Food

I really like Korean food so far! And I really like the way that we eat in Korean restaurants. Whereas in the U.S. everybody orders their own separate dishes, in Korea, everybody shares the whole meal. Usually, everybody will have their own bowl of rice and maybe a bowl of soup, and then there will be like five or six side dishes that everyone will all eat from. Kimchi (김치) is almost always one of them. Nori (김) also seems to be pretty common. Maybe some fish patties, gelatin looking things, and other vegetables as well. I've eaten a lot of things that I haven't been able to identify. And everybody just eats out of the bowls that the side dishes come on, rather than taking some and putting it on your plate. So you just take one bite of rice and then one bite of whatever other dish you'd like. It's pretty cool!

And chopsticks! In the U.S., chopsticks are a sort of novelty that we play with when we get Chinese food. And they're always wooden and we throw them away when we're done. Here, they're legitimate silverware and made of metal. And forks are really uncommon and are mainly given to foreigners who look like they'll make a mess without one. It's been a little bit tricky getting used to chopsticks, but I enjoy learning, and I've only dropped food a couple of times. But it's all in good fun!

At home I haven't been eating meat for a while. That changed pretty fast. It's really hard to be picky when someone who doesn't speak your language hands you a plate of food. There's been chicken, pork, or beef at nearly every meal. On Thursday, our entire dinner was lots and lots of grilled pork with some paengi mushrooms (팽이버섯). So it's taken a little getting used to, but I've been getting along just fine. I even had squid today! You could see all the little suction cups. Wow.