Discovering Daejeon
I’ve never been to
Travel time was long, because our final destination was Daejeon, the Science and Technology Center of South Korea. After three and a half hours, we landed in
Then our Korean Adventure began.
After the Korean War, the country underwent a massive reforestation program that now gives the county ample supply of food not only for local consumption, but for export. All one has to do is look at all the Korean items available in
The city’s slogan is “It’s Daejeon.” I guess it is meant to say, “You are in Daejeon, a city with its own identity, so enjoy it!” Initially, we felt so embarrassed that
For Koreans, food not only satiates hunger, but helps them stay healthy through their medicinal attributes, for example – garlic cleanses blood and aids circulation, potato juice is good for upset stomach, etc. Roots and grasses are normally seasoned with soy sauce, crushed garlic, sesame oil and seeds, and chilies. Those small appetizers served in Korean restaurants in
As far as shopping goes, it is better to go around with a resident or a local as hardly anybody speaks English. All street and store signs are in Korean. Alternatively, take a bi-lingual city map. Currency is pegged at 1000 Won to $1. The Pinoy shopper thus converts local prices to dollars and then to pesos, which we did.
Let me start my shopping report with the huge Noeun Agricultural and Fishery Products Market, located in Noeun-Dong (Dong means district), south of the city central, less than 20 minutes’ drive. The complex consists of three buildings, each with massive supplies of fruits and vegetables, seafood and meat. From the harvest area one gets strawberries as big as golf balls, P124 a box which would cost at least P600 in Manila; onions as big as a small cabbage, expensive at P420 a kilo; Del Monte bananas and pineapples from the Philippines, the latter tagged at P160 for the big one; and rare baby melons, the size of a football, either green or yellow. Moving on there are lots of mushrooms (which the Koreans use a lot of), weeds, and leeks a meter long.
The meat section is very organized. Whole chicken costs about P168 per; kenchi is at P420 a kilo and ox tail at P368 per. Every outlet in
The seafood section is comparatively neat. This was where we had our first encounter with monk fish, a major ingredient in Chinese cooking. It is black and appears to be all head and no body. It sells for P420 per. We got a pampano at P360 a piece! They’ve got lots of water tanks with live fish, a lot of them we don’t recognize.
Next week: The humongous supermarkets.
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