happy lunch time: South Korean school lunches

source  (a lot like my high school lunches!)

I've complained about some dishes served at lunch a few times here, but I don't think I ever really explained Korean lunch culture. It particularly interests me because I just came upon this blog where a teacher somewhere in America is eating what the students are eating for a year. Photos included, I really forgot how awful school lunches could be! A guest blogger who is teaching in South Korea also recently posted this; a small feature about lunch in Korea. I don't know. Nutrition and food and education interest me. Lately too, I'm sure you back in the states are hearing news about backlash at school lunch with their lack of nutrition, promotion of fast food style meals, and vending machines at your beck and call. 

source (I forgot about "salad"... shredded iceberg lettuce)

Mrs. Q, the author of the Fed Up With Lunch blog, provides a lot of photos of American school lunches. She also features a lot of guest bloggers from around the country, so go remind yourself of what you ate in school (or watched your friends ate if you bagged or boxed it). Neon nacho cheese, sad little pizzas. Chicken stix (honestly, I loved those...). A staple meal at my high school  was a chicken patty sandwich and fries. Fries cost an extra dollar or whatever, and I think you could also get milk. I don't remember if you had to pay for fruit or any other side, though dessert was definitely extra. Of course there was the salad bar line, but that was a styrofoam cereal bowl you paid for and you could get iceberg lettuce, a few kinds of vegetables, dressing. Not filling, not worth it. Potato bar day was awesome (liquid cheese, broccoli, sour cream), except my friend and I always got cut by the same group of self entitled broads... You had to risk having less than 2 minutes to eat if you went potato that day. 


Let's think about what we ate in school. Honestly, I was usually still hungry after lunch, and I think I won't blame it on my inner fat girl. Processed foods with little or no nutrition, honestly- small portions of junk food, so when that sugar rush or crap rush is gone you're hungry again. And seeing the pictures of what's served today really explains why I was still hungry or not satisfied. 

source Korean lunch tray- wells in the tray for each dish

When you think of Korean food, you probably think kimchi and rice. And you're absolutely right; these 2 foods are freaking everywhere! At every meal, every day, everywhere you go. You can't escape kimchi and rice unless you go to a foreign restaurant, but even then you can still get it. I went to an  Outback here once, and they served you kimchi with your steak and ribs. It's a terrible combination, don't do it. 


So here's what you can expect in a Korean school for lunch
1. soup as the main dish 
2. kimchi of some sort be it the common cabbage type that you probably always think of, raddish, or other vegetable combinations that I personally tend to not enjoy
3. something called panchan, panchan meaning "sides." Kimchi would be considered part of this, but I think it deserves to stand alone. Usually I see 2 other sides, a meat or protein side and a plant side. 
4. Rice. The biggest part of the tray is dedicated to rice. 

source this is more what the trays in my school are like

My school got a new nutritionist this year, and I don't like her style or her taste in food. More often than not there's some kind of seafood lurking in the soup (I really hate food that comes from the ocean...), or the soup looks like some weeds were just dumped into muddy water. Also, I feel like she puts less thought into lunches, or less care maybe. I see more easy to make foods (think mini hotdogs, fried chicken, ddeok street food style), and ultimately the lunches aren't as healthy as they were with the last nutritionist. I will say in her defense that there is more variety, though it's not always pleasing. In the beginning she was pulling all sorts of different types of kimchi I hadn't seen yet, but recently she's gone back to the more traditional or common kinds. Maybe the school body complained? I guess my point is that usually, Korean lunches are more like dinner considering the foods you see. My school currently isn't a great example, and I have friends who can't stand the food their school serves. So obviously, although I think Korean schools provide higher quality food, there still may be complaints. However, I think a lot of that has to do with not having been raised on these foods. Otherwise, I doubt it'd be a problem. 


You don't usually get choices in what you eat here. Again, there are exceptions. A friend in a private school says his cafeteria offers 2 types of main dishes... main sides I guess is the better way to put it since soup is front and center. Often, you eat what everyone else eats. There menu is set, and no alternatives are provided. Now of course, here's another exception. I met someone during orientation who eats a vegan diet. His school, the last time someone asked about how he was eating, was doing its best to feed him despite the fact that many Korean foods have animal products in them. But his school likes him, and he's a nice guy. Potential lesson here: be nice to your faculty. 


Some schools, the students line up and wait for food. A friend said you could hear the stampede of students rushing for the cafeteria, only to be bottlenecked at the door. Some schools don't have cafeterias, so lunches are delivered to classrooms. My school, most likely from its circumstances sets up trays ahead of time for all students and teachers who are blind. Food is in the trays when they arrive, and they raise their hand if they want more. A lunch staff will bring a bowl to serve seconds. Teachers who have sight dish up their own food, and though you could go back for seconds on your own, not many people do it. When you finish eating, you scoop up whatever you didn't eat and dump it into the soup bowl. Then you bring it to the kitchen where someone will take it. That's at my school though. I would assume there are places where you dump the food yourself instead of a staff member doing that for you. 


Oh, and your utensils? Metal chopsticks (I'm in love, I'm going to make my future kids eat with them) and a spoon. People here are really good at cutting food with their chopsticks with one hand, no effort, and move along to eating. Me? A chopstick in each hand, grip like a 2 year old, stabbing, pulling, and occasionally making food fly. Once I battled a piece of meat off its bone alternating between the spoon and a chopstick. A teacher I was friends with just watched with a goofy grin and eventually asked if I was okay. 


I think really, I'm spoiled by Korean school lunches. They're hot (well... usually...), pretty healthy, even if they're not my favorite, pretty satiating. Only once since my time here was I hungry before the end of the work day. That would be the day we were rationed to 3 pieces of vegetables. 


And for todays lunch report: possibly the weirdest combination of food I've witnessed. 
Spaghetti, garlic bread (bread here is often sweet, and this was no exception- more like a sweet, garlicky oversized crouton), kimchi, tofu, rice, and soup (tasted like dirt... again). Seriously bizarre.