Korean Food

In my blog I have talked a lot about food and the different things I have eaten since I got here but I thought it might be time for a list of a few of the different dishes… This is by no means a comprehensive list and in no particular order.



  Budae Jjigae

Budae Jjigae is also known as "Army Stew". It orginated during / after the Korean war in the 50's. Meat was scarce and the people were hungry, so they used to take the left over meat from the American Army bases, but it made them sick because the meat was old so they began to take the meat and boil it, adding chilli and vegetables to the mix. Now it has become a favourite dish, though obviously the meat is fresh, and they sometimes add noodles and cheese and ground beef into the mix.




  Galbi 
Galbi is a type of Korean BBQ, usually referring to Beef or Pork short ribs cooked over a BBQ grill in the centre of the table at a restaurant. The meat is marinated and while there are a few different types of marinade the most traditional is a marinade made from Korean Soy Sauce, garlic and sugar. When you go to eat this sort of meal you are also given a range of different side dishes. The side dishes vary depending on which restaurant you go to but Kimchi is a standard. The meat is brought out on a metal plate and then cooked on the grill, as the customer you take over from there, you are given tongs and a pair of scissors so that when the meat is cooked you can cut it into smaller portions that are easy to eat with chopsticks. It is also generally eaten with an onion and vinegar based salad.


  Samgyeopsal
Samgyeopsal is a similar concept to Galbi but with thick fatty slices of pork belly meat - it looks like and has a similar taste to thick slices of bacon - and it is delicious. Like Galbi it is cooked over a grill in the centre of the table and a number of side dishes are served with the meat.







  Dukbokki
Dukbokki is a dish which is usually bought from street vendors, though there are a number of shops, usually with windows facing the street where it can be purchased as well. It is a dish of sliced rice cake, sometimes with a little meat or fish cake, in a very spicy sauce made from chilli peppers. It is ridiculously cheap, costing between 2 and 3 thousand won for a large serve, which converts to around $2 US or a little less. If it is served for school lunches then the Korean teachers will warn you again and again that it is really spicy, and if you can eat it, or better yet actually enjoy it they are amazed!



  Kimchi 
Kimch is a traditional Korean dish, usually made from cabbage, though they often use other vegetables as well, mixed with varied seasonings and then left to ferment. Some o the oldest historical references to Kimchi are from approximately 3000 years ago though the name has varied slightly over time. The Kimchi Museum in Seoul has documented approximately 187 historical and current variations of Kimchi, meaning that depending on where you go to eat it will decide what the ingredients are in the Kimchi you are eating. Different types of Kimchi are made at diferent times of the year depending on which ingredients are readily available at the time. It is served as a side dish with almost every meal in Korea.



Jajangmyeon

Jajangmyeon is a dish made from thick wheat noodles with a thick, black, soybean paste sauce, also mixed with diced vegetables and meat. The dish originated in Incheon and may have been brought by the Chinese that migrated to the area in the 19th century. The dish has also been incorporated into the South Korean "Black Day" which is celebrated April 14th and is the single person's version of Valentines day - where people eat the back noodles together to bemoan their single"ness" and hope to find their soul mate over the bowl.



Ramyeon
 
Instant noodles with packet flavouring! 2-minute noodles Korean style.











Bibimbap
 
Bibimbap is a dish of rice served with various mixed ingredients like; meat, vegetables, a raw egg and chilli pepper paste. When the dish is served the ingredients are neatly arranged on top of the rice but are mixed into the rice before eating. This dish seems to be very popular with foreigners for some reason (I don't particularly like it because I think it is pretty borig compared to some of the other amazing Korean foods.) Bibimbap is first recorded in an anonymous cookbook fromt he late 19th cenutry and is now a common food served in Korean houses due to the ease of preparation and ability to use many different ingredients.



Gimbap
Gimbap appears to be the Korean equivalent to sushi, it is made from steamed rice and various other ingredients, rolled in a sheet of dried seaweed and served in bite-size sections.







Mandu
Mandu are Dumplings! There are two schools of thought as to how dumplings were brought to Korea, the first says that they were originally brough to Korea by the mongols, when they invaded in the 14th century. The second suggests that they came to Korea much earlier, by way of the silk road, from the middle east. There are many different types of Mandu in Korea, as well as different ways of cooking and serving the various types. Some are steamed or fried while others are served in a thick soup called Manduguk. However they are served...they are delicious! You can get them frozen if you would like to cook them at home or you can also get them from many of the street vendors.

  For a more complete list (and recipies) please click here.

Tueday November 16th 2010

So I have been really slack with my blog since I last posted... kept putting it off thinking that it would encourage me to finish my essays... which I guess it eventually did! As of this minute I have completed all the work and handed in everything I needed to do to finish my teaching degree! Another notch on the belt..woohoo!! Still have a while to go before I catch up to my Mum and my Uncle... not sure how many degrees they have between them but maybe I will go for a PhD and see if I can beat them to it! Either way it's a fantastic feeling! All the work is done!! Yay!! Now I can focus on all the other things I want to achieve...with no due dates! Last time I wrote was Sunday...I am doing my best to remember everything that has happened since then... Last Thursday was Pepero day, I wrote in the last blog about it, I have some picci's to add in - but they are still on my i-phone which I forgot to copy over to my computer so they will have to wait for now! It felt a little bit like a part the whole day - and the students bought pepero for me which as was so sweet! The whole day they were telling me I had to celebrate because it was pepero day... hehe - I haven't been to E-mart since but I am guessing it is all on sale now! Good time to stock up! Friday night we went to a restaurant in byeongjeom for Galbi, I think it was 14,000won for all you could eat, amazing! You sit on a cushion on the heated floor at a low table and then you get up to go over to what looks like a buffet cabinet full of raw meat, different cuts, and different marinades - you select your meat and then take it back to your table where you cook it over what looks like a mini BBQ in the middle of the table. I am also particularly partial to the onion salad that they serve with it... it's basically onions and some sort of vinegar sauce, but mixed with the meat, or by itself it is delicious! Needless to say after an all you can eat meal of such delicious food all I wanted to do after that was sleep! (which is pretty much what I did...10pm on a Friday night...oh how times have changed!) Saturday was also a very lazy day...first one in a while which was really nice! Spent the whole morning involved in deep and meaningful conversations about politics and religion...which is always fun! Then headed off to see if I could get the heels on my boots fixed...to much dancing and I have worn them down to the metal again...oops!

The shoe repair man was gone - guess I left it too late in the day - but we discovered this Budae jigae restaurant which was fantastic! A lot more variety in terms of the meat in it, thick hokkien noodles, and a few vegies... it's a worry how much I love it. The place was so good we went back for lunch on Sunday! After we had literally polished off the entire pot of Budae jigae we headed next door to "Roti Mum", which is a coffee shop that sells Roti - which I had never heard of before... The place was gorgeous, fairy lights looped around the tree out the front, tables out the front with heaters...and I had a maple latte which was to die for! We ordered an original and a chocolate Roti - I was hoping I was going to like it! They are like a bun, its a sweet bread that has a really mildly flavoured sweet custard inside... see the picture?! They may also become one of my favourite foods... Going to need to see if I can find somewhere that sells them in Osan! And the chocolate is the best...though I would happily eat the original as well...hehe. On Sunday we also went and bought a collar for Karel's kitten, Odya, he resisted rhinestones and bling, but eventually gave in on the collar... it's a girl kitten so it really needed to be pink! Got a lead as well in the hopes of possibly being able to teach the kitten to go for a walk...haha...you see stranger things in Korea...trust me! So after eating all weekend I decided that I really needed to start thinking about doing something to get me fit again... I figure I have a few choices, I can stop eating so much and do nothing, keep eating and enjoying myself and do some sort of exercise, or I can keep eating and enjoying myself and just come to terms with the fact that I will need to replace all my clothes when they stop fitting... Exercise it is! So last night I went on a little mission... to find running shoes and some track suit pants or something to run in that would give me a tiny bit of warmth... since it is freezing here and I would have to run either very early in the morning, when it's dark, or after school, when it's dark... Fortunately it's like another whole day starts at about 7pm here so there are people everywhere and the bright lights make it seem less dark and scary and like there are wolves after me... So I finished school a little late - I have been doing some extra study with one of my particularly bright and focused 1st graders - we were studying the poem the highwayman...she got really excited by the imagery after we went through some of the more complicated vocabulary and she started drawing...wow...I would kill to be bale to draw like that and she was doing a 5 minute sketch on a scrap of paper! When I eventually left the school I headed straight into Osan, past the main street to the outdoor market, and the strip that has loads of really cheap shops... hehe...like paradise... I wandered through and even though I was in search of two specific things I couldn't resist going into the hat shop! I greeted the lady who owned the shop - and even though she couldnt speak any english at all she quickly realised what I was looking for and the kinds of things I liked and started bringing different hats to me to try on... I ended up buying three which I know was a little excessive but I got a cream beanie which I just loved, a black beanie which I bought specifically for running and this kind of beanie thing with a little peak, in gray, cream and red...gorgeous! She gave me the price (on the calculator fortunately...I am getting there with numbers and money but it helps to see it!) and then she discounted it for me...I didn't even have to ask! Next I headed for the shoe shop, wondering how I was going to explain what I was after, thinking that motioning running would probably help me! Fortunately the guy in the shoe shop spoke English quite well, unfortunately the shoes I really liked they didn't have in my size, I may fit the clothes here and be built like a Korean woman - but my feet are huge compared to theirs! I still found a pair I liked, (pink, gray, and white...are you seeing a theme?) and they were only about $20 aussie dollars so I was fairly happy with that, they are very comfortable. I started heading back in the direction of my apartment still looking for tracksuit pants - bout a pair for about $5 - which I discovered when I got home are too short...lol. So may have o go on another expedition to get some later on...for the moment I can make do with what I have. Then I saw this scarf that I just had to have - a pale grey, soft, massive blanket scarf...mmm... I am wearing it now...hehe. Not to mention the little fluffy black ear muffs I found which I thought might come in handy given they were only a dollar! Called into one last shop to get a warmer pair of gloves (they have little bows on the wrist and are so cute!) and then with packages in hand I started on the long walk home. I was briefly accosted by a Brazilian dude, who I think was just really happy to see another foreigner, and after I managed to get away I stopped by a little roadside shop for some take-away dukboki... really didnt want to have to cook when I got home...and the whole massive container of it only costs $2 so its probably cheaper to eat out than to eat at home! Most importantly though I did actually go for a run after dinner! I am feeling very proud of myself about that! It wasn't a long one and I quickly realised just how unfit I was, bu it was immensely satisfying and I am looking forward to my next one! Anyway...I know this is short - and I have probably missed heaps - but at least I feel like I am mostly caught up now! And now that my study is done I should be able to keep this a little more up to date! Ciao for now!

Friday October 15th 2010

Getting up this morning was hard - was feeling a little drained by how big the week had been - but still looking forward to getting to school and working on a plan for next week. Not that I am going to need much of a plan! Wednesday I am off up to Seoul, Thursday is the school sports day, and Friday is the school Carnival / Festival... so I am actually only teaching 2 days! I think Tuesday after school they are running the Korean Popstar competition as well so it should be a pretty action packed week - and Yun mentioned I should bring my camera... as if I would forget!

 Classes went by in a bit of a blur - definitely bored with teaching the same lesson 20 something times in a week - I'll have to remember that, to keep my activities different, so I am not burnt out by the end of it. Lunch time is always interesting, the food is different each day, and each day I am trying something new that I have never seen before... except today there was kimchi, and some kind of eggplant thing, and chicken nuggets with ketchup! I nearly laughed when I saw them - it was the last thing I was expecting for lunch! Nice for a bit of a change though! In the afternoon I met with some of the students that I am helping out for their performance next Friday, went through the script and made sure they were comfortable with the English phrases, they'll do a great job next week I'm sure!

Then the teacher asked me if I would help her with a bit of translation... I was momentarily confused...given that I don't speak Korean, translation would be a little difficult for me. Then I worked out that what she was asking for was for me to explain the document in more basic english so that she could work it out - it was a one page conclusion of some kind of history book that dealt with the economic control women had in the middle ages - some fairly complex language - and some fairly complex themes - and she had to have it done by 9am Saturday morning, and I had to meet Yun to sort out my phone within about 40 minutes...it would have been much easier had she bought it to me 2 days before when she was asked to do it! But we got it done, and she was so grateful for the help.

 So, I met Yun and we went down to the second floor staff room where we were to collect one of the other teachers, Ja Young, who was going to drive us to the phone shop - it's not that far from the school, but again with poor Yun's leg driving was the best option. While we were in the staffroom the teacher who is in charge of the after school program approached me, and through Yun, asked me to write down the name for my dance class, and my full name so that they could add it into the program. They want me to start next week, running the class two afternoons during the week, and I get paid overtime for doing it - so it's a win-win situation...and it's only an extra hour two days a week so it should be fun! I hadnt thought about a name for the class, and given the english level I wasnt worried about callig it something clever, given the students know me as Mia (pronounciation is easier...) the class will be known as "Mia's dance class" - not very original but it gets the message across! We then jumped in the car and headed down to the phone shop - you cant even get a prepaid sim card over here without having Korean Identification, so I was ridiculously grateful that Yun was happy to organize all that for me, otherwise it would have been another week or so till I got it all sorted...until I got my alien registration card.

I paid 20,000won which is about $20 Australian, but text messages only cost 20 won - which is roughly 2 cents, international text messages are about 40won which is roughly 4 cents, and it is 40won per 30 seconds on the phone - which apparently is really expensive for calls over here... I told them what the costs were in Australia and their jaws dropped! The credit will last me for 2 months and I would doubt that I would have to recharge it before then unless I start making international phone calls and spending hours on the phone... but that is why I spend the quality time that I do with my skype! I was really excited to finally have it all working - I still havent really figured the phone out though - I dont know how to get the caps lock off when I am sending texts and I havent figured out how to put in the international codes for sending texts overseas - but I'll work it out in time!

From the phone shop the girls asked me if I would like to join them for coffee, they wanted to have coffee and cake before they went back to school, and their favourite coffee shop was just around the corner. It was a great little place, they had real coffee and hot chocolate etc, and home made cakes that were to die for! It was decorated like a little english coffee shop and the music playing in the background was a selection of Norah Jones, Billie Holiday and some other Jazz greats. We sat there and talked for a while until one of the other teachers joined us and then headed on to dinner. The other teacher who joined us didnt speak a word of English, she teaches Korean at the school, and teaches it in the way that we do English and Literature in schools in Australia, but she smiles at me a lot and didnt seem to mind me tagging along.

For dinner we went to a restaurant in the heart of Osan, it was on the second floor and we were sitting right next to the window looking out over a busy street. The tables were very low to the ground, you sat on cushions on the floor to eat, and shoes had to be removed at the door. Sitting on the floor is definitely not a hardship when the in-floor heating is on! We had a dish called BuDae JJiGae, also known as "Army Stew", on the way up to the restaurant Ja Young explained to me the history behind the dish. It orginated during / after the Korean war in the 50's. Meat was scarce and the people were hungry, so they used to take the left over meat from the American Army bases, but it made them sick because the meat was old so they began to take the meat and boil it, adding chilli and vegetables to the mix.

Now it has become a favourite dish, though obviously the meat is fresh, and they sometimes add noodles and cheese and ground beef into the mix. It tasted absolutely fantastic! Like most Korean food it is pretty spicy, porbably spicier than some of the other food I have had thus far, and you can see the flecks of chilli on the meat - so at least you know what you are getting yourself in for! I ate a ridiculous amount and felt thouroughly stuffed afterwards, but my nose was clear, from all the chilli, and I discovered something else here that I like to eat! To feed four people on BuDae JJiGae cost about 16,000 won which is a little under $15 Australian. Ja Young was lovely enough to drop me home after dinner, fortunately it was on her way back to school, otherwise I would have quite happily walked - it's amazing how safe I feel here - I am sure it has something to do with the fact that there are more people walking around on the street and driving past at night than there are during the day. I was also really happy to get back to my apartment (especially now I have rearranged all the furniture!), by 9pm I was struggling to keep my eyes open! I can't quite believe that the week is over - so much has happened!