Korean Food

In honour of this holiday revolving around gorging ourselves, I'll describe a traditional Korean meal, and the best one I've had yet.

In Korea, it is very disrespectful to wear shoes inside, so in Korean restaurants you always take your shoes off at the door. They eat off the same low style table made famous by Japanese restaurants. Yes, your feet go to sleep, and no, this doesn't get any easier or less painful the more you do it!

Most restaurants have a specialty, and usually only 4 or 5 things on the menu. You can usually tell what kind of restaurant it is by the cartoon on the front. Chicken places have chickens, beef places have cows, and so on and so on. These animals are usually smiling and giving a thumbs up, and generally looking happy about the fact that you're going to be eating their kin. The place I went to on Wed was a tofu place, and there was no smiling tofu, but I think that's because it was in such a small place; I have seen happy little white blocks on signs, as well as grinning mushrooms!

When you have plopped yourself down on your thin little cushion, you usually order almost straight away (5 options expidite the decision process! Koreans don't have time to waste pouring over menus). Then they bring you water and side dishes. Side dishes are the jewel of any Korean meal... they are shared by all and chosen so they complement each other and the main dish you have chosen. There is always kimchi, and usually some other vegetables (cooked, steamed, preserved... never raw!) and sometimes little bits of seafood, tofu, and whatever else the chef wants to prepare that day. If your meal isn't soup, than soup will always be a side dish, but that doesn't mean that it's thick or necessarily even hot... a sort of miso soup is commong, as is a cold bean sprout broth; this is not my favourite). Rice is never a side dish, because everyone gets their own.

As I've mentioned before, chopsticks here are usually metal, as are bowls and spoons, because in the days of the Jeoson dynasty, a lot of people had grudges against the Koreans, and poison in food will tarnish the silver or other metal, while in a wooden dish it would remain hidden. They say they continue the tradition now because metal is easier to clean and lasts longer, but I feel pretty safe eating my meal knowing that someone can't slip something into my bibimbap unbeknownst to me! I've seen how they look at me! A lot of food is eaten literally boiling hot... sundubu and samgyetang are two soups that I've had that are brought out to the table boiling on little portable gas stoves. Dolsap bibimbap is a rice dish that comes in a stone bowl with a raw egg on the top that you stir in and it cooks almost instantly!

And now to the meat of the story... or should I say the bean curd? My student took me to a tiny little restaurant in a tiny little town down an amazingly terrifying road! (for a full description, see my last post) They specialize in tofu, and they are exemplary of Korean pride! They only use Korean-grown soy beans (because from anywhere else they just don't have as much flavour), and they make their own soya sauce using the traditional Korean method (because the stuff you get in Japan is too sweet), and by the way it's Dubu in Korea (because Tofu is Japanese and therefore inherently bad, speaking of holding grudges...!) So we ordered sundubu (literally tofu soup), and she hurried away and brought out 5 sides. Homemade kimchi (using only Korean cabbages), pickled radishes, spicy steamed radish greens, spicy steamed spinach, and a GIANT block of raw tofu, with the homemade soya sauce. Now, most of you know that I am a big tofu fan, but I've never really eaten it raw, always cook it up and season it and such. But when in Korea, do as the Koreans, so in I dig, and oh my goodness, it was the most delicous thing I've ever tasted!! It really did have a rich flavour, very smooth, and the soya sauce was salty and a little bit spicy, and together it made for bite after bite of pure gastronomical joy! I could have had a whole meal of just the sides, and would have been quite happy! Even the kimchi, which I've rather grown to enjoy anyway, was the best I've tasted.

For those who have never heard of it, Kimchi is the national dish of Korea. It is pickled vegetables that came to be because of the need to preserve food for the winter (sounds familiar), and being Korean, of course it's spicy! A general rule of thumb here is red = hot. Kimchi is usually cabbage, often radish, and can also be made of almost any other veg. There is a whole process to making kimchi that I have not yet learned, but I know it involves a separate fridge because the smell is quite pungent. They used to bury it in the ground to ferment, but at the rate this country grows, if you leave your kimchi buried too long, there'll be a highrise or an apartment complex on it when you get back!

Our sundubu came, boiling hot as it should be, and it was just as good as the other tofu. Other sundubu that I've had is in kind of a thin tomato-y broth, with some greens and tofu and clams, and it's pretty tasty too, but this was traditional sundubu, which is basically just boiled tofu. About a pound and a half of boiled tofu actually, into which you stir as much rice and soya sauce as you like, and it's a phenomenal meal! I can hear you all rolling your eyes, 'right, Kalazy*, a meal of boiled tofu and spicy veggies was delicious... loony' but it's true! I wish they had taste-o-vision, because it truly was like nothing I've tried before! Unfortunately, I don't think there are any buses that go up there, so I'll probably never have it again, unless I get really bold and rent a car, or cajoule another student to take me! But I'm so glad that I got to go, and experience a truly local traditional Korean meal. Gambe!**

*In the Korean language, you cannot have 2 consonant sounds together, so they will always put a vowel in between if they are saying an English word. Also, "R" and "L" are the same letter, it just depends where they are in the word for what sound they make. Thus, Crazy becomes Kalazy! This is also kind a harsh word, and gets lots of giggles when you use it.
**Gambe! = Cheers!