lunch mess

While eating, I saw a hair in my rice. Not a big deal. I went to separate the hair rice from the rest of it and unearthed a freaking huge bug. The "hair" was the little bastard's leg. Now I'm cranky because I'm still hungry due to the fact that the one thing I could always count on at lunch turned out to be inedible. Today's soup? Mystery seafood swimming in mud water. The sides? Uncooked potato pieces and some fishy mess. 

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. 

i'd rather vomit: raging against lunch

I am irrationally, but completely pissed at today's lunch. It was just utterly foul. Sundae with rice cakes stupidly shaped as hearts and clubs or clovers or something, trying to cheer up the fact that the mess it was associating with consists of animal parts... and oh shit, did I seriously consume pig blood? motherfucker. The sauce is nasty in a subtle way that just tells me something is off. Maybe that's the offending ingredient. 


The other things on my tray: fish. Curried fish to be more fair, so the first bite tasted pretty okay. Unfortunately, the last bite tasted like an aquarium.
Soup. Orange soup, that I think was made with the fermented bean paste that makes its way into the soup most days. It was okay... and then I unearthed something with a tentacle. And that's when I peaced out on the soup.

TGIF!

At 4 yesterday I was told to go to the school "dining room." And this is where beer, makali (Korean rice wine), and soju (what Anthony Bourdain calls Korean whisky) was being set up. For snacks, dried squid, kimchi, and head cheese. Head cheese.


...head. cheese. 


The fact that the cafeteria staff was setting up for the boarded students' dinner and airing out the hall of the alcohol stench just reinforced the weirdness of this scenario: teachers getting trashed at school, only to leave just in time for their little pupils to come in for supper. I mean, their innocence must be preserved! Though that's probably long gone anyway.


head cheese... ugh.

점심 matters and some 사랑 (love) for Korea

It just dawned on me that I really do kind of hate the food at school. The soup is usually some form of fish water or seaweed water. Today was particularly awful to me, it looked like algae water. Water from an old pool, but it smelled like dead fish. Or sometimes the soup looks good, until the ladle brings up a tentacle from the murky depths of the pot... And vegetable matter. (Today's was yummy though, fried lotus root. mmm, fried things.) Oh, the many kinds of fermented plants. No wonder Koreans brush their teeth after every meal! :)


On the other hand, Korea also has numerous tasty things that are far more foreign-palate friendly/ picky eater friendly, as I am. 


Like Sunday, eating the usual post late night weekend recovery lunch at Mandoo (만두), I ordered a new dish. It was described as a noodle soup with pork dumplings, and it looked delicious when it came. And I just about freaked out when I stirred up a shellfish. Sadly, seafood and I just don't get a long... it's a torment/hate thing.


Yesterday, a teacher came up to me and said something in Korean. I caught the word for "face" somewhere in his talking, but I had no idea in what context he was talking about my face. Then he stopped talking and just looked at me. Cue in awkward laugh, smile, and subtle gesture that this conversation has miserably failed and we both know it. Nope, still just looking. Nice man, though. 


Okay, here's some things I love about Korea since I've been complaining a lot. 
1. Public transportation. At least, once you figure out the bus schedule a bit. You have to be willing to spend a lot of time in transit though, or else never leave home. But you could really survive here without ever owning a car!
2. The food overall. It's generally much healthier, less salty, usually less processed, and cheaper in restaurants. Breaking into some Korean recipes has revealed the secrets to some sauces, and ingredients really aren't so bad!  Now if I could only get something to taste Korean...

3. The money. It's colorful. I saw some American bills the other day, and man they're ugly!
4. Phone charms. So. Cute.
5. Tax free shopping and restaurant bills/ no need to tip. I'm spoiled. 
6. The flat metal chopsticks. 
7. Stationary stores
8. The fashion
9. Sensory overload parts of town
10. Cheap entertainment
11. Cost of living. So low. It's robbery in America.
12. The occasional friendly bus driver who says hello or welcome
13. The weirdness of it all that keeps life here amusing.


I'm rounding up the courage to get a body wave perm today. Hair salons are also about half the price or less to get things done here. Woman's hair cut? About $15. For a styled cut, with some extra perks thrown in that I've heard about like tea, snacks, and/or massages.