Pam, Tteok and World’s Largest Department Store

1400 hrs
27th August 2012, Monday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

HHI engineers sitting around us have just departed for their weekly meeting with BP. We were not invited for which we are immensely grateful. Nothing can get more boring than a meeting involving Koreans and Britishers. It takes ages for each party to put their point across and it gets irritating and quite soporific. So I am happy to sit at my desk sipping at the vending machine coffee and tell you about our splendid weekend.

On Friday night we (me, Umang, Chintan, Sashi & Amit) had a small gathering at Chintan’s (HHI colleague living in our apartment building) house. A grand feast was prepared which was consumed in the following order – Khandvi (or patudi) , Batata Vada , rice, dal and cakes. We washed all of this down with coke, cider, beer and whisky. After dinner we sat down and watched a classic Hindi comedy – Chupke Chupke.

Saturday morning at around 1030 am we got into Chintan’s car, set the Korean GPS (Gini) to guide us to Haeundae Beach (in Busan) and drove off. Ten minutes later our car gave up. We got off the main road and entered a side road looking for a garage. Luckily there was one just 100 meters inside. The mechanic told us that there was a problem with the clutch. It took around an hour to get the car fixed. We were still around 65km from our destination. We bought some sweet chestnuts (pam) from a roadside vendor at the next traffic signal and got onto the Busan-Ulsan expressway (No 65). After an hour or so we reached Korea’s most popular beach – Haeundae Beach. We took a stroll along the beach under the scorching afternoon sun and admired among various things – the sheer number of beach umbrellas (this beach actually holds the world record), the white sand, the bikini-clad crowd and the sexy female lifeguards. With great difficulty we dragged Umang off the beach and had lunch at an Indian restaurant (Namaste) nearby.

After this we went to the World’s Largest Department Store – Shinsegae at Centum City (Busan). We had planned to meet an old colleague & friend of ours (Jainendra) at this place. We met him and his wife Neha and talked over coffee at Au Bon Pain. It was good to catch up with him after almost 15 months.

After this we drove to Taejongdae Resort Park. We reached there around sunset. The internal tram service was closed by the time we reached the ticket counter; so we decided to walk. We walked down (literally) to a pebble beach for a serene view of the ocean. After it grew dark we climbed the 50 or so steep rock steps up to the main road; and walked another kilometer uphill to reach the car park. From here we drove directly back home. At home we had dinner and watched Bourne Identity.

Sunday as usual started on a lazy note. In the evening we went to a local attraction in Ulsan – Daewangam Park. It was nice spot to relax – windy, great views of Ulsan and the sea and lots of material for photography. The highlight of this visit was that a Korean female (probably drunk) flirted with Umang. From here we went for dinner to Hotel Good Morning. After dinner we went for a game of bowling at Hyundai Arts Center. I scored 145 – not too bad given the fact that my fingers didn’t fit properly in any of the balls.

As I finish writing this entry: Umang is busy planning for our long holiday (Chuseok) in September, Sashi is apparently getting bored and I am still relishing the aftertaste of Korean Rice Cakes (Tteok) which were distributed in the office a while back.

1530 hrs
27th August 2012, Monday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Photos are on my FB Page.

Chicken Soup for the Seoul

1030 hrs
21^st August 2012, Tuesday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Umang finally got his VPN connection working this morning. As I write this, he is happily chatting away on communicator.  Sashi and I are still having some password issues and will hopefully get access to VPN later this afternoon. As I wait for that to happen let me briefly update all of you with the happenings of the last few days.

Saturday, 18^th Aug:
Went back home at around 4:30pm. Went to the gym and played squash. Discovered that gym had a stereo system – so played an Eric Clapton CD while working out. Umang watched some Bollywood movie on the treadmill media player. In the evening we had chicken curry and Tandoori chicken for dinner.

Sunday, 19^th Aug:
Woke up at 12:30pm. Had lunch at Sashi’s place. Lazed around all day. Had some sausages, eggs & bread for dinner.

Monday, 20^th Aug:
Terrible start to the day: internet is down, we are paralyzed. I pass my time by typing old hindi songs from memory into a text document. Once I got bored of that I started organizing my email archive file. Somehow remained sane till end of day. Evening played squash again. 

For the sake of brevity I have ignored grammatical rules in the paragraphs above. And the reason for brevity is that we have contributions from guest writers (Umang & Sashi) in this post. Firstly, Sashi provides an in-depth account of what we have been eating for the last week or so. Then MasterChef Umang shares with all of you recipes for his signature dishes – Gujju’s Chicken Curry™ & Chicken Soup for the Seoul™.

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SO WHAT DID WE EAT (and cook)?
Special Correspondent- Y.R.Sashikumar

13^th, Monday
Dinner –          Thepla (Gujju staple bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner), Dhokla (No its not Khaman Dhokla..the other one) (sponsored by Umang)

14^th, Tuesday
Lunch –           Remaining Thepla, Dhokla (sponsored by Umang)
Dinner –          Turkish Restaurant

15^th,Wednesday
Lunch –           Plain Rice, Puliogara (Ready made), Tomato Pickle (By Sashi)
Dinner –          Cabbage & Potatoes Vege; Paratha (By Umang)

16^th, Thursday
Lunch –           Pain Rice, Rassam (By Sashi)
Dinner –          Poha with Aloo (By Sashi)

17^th, Friday
Lunch –           No Lunch
Dinner –           Turkish Restaurant

18^th, Saturday
Lunch –           Vegetable Masala Rice (By Sashi)
Dinner –          Tandoori Chicken (By Srini), Gujju’s Curry Chicken™ (By Umang); Plain Rice, Aloo Baingan & Rasam (By Sashi)

19^th, Sunday
Lunch –            Remaining Rice, Chicken, Rasam & Baingan
Dinner –           Diet – Fruits

20^th, Monday
Lunch –            Khichdi (Aloo & Moongdhal)  + curd (By Sashi)
Dinner –           Aloo & Broccoli Vege,& Chicken Soup for the Seoul™; Paratha  (By Umang)

Deepak: As you might have observed, I have been the freeloader who only eats and doesn’t cook. 😀

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FROM MASTERCHEF UMANG’s COOKBOOK

By His excellence, Sir Umang Naik 

Gujju’s Chicken Curry™ (Dedicated to all the gujjus who love chicken – sinners like me!)

Ingredients list: For Marinating – Chicken (1 whole), Plain Yogurt (6-7 tablespoon), Ginger (1 big piece), Garlic (10-12 small cloves or 5-6 big cloves), Turmeric power, Red chilli powder, Coriander powder, Green chilli paste, half Lemon, Salt

Gravy and Seasoning – Cumin seeds (1/2 to 1 tablespoon), Bay leaves (2 bay leaves cut into half), Cinnamon pieces (4 small pieces), 2 big black cardamom (smash it a bit so while cooking the smell oozes out), Cloves (few pieces), Coriander powder (little bit), Red chilli powder (little bit), Turmeric powder (little bit), Green chilli paste (little bit), Salt to taste, 2 large Onions, 2 big Tomatoes. I didn’t have Aniseed powder (my secret ingredient!!) It gives a great aroma

Method: First wash the chicken in warm water and remove skin if necessary. Wash it twice so that it is properly cleaned. Grate the Ginger and make Garlic paste and add to the Chicken in the mixing bowl. Add all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, add lemon and give a good hand mix. Add just a bit of salt as we will be adding some to the gravy. Keep the chicken to marinate for 6-7 hours or in my case I left it overnight in the refrigerator.

For the gravy, a non-stick vessel would be great but since we did not have one we had to do with a stainless steel one. Finely chop the Onions and Tomatoes so that it makes better gravy. I am good at chopping… my wife agrees with it. Put the vessel on medium flame and pour 2-3 tablespoon oil (Yea.. I am not a fitness freak!!). Add 1 tablespoon cumin seed. I love cumin seed and I like to add more of it. Add pieces of Bay leaves, Cinnamon pieces, Cardamom, Cloves. When the seeds begin to crackle add the Onions. No don’t add the Tomatoes now. Add a bit of salt now. This help to bring out the moisture from the Onions and it cooks well. Sauté the Onions till they turn golden brown. Add the Tomatoes to this and let them cook till the rawness in the Tomatoes goes away. After the Tomatoes are half cooked, add the spices and stir. Then add the marinated chicken into the vessel. Mix everything properly. You may not need to add water as the chicken will ooze out moisture while cooking. If you add water then the spice balance would be gone. Cover the vessel with the lid and let it simmer (low heat) for 15-20 minutes. After about 15 mins check, using a fork, if the chicken has cooked properly. If not then let it cook for 5 more minutes. When it is cooked turn of the flame and enjoy the delicious Gujju’s Curry Chicken. See how easy it was..!! So get started with cooking!!

Chicken Soup for the Seoul™ (Soul)

Ingredients list: Chicken stock (makes your job easy!!), Water, Macaroni, Bean sprouts, Broccoli, Spring Onions, Salt and Pepper. The vegetables listed here are what I could get hold of. You may add anything that suits your taste – carrots, cabbage, bell peppers. I’d love to add grated ginger too but I didn’t have that.

Method: This is very simple. Add water to the cooking pot. If you want 2 bowls of soup add 2-1/2 bowls of water. Then add Chicken stock. I use the liquid Chicken stock. Easy to store. For liquid stock add 1 tablespoon stock for 1 bowl of soup. Chop all the vegges and add to the pot except the Spring Onions. Add Macaroni and check the salt. If needed add some salt. Put it on medium flame for 10-15 mins or till the soup begins to boil. Ohh…. I forgot… add some black pepper powder for hotness. After the soup is ready turn off the flame and add the chopped Spring Onions and voila..! Your yummy soup is ready to be devoured.

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1200 hrs
21^st August 2012, Tuesday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

What is the word for toilet in Korean?

1430 hrs
18^th August 2012, Saturday
HHI Office, Ulsan. 

Yes, I am at office on a Saturday. There has been a lot of confusion over whether we should be working on Saturdays or not. When we signed our deputation contract it was told that we would be working overtime on Saturdays (and hence we and KBR would make more money). When we started working here, HHI told us that they didn’t want us to work on Saturdays (they want to save money I guess). Friday night arrived and there was no resolution to this issue and we received instructions from Singapore to go and do our 7 hours for Saturday (also, our timesheets are not approved yet). So here I am in office on a Saturday afternoon with no real work to do.

Let me quickly recap what we have been up to since my last entry. On 15^th (Wednesday) evening, Srini and I decided to check out the clubhouse after work. We knew from going through the HHI website that they had a gym and two squash courts; and we wanted to make full use of these during our stay (we had therefore brought squash racquets from Singapore). So for a mere 10,000 Won (refundable) we got access cards to the gym and the squash courts. We then played squash for an hour or so. It was good to get some exercise after a break of few weeks. (I hadn’t been to the gym or got any real exercise since 29^th July).

16^th (Thursday) was pretty uneventful, so I would like to use up this space to talk about some other random stuff. Firstly, I would like to discuss the office culture over here. Quite simply put -this place reminds me of primary school. Work starts at 8am and everyone is expected to be at their desks by 7:45am. At around 7:50am the small televisions installed all around the floor suddenly turn on and start an exercise video. Almost all the employees follow the woman on the screen and do some stretching exercises. At 7:56am the video stops. At 8am sharp every department has a meeting to kick off their day. At this point let me briefly explain to you the generic floor plan of their office (see figure below).

There are no cubicles or cabins. The only person on the floor who sits in a room is the senior vice president (he actually sits in a meeting room). Everyone sits on open desks. The arrangement of these desks is in the same fashion as that of a classroom. Departments are arranged in columns with the lead engineers (class teachers) seated at the front facing the rest of the engineers (students). Each department has around 4 to 5 columns (executing multiple projects). We are currently seated in the last row. Behind us is the meeting table. Around 10am there is a coffee/cigarette break. 12 to 1pm is the lunch break. At around 3 pm there is another coffee/cigarette break. Around 4:30pm some Korean snacks are delivered for our nourishment. And on the last working day of the week (which was Thursday this week) everyone has to clean their own working area. Brooms and mops are given to all engineers to clean their working area. I kind of liked the philosophy behind this routine – “You made the mess, so you have to clean it.” In the evening I played squash again. In the evening we watched the movie Se7en in Sashi’s room (connected laptop to the TV and sound system).

Friday (17^th) was a holiday. The Liberation Day (15^th) holiday from earlier in the week had been shifted to Friday by HHI. After a week of waking up at 6am, it was a welcome relief to laze in bed till noon. In the afternoon we decided to go to E-mart for shopping. This mall was around 10km from our place and we decided to take a taxi. Calling a cab is pretty simple at our apartment. We just go to the guard and tell him that we need a cab. He helps us call the cab company and it takes no more than 5 minutes for our ride to arrive. There were 5 of us, so we took two taxis. As expected the taxi driver didn’t know any English. Luckily we were ready for this scenario. We had the address of the shopping mall in Korean – we showed him the sheet and we were off. On the way to the mall I opened my Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook and tried learning a few new words. Toilet in Korean is “Hwajangshil”. We shopped for around 3 hours and then made our way back home with carton boxes full of stuff (in a taxi; we had our apartment’s address in Korean too). For dinner we revisited the Turkish restaurant we had been to a couple of days ago.

This morning we came to office at 9am. We have to do only 7 hours for the day. This evening Umang is cooking up a feast. There is chicken curry and Tandoori chicken on the menu. Right now, I am just waiting for evening to come.

Countdown: 90 days to go

1530 hrs
18^th August 2012, Saturday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Settling In

1730 hrs
15^th August 2012, Wednesday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Last evening, after finishing work, we decided to go grocery shopping at Homeplus (the nearest supermarket, 5 minute drive). A colleague who also lives in the same apartment block as ours, kindly volunteered to take us there in his car. We already had a shopping list ready (made earlier in the day as an activity to kill time in the office) too. We made a quick stop at the apartment (to get changed into shorts and slippers) and then headed to the supermarket.

The supermarket was spread over 5 stories and had almost all sorts of sections – apparel, shoes, grocery, toiletries, books etc. The shopping carts (rented at a refundable 100 Won) were high tech – they gave you mileage – indicating how much you had walked while doing your shopping. Our main objective was to shop for fruits and vegetables. The choice of vegetables and fruits was limited and they were even more expensive than Singapore. We still bought some essentials – onions, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, apples and so on. We actually managed to fill two large carts full. An interesting aspect of Korean shops is the reluctance to provide you with plastic bags for you to carry your purchase in (or you may chose to buy plastic bags at a heavy price). This obviously is a great achievement of this society in moving towards a “greener” lifestyle. So we had to take our products in the carts up to the car park. One particular corner of the car park had a packing section where you could make cardboard cartons (available in varying sizes). Once you had made them (taped them up to be precise), you put your stuff in them and took it to your car. So we also followed this practice; and while doing it wondered if this would ever work in Singapore?

From Homeplus we drove to a Turkish restaurant (called White House) to have our dinner. It was 9 pm then, most of the streets were deserted, it was drizzling and we were the only patrons at the restaurant. Our waiter (who was probably the owner too) was pretty friendly and courteous. We ordered the usual Turkish fare – hummus, pides, donor kebabs, Turkish tea etc. After having a stomach filling meal and making friends with the restaurant owner we headed home. Conveniently a shopping cart was provided at the apartment car park to transfer goods to our respective houses. I live on the 3^rd storey, Sashi and Umang on the 5^th storey, Srini and Sajeev on the 2^nd.

At the office, today was pretty much like yesterday. We walked to the office building (a 15 min uphill hike) and reached our desks at 7:50am. There is a coffee machine in the common area of each level of the 5-storey building. We took a coffee break at 10 am and 3 pm like everyone else in the office. We went back home to have our lunch. And even as the day draws to end there are no signs of us getting internet connectivity on our laptops. Patience is key.

The only work related activity for the day was a 5 minute meeting with Ikhwan where he told us what we would be doing over the next three months. Nothing new, everything we already knew. I need to end here as it’s already 6 and Umang’s pestering me to leave for home!

Countdown: 93 days to go.

1800hrs
15^th August 2012, Wednesday
HHI Office, Ulsan

From Singapore to Ulsan

1600 hrs

14^th August 2012, Tuesday

HHI Office, Ulsan.

After an extremely tiring and circuitous journey we finally made it to Ulsan yesterday evening at around 6:30pm. Our journey was smooth till Seoul – we landed at Incheon Airport on time (around 7:30am), sailed through immigration and easily made our way to Gimpo Domestic Airport to catch our next flight. This is where the problem started.

We found out from the Korean Air ground staff that Ulsan airport was probably closed due to adverse weather and our flight at 12:50pm was put on “HOLD”. They told us to come at 1140am to check if the weather had improved for the flight to go ahead. We started brainstorming alternate ways of reaching our destination. Suggestions ranging from a 6-hour road trip to taking the KTX (bullet train) were thrown into the discussion. In the mean time we also tried out Starbucks Korea – we needed the caffeine. As we waited we noticed that an Asiana Airlines flight to Ulsan had taken off- an indication that the weather had improved in Ulsan? The display board also indicated sunny weather at Ulsan Airport. Hope!

At 11:35am we approached the Korean Air staff again. This time the news was positive and we were told to check-in our baggage and get our boarding passes. So we and our 70 kg luggage stood in line to check-in. At this point I would like to describe an interesting aspect of Korean Air Check-in procedure. Right behind the walls of the check-in counters are some baggage scanners. The staff doesn’t give you your boarding passes until your luggage is accepted by the airport security monitoring these scanners. A few of us were called inside this room to open our bags and display the contents which the security personnel felt suspicious. After this we proceeded through the security check to the departure gate. We then boarded the flight. The flight left the gate on time and moved towards the runway to takeoff. We were all smiling at our good fate. A couple of minutes later the flight stopped a few meters from the runway. An announcement in Korean from the flight captain and a loud collective sigh from the Korean contingent of the passengers was enough for us to interpret that we were not going to Ulsan (and obviously there was an English announcement after that). We got off the plane and took a bus to the arrival centre, collected our bags from the belts and made our way to the Korean Air help desk yet again. It was 1:35pm.

One of the Korean Air employees suggested a solution: fly to Busan and subsequently take a bus or taxi to Ulsan. We all agreed that this was a good idea. We then called Singapore and informed them the same. We went through the same process of checking in and security checks and made it to the 3pm flight to Busan. This time there was no delay and the flight took off on time. We were exhausted and took a small nap on the flight, but the journey wasn’t over yet.

By the time we exited Busan Airport it was 4:30pm. It was dark and cloudy, but luckily it wasn’t raining. The information counter recommended us to take jumbo taxis to accommodate all of us and our bags. We negotiated two SUV taxis to take us directly to the apartment in Ulsan. The drivers needed the full address of the apartment in Korean for entering it into the GPS. So we called the apartment office and found this out. What followed was a 2 hour drive to Ulsan through Busan, its suburbs and its traffic. At the apartment we settled in pretty swiftly, thanks to the help from KBR veterans already living there and the Apartment Manager Kim.

This morning we woke up early and made it to the office by 8am. It has been a rather sluggish day – we are still trying to tune ourselves to the office culture, get our computers in shape, waiting to get network connections for our laptops and struggling to stay awake. But I am sure everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

Countdown: 94 days to go.

1620hrs

HHI Office, Ulsan

Deepak Pitta