10/25/2024

I have just returned to the states after a somewhat life altering trip across the pacific that I quickly realized has opened up a whole new world of travel for me. While I love Europe and don’t intend on putting it and many other destinations on the bench anytime soon, as a longtime lover of Asian foods of many and all ~varietals,~ my first voyage to Asia has made me realize I need to explore a lot more of the world’s most populous continent, and I need to do it soon.

The food in Asia was awesome and admittedly the highlight of my trip outside of the Bridges Cup which I will start off by recapping. That said, there was so much more to my Asia travels than just food and golf. In the best of ways, Asia is very different from even Mexico or certainly Europe. I will also expand much further on this point, but the biggest thing you learn quickly in Asia is that if you take an English speaker and a Korean or Japanese speaker, neither of whom speak much or any of the other language, communication of any type is brutally hard. Even if an English speaker and a French or Spanish or German or Italian speaker are not at all bilingual, all the romance languages are close enough in ways that through a bit of charades and word salad you can make it work. In Asia, this is not the case. I had multiple instances where there was something very simple, such as paying at a convenience store, I was trying to communicate to someone, and even that was difficult to get across. If everything was in Japanese or Korean and no one at a store spoke any English, it was tough. I think it’s fascinating to realize how much of the world population this is true of. We take for granted things as simple as being able to communicate with someone far too often.

Bridges Cup:

The Bridges Cup is a mid amateur competition that pits 12 Americans against 12 internationals (anywhere other than America) and is meant to capture a group of guys who fall in the Venn diagram of being good guys, good players, and members of a good club. It’s not just the best 12 mid ams from either side, otherwise I would never have been invited, but it also isn’t purely guys who like to have fun and have a good membership. Ideally, players hit on all 3 of the above buckets.

The host club was a luxury Korean club about 30 miles outside Seoul called Haesley, which ended up being a really great host site for the event. The accommodations, food, and overall hospitality were incredible. And while the golf course maybe wasn’t my favorite from a pure architectural lens, it served as a great site, particularly for match play with the final stretch being rather hard and having the kind of excitement you want for a closing stretch.

The event is 5 sessions, same as the Ryder Cup, with fourball and foursomes on days 1 and 2, and the final session being day 3 singles. I paired up twice in fourball with a guy named Scott Strickland from Oakland Hills who was a total stud player and perfect fourball partner as he didn’t spend much time off the fairway nor the greens. For foursomes my partner was Drew Stoltz, better known as Sleeze from Golf’s Subpar. Sleeze and I made for a great duo as our personalities and inclination to keep things fun and light matched up great. Strickland and I won one match and lost the other to Int’s best side. Sleeze and I took care of business in our foursomes match, and I was able to win 2 Up in my singles match. I was a couple down through 11 holes after a sinking spell around the turn but came in with good stuff to close out my guy. It doesn’t matter how big or small the event. When you have some pressure on and have to perform, especially for a team, golf is really fun. Getting to feel that as a mid am becomes more and more rare, so this was a treat for me and all the other guys playing.

According to some of the other guys, the first couple editions of The Bridges Cup, while still fun, just weren’t that competitive, but this one was a different story. The Internationals brought a very real squad and we had to play really well to get it done 17-15 for the final tally. A week of awesome competition, a ton of new friends made, and a lot of stuff to look forward to down the road with those guys. Harkening back to the event being made up of guys with some good clubs, just off who I played with that week there were guys from Sunningdale, Royal St. Georges, Oakland Hills, The R&A, Royal Hague, LACC, Bel-Air, New South Wales, and Merion. Not a bad list, and many more great places represented by others. A cool group of guys to be assembled.

Drinking:

Ok, now for what people want to hear, the DERT. Starting of course with the D category. For each of these, I will break the trip into the 4 segments that it was comprised of, those being Haesley (The Bridges Cup), my 3 nights in Seoul, 3 nights in Kyoto, and 3 nights in Tokyo.

Drinking: Haesley:

Probably my least favorite piece of the trip was the fact that Koreans basically like Soju and a few beers here and there, but at a golf club for example you don’t exactly see a full bar. Most outings, the things on offer were Grey Goose, Jose Cuervo, maybe some wine, a few Heinekens, and Soju. Not it for me. Later in the week someone got a bottle of Whiskey in the fold, but it was a tough scene.

Speaking of tough, Seoul has some great coffee shops, more to come there, but in general Korea is an espresso scene. A lot of Americanos were had at Haesley. Really a challenging deal.

Highlight of Haesley on the D front was about 30 of these Aloe Vera drinks. Strange stuff as it literally has chunks of aloe floating in it, but they taste nice and are supposed to be good for the skin.

Drinking: Seoul:

Night 1 in Soeul was brought to you by our friends at big agave, big green grape, probably some other stuff that big agave has me forgetting, and subsequently on morning one about 14 gallons of Agua. It is what it is.

The hotel we stayed at was super nice and had a great bar set up. I recall an espresso martini, Mezcal Marg, and super nice old fashioned going down. Needed to get back to baseline after 5 days at Haesley and all of these hit just like you would hope them to.

After that, I kept it lowkey. A few of these waters, which were good enough. Nothing special. I also had a banana milk, courtesy of former Tie guest Andrea Lee which was actually strong to quite strong.

Found a few different coffee shops where a proper long black or pour over could be attained and after Haesley, you can imagine how hot and heavy these were going down.

Drinking: Kyoto:

Tansan is one of the Japanese sparkling waters I got into. It was fine. Probably a 6.5 or so on the 1-Topo scale.

Pocari Sweat is the sports drink I saw a lot of in Korea and Japan and a few of these were a nice compliment to some long tourist days of 15 miles of walking and the whole deal.

Never been much of a tea guy, but Kyoto is the home of Matcha and I feel I at a minimum gained more respect for the Matcha game with a few different consumptions across the 3 days. Had another few teas that I don’t really recall that were also good. Again, not much for tea.

Morning 2 in Kyoto I went on a bit of a coffee bender and found a blue bottle, Stumptown, and local joint that all absolutely smacked. Japanese people actually have restraint (unlike me) and therefore a pour over is probably 7-8 ounces, so yes I hit all of these in succession.

Had one final pour over my final day in Kyoto at a place called Drew that does great coffee. The general coffee scene in Asia was tough on me as you can’t just find a nice cup of drip wherever you go, but the craft scene is wonderful.

Drinking: Tokyo:

Found one of the best coffee shops I’ve ever seen in Glitch coffee near the Imperial Palace. 8oz pour overs range anywhere from $4 to $30! And while I stayed in the lower part of that range, my Chinese beans were as good as anything I’ve had in a long time.

We’ll get deeper on the grape scene in the E, but big grape’s stranglehold on the Asian market extends into the juice world as well. Had a couple and honestly was quite impressed. Far better than American grape juice.

Went to 2 different cocktail bars in Tokyo, both times gaming a Japanese Whiskey sort of old fashioned and was thoroughly impressed with each. Japanese Whiskey is flat out wonderful.

Eating:

Eating: Haesley:

My introduction to food in Asia. Haesley did not disappoint. The first thing I will call out that was consumed in large quantities here was the 3 snack items shown below. Why we don’t have truffle flavored chips more commonly in the US is well beyond me. So good.

Haesley treated us to a handful of great buffets and tasting menu and as you can imagine by looking at this breakfast plate, I was not there for the standard American fare.

My favorite thing about Korean food is how they give you all sorts of tastes and textures to nibble at. This meal set of grilled fish, a brothy soup, rice, and all sort of Banchan serves as a perfect example of that.

My standard lunch day to day was 2-3 orders of Gimbap, a musubi (rice topped with egg and spam and rolled with seaweed to hold together) or 2, and a couple of the aforementioned Aloe Vera drinks.

One night at Haesley they served a buffet with literally all the Korean dishes I love. I had 4 plates and literally waddled out of there. Bulgogi, tteokbokki (rice cakes in a gochujang sauce), shrimp situation, Korean Fried Chicken, different soups, seafood salad, the list goes on and on. So good.

Eating: Seoul:

Seoul is where the tempo really cranked up. We started out night one with Korean BBQ, or in Korea, as you may expect, they just call it BBQ. I’ll be completely honest, I like but don’t love KBBQ. It’s fun and the sides are always interesting, but the meats can be bland. That’s just a stone cold honest take.

Day 2 was a slow start after a big night one. Korean café culture is big and bread is about all my stomach could handle until about mid day so I checked out a few of those and ate about 3 bagels and some milk bread to bring me back to order.

I also went on a little 7/11 run and tried out some snacks as seen below. Snack culture is important. Korean snack culture is also far superior to American IMO.

After getting myself back in order, it was time to check out one of the food markets where I could try out some different stuff. On recommendation from a friend, I went to Myeongdong night market which is a popular shopping area of Seoul. I got after it here.

First off, had a lamb and duck skewer. Both great. Duck was the winner.

Then tried out these crispy little crabs and some bulgogi dumplings.

Followed those up with fried chicken and rice cakes plus an egg tart/bread sort of deal.

Finally I grabbed some noodles (yaki udon) in a bag plus grilled squid strips which I at first thought I didn’t like but ultimately did.

For dessert, muscat grapes and melon were the play. A great opening stretch in the Seoul street food game.

Day 2 was similar action with the Gwangjang market being on tap. This was a top experience of the trip and a big rec for anyone who goes to Seoul. Rather than just being little carts, this was almost just a collection of tiny restaurants situated in a market. You actually sit down on little chairs with each vendor to try traditional Korean items such as:

§ Mung bean pancakes. A must.

§ Spicy cold noodles.

§ More Gimbap!

§ Spicy chicken feet and pork skin. I actually quite enjoyed this.

§ Kimchi and Green onion pancakes. Savory Korean Pancakes go hard.

§ And last but not least, more muscat grapes. So damn good.

Day 2 closed out with a voyage out to a suburb of Seoul called Goyang where I met up with one of my best friends, Andrea Lee who was playing in the LPGA event in Korea that week. We went to a very traditional Korean place where she was able to show off her Korean language skills and had Bo-ssam (pork shoulder wrapped in cabbage with gochujang, kimchi, etc.), Army Stew (a dish from the Korean war that is spicy broth with ramen noodles, sausages, hot dogs, and more. Super cool), and more spicy cold noodles. Fantastic evening.

We closed out the evening with dessert from a 7/11 sort of establishment (apparently this is a staple experience in Korean Dessert culture) where I had both black sesame and corn ice cream pops. 10/10. No hyperbole.

Eating: Kyoto:

Onto the land of the rising sun! In Kyoto I stayed in this super cool hotel in a more residential part of the city with my parents who joined me for the Japan swing of this trip. The place literally had 4 rooms. The supremacy of Japanese service culture was in full bloom at a place like this.

This hotel did breakfast in a way I had not experienced up until this point. A spread and a half every day. Rice, fish (often grilled and sashimi style), Tofu, all sorts of pickled sides, Miso soup, rolled omelets and soft scrambles over rice. Truly the whole nine. While I am not usually a big breakfast person and like to push the bulk of my eating from noon until 6 or 7, all these trappings were so light on the stomach that I felt great after each breakfast. What an experience.

Kyoto is the most committed place I have ever been to the game that is soft serve ice cream. Vanilla, and another one of the city’s specialties, Matcha, are the two flavors you see everywhere. The flavor I go mad for and had 3x is black sesame. Truly goat stuff.

Okonomiyaki has been one of my favorite Japanese dishes for years so to have on right near Osaka where it originates was a treat. A savory cabbage pancake topped with Kewpie, a BBQ type sauce, bonito flakes, and more. People call it Japanese pizza.

Had 2 of the big 3 noodle dishes in Kyoto. Soba (not pictured) is something the city is known for as well as Udon. I had the Udon Tsukemen style which means the broth and noodles are separated and you dip the noodles in the broth. Big time. Duck to accompany.

Nishiki Market is one Kyoto’s coolest spots. It is a seafood forward market with tons of stalls where you’ll find seafood skewers, wagyu skewers, sushi, soft serve, Taiyaki (a fish shaped, often custard or red bean filled pancake of sorts), and all sorts of other things.

Last but certainly not least I had my first of 2 Michelin star experiences on the trip in Kyoto at a Kaiseki place called Tenjaku. Kaiseki means a place uses local, seasonal ingredients that tell the story of a region. This story I quite enjoyed. The restaurant was Tempura forward but also served different small plates to start and finish.

§ This sounds crazy but one of the last dishes was a simple local rice with a small but of broth and pickled items and it may have been the best of the night. 15 courses deep I was like “why are you serving me plain rice?” I was quickly made aware of my ignorance with how good this was.

Eating: Tokyo:

I was just blown away by Tokyo in every way. Food certainly not withstanding.

The first sesh in Tokyo was at the famed Tsujiki Market (pronounced Ski-Gee) which is similar to Nishiki but even more sushi and seafood forward as it roots are in being a tuna auction market. The amount of sushi at this place was incredible which for a sushi lover like me was awesome.

The first thing I had was this pressed rice cracker of sorts where a shrimp was pressed into this almost savory crepe like batter to make a giant cracker. Very cool.

From there, I had a salmon onigiri (triangular rice pocket wrapped in seaweed). A yakitori Tuna skewer (so good). Must have missed the picture but definitely got a wagyu skewer somewhere. Another assorted seafood yakitori. And of course another black sesame cone.

I kept it lighter at Nishiki because that night had a big one on the docket. Sushi-Ya, a Michelin star omakase, may have been the jewel of the trip. Not all pictured, but it was probably 18-20 courses, mostly nigiri, of all sorts of Japanese fish. Truly heaven for me.

§ One cool thing about true Japanese omakase sushi experiences is that there is no customization to your food. You don’t have soy to douse on every roll. The chef may brush soy on a piece of sushi and wasabi is often spread between the rice and fish, but chef knows best and you eat it the way he serves it. Period.

Day 2 was Ramen. There are many types of ramen broth, but for me I only need one ramen experience on a trip, and I want tonkotsu. I like noodles thin and firm, egg is a must, and spicy is preferred. I checked all boxes and didn’t leave a bite, as evidenced.

I mentioned the ubiquity of grapes in Japan. I came to realize in Tokyo that its not just in their natural form, but even in candy that grapes are everywhere. To be honest, I’m all in.

Perhaps up there with the Sushi-Ya and Tenjaku as an overall experience, a night food tour of Shibuya was a top experience of the trip. A guide took us to a stand up sushi counter where 10 or so nigiri rolls would run you $15, a make your own Okonomiyaki place, and a proper Izakaya where we had bevs and fried stuff like wings, karaage, and eggplant. Figuring out how to tap into local flare is key in Tokyo and this was our way of doing it. Super cool evening.

Tokyo is known for having some of the world’s best Neapolitan pizza and at Savoy, this was confirmed to me. Proper in every way. I of course topped myself off with yet another black sesame cone after this meal.

My final hoorah in Tokyo was a wagyu place on the final night which was as good as you would imagine. With wagyu you really don’t need a ribeye. This was about a 10oz sirloin and it was absolutely fantastic.

Learning:

I would be lying if I said I did much reading in Asia, and my thinking would basically be something to the tune of “What am I eating next? I should probably drink some water after those 3 coffees. Do I really have to leave? Is it time to eat now?”

So instead of the R and T, I’ll kick in an L and hit you all with a collection of things I took away from my time in Korea and Japan

Learning: Haesley:

While my 5 days at Haesley Golf Club didn’t necessarily provide the amount of cultural immersion that I would get from Seoul, Kyoto, and Tokyo, there was one key thing I took away from my time there. As some of you may have seen before, golf in Korea is both a very big deal and very different to the states. At nice clubs, it is always played with a female caddy who drives a luxurious cart (seat heaters, cup coolers and heaters, fans, you name it) and tends to all your needs, and then some, out on course.

I was both blown away at how good these women were at their job and how much they care about doing their job well. Like magic, if there was something I needed or was missing, my caddy was always a step ahead of me. It’s a different golf experience and not what I would want every day, but something I am lucky to have been able to experience.

Especially in America, and myself notwithstanding, too many people put a half-hearted effort into their job and don’t really care about doing it well. To see these South Korean caddies try to do their job as well as possible at every moment was completely aspirational.

Learning: Seoul:

Ok, a selection of less serious learnings here:

Korean sauna rooms are not only clothing not required, but clothing not allowed. I wasn’t sure of the situation but as soon as I stepped into the room my sole companion (a large, elderly Korean gentleman) confirmed any doubts I had on the customs. Literally eye opening.

Korean skincare is known to be the best in the world. The two things Korean women seem to care about the most is very white, healthy skin, and the youthful appearance that gives. The ultimate flex in Korea is to look 25 and be 35. Interesting stuff.

Service in Korea is second only to Japan in terms of what I have experienced, but they tell you how it is going to be with no room to negotiate. In the nicest of ways, a request outside the lines of “how things are done” will be shot down in an instant. Same as Japan.

This is an Asia thing in general, but for anyone who has not experienced a bidet, you have not yet lived, and your life is not as good as it could be until said experience has taken place. No questions asked.

I guess this is what people would refer to as “K-Pop culture,” but Korea is a very colorful place. All sorts of stores, people, etc. that look like a rainbow.

Learning: Kyoto:

I quickly learned here that despite the high level of Korean service, Japan takes it to another level. The nicest hotel you’ve been to in the states where every employee has things dialed to a level you can’t imagine… double that.

For those of you who like me are usually at least 300mg of caffeine deep by 6am, Japan is a tough spot. It’s a battle to find decent coffee before 9am. A battle.

Showing up late for or cancelling reservations in Japan is not cool. As mentioned above, they are dialed in and expect you to be as well.

Operating in Kyoto without a translator can be quite difficult in spots. I went to a drug store to get medicine one afternoon and every single thing in the store was in Japanese. Every word. I was taking pictures of dozens of medicine boxes at random trying to find what I needed.

§ Further to the above, it can be really hard to even communicate the most basic things with someone who doesn’t speak any English if you don’t speak any Japanese. This is partially really cool but can be challenging at times.

Without a local, and this is true of Seoul as well and Tokyo the most, you will never find the truly best stuff. Many of the coolest restaurants and bars are tucked away in alleyways with all (if there is any) signage in Japanese and maps apps don’t work well in English.

Obviously, rice is important in Japan but I didn’t realize how revered it is. The source, cooking process, etc. of rice is taken very seriously. The hotel I was at even served rice balls before bed in a bamboo box. Just plain rice.

Learning: Tokyo:

Finally, the big one. Tokyo. Call it ignorance or a lack of due diligence, but somehow, I let Tokyo sneak up on me. It’s the coolest place I’ve been and it’s frankly not very close.

While Kyoto is historic and has the Temples and Shrines you need to experience perhaps just once when going to Japan, Tokyo is literally the largest and coolest metropolitan city in the world that I could go to for a month every year.

Tokyo is the cleanest city I’ve ever been to, and the crazy thing is that there are no trash cans around. What it comes down to is people being respectful and responsible. You do not eat on the streets in Asia and when you do have trash you take care of it yourself and do not just throw it on the ground or in some public waste area. A drink machine may have recycling for drinks purchased there only, but the entire public is not your waste bin. Personal responsibility, what a concept!

The density of cool stuff in Tokyo is hard to wrap your head around.

§ Imagine if Park Avenue had 7 or 8 streets just as cool as it running parallel to it. Then imagine that in between each of those 7 or 8 streets there were 5 alleyways between each set. So now we’re working with ~35 alleyways. Now imagine every single one of those was lined for 10 stories at every inch with ramen shops, bars, smaller shopping experiences, etc.

§ There are a dozen settings like this in Tokyo where the main event is overwhelming enough and then you realize what is layered within is even cooler and more overwhelming.

Even more so than Kyoto and playing off the above, you must have locals show you the coolest stuff. It’s amazing how many places in Japan are tiny. 8-seater omakase, 5 person ramen shops, the list goes on. And you’re not going to know where or how to find these if someone doesn’t help you out.

I’m a skin fade man, and decided Japan is the right sort of place to get one. I was not wrong about this. It felt somewhere in between having surgery and what I would imagine an Augusta National grounds crew would look like attending to each green. 3 Japanese barbers dialing me in and making sure every hair was perfect. Incredible. Worth the trip if only for a haircut.

Final point. Japanese culture has a rigidity that can be annoying and can seem incredibly excessive at times, but it is what makes the place great and always has a purpose. I realized throughout the week that any time someone was being annoyingly detailed about something that if I just let it happen the outcome would make sense and be better. Japanese people do everything with a purpose and you’re much better off letting them do their thing rather than questioning it.

For now,

#HSinAsia > #HSinATX.

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Asian DERT: Henry’s Full Asia Trip Recap