So much to say, I don't know where to begin. People have been asking about the food, so I guess I'll start there. I really don't have all that much to say because I still haven't eaten at a lot of Korean restaurants. Sadly, most of my exposure to Korean food comes in the form of Korean school lunch. From my experience, school lunch in any country is not exactly good food, and I don't think Korea is any exception. Every day, we teachers get a box lunch, pictured below. You never know what you are going to get, and in my case, even as I'm eating it I don't know what I am getting. I hate asking what every little thing is, especially when there are 6-10 items in the lunch, so I just take a deep breath and take a bite. Sometimes that backfires, like when I thought it was egg and it was fish sausage covered in egg. When I first got here I tried almost everything once (except the chunks of spicy squid and breaded mystery meat), but I am finally starting to become familiar with a few recurring characters and I know what I like and what to avoid. The kimchi, for example, is not good. And to think I told the immigration people it was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Korea! I'm not saying all kimchi is bad; I've had some good stuff at restaurants, but the school lunch version is nasty. As is the kimchi-type diced radish (pictured below, upper left). Blech. I tried it about four times before I decided it was okay to not like it. Other then that, this particular lunch wasn't bad: 2 little potatoes, 2 tomatoes, some kind of tofu (the brown cubes), breaded fish, fried squid (did not eat) and some seaweed. There is usually some kind of seaweed in every lunch, which is pretty decent, and I'm interested in the nutritional value in it. I kind of feel like I'm eating grass or something. Oh and there's always rice and soup to accompany the box. So overall, I feel somewhat satisfied by the lunch but don't know if I'm getting much protein or anything. More than lunch, I look forward to my afternoon snack (not provided) which is usually an apple and some nuts. I have been eating almonds like crazy! They are way cheaper here, which is exciting.
Other than Korean school lunch, I have tried Korean BBQ, where the meat is grilled in front of you and you make little lettuce wraps, and some delicious fried rice that was so spicy in made my nose run, and went to a Brazilian steak house with coworkers, which was not Korean at all. I think it is going to be really hard to be a veg here, but I am going to do what I can. There is a Seoul Veggie Club that goes to vegetarian restaurants together, so hopefully I can meet up with them. I got a pizza at Pizza Hut the other day. It was delicious. I had heard that Koreans do not consider pork as meat, and I found this to be true when I ordered my pizza. "No meat, just vegetables," I said. The very nice waiter said, "No beef. Vegetables and pepperoni." "No, no, just vegetables." Funny. It was delicious, with lots of real cheese, which was the best part. Or maybe the best part was the ring of sweet potato around the crust. Crazy but good. Oh course it was sweet because EVERYTHING is sweet here. I just wanted something salty yesterday and got some Cheetos, and was sorely disappointed to find that Korean Cheetos are sweet and slightly fishy tasting. Not horrible, but just not what I was looking for in a Cheeto.
Figuring out what to eat is a slow process, but in the meantime, I have my staples of yogurt, fruit, eggs, PB, cereal, and an assortment of crackers that turn out to be cookies.
