You Are What You Eat... (Part 1)

Ohhh gosh.... if that were true, I'd look pretty interesting right about now.

As I mentioned before, Curtis and I are 4 months into Korean living. We are noobs. Green in the teeth. Pretty foreign. Walking around here is kinda like walking around blind and deaf mostly because we never have any idea what we are getting into. Like food. Especially food.

So far, I have separated Korean Eating into 10 basic food groups:

1. School Food
2. Korean Food
3. Kinda-Korean Food
4. American Food
5. Pasta
6. 7-11 Food
7. Easy Food
8. Drinks
9. Sweets
10: Thing I will Never Eat Ever

This blog is going to take you through my personal experience eating in Korea, and may get a little to informative at times, mostly because I'm writing with other Newbie Korea Goers in mind. It's extensive and so is made in 2 parts. But First, A little background. I've never been too much of a picky eater. I have a few dietary needs though... I grew up not eating any kind of mammal meat: No Pork, No Beef. That's the rule, that's how my parents raised me. I also have an aversion to eggs which I will get into later. My husband however, is a little picky at home, but only with the simpler sets of foods (i.e. the exact opposite of me). If it tastes good, he'll eat it. With all that in mind, lets begin. 

1. School Foods 

The down-home basics. Must be palatable to small children and therefore is mostly palatable to me. Unfortunately this is all the food one gets during the day and the portions are relatively small. If you can't eat it because it has some kind of beef or pork, sucks to be you. So whats left is often this: 

Yum.

Sometimes broth, Rice, Kimchi and Fruit. It's no wonder I'm losing weight as fast as I am. As bare-bones as it looks, i'm far from starving. The rice that you see is actually a nutritious mixed grain rice I jokingly call "Blue Rice". I actually haven't had white rice more than twice since i've been here, mostly because Korean's know its not that good for you. They serve foods that will be the most healthy for the kids, so the result is what you see here. Sometimes I get some lovely chicken in small portions, or tofu. My boss's main motto is "Oooo you don't eat??". So I try to make it look like I'm eating at least a little. 

2. Korean Food

After work comes the every-day struggle of "uh.... I can't read anything... where should we eat?". We walk up and down the street, stop outside of restaurants for long periods of time, and wonder if we should go in. This is a lot of work... often we get too hungy, give up and go for Food Group #7: Easy Food. But sometimes we perservere. This section is for the not-so culturally clumsy. Please allow me to interject: Korean food is A LOT of flavor. Its about bringing harmony taste... bitter, sweet, salty, sour, bland, spicy... and this is a lot to take for many foreigners. Korean food is an acquired taste for many, so don't get discouraged if you don't like eating korean food at first. Here goes!
  

Setting the Table
The first time I went to a Korean restaurant was actually fairly spur of the moment... at a bus station leaving seoul. Luckily, I had had teacher's orientation where I learned the ropes. First... table settings.
This is a basic Korean restaurant table:

Cozy

You are served a bottle of filtered water, smallish cups made of ceramic and tin and have access to a box of silverware and a small box of tissues (napkins). There is also a little call button you push when you are ready to order. Keep in mind to order everything at once... they bring you your check immediately and you take it up to pay when you are finished eating. Try not to split checks if you can help it, one of the main deals with Korean dining is that all dishes are shared. Anyway, your silverware looks like this:

You get a spoon and chopsticks. Korean chopsticks are slim, not round and are made of silver. They take a while to use... but once you learn, those wooded panda express ones will be super easy. It often helps to use the spoon in your left hand to scoop food onto or vice-versa. Once your seated and ready... its food time.

The Traditional Korean Meal

Overall, a shocking experience. I made the mistake of being really hungry the first time I tried this in the states and had to go out for Taco Bell right after. This is an example of a big Korean meal, called Ssambap.

Here is is... all laid out.

Here is another version of the picture, featuring things I can actually eat:

Basically fish and lettuce.

 Sooo... traditional Korean food is not so much fun for me personally. But if you are adventurous, I really suggest giving it a try. It's broken down into a few main parts. There is a main dish in the center (somewhat) such as fish or beef. The main dish is surrounded by Banchan, side dishes. Here is a small guide to Banchan. Source: http://www.columbuscrave.com/content/stories/2013/03/issue/guide-korean-banchan-101.html 

1. Miyeok julgi bokkeum: Sauteed sea plant, also called seaweed stems. They’re crunchy, a little chewy and briny in flavor.

2. Kongnamul muchim: Soybean sprouts. Cold, crunchy and flavored with sesame oil.

3. Baechu kimchi: Napa kimchi, a spicy fermented cabbage.

4. Ggakdugi: Radish kimchi, moderately spicy fermented turnip cubes.

5. Hobak namul: Sauteed zucchini with sesame seeds.

6. Cheonsachae: Pickled kelp noodles. They take on a purple hue because they’re cooked with red cabbage.

7. Gamja jorim: Potatoes and carrots cooked in a sweet soy marinade and served at room temperature. MY ALL TIME FAVORITE

8. Miyeok: Seaweed with shredded radish. Mild vinegar flavor.

9. Gamja bokkeum: Lightly pan-fried shredded potato with carrot.

10. Uh mook jorim: Stir-fried fish cake strips. Mildly fishy in flavor, a little starchy and chewy.

11. Oi moochim: Spicy fresh cucumber. MY SECOND FAVORITE

Seriously though, if it weren't for these little potatoes, I'd have gone home by now

If we are talking about Banchan though, lets take a Kimchi break...

Kimchi

Kimchi is Korea's national dish and as a result there are over 100 varieties of it. It takes some getting used to to eat it, but after 4 months here i'm finally starting to get the hang of the taste (if not the smell).

Stinky Good

Kimchi is made from fermented vegetables, not just cabbage, and can be considered a type of pickle (no, not pickles, pickle. there is a difference). It's extremely nutritious... one serving can give you 50% of your daily Vitamin C and Carotene. It is also chock full of good bacteria for your digestive health. Here are some types of Kimchi:

Kimchi is served with EVERYTHING. Make no mistake, you cannot come to Korea and avoid Kimchi.

Tteok

Gluttonous Rice Cake. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to explain to a Korean friend why Foreigners don't have a taste for tteok. We are used to Japanese rice cakes like the kind we find in Mochi (which BTW is Japanese for rice cake.) Korean Tteok has an altogether different consistency. Its at times both gooey to the point of choking you and difficult to bite.I get this stuff for snacktime at school almost every day...

Tteok covered in sweet powder... this is the stuff that will choke you. The kids LOVE it

Tteok balls, often filled with brown sugar paste

More savory Tteok made with vegitables. Also good.

Tteok is a favorite among most if not all Koreans. I personally like it a lot. You can find variations of it in cut cylinders for other dishes or simply as a pastry.

Guk

Soup. I'm a soup-a-holic... that's all I eat back home because its the greatest culinary invention ever. Here, soup is both mandatory and necessary. I spent a good portion of my first weeks here squinting at labels trying to find the Hangul: 닭고기 which means chicken as opposed to anything that looked like 불고기 which is beef. (The voice in my head always says 'Okay, so if its a little man standing on a backwards S its beef! My Hangul interpretation sucks.). I realizes that most soups are made from soy broth, or clear beef broth and E-mart DOES NOT sell chicken stock.

This is me happily eating my favorite Tteokguk before I realized I was eating clear beef broth. 

Upon realizing that I was going to go insane trying to figure out which meat broth I was drinking, I just decided to thank the poor soybean, fish or unfortunate cow whose meat juices I was drinking and move on with my life. Its the one food sacrifice I have made in order to preserve my sanity. Sanity saved, here is some highly recommended Guk served in anonymous broth which I will try not to think about:

Made with soybean shoots and clear broth

Minus the beef Tteokguk is a lunar new year soup and is fabulous... made with rice cake!

Made with Kelp... this one takes some getting used to but its very close to Japanese Miso

So those are some pretty standard, what-to-expect Korean foods I thought necessary to put here. The next few sections won't be as extensive, that last one was mostly a culture lesson. Coming up are the...

3. Kinda-Korean Food

I call them "Kinda-Korean Foods" because they are easier to eat than the traditional Korean foods in the previous section. These are the foods you might find to be less daunting as a foreigner and they are the things you can eat every day should you choose to...

Kimbap

As you've probably guesses bap means rice. Kimbap is is the number-one lunch meal of choice for most Koreans on the go.

Wait... That's sushi...

Yup. That's Sushi. Only, it isn't. Its imitation crab, either ham, tuna, cheese, beef, chicken (you name it), Radish Pickle, Carrot, Other vegetables unknown to me, wrapped in rice and seaweed. It tastes fresh and my students love it when I have it because I pick out all the ham in mine and they get to fight over it like seagulls. Yumm!!

Bibimbap

Now, I don't like Bibimbap... there is something in the veggies that makes me make a face. But my husband LOVES it.

He prefers Dolsot Bibimbap which is the one seen above... served with an egg that fries against the side of a Dolsot (hot pot). Vegetarian Bibimbap is also the number one food of Buddhist monks here in Korea and a great cheap, nutritious country dish.

Tteokbokki
 The most fun to say in Kroean. Tteokbokki is the Korean equivalent Spaghetti O's only super hot and spicy. Its made up of Tteok cylenders and triangular fish cake smothered in a spicy sweet sauce. Its mostly served as a "snack", a quick and easy food, but can be an easy meal for foreigners.

I mistakenly thought that I liked Tteokbokki, when in fact I only liked the mild sweet kind that they serve the little kids at school. Real Tteokbokki is crazy hot. If you are first trying it, be brave and prepared for how spicy it is.

Ramyun 

This is NOT the Ramen or Cup of Noodles your mom used to give you when she was way to busy to feed you something fresh. Nope. Not the Ramen we loved to eat at school either. This is Korean Ramyun. Instant noodle. Its Spicy and full of flavor and a little daunting because there is so much of it here in many different varieties.

So much Ramyun!!

Now, I could take my chances and just eat the Ramyun and hope its not Beef, or I can squint for the Hangul that works as a tip off. My ultimate recommendation though is to spring for Chicken Bullion cubes (Emart, 6,000 won). They will last a long time and all you have to do is peel the top off one of these puppies, remove the seasoning, slip in a bullion cube and fill with hot water. The other option is to make your own veggie or fish broth and use the noodles to make a soup. You an always add beans, which you can get at the market, chop up some veggies, or stir fry with soy sauce, soybean oil and brown sugar. Ramyun noodles are highly diverse in use.

Mmmm....

And Psy likes it too!!

Jajanmyun (Black Noodle)
  
My all time favorite food here. You can usually find it without Beef or Pork, or make it yourself. Black Noodle is actually considered a "Chinese Food" and you can usually only find it at Chinese Restaurants here.

Black Noodle with Fried Veggies!!!!

Hungry yet?

Black noodle is a chow mein style noodle covered in a black bean sauce. The sauce has a meat and and/or a veggie mixed in and is salty, sweet and savory all at once.

I fully plan on taking this recipe home. Even though Curt hates it.

The sauce (Above) can also be put over rice and makes for an excellent full meal.

Japchae (Glass Noodle)

Like Black Noodle, Japchae is a common noodle dish that is easy to find and easy to eat. It is made up of glass noodles, veggies and optional meat, eaten hot or cold, and perfect as a side or plain meal.

If you're close to an Emart, you can put an easy Korean meal together using the prepped food they have (Japchae, Kimbap and sweet chicken).




Korean Curry-Rice

This one is a special treat... Curry is really popular here in Korea and thanks to Ottogi brand (like Swanson) you can make it veggie or with your pick of meat.

I love Curry here in Korea. Its easy to make, easy to eat. You probably can't find it in too many restaurants, but regardless, its one of those foods that can be accessed when nothing else can.

Lets keep moving, shall we? On to some more fun and interesting dishes....

4. American Food

The Korean interpretation of American Food can be quite... informative. In America, we have Panda Express, Bento Box, various Mongolian BBQ... but most Korean food in America is pretty accurate. American food in Korea consists of: Pizza, Hamburger, Hot Dogs and Pork Cutlet. 

Thats right. I said Pork Cutlet. 

No matter how hard they try though, there are just some things that aren't accessible in Korea and all the food has some sort of Korean spice to it which makes it taste unavoidably Korean. No matter though, its still good to eat if you can swing it.  Here's an example of a Korean Pizza... you can find this at Dominos or Pizza Hut here.
 

When the rule is "how much stuff can we put on it!!???"

Hamburgers are pretty normal, run of the mill, but they put as much sauce on it as they can... mustard mayo and ketchup. They added Bulgogi burger and Shanghai Spice Chicken to their MacDonalds Menu over here, so it keeps the concept in Southeast Asia. 

Another thing that Koreans are extremely proud of and rightfully so, is their fried chicken. Oh. My. God. There is nothing as good as Korean Fried Chicken. They seemed to have perfected the process beyond anything we could have done if only because they have access to different spices.

Eat me.

 
Aside from the obvious revolutionizing of the fried chicken, there is this nifty invention...

Yup. Chicken goes on top, soda goes on the bottom.

At any time, you can find some sort of American franchise here, at least in the cities. Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Starbucks, MacDonalds, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts (Korea runs on Dunkin apparently), Baskin Robbins and much much more. At any time you can eat here, but be warned, it wont taste the same. Except MacDonalds. That tastes EXACTLY the same. 

So that's 1-4 of my basic korean food groups. If you aren't hungry yet, the next post, Part 2,  is sure to satisfy. Snack Foods, Korean Fast Food, what to expect of beverages and desserts... all  strange, unusual and really great. 

 Bon Appetit!