Korean food

No big deal, just eating kimchi at the Kimchi Museum.

"Say, 'Kimchi!'"  Koreans use this expression, instead of saying "cheese," when taking people's pictures. As we were served Kimchi at just about every meal, I noticed that this spicy, fermented vegetable dish is a big part of Korean culture.


Fresh fish, rice, noodles and many other veggies are  examples of Korean food. Normally, some form of spiciness is added to the overall meal to enhance the flavor. In fact, I experienced the power of Korean spice on Saturday. 

I went to a local restaurant with my host family. When we entered this small-roomed restaurant, we took off our shoes and were seated at a low table to the ground. The servers brought out dish after dish until our table was barely visible. I began to pick at the various dishes, intentionally taking small amounts. With my chopsticks, I tried some of the greens, rice and a couple of vegetables I couldn't really recognize. For the most part I could handle the dishes, but there were a few I knew I would probably avoid because it was a little too spicy. Then, my home stay father put meat on my plate and told me to try it. I did and thought it was a perfect addition to the meal. One server walked by and told me to add the sauce to the meat. I did just that: I, purposely, lightly-dabbed a small piece of meat into this unknown red sauce.

Immediately, my throat tingled and my eyes became watery. My over-cautiousness could not save me this time. That's right. I started crying at the dinner table, not because I was leaving Korea soon, but because I could not handle how spicy the sauce was. My host family kept asking me if I was okay. With tears streaming down my face and through every other cough, I tried to give them a convincing, "yes." Well, that failed. They set a huge box of tissue next to me and filled my cup with water. Not to mention, the little kids across the row couldn't stop staring at this crying foreigner. Don't worry, though, because as time passed, I'm pretty sure my sinuses were cleared and it was time to head home. 


Take a look at some of the other foods I encountered in South Korea.

In the market, or even in the most downtown areas of Seoul, we passed people cooking in big pots like this.

This meat is cooked in about ten seconds in a hot stew-like dish (like the following). You're expected to quickly take it out when it is done, to avoid overcooking and flavor loss.

a soup with various veggies and dumplings

pickled cucumbers and kimchi.

Kalbi-in-the-making. Korean barbeque is made on a grill located in the center  of the table.

Adding lettuce and other vegetables to a soup dish was very common at restaurants. They normally brought the table  a plate of veggies with scissors and tongues.

Mustard was also a common side sauce alongside of random dishes too.

Their salad dressings were light and sweet. I  tried a strawberry dressing and a kiwi one.

This is a crab, but much smaller than the first crab I had.

This was perhaps one of the most spiciest dishes of my life. H20 couldn't even help me. It contained mixed veggies, rice and an unmerciful spicy sauce. In Korea, there is a clear distinction between something that is hot (temperature) and spicy (pepper flavor). It's not like America, where we interchange both words to mean the same thing.

An even spicier dish.

We ate rice . . . lots of rice. (Photograph by Felipe Bedon)

I'm not really sure what this is, but it was good. That's all you need to know.

noodles made from sweet potato

A community style of eating =  many small dishes + everyone sharing.
Dr. Chang is sitting on the left and Dr. Jessup is on the right. The man standing in the background is probably one of the servers showing us how to eat a certain food OR he could be warning us that our food choice is spicy. Also, notice how we are sitting on the floor. This was very common  in restaurants as well. The floors are heated to help keep everyone warm.

...and Here's to those octopus eaters...

 

Such Champs!