Food and Drink

A typical (by typical I mean absolutely every one I've had) Korean meal is family style. It will consist of several vegetable dishes, each of which is seasoned with lots of red pepper and usually garlic too, or is pickled vinegary, sometimes both as is the case for the ubiquitous kimchee (basically fermented spicy cabbage for those of you who have never tried it. I find it quite tasty but could easily understand someone who doesn't). The exceptions to this rule of seasoning include some types of seaweed, and the rare sweet potato I've seen served in a light syrup.
Along with the vegetables there is a bowl of rice (always white and sticky, sometimes with a few beans thrown in "rice and friends"), and almost always a bowl of thin spicy soup.

The variety from meal to meal is the protein element, which is sometimes incorporated into the soup to make it hearty. For example I've had a spicy crab soup, quite tasty, with locally caught mudcrabs, extrememly spicy, and a little difficult to eat because the crabs are still in the shells and without many tools at your disposal you must resort to a crunch and suck technique to get any crab meat. The famous Korean meal is probably bulgogi, Korean bbq where you are served raw meat and get to cook your own on a grill in the middle of the table. The meat is sliced thin and tender, and since it is served raw you can inspect the marbling before you order and cook, a nice touch i think. I've had one or two sushi meals here as well, but unfortunately I have to say the fish has not been up to the standards I've grown accustomed to in LA - little variety and flavor and a chewier texture. They make up for this by wrapping the sashimi in a lettuce leaf with hot sauce garlic and veggies to make a tasty mouthful.

I have also eaten some unusual things including: a fermented fish head - a full bite of crunchy skull and brains, very salty and a little bitter, I would eat one again, but just to be polite. live octopus - ok, not really alive, it was cut into pieces but so freshly cut that like a headless chicken the pieces still wriggled and the suckers stuck on the inside of your mouth, fun to eat and tasty if you like octopus, which I do. I have also finally for the first time intentionally eaten a big fat insect - when it was offered I pretended it was a plump raisin and didn't confirm my suspision until after it was swallowed; it was roasted and warm, it tasted gross.

The second biggest culinary disappointment is lack of variety - most of the dishes are similarly seasoned and it is quite difficult to find non-Korean style food, especially in my small hometown. The biggest is drink: certainly there is a normal selection of beverages including juices, milk, and Coke. Also some things that are tasty are harder to find in the states such a rice drink which is basically horchata without the cinnamon, and a pulpy aloe based drink that is quite nice. But the state of alcoholic beverages is backwards in the godforsaken country. You options are soju - it would be hard to distinguish between this drink and watered down vodka, a cloudy rice wine - this isn't so bad, it is a little sweet though and I can't really see myself drinking more than a small glass, and beer - I use the word in its loosest sense. There are three big breweries in the country and almost no microbrews (maybe a couple in Seoul, but I would never see their products down here). But there may as well be just one as they each produce a brew I would have a hard time distinguishing from Bud in a blind taste test. I saw some imported beers in a convienence store the other day - Bud, Corona and Heineken, due to tariffs about twice as expensive as the native beer. On the other hand, you can buy malted grains, hops and yeast; so I have determined my new hobby - homebrewing!