I got no sleep last night – zip, zero, nada. Don’t know why, my brain just wouldn’t turn off. So I’m not quite sure why I thought it would be a good idea to eat this for breakfast – I blame my foggy state.

Taken at Porto’s Bakery in Burbank, which I love. This is the same place where I saw Selma Hayek a few weeks ago. I’m pretty sure this ISN’T what she was eating.

Seven of us had dinner in one of the many tiny restaurants on the fourth floor of a building abutting the fish market. I don’t know how you would pick which one to eat at – our choice was basically made for us because the taxi drive phoned ahead and the owner was waiting by the curb for us. Don’t know what the quid pro quo was here, but some arrangement was clearly made. She waited for us by the curb as we strolled along the street and aisleways looking at all the fish at the market. Thirty minutes later she scooped us up and sat us down. No complaints though, she and the food were awesome!

The appetizers course was a collection of leeche nuts, quail eggs, shrimp, pork, rice with roe, and those shelled things with toothpicks.

Peppers, carrots and raw garlic as a vegetable side dish. There was also a small plate of broccoli.

An array of sauces: spicy ketchup, soy sauce and bean curd paste.

When this plate was brought to the table the whole thing was squirming. At first I thought (and hoped!) the fan behind me was just blowing the seaweed. Nope, it was live octopus. The octopi have actually been cut up just before serving, but that evidently doesn’t slow them down much. Some of the tentacles are tough to pick up because they’re grabbing the plate. Actually pretty tasty, I went back for more.

Fresh raw abalone. The leaf on the left has their intestines, which I didn’t eat, but are evidently very good for you. John explained to me that you can tell the abs are fresh and wild because the intestines are green. I’m sure that makes them taste better, too. I’ll never know.

Though this fish has been prepped, you still get to see what you’re eating. A couple minutes later the waitress took the carcasses away to make the soup with.

Nayoung made a new friend.

Soju is a sweet potato liquor that was our drink of choice for the meal. You actually share bottles and drink out of shot glasses, which is different that what this picture implies.

Jiyeong.

Our waitress sat down with us and rolled up a combination of sliced fish, raw garlic, bean curd, and who knows what else. I shot this picture right before she stuffed it in my mouth.

I’m working on it here after she fed it to me. The flavor was great, but I was having a tough time with the bones that were still in the fish. (They’re left in intentionally – a good source of calcium doncha know.)

The final course of the meal. This soup is prepared with the fish from the prior course.

The aftermath from dinner at the Busan fish market.

The Jagalchi Fish Market is a (the?) major wholesale fish market in Busan, South Korea. We visited in the evening, and the streets were lined with stalls of fresh fish, shellfish, and, well, other things. When we visited again after dinner a couple of hours later the fish were all being packed up into Styrofoam crates to be shipped to retail markets and restaurants.

Most of the stalls were also set up to prepare the fish for you to eat there. Or, you can go indoors where there are rows and rows of restaurants, each serving just a handful of tables. The tables are next to, or in some cases surrounding, fountains flowing into baskets of live seafood. Take your pick and eat it a moment later.

Harter Ryan from Microsoft’s Ensemble Studios gave the opening keynote speech at ICON2008. Kudos to Harter for not using a single bullet point in his presentation (a tenet I believe in wholeheartedly, but violated myself this time). Here he’s silhouetted in front of an image of a large crowd as he discussed the potential size of the video game market. By not having text on the screen you focus on what the speaker has to say.

First view of Korea

I just returned from the ICON2008 International Content Creator’s Conference in Busan, Korea, which I was invited to attend as a keynote speaker. I was busy enough that I didn’t post while on the trip, but I’m going to break the trip down into a few different posts here.

This was my first visit to this beautiful country, and I wish I had been able to stay longer than only 2 1/2 days.

The Bexco Convention Center

Most of my visit was spent at the conference – in addition to giving my talk, there were other interesting talks to attend, prep meetings, press interviews, a few meet-and-greet events, receptions and time touring the exhibition.

The ETC also had a recruiting booth on the exhibit floor, so I had friends in town.

From left to right: Jiyeong coordinates the ETC’s Asian activities; John develops and manages the ETC’s Asian relationships; and Rebecca is Director of Admissions. Missing from this shot is Nayoung, the ETC student who is responsible for my invitation to speak at the conference. Thanks you guys, what a blast hanging out with you!

Here’s a link to all my pictures from the trip on flickr.