Daegu's Korean Oriental Medicine Market

We took a taxi to Suwon train station and train to Taegu - past autumn forest hills, water standing in rice paddies, a cultivated pond of what appeared to be lotus root, acres of greenhouses (some open so I could see the smoothly manicured soil, others assembled with metal hoops, irrigation sprinklers, and translucent covering). We saw traditional houses, some with bright blue roofs. Our train crossed 3 rivers on bridges. When a Korean man approached us pointing to his ticket, we discovered that seats are assigned; we obligingly moved; he took pains to brush the seat off completely!
Our hotel's name is romanized either” Lausanne” or “Rozan”; either way, the pamphlets outside and poster inside and which are up only at night, are evidence it is a “love hotel.” But, unlike in Suwon, we have the luxury of sheets.
Walking out to a restaurant about 10 minutes away, we had to match the Korean characters in the sign to the notation in our guidebook, as well as the menu, as there was no English in either. We tried their goat and their dog soup, each ordering a bowl of one or the other so that we could share them and each get to experience both, probably for the one and only time, (the goat meat was tough and the dog meat mercifully sparse in that soup). Then walking back, we stopped into “Home Plus” a huge supermarket plus department store with food courts offering everything from Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Greek cuisine, and pasta to “Krazee Burgers.” Tiny ice cream cones were $4-5, but we had decided on ice cream to quench the fire in our mouths from dinner; Mary had the inspired idea that we buy a package from the grocery section. Passing up the green tea ice cream, we chose “Goo-Goo” – chocolate covered peanuts, caramel, chocolate and marshmallow ice cream... and we ate up the whole liter o
November 11 Thursday
We made our own filter coffee with hot water from the dispenser in the hall and ate some of the walnut topped and coffee-filled pastries that we had bought last night when we got our Goo-Goo ice cream.
Also last night, a woman who spoke good English had addressed us as we made our way to the restaurant; I took the opportunity to ask her what bus we should take to go downtown to the Oriental medicine market. But, this morning, on the bus #427 that she recommended, we had an uncommunicative driver so we had to pour over our only and minimal map (the small one in our guidebook) and try to match its features with the bus's turns and its crossing a river. A woman on the bus indicated we should get down at Towel Street, which indeed had shops selling mountains of towels.
We walked many twists, turns and even backtracked before we found a street of shops displaying Oriental herbs - ginseng root in golden or in red wine, various types of fungus, deer horn and many more substances we could not even guess. It was fascinating to see and to make photos of the multitude of shapes, colors, and especially the colored wine lit through with sunlight.
Most shopkeepers went about their own business, but one youngish man invited us in and showed us the tailbone of a deer (a smooth, black, concave arrow shape), dried seahorses, and various other medicines. He gave us each a red berry that has 5 different tastes – I could taste pepper, citrus and sweet. He offered and gave us tea that is supposed to relieve fatigue. We asked about some thorny stems and he indicated they were from cactus and were for knee problems, so I asked to buy some; he wrapped up two 4 inch twigs as a gift to us. He supplemented that with a package of fragrance, also a gift. Mary took out money, determined to buy some of the fatigue relieving medicine, but he made us a gift of even that. Overwhelmed, we each took out our name cards to give him: I wrote on mine that, if he ever visits the United States, I hoped he would visit me. His English was only slightly better than our Korean but he had a ipod with translation from Korean to English so was able to show us what a number of the medicines were, and also to communicate that he was born 2 storeys above the shop which his father and grandfather had run before him.
Leaving with many thanks, we finally found the Museum of Korean Oriental medicine, a two storey spacious building set in a garden, whose interior had displays, interactive media where you could find out which of 4 body types you are, and videos telling in story form about people discovering the healing properties of various medicines. You chose from the menu English, Japanese, Chinese or Korean. A very detailed audio tape introduced us to the history and explained how Oriental medicine is based on duality – yin and yang, cold and hot, night and day, and on restoring the balance in the body as a whole rather than just treating a specific part of the anatomy as western medicine does. Balance is important also in the harmony and the antagonism of the elements fire, water, wood, earth, metal, each with its own color.
When we left at 2pm, I was ravenous; the young woman at the info booth guided us around the corner to a restaurant connected to the museum where we sat on cushions on an ondol (heated floor) and ate ginseng chicken with rice soup and, for dessert, savored ginseng tea sweetened with honey. Especially in the chicken, whose skin was blackened yet soft, the ginseng had a bitterness that may be, like coffee and beer, an acquired taste. As we left,the woman who had made and served our meal offered us coffee to go, made directly from a dispensing machine, it was the only coffee we've had in Korea, except Starbucks', that has been strong and flavorful enough for Mary and me to enjoy.
We made our way along Jewelery Street to Seomun Market, which is a huge city block of many small laneways crowded with shops selling everything – shoes, socks, clothing, costume jewelery, everything. Stalls were slipped in sideways - cooking and serving broth, intestines on skewers, noodles floating in soup. Within the warren of lanes is a multistorey building equally or more crowded with shops selling silks, beautiful traditional Korean wedding dresses in every color, shoes in traditional style for weddings, pairs of carved ducks to give as wedding gifts, funky fashionable modern women's clothing, especially tops, vests and jackets ... no wonder the young women we see are so stylish! Mary and I got talking with a man selling colorful fabric foot-covers that extend part way up the calf; he was eager for us to try them on and to tell us about them, despite our sparse common language,.... but we found him not receptive to bargaining. Eventually we did buy 6 pairs, not nearly as heavy to carry home as gifts as is the package of oriental herbs (turned out to include 8 packages of soy-like liquid) that we were given earlier today.
We found the stairway to the top floor lined with vendors of food and drink, and that the exit on the top floor goes to the outside where two men sat playing mahjong under a pale skyline and hazy pink sun. Trying to head home to our “love hotel,” we found the market became more colorful as lights came on and darkness fell. Finding a subway entrance, we ducked in out of the beginning rain and rode to the closest station to our hotel - from which it was still a long walk. But we emerged into a downpour, fierce wind scattering the pedestrians. It took much pondering, as well as deliberation between us, and several descents into the subway only to again come up a stairway that proved not to be what we wanted... before Mary asked a man unlocking a bike which way was “nam” or south, and I asked someone which way was the Home Plus store, as I knew we could find our way from there. It then took another descent into the subway to get on the correct corner of the huge intersection. Finally we walked past the Grand Hotel, whose location on our map showed we were headed home.
Finally we reached Home Plus and, in its food court, we chose from plastic displays, me a Japanese cutlet supper and Mary a Greek omelet stuffed with rice --- both accompanied with rice.
Mary packed faster than I've seen anyone and we headed out to the bus stop for #814 as she is headed by train for Ulsan where she and Jennifer will have most of tomorrow just the two of them.

Daegu's Korean Oriental Medicine Market

Taegu, South Korea