When I lived in Boston, I got to know many people whom were originally from S. Korea. I was hoping to meet with some of them when I visited Korea. Unfortunately (or fortunately for their specific cases), all my Korean friends remained in the U.S. for work or education. All except for Ducksea, a Sloanie, who returned to S. Korea and is now working as a senior manager at Samsung. Ducksea and I were in the same term project team for Disruptive Technology, a technology/competitive strategy at MIT Sloan. During our collaboration, Ducksea had repeatedly told me to look him up if I am ever in Seoul. So with hesitation, I contacted him when I was in Seoul last week (I left Seoul yesterday).
When I met Ducksea for dinner at the lobby of Samsung main building in Seoul, he appeared as I had expected, clean-shaved and not least in a nice suit and tie (like any Korean businessman of his stature). When asked the kind of food I want to have for dinner, I didn't pause to suggest Korean barbecue. And why not, who can resist the multi-sensory (smell, sight, and taste) pleasures of Korean barbecue. Ducksea took me to a nearby Korean barbecue restaurant where we not only enjoyed a wonderful meal of grilled sirloin beef, but good soju, a Korean equivalent of sake (rice wine). In fact, soju and Korean barbecue go hand in hand. Everywhere I go in Seoul, I see people drinking soju with their food. In Korea, when drinking with a party, it is considered polite to pour soju to other people glasses in your party before yours -- never pour you own drink, it is considered rude.
During our conversation, Ducksea revealed to me that one thing that he miss about Boston is Boston's own locally brewed beer, Samuel Adams. He lamented that he still hasn't found a place in Seoul that serves Samuel Adams and that in hindsight he should have asked me to bring him a six-pack of his favorite beer from Boston. I then told him that if he could take me to a bar that serves a imported beers, I might be able to find a good Samuel Adams substitute. After dinner, we went to Texas, a bar that serves over 50 beers from around the world. The closest beer that I could find resembling Samuel Adams in taste was Newcastle Brown Ale. It didn't come cheap though -- a bottle of it costed about 13,000 Won (almost US$14). Ducksea liked it as it is the closest beer to Samuel Adams he have tasted in Korea. We departed ways after a few rounds of drinking at the bar. It was good meeting with Ducksea again. Hey Ducksea, if you are reading this: thanks for all the food, alcohol, and the gift (that was nice of you to do that). I wish you success.
| 7/3/2007 12:10:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) |
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Travels |
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