Trip Report, Day 4: Korean Barbecue

Hello, everyone.  I am now a free man, relatively, since my final and presentation are both done!  The conference was excellent, although my business and sickness kept me distracted.  We had another great box lunch yesterday, although truthfully I was getting tired of seafood and almost got the Western option.  I forgot to snap a picture of the actual box, but I did take a picture of the menu.

Yesterday was the only full day of the conference where dinner was not provided, although there was an option to donate $50 towards a scholarship in return for dinner tickets.  We decided to go to a Korean BBQ place called 칠돈가 직영점, Childonga Jig-yeongjeom.  I don't know about South Korea on the whole, but on Jeju, where literally every other store front is a little 6 table restaurant, it seems like a tenth of these are Korean BBQ.  There are so many that I don't understand how they can all exist, but the place we came to was so crowded there was a 20 minute wait for a four person table.  This restaurant had two options: regular Jeju pork and famous Jeju black pork.  Jeju black pork is apparently a staple of the island and is so famous it has its own Wikipedia page.  By the way, if you decide to look up what a "pig toilet" is like I did, do it after you eat dinner, especially if that dinner is pork.  We got 1200 g of the Jeju black pork, and, after bringing you your banchan, the restaurant's employees gradually cook your pork on the burner in front of you.  After it is done, you can dip it in the fermented fish sauce and eat it with your banchan.  I thought this was a delicious meal and a big part of the Jeju experience.  The only downside about this meal is that it is a little pricey.  Four servings of Jeju black pork is about 110,000 won, or ~$110 USD, and after a few bottles of soju, beer, and pepsi, it came out to 30 won/person.  This is still a must-do at least once if you're in Jeju, though.

I am going to make another post soon about what I've done today, so stay tuned!