a daily basis.”

898 grams of beef x KRW 16,500 per 100 grams = KRW 148,170 (and this is only for second-tier “1+”).

Ironically, whereas Hoengseong is Korea’s most famous region for beef, it’s not readily available for retail purchase in the neighborhood, so we buy the meat at supermarkets in Seoul (e.g., Emart) and bring it back to eat.

For our first dinner, what else would we eat but the beef? Ribeye (deungsim), pan-grilled to perfect medium-rare, so juicy and tender and fresh and tasty and exquisite and heart-warming, all of those things. For the first time in his life, IZ thanked me for the meal. I almost cried.