Chinese lamb kebabs by Yuseong

Ah, lamb kebabs! I was never a fan of lamb at home. Occasionally my mom would make a lamb roast, and somehow, topped with rosemary and roasting in the oven, it made the house smell like doughnuts. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this place before, but now I have PICTURES! My friends and I were introduced to this place by a Korean man who helped us order our first meal in Daejeon. We went out with him once, and he took us to this magical restaurant that serves awesome, awesome baby sheep on skewers. It's a little dive place a couple of blocks from the Yuseong Spa subway- exit 8 I think, straight down the sidewalk until you eventually take a left into a small area with some places to eat and hofs (bars where you usually have to order food with your alcohol). There's a bar next door with a Marilyn Monroe statue to clue you in that it's the right area. The food here is amazing, and a great option for those days when you want something freaking delicious and not Korean. Plus, it's cheap: 7,000W per 10 skewers- make it a snack or a meal! 

The damage we did.

E-Mart is LEET

I don't live near an E-Mart, but after my last visit there I seriouslyseriously want to. Here's why.

Whipped cream. It costs at least 5 times more than it does in the states, but this would've been great to have on Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

 Two things here. 1: whipping cream. For a lot less than Reddi Whip, and I prefer to make it myself anyway. 

2: Sour. Freaking. Cream. Taco night is now complete.

Another way I can get away from Korean food! 

I'm so excited that these things can be found in Daejeon- especially sour cream! So, if you live near an E-mart and you haven't discovered these foods yet, go scour the store and see what treasures you can find! 

a staff lunch somewhere on a mountain somewhere in Daejeon

This is the raw beef, soaked in a chili sauce and served with slices
of pear and raw garlic. All on a bed of thinly sliced cucumber! 

I have a feeling this is going to end up being a pretty sizable post... mostly with pictures. So the mountain trip yesterday! There was no mandatory hiking! After eating, some of the teachers wanted to go "trekking" as one put it, but then a smaller group split off and took me with them because they wanted a short walk. I definitely didn't mind that. We ended up meeting with my co-teacher who wandered off alone, and we paper-rock-scissor battled our way up a stair case (kai-bai-bo as they say in Korean, correct romanization or not). They decided how many steps you could go up for each different way of winning, and then we played each round until there was one winning hand (like, one type beat everything else, so more than 1 person could win). Fun! haha- we ended up playing this again later when a teacher was talking about a snack, so then the loser had to buy it for everyone. 

Okay so lunch. Some new things here. First, raw beef. Drenched in a chili sauce, and still a little frozen. It was good! Not something I would go look for myself, but it was enjoyable and I'm not sick. My brain is so conditioned to have alarms go off at the sight of raw meat thanks to the way it's raised in the states and the consequences that have followed because of those methods. Granted, who knows, maybe beef in Korea is produced the same way. I haven't really been able to figure that out yet. The main feature of lunch was a soup called galbi tang (갈비 탕) where the "tang" sounds a little like "tongue." It's a simple soup with some beef ribs boiled into a broth, some scallions, and some sweet potato starch noodles. No lurking little sea monsters in the bottom. Nice. 


And then there was the rice. I've had rice like this maybe twice before, but I hadn't thought to photograph it yet. The first time I saw it served this way I was baffled. My mind was just about blown when I saw what the Koreans did with it, and then my brain evaporated when I realized there was more to be done. Now? Still a little strange and not my favorite thing, but far more normal to me. The wood encases a stone bowl which is heated super hot to the point of making the rice crackle. So what you do is after letting the rice sit closed for a couple of minutes, you scoop most of it into a bowl. Don't fight the rice that's stuck to the sides. Then you pour some water into the stone container and put the lid back on. Ignore it for the rest of the meal and eat the rice you took out. After you eat, go back to the stone container, mix the water and rice,which is now no longer stuck, and eat. The water gets a little thick and starchy from the rice, and to me, you get a little flavor from the rice that was toasted by the heat. I think part of this process is getting the burned rice off of the bowl, and not letting food go to waste. So again, not really my favorite thing to eat, but a good cultural experience. 


... aaaand three days later, here I am finishing up this post with: that day was awesome and it feels like it happened a month ago! Enjoy the pictures! 

Picture demonstration for the rice! This is what it's served in: the stone bowl in a wood case.

I had to sneak this photo in between my co-teacher telling me to let it sit for 2 minutes... Black rice gives it the purple color, and it's common to have a type of bean or another grain mixed in. I think it's a good idea, it gives some nutrition! Scoop what you can out and dump it into another bowl...


This is the rice water soup stuff you eat at the end of the meal. It tastes like rice water. Hot rice water. Definitely better than hot ham water, though.

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. 

In the PC BangsBANGBANGpewpew- May I have your name? 이름이

I'm optimistic about teacher training now that I have gotten to actually use the books. My co-teacher approached me this morning and we hashed out how we'd like to utilize the materials, and basically we share the same ideas for how to be prodcutive instructors to the teachers. It's never the people I get upset with, it's the differences in culture and the language barrier that is sometimes the hardest to deal with. But we always seem to get over any hitches (hopefully there's no grudge being harbored for something), and I certainly hope that we continue this trend.

After consistently forgetting the papers that have students' photos and names, I finally brought one to a class and I consulted with students on how to pronounce names. It will be a long. long. time before I know everyone's names by heart. So many sound the same- one student was asking what my favorite Korean name was, and I said just that. They're hard to pronounce with the subtle differences of this vowel or that vowel, and I wonder if English names are difficult to remember for Koreans. The whole damn school new my name in 2 seconds, but I'm just 1 person. Some of the teachers have taken on English names, and they say I should call them by that, but I don't think they understand that it's important to me and other English teachers I know that we learn their names.

Yesterday, a teacher handed me about a foot of 떡(ddeok), a type of rice cake. It was plain, warm, and it looked like a giant fat worm. And they wanted me to chow down. This was about 1 minute before class. I love ddeok, don't get me wrong- but stuff like this, and the sweet potato the vice principle gave me a couple weeks ago... it's so random! :)  I had to throw most of the ddeok away since I couldn't eat it, and by the end of class it was funky and cold. It's steamed or something, so it's initially sticky, but when it cools you get that kind of pudding skin. Nasty.

Looks like mozarella cheese sticks, right?

Oh yes and genius me! jk, but seriously I suggested that I differentiate some of the teaching materials for students, and my teacher gave me the OK! I'm so excited, but I just welcomed a fair amount of extra work. I've noticed that when we do reading exercises, classes seem to be split from those who have strong listening comprehension skills and those who really struggle. The reading selections are already pretty tough for the students, and I'm doubting how much they can auditorily decipher. Some students have a lot of trouble spelling, and 1 student that I've seen makes writing mistakes that people with a learning disability might make. So I get to remake materials so they're more accessible to lower level students. HAPPY.

My hour at the PC Bang is about up. Quality date with my boyfriend... Then it's off to Homeplus to buy myself the lamb bathmat as a computer seat. It's cute! It's pink!

on the topic of good eats

Okay, so the most frustrating thing about being in Korea (at the moment at least) is that I can't cook here! I prided myself back at home for cooking. And this year I branched out a lot! I started using onions and garlic, I toyed with cooking Indian food (omg ADDICTED and it's totally better at restaurants), I added pork to the brief list of meats I would eat- chicken and ground turkey... so exciting... I freakin love produce sections in food stores. When Martin's opened up in Harrisonburg, it was heaven. I don't know the bottles and sauces here. The most common vegetables are really just edible water bottles. I've also been clued in that I need to weigh and price loose produce before going to the check out, but I don't know where to do that or how, so I'm avoiding anything that isn't prepackaged and priced. Yeah, I'm pathetic. 


I miss tacos. And tikka masala. 


In a moment of stupid lameness last night, I was proud of myself for assembling rice, mini weenies and mixing them together with chili sauce... into something like a sad man's bibimbap. And then John showed up with food that his host mom cooked, and I was totally schooled. Though I also included sliced plum and pickled radish. And  frozen dumplings (만두!) <-- spelling... seriously schooled.

That feeling of accomplishment after cooking an awesome meal is part of what I miss. Here, so many sides are pre-made, you can get away with just doing something to some kind of meat and tossing it in with the pickled this, pickled that, and fermented whatever. I would LOVE  to learn how to make some of the stuff I've had at restaurants, but right now sauces are terribly unknown territory. 

dalkgobi (닭고기)- the deliciousness that exists

the hot mess that I pull off

I also like having control over what goes into my food, though at home that was mainly because the restaurants are unhealthy. Here is the first time in a long time that I haven't been mentally calculating everything that I'm eating, but that's partly because I can't read the nutrition facts and because I really have no idea how healthy or unhealthy the food is. I need more vegetables in my life and less rice. I hate potatoes, but man would I love one. With some butter (margarine actually, I think real butter smells weird).


Add cooking to the list of things I want to accomplish here. I'm addicted to ramen lately. I think it's because it's about 98% salt. I need to stop eating it.


Also, I'm starting to consider looking into buying a guitar. I could use something to work on while I'm in the apartment.