Pairing Kiwi with Wine

And no, the authorities in Aotearoa frown very seriously on the consumption of the Kiwi bird, but this particular Kiwi has an affinity for and appreciation of good wine, preferably from her homeland.

And it has been a good week for the Kiwi and wine, as well as the Kiwi wine  of the Kiwi's friends. (Which makes up for leaving a gift bottle of wine behind last week, but I do hope the gifter enjoyed it and thought of me for at least a few sips of the bottle.)

Saturday, while at Yongsan, I noticed banners advertising a wine tasting at the Dragon Hill Lodge so phoned a military buddy to meet me there. For those who have never lived in Korea, the local wines range from atrocious to undrinkable. Koreans have a sweet palate and no history of wine making so the result is usually a cloyingly sweet cordial that has little resemblance to wine. I'm sure they could make spectacular wines as they have wonderful grapes but it would require an excellent winemaker to come over and do so, preferably partnered with knowledgeable vineyard managers who know how to achieve the best grapes for making the best wines.

Side note: The Kiwi is surprisingly knowledgeable on the subject, having grown out of her late-teen affinity for Asti Spumante, a sweet sparkling wine preferred in those days by those with aspirations to elegance but no understanding of class. She has since worked at and managed some of the best bars and wine bars in New Zealand and Australia, learned about wine at the shop of one of New Zealand's foremost experts (who brought in other experts regularly) and spent whenever possible on vineyards, both tasting and tending grapes.

So the nastiness that Koreans mislabel wine just will not do for this gal.

There are other wines available in Korea, and a much larger selection at a much better price each time I return here but, as with anywhere, its those that are produced in huge quantities that are mostly available. So the chance to expand my knowledge and taste some unknown drops was not one to be sneered at. I happily paid $18 for a ticket and another $5 for a perfect tasting glass, and it was time to have fun learning.

And what fun it was! Aside from the wine, I enjoyed time with old friends, reconnected with recently-made friends and made a few new ones while on a roll. (One gentleman sidled up behind me to ask, "Is there an event that involves alcohol in this city that you don't go to?" He'd been on the Craftworks Brewery Tour the previous week and hasn't been in Seoul long enough to know that it would take a few thousand cloned Kiwis to attend every event that has alcohol. Maybe more.)

I talked up those few New Zealand wines that were on the tables, though none of them approach the standard of our best; discussed wine-making and tourism and Seoul and Kim Jong-il; ran out of business cards to hand out and met a vivacious fellow journalist whom I hope to work with in the future. It being the day of the Marine Ball, which was being held in the hotel, I also got to admire some buff, handsome men-in-uniform and thank them for their service. (Offering to buy them a drink didn't really work under the circumstances.) And, of course, drank a little wine, and found a lovely Zinfandel Port. (Port being far more difficult to come by here.)

Then, on Tuesday, I attended the 2011 SIWA and Diplomatic Community Bazaar at the Seoul Grand Hilton. I intend to write a separate post on that but, having heard tales from earlier events, planned to get there as early as possible and head straight for the New Zealand table as I'd heard our Embassy sold good Aotearoa-made wines but they always went quickly.

That event was also improved when I arrived to catch the shuttle to the hotel (about a 30-minute ride) and found my new journalist friend from Saturday also there, along with another friend of hers I'd met at the tasting. Great minds do think alike, as she pointed out.

Once at the bazaar and checked in with the relevant people, I was off to find my compatriots and buy some good wine.  I walked away with a Babich Pinot Noir and a Saint Clair Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, both of which await a special occasion or a whim. I was also sorely tempted by the possum/merino scarves and gloves but decided they probably wouldn't survive my vagabond lifestyle too well.

Then this morning, Wednesday, in keeping with the week's wine theme, I was informed that the wines from two vineyards whose owners I know well and have been involved with had won trophies in the Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2011. I'm happy for both pairs of vintners and  feel proud to have personally been part of the making of one of the winning wines, or at least the nurturing of the grapes.

During a long-overdue return to Aotearoa from Nov. 2010 through May of this year, I was fortunate to spend time living and working with friends on Tussock Ridge Vineyard in Central Otago. The vineyard's label is  8 Ranges for the eight separate ranges you can see surrounding it.

As you can see from above, it was a magical place to be, and each day I learned more about grapes and vineyard management and all the many factors that must come together to make a great wine. It's a small vineyard with only a small output, but the wines are superb.

The judges at the wine awards obviously agree, and the 2011 Pinot Rose made with the grapes I helped prune and tend took the gold.

I had hoped to help harvest also, but the weather did not cooperate and I had a date with a motorcycle and good friends in the U.S. I had also wanted to work the harvest at another vineyard close by owned by other friends, but again the weather had other ideas. But I was happy to hear that one of the wines from Maori Point Vineyard also won an award.

Well done all involved! I know what a team effort it was and wish I could be there to celebrate with you.

Lisa's shirt goes out in Seoul

The brewery tour on Saturday was to start the new winter brew for Craftworks, and I got home to find a friend in Virginia had been on a brewery tour also. I promised to send her the Seorak Oatmeal Stout t-shirt, then thought I should take it out on the town first. It didn't suit me so I accosted random strangers and asked them to model or pose with it for me (except the dog, he's my roommate so not random).

Here are the results, and there's a story to each:

This guy was sitting in his pickup, obviously moving house and waiting for someone (his wife, he told me later) and when I asked if he was going to be there long, thought I was trying to move him on and got quite aggressive. After I explained that I just wondered if he had time to pose for a picture, he explained that someone had tried to carjack him the previous day. And he was so, so apologetic . . .

This little lady is the graphic artist that designed the shirt, hence the proud smile

She's also one of the lovely staff members at Craftworks, as are the next four models

Punk dude really didn't want to be part of this

The Kiwi prevailed

Random Nigerians

A charming Frenchman and his beautiful daughter - trying to explain what I was doing in pidgin French was difficult

The new brew . . .

I'm trying to blog on the brewery tour yesterday but need some information and it's 0-too-early on a rainy Seoul Sunday and nobody wants to talk to me in this country.

Thank God for America and time-zone differences, I'll just debate ows on DM's wall and chat with Nicholas (who gets paid to swim with dolphins - what a job!), Jisu (my very own Jeju guru), and Lisa (a new friend in VA).

Itaewon Freedom

The following is the original of my latest feature for Yonhap News Agency - the shorter published version can be found here (worth looking at for the photos by Jake Hanus, if nothing else:

Koreans Drawn to Freedom of Foreign Enclave

Situated just outside the concertina-wire topped concrete walls of U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan  –  home to the headquarters of United States Forces Korea  –  the suburb of Itaewon has long been known as a foreigner-friendly enclave. U.S. troops roam the streets, monitored in the evenings by Courtesy Patrols of Military and Korean National Police; English-language teachers mingle with international students; Africans of various nations peddle jewelry on street corners; and Pakistani, Indian and Turkish restaurants share street space with Western diners and English-style bars.

Itaewon’s foreign flavor precedes all of these newer immigrants, however. Historian Robert Neff, co-author of “Korea Through Western Eyes,” said the Japanese were based in the area when they occupied South Korea and before the Americans moved in. Neff has also been told that a Chinese presence preceded the Japanese but has no proof of that claim.

The faces on Itaewon’s streets have changed again recently, as Koreans reclaim this most non-Korean of suburbs, which was once considered both unsafe and undesirable.  

When Ashley Cheeseman, Executive Assistant Manager of the Grand Hilton Seoul, first visited Seoul in 1997 with his Korean wife, she did not tell him about Itaewon, “because she had only heard bad things,” he said.

The Englishman was told of the area by another Westerner and visited, finding a home away from home. Cheeseman and his wife subsequently lived one suburb over in Hannam for many years, and he continues to visit Itaewon three or four times a week.

“There wasn’t so much of a mix back then,” he said. “People were very segregated. You had the African community going to one place, Filipinos going to another.

“Now, I see this community where everybody is accepted and nobody is looked down or frowned upon.

“You have this perfect combination of young Koreans being in an environment with a lot of foreigners.”

He believes the change began when Korea co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and Koreans wanted to socialize with foreigners and be part of a global experience. Itaewon was one of several focal points in Seoul where locals and visitors gathered together to watch the games.

Kevin Cyr, the Canadian owner of the Chili King burger bar, is another long-time visitor to Itaewon who has watched the area mature along with Korea itself. After coming to Korea as an English teacher in 1996, Cyr started selling chili burgers from a truck on the Itaewon main street in 2008 and moved to permanent premises on a side street in April 2009.

In 1996, he said, Itaewon was dominated by young American military and English teachers, he said.

“Most Koreans didn’t come to Itaewon because it was still considered dirty and dangerous.”

He said that perception has changed with promotion of the area by the Korean Government and as Koreans “slowly but surely become more wordly.”

“The late-20s, early-30s generation wants to experience more than Korea. A lot of them have either gone abroad, studied abroad or been on trips, so when they come back to Korea, they still want that authentic feeling. They don’t want to go to a Bennigans. They want to go to an Italian restaurant that actually has an Italian cook. They want to go to an American burger joint that actually has a Westerner cooking. They want the authenticity.

“Itaewon is basically the only place that really offers that.”

Koreans on the Itaewon streets gave similar reasons when asked what brought them to the suburb. Young parents Shim Gyu Sang and his wife Choi Hye Young said they both first came to Itaewon as middle school students and now visit every year or two. Bringing their 10-month old daughter for her first visit, Choi said she had noticed many more Koreans in the area.

Koreans frequented the area, she said, because “there are lots of tasty restaurants and many authentic restaurants.”

Nineteen-year-old Lee Jeong Sun, who was visiting to take photos with two of her friends, said she had been to Itaewon “just a few times.”

“When I was just a high-school student,” she said, “I heard that Itaewon is a beautiful place, similar to Europe, with so many foreigners.

“I think Itaewon is not like Korea because so many foreigners live here so they have their own culture and their own behavior.”

Kang Jeong Moon (26) said that he has visited Itaewon to shop, go to dance clubs and meet friends about 20 times in the past 10 years. He had also noticed a lot more of his fellow citizens in the suburb and said it was the foreign experience that attracted them.

“If you can’t go to America, you can still come to Itaewon,” he said.

Another factor that draws Koreans to the area, in a country where social media is an enormous influence on so-called “Netizens,” is a song that became a Facebook and Youtube phenomena in March of this year. “Itaewon Freedom” is an ‘80s-style disco/rap parody that speaks of freedoms unavailable elsewhere in a culture that has rigid expectations of its citizens.

The duo UV, consisting of musicians Yoo Seyoon and Myuji, and rapper JYP donned faux afros to sing lines that include translations of “a world full of youth” and “the world is there.”

Cheeseman said the song and the influence of many more foreigners on Korean television added to the attraction of Itaewon.

“There’s nobody there judging you,” he said.

“Especially with young couples, it’s an ideal location to go. They can be more affectionate with each other without people looking at them and criticizing them with their eyes.”

Cyr agreed that the area offers a freedom not easily found elsewhere in this strictly-regimented society.

“For them it’s like they’re living on the wild side,” he said.

Other long-time foreign residents grumble about the influx of Koreans to what many view as their own small part of the peninsula, though none spoken to wanted to go on record doing so.

Cheeseman said he had heard such complaints.

“But at the end of the day,” he said, “we’re in their country. We are the visitors here so to have Koreans with us and socially accepting us – there can be nothing better.”

The Kiwi is Back, and the world didn't end

It's been more than a month since the last Kiwi post, as the Kiwi has been grounded (in all but the most literal sense of that word). She has not only reached a phase where she needs to stay in one country for an extended period of time, she has taken a job that she truly enjoys and that is important to her and, it being in media, has had to work out where her own meanderings fit in relation to that. No final decision yet but she feels free to comment on some of the things that are part of that job.



But first, it's Saturday, Oct. 22, and the world did not end. Or it may have, and the Kiwi missed it - that has happened before. (Just looked outside the Kiwi cave - the roommate's dog is there, there's no movement on the streets but it IS mid-morning on a South Korean Saturday so perhaps she just missed the party.)

Apart from the Mayans, who apparently ran out of either paper or numbers when making the calendar so stopped at 2012, a New Zealand pastor and a bunch of religious nutjobs from Oakland, CA, forecast yesterday as the end of the world. (*check world clock - it's still yesterday in CA, quiver, whimper, head for the nearest bar*)

Why don't I believe this, if we disregard my cynical, skeptical, non-believer essence?

Becase, "if" the rapture had already occurred, I know a few (actually many) people who were missed. Not me, not Doctrine Man, but a number of others without whom heaven would be lacking. When they all disappear at the same time, it will be too late to do anything other than to wreak havoc with those of us left behind.

Products of our Culture

We are products of where we come from.

I consider myself one of the most non-Kiwi New Zealanders I know, and when I visited home last year I kept being asked what part of America I came from. But yesterday, being the opening of the Rugby World Cup in Aotearoa/New Zealand, I found myself in a sports bar watching the game. I cheered the Tongan Sipi Tau, had shivers down my spine at the All Blacks' Haka and drooled along with every other female and a few males as Sonny Bill changed his shirt. And learned a little about our culture viewed through other eyes.

I was sitting with a couple of Irish guys (my other nationality, so I felt at home) and they were talking about New Zealanders. Apparently the rest of the world thinks it strange that when you tell a Kiwi to come stay if ever they're in town, they do. Being a Kiwi, it had never ever occurred to me that people would offer you a place to stay if they didn't mean it. In Aotearoa, we tend not to say things we don't mean. Apparently, in other parts of the world, people say things just to be polite (yes, even in Ireland, which is not the first country that springs to mind when one thinks of polite gentility). The Irish boys told me that in Ireland you have to say no the first time anyone offers you something and wait for them to offer again before accepting. They also said they miss out on a lot of things because of that.

The conversation left me feeling defensive, uncomfortable and wondering how many people I'd inflicted my presence on when they hadn't actually meant the invitation they'd extended. We're a very literal people and believe what people say - and I hope I don't begin to question that because I prefer to believe people. But I just found out that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily work that way.

It's a very strange thing to feel I need to apologize to people for taking what they say as truth, but that's how I feel right now. So, to anyone I have inflicted my presence on in the misguided belief that an invitation meant a welcome, I humbly apologize. Though I do advise you to think before you say things that you don't mean.


THIS JUST IN: I have been advised by a number of American friends and my Australian guru that they all mean it when they invite someone to visit - perhaps it's just an Irish thing?

Life in Limbo

I'm not very good at doing nothing. I like to be moving, working, traveling, exploring - being busy is my natural state. But a moment of inattention two weeks ago has resulted in an enforced period of frustrated waiting, and I'm finding it hard to take.

I returned to Seoul, South Korea, at the beginning of August to take up an editing position with Yonhap News Agency - the national wire service here. Before I could begin though, I had to wait for my visa application to be processed and approved, something that did not happen until midway through the month. That was only the visa application however, and I still needed to go to another country to actually get my visa as per the rules in South Korea.

August being school holidays and the summer season, flights everywhere were scarce, as were ferries, but I managed to book a trip to Fukuoka, Japan, for my visa run. It involved an overnight train to Busan, a ferry to Fukuoka and an overnight stay there before reversing the trip and coming back to start work - something I was eager to do after eight months on the road.

I prepared everything I needed for the trip, including passport, tickets and cash in Japanese yen to pay the visa costs once there. But then came the moment of inattention. I had taken a cab to the railway station and got caught in traffic so was running close to departure time once we arrived. I paid the driver, grabbed my backpack and started running up the station steps. About five steps up, I realized I had left my purse in the taxi, but by then it had pulled away. With my passport, wallet, cards, tickets, cell-phone and cash.

Koreans are very honest people and I know of many instances in which people have lost important items here and had them turned in untouched so I hoped for the best. Or at least hoped that my passport would be turned in, even if my wallet and cash was not. I filed a police report, notified my embassy and my employer and waited to see if luck would smile on me this time. I also visited my bank to cancel my cards, and found I could not get new ones reissued immediately without a passport for identification. I instead had to wait a week to have them delivered to my home address.

I arranged to have some money sent to me so I could pay for a replacement passport and, as I waited for that and my bank cards to arrive, pestered the police and embassy each day in the hope my  passport would show up. It not having done so in a week, I applied for a replacement, which has to be processed in New Zealand and then couriered. I hope it will arrive this week but can't book tickets until I have it in hand, and next week is the Chuseok Thanksgiving Holiday here in Korea so I will have to wait for that to be over before  I can travel to an overseas embassy anyway.

I also can't replace my cell-phone as my old contract was for a 2G phone and the service provider no longer has those. I need to start a new contract for a 3G or 4G phone, but I can't sign a contract here until I have my visa. It feels as if my life is on hold as I wait.

Fortunately, my new employer has been very understanding and is waiting patiently for me to have all my documents again in hand. But I'm finding that being in limbo is something that I am personally very bad at. I am trying to make the most of this unexpected free time to write and did finish a feature article last week, but it's difficult being creative while feeling stressed, frustrated and mad at myself. I am getting a lot of exercise taking my roommate's dog on long walks and catching up on a few years of television series while I have the time.

And I know it's only a matter of time and there's nothing I can do to speed up the process, but I really want to get to work at my new job and I'm not very good at waiting.

I do know I'm going to be very, very careful with my new passport once it arrives.