‘A Summer time Overseas’: Drained horse, withered carrots

Erin Choi’s column “A Summer time Overseas” items collectively recollections from her pilgrimage again to Korea.

On the jap port of Jeju Island lies Seopjikoji, a bit of land jutting out to sea. It’s a lovely volcanic formation. The porous black rock contrasts with the plush greenery rising on high of it. The water, a deep blue-gray, froths because it meets the land. Jeju is understood for its fickle climate — blazing scorching then bone-chilling chilly, raining then sunny. I by no means knew clouds may imply scorching climate, however one way or the other it really works, like a steam cooker does. The ocean breeze battering me from all instructions, my make-up melts off like butter, my garments stiff with salt as they dry.

I’m a vacationer right here. So I do vacationer actions. 

5,000 gained on the base of the path will get me a neon-orange Jeju mandarin slush. A pair ft up, a raggedy wooden board advertises Horse Rides for six,000 gained. “Why not?” my mother shrugs. What’s tourism however experiences you should purchase? We trip some overworked horses for 5 minutes. I really feel sorry as I sit on the horse, its bones shifting to accommodate my load. Guided by an outdated man with leathery arms, we make one small lap across the predetermined observe. The horse sways with every step. I’m afraid its ankles will snap. 

After, I purchase it a withered carrot for its struggles. They don’t settle for card. 

As we proceed our trek upwards, the air thickens with moisture. Seopjikoji was residence to an historic lighthouse, a smoke beacon. A homing sign for misplaced sailors. Stacking it out of volcanic rock, the individuals would begin a hearth on the lighthouse’s flat high to alert individuals of incoming intruders. The lighthouse continues to be there, partially. I feel it most likely bought remade. How a lot of the unique wants to stay for one thing to nonetheless be itself? In entrance of the construction, or no less than its remake, I smile and pose. 

The warmth is ruthless, violent, smothering us in our personal sweat. “Can we get one thing to drink? God, I’m dying.” 

Happily, there’s a cafe-restaurant combo close by, which seems to be extra like a museum than any food-and-drink institution. Tremendous blocky, modernist. A concrete monolith by Tadao Ando. The cafe on the primary ground boasts a menu of 10,000 gained drinks and 20,000 gained egg-salad sandwiches the dimensions of my index finger. Sadly, I don’t actually like egg-salad.

However once more, I’m fairly hungry, so I am going up the steps to the restaurant, which is a separate enterprise known as Mint. I attempt to Yelp it, with out a lot success, however I do discover a journey weblog that calls it one of many Prime 11 Instagrammable Issues to do in Jeju. “The view is there,” one other blogger writes. “Taste is NOT.” 

“Mother,” I stated. “Let’s eat elsewhere.”

Although I’m wonderful at complaining, attributable to my restricted proficiency in Korean, I’m not a lot assist trying to find different eating places. My mother scrolls by way of suggestions. Within the meantime, I stroll circles round her. A small succulent has sprouted in a pore of the volcanic rock alongside the path. The Jeju equal of the rose that grew from concrete, I suppose. 

The restaurant we lastly arrive at is a small stall amongst many others. Parking is tight, mazelike. The proprietor is on her cellphone after we are available in. The shop is empty and the AC is off, even on this insufferable warmth, as if she doesn’t deserve temperate air within the absence of consumers. Her face lights up when she sees us. “Welcome in!” 

This can be a donkatsu restaurant, and it serves 4 variations of the identical dish (all 9,500 gained). In a kitchen she will barely flip round in, the proprietor prepares the bottom — a pork loin dipped in egg wash and breaded in panko, dunked in scorching oil till golden brown. Select a sauce, and the proprietor will ladle a beneficiant quantity over your slice. She brings out two teetering dishes on every arm for our group of 4, a precarious balancing act, earlier than setting them down on the yellowed (but clear) desk. I divide the cutlet into eight slices and fork one into my mouth. The pork gushes out a savory, heat broth.

I eat slowly, chewing the meat to a paste. The proprietor/server/prepare dinner is watching us, smiling. Grey strands escape the flower-print handkerchief overlaying her hair. Sweat beads her hairline, trickles down the slope of her nostril. Her arms are deeply cracked from the labor. Unusually, she jogs my memory of my beloved grandma. I need to inform her it’s okay to boost the costs, that it’s okay to activate the AC when she’s alone. 

I am going residence full. We not often revisit eating places right here in Jeju, however we come again each couple of days, drawn to it by some homing sign.