Food for Thought

As per my mom's request, here's a quick submission on Korean food...

The inevitable question asked of anybody abroad: "How's the food?" My answer: "Great." (See picture) Food in Korea is spicy, fresh, and delicious. Yes, dog is eaten. No, I haven't yet. Yes, I probably will. Now, that's out of the way. The best food, which is the actual Korean food, is the cheapest. The traditional starter, or side dish, at all food stops is kimchi, and I have grown to like it. It looks like cooked cabbage (almost soggy leaves) spattered with a paprika-like spice. My advice to people that say they hate Korean food: close your eyes when you eat it, it will probably improve the taste. I wish I had a picture of kimchi for you, but the picture wouldn't do it justice. It would most likely do it an injustice.

At Korean restaurants, the dish you order is always complimented by numerous pun-chun, side dishes, such as rice, kimchi, pear, noodles, strange-yellow-fruit, and strange-pink-fruit. You can stuff yourself on the numerous side dishes alone. Tonight, luckily, I did remember to whip out my Kodak camera and capture my dinner in a delicious still. It was my best dinner in Seoul so far, and it cost $10 (expensive--but worth it). There were four of us at the table and a gas burner in the middle. They brought out a pot of a orange Korean soup and placed it on the burner. Notice the multiple side-bowls everyone has; those are the numerous pun-chun. They then brought out fistfuls of fresh greens and vegetables and threw them unceremoniously into the then-boiling soup. A large plate of uncooked, thinly-sliced beef was placed at our side, from which we threw pieces of meat into the mixture as we liked. The beef was sliced so thin that it was browned within a 15 seconds. They continued to bring out further handfuls of mixed vegetables and mix them into the soup when it looked like we were running low. I have never had better mushrooms, sprouts, asparagus, onion, beef, or potato as those in this dish, from which everyone kept picking out as much as they'd like. Needless to say, my chopstick skills have progressed. The "communal" nature of traditional Korean eating might annoy some people I know who don't appreciate the utensils of multiple people being dipped repeatedly into community pot. Regardless, this meal was delicious.

When I don't have time to sit down and eat, there is always kimbap. I often find myself going to class on a bowl of cereal (Tony the Tiger lives in Asia, too), and, hungry, deciding to stop at one of the numerous restaurants on the four blocks in between my apartment and the school to pick up two or three rolls of kimbap (left). It is a roll of sushi wrapped in tin foil, and it costs $1. These restaurants always have a pile of them near the door, where you grab a couple, say hi, and throw a couple thousand Won on the table. I have subsisted on kimbap alone on multiple occasions, and it is not only healthy, cheap, and filling, but also tasty.

Produce and seafood are very big here because they are so easily driven in from the country/coast (Korea is smaller than Tennessee). Everywhere you go, you find farmers/fishermen selling king crabs, octopus, fresh fruit, and vegetables out of their truck beds. The food is quite good and, as you can imagine, inexpensive. The downside to these merchants is the loudspeakers that every one of them has purchased and mounted on their trucks. Every morning I wake to a scratchy Korean voice blaring from one of these produce trucks coming down my alleyway. It sounds like a 1920's gubernatorial candidate on a grass-roots campaign through farming country. Beyond their annoying loudspeakers, these trucks make it much easier to purchase fresh food since their wares are sitting in front of me and can easily be pointed to. No unnecessary Korean is needed, simply my pointer finger, an appreciate grunt, and slight bow.

My first break (one of two week-long breaks throughout the year), is coming up next week. I'm thinking about doing a "Temple Stay" for the first couple days. This is when you pay a small amount to live in a Buddhist temple as a Monk for however long you want. Why not? Could be interesting. After that, I might try to organize a fishing trip with a coworker. The trout that run in northern Asian countries, Manchurian Trout, is supposedly the oldest trout species in the world, and is easy to find (Korea is 70% hills and streams). The DMZ supposedly holds the most serene (and untouched) trout fishing rivers in Asia. I might not make it up near there for obvious reasons. Four fishermen were accidentally killed there a few years ago when they were confused for North Koreans. Furthermore, there are still landmines washing down the river out of the DMZ zone that kill dozens of farmers every year. Besides, you don't need a fishing license to fish in most of Korea! I can just hike off into the mountains around Seoul, find a river, and cast in! It sounds so simple. All I need now is a rod, tackle, and a sense of direction.