Korean Food...

... has been an adventure.

A typical looking Korean lunch, dinner, and, yes, breakfast. Except this soup was Japanese style. The lunch lady looked shocked when I said, "Miso?" Yes, it was miso.

This is a less appetizing picture, but it was on a feast night when we met the counselors who were paired with our class. We never really have two kinds of meat. On the left is "bulgogi" which is some sort of chopped meat, on the right is a piece of fried chicken. Front left is some sort of pinwheel shaped root vegetable coated in sweet sauce and peanuts and about the same texture as a pencil eraser. Front right is spicy, fermented cabbage called kimchi, which they call Korea's national dish. Even that description, though, is a vast understatement. Not a meal goes by without accompanying kimchi, mounds of it on every plate. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Korean style barbecue: we had skillets in the middle to cook pork and garlic, which we then wrapped in lettuce leaves and topped with rice, peppers, an amazing fermented soybean chili sauce, and, yes, kimchi. Community style dining that has been my favorite meal so far.

The resulting wrap.

When we ate at the Jukdo market, this was the corn/squash pudding that we ordered and ate as a group. I can't say that I was a huge fan, though I was a fan of trying something new, if that counts for anything.

You can see a knee in this picture. We sat at a table where we sat on the floor. We only ordered some gimbop (Korean style sushi roll) and the bowl of squash pudding, but the stall manager brought us water, sprouts, and kimchi. Then some older Korean women drinking soju (alcohol) got really worked up and kept feeding us things, trying to mime what they were and laughing hysterically. One of the things they gave us were these leaves which you wrap around a garlic clove and then eat. We found out very quickly that the cloves were raw. They also gave one of us (not me) the same leaf but then it had some sort of raw mystery meat inside. We were at a fish market, but it could have been liver; we definitely saw veins. She said it tasted good. I didn't risk it, though.

Here's a Korean classic, from Pizza Hut: shrimp pizza. If you blow up the picture, you can see all sorts of seafood on top. Those of you worried about my shellfish allergy will be comforted to know that I did not partake.

Some of the best conversations I have with students are about food. One went like this:
Jun: teacher, can you get kimchi in Tennesee?
Sarah: only some places.
Jun: Oh. Everybody have kimchi here.
a little later...
Jun: teacher, does your husband like Korean food?
Sarah: He has never had Korean food, but I'm sure he would because he likes spicy food.
Jun: What kind of food does he like?
Sarah: Well, he likes Chinese food.
Jun: Oh! Chinese kimchi so bad, is not delicious.

today, this little boy stood about four inches from my face while I finished my lunch watching me intently.
Jun: You like this? (we were having what I think is called bimbibop... about 8 kids answered in unison when I asked what it was, so it was hard to hear exactly)
Sarah: yes, it's very good.
Jun: Not too spicy?
Sarah: No, just right.
Jun: You should tell your husband, come here, and try the Korean food.
Sarah: he would like that.