A Month of Meals

"How is the food?"

I get this question all the time. To be completely honest, there have been some ups and some downs. Since I'm living in the dorms and supervise many meals, I have cafeteria food most of the time. Some days it's really, really delicious. Other days it's can be very sad and confusing.

First, let's get a few things straight:

1. I fully recognize how lucky/privileged I am to have these meals.

2. I genuinely appreciate the efforts of the cafeteria workers who work day in and day out to feed the truckloads of staff and students.

3. My personal ability to cook or bake stuff is a solid 1/10.

4. Thus, having someone cook for me 3 times a day is pretty dreamy.

5. Some of the questionable meals that I will mention are actually really popular with the Korean kids. I'm just... adjusting.

6. I will try anything once and have given just about everything at meal hall a go.

7. LOL the photography of things on a tray. Sorry in advance.

Glad we're all on the same page. 

So a few things I have learned about Korean food so far:

- There is never a meal without kimchi

- Seafood all day everyday

- White rice at every single solitary meal

- Spicy spicy spicy (which I love and Blake hates)

- There is no such thing as too much sauce

- Never judge a meal by appearance. Some of the tastiest things have had the most questionable presentations.

- Chopstick etiquette is mega lax. It's totally fine to stab your food, or take a chopstick in each hand and rip your food apart. The only real no-no (according to my girls) is having a food item in each hand, and eating both items at the same time (which yeah, no kidding that would be pretty rude). 

This was my first meal, which was breakfast. Fish cakes, asian pears, dry French toast (syrup isnt a thing), potatoes, rice, yogurt, cereal.

Here is the high school caf. I actually don't eat here with my kids, but come here on my time off to get some space from the middle school spaces. It's totally gorgeous and the high schoolers are significantly quieter than the middle schoolers.

Top 15 Interesting Meal Moments:

1. This... casserole:

2. This acorn-flavored jelly (dotorimuk):

 3. This soup, which distinctly reminded me of the "hot ham water" incident on Arrested Development:

4. This chewy, strangely-sauced thing (lotus root):

 5. This. The students carefully unroll the dough and wrap up the meat. My chopstick skills, however, were not up to the task so I ended up just ripping it up and mixing it. It's a Chinese dish (ggot bbang):

6. This sad chicken situation:

 7. These creepy shrimp assaulting these perfectly fine veggies:

8. These slippery pieces of fish (tteokbokki):

9. These imposter chicken balls, which I sadly discovered were actually fish balls:

10. These, which I thought were citrus something or other, but were strongly spiced radish:

11. These wrinkly, chewy, dry beans:

 12. These ground-up fish tubes with a texture I regretted discovering (eomuk):

13. These squid flakes:

14. This salad, which in an unexpected turn of events tasted EXACTLY like a gin and tonic:

 15. And last, but certainly not least, my ALL TIME least favorite, LITERALLY entitled "squid surprise." What an unfortunate surprise it is:

 Now for the food winners:

1. This amazing melon thing. It tastes like cantaloupe but is much crunchier:

2. American-style spaghetti with a sweet tomato sauce:

3. Any kind of gimbap which you can get at the deli or any convenience store. It's essentially sushi minus soya sauce (which I miss):

4. Lychee! IT IS SO GOOD! I still havent figured out how to open them without spraying a kid in the eye, but once you open the soft-ish shell you just pop it in your mouth and spit out the pit. MMMMMM

5. Seafood pancakes, which are really growing on me. It is a pancake, yes, but not very sweet, and there are enough things inside that it isn't too weird (pajeon):

6. This perfect pomegranate which I saw a few days ago on the side of the road. Can you imagine?!?! Casual tangerines and pomegranates are growing all over the place. What a dream come true!

7. Kimchi pancakes, which I actually liked:

8. And last but not least, my all time fave to date, bibimbap! IT IS SO DELICIOUS. It's basically rice with veggies, an egg, and sauce. Sometimes there is some random tasteless jelly inside, which is confusing as to why it is there, but whateva. It's SO TASTY!

The wins definitely make up for the losses, and I think there is a chance that I will get more on board with the strange selections as time goes on. Just the other day I actually WANTED kimchi, and wasn't just having it because it's in like everything.

There are also endless delicious things to be had off campus, like:

This perfect sushi

And this perfect birthday brunch

 

And this other brunch Caitlin made out of the goodness of her heart (she has also made delicious things such as Mexican food). Caitlin, feel better soon! 

There was also the time where I ordered an entire chicken by accident. The foreigner struggles are real! It did seem like a steep price, but I had heard SO much about how good the fried chicken is here that I figured it was just the price you have to pay. Twenty minutes later, the lady handed over enough chicken to feed my entire floor. It was in fact delicious, and Blake was in luck that day.

And there is pizza! With CHEESE (a rare ingredient here, sadly).

 In sadder news, the Blake struggles continue.

Seriously, everyone send him a motivational email or two so he eats more.
I'm mostly kidding.
It's just that his lunch trays are so desolate sometimes. This is from a while ago but the other day was the very same scene.

Don't worry though. It all works out because he goes down the road and eats an entire pizza in 20 minutes. 

I'm excited to see what other interesting foods will be tried before I finish this gig.

More about my life outside of meals later. Sending you love from Korea!!

Shila