The Jones' Korean Adventure: New York Fries and Royal Tombs

Sunday, February 11, 2007

New York Fries and Royal Tombs

Poutine. That word, for some, means absolutely nothing. But for a Canadian, that word brings with it a mouth-watering mental picture of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Pretty much a heart attack on a plate, but I hear obesity is the latest fad, so all aboard the grease wagon!

I had pretty much written off my chances of eating a good dish of poutine in Korea. I figured that if the Americans don't know about it, how could the Koreans know about it. That was, until we stumbled across a New York Fries franchise. This little restaurant was located in an underground shopping mall area that led to a subway station. A misguided turn down a wrong corridor led us to the black and white checkered sign that screamed, "NEW YORK FRIES" in my direction. And lo-and-behold, poutine was on the menu.

Here we are with Josh, Bethany and Erin (some friends from our new church), enjoying our fabulous taste-of-home lunch!

After we had our fill at New York Fries, Sam and I decided to head to some royal tombs that were in the area. We saw the tombs of King Seongjong (he ruled from 1469 to 1494) and his second wife, Queen Jeonghyeonwanghu (imagine learning to spell that in kindergarten...huge disadvantage!). They both had lots of statues surrounding them, which was pretty cool. Everything from sheep and horses to what looked like a warrior and a priest were carved, and set up around the mounds that held their bodies. The graves were on two separate hills in the same park area. Both were set up exactly the same, with the same stone carvings around them. It was neat to be in a serene, park environment, and then look up and see the huge skyscrapers all around us. The old world meets the new world.
Here are some pictures.

This is Sam with the backside of one of the sheep carvings. As you can see, even the backsides were very realistic, and well done.

Here I am with one of the protective warrior statues.

You have to understand that we NEVER see grass. The grass on these tomb mounds was the most grass we have seen in a long time. Even though it was dead winter grass, I had to lie on it.

Here's Sam giving a larger shot of what the tombs look like. The statues and tomb mound was on top of this larger mound. You can kinda see the statue heads peaking up at the top of the hill.