The Korea Series - Korean food, drink & etiquette.

Kimchi, Side Dishes & Soju – these are a few of my favorite things.

When exploring a new country – exposing yourself to the customary food, drink & table etiquette is one of the more fun experiences to be had. Of course, being a strict vegetarian always is an obstacle for me.

Korea is famous for kimchi – the first time having kimchi was experienced in Japan. But now! I had the real Korean experience and I was surrounded by it! It's fair to say that half of my meals eaten in Korean food restaurants served me that delicious Chinese cabbage all smothered in spicy, red sauce.

According to my Lonely Planet guide, kimchi was made to preserve vegetables and ensure proper nutrition during harsh winters.

Korean table customs are a bit similar to my host country o f Japan. Typically you sit on the floor on a mat for meals. At some of the Korean style restaurants – your meal is cooked right there in front of you. A flame is either built into the center of the table or a small flame (imagine cooking equipment style) stove is brought out to your table.

The dish is eaten from by everyone. If you've ordered soup – everyone dips into the same steaming bowl of deliciousness. In addition to your main order – the restaurant provides several side dishes – for free. It seemed standard that the restaurants placed 4 – 6 dishes before us.

The fun part of side dishes is that you never know what will be placed before you. They choose – and it's always different. For those chefs that want to cook in a freelance style – they should move to Korea and become a chef there. Lucky for me - nearly all side dishes were vegetarian.

Some examples of side dishes that I had include- kimchi, seaweed, pickled daikon (large, white radish), bean sprouts, random vegetables that I didn't know, a delicious root, other vegetables that some claim were pulled right from the ground since you could “taste the dirt.” Finally, some nut like food – only to name a few.

Koreans use chopsticks – but utilize spoons as well to handle their food. The chopsticks are different from Japan. In Japan – they are wooden & plastic. A bit thicker at the top where you hold – but becomes thinner at the top where the stick meets your food and mouth. A nice feature of the Japanese chopstick is the food grabbing part – has ridges. Thus, making it less likely you will drop your food.

The Korean chopstick is distinctive – it's made of silver – creating a trickier situation to handle them easily. Shiny chopsticks cause them to be a bit heavier and a lot more slippier while in use. Although my Korean chopstick usage was probably equivalent to that of a young learner -still dropping food on myself and the table; just as in Japan – a man in the restaurant in the ski town on New Years day – made hand motions indicating that possibly he was impressed with chopstick abilities.

According to my Lonely Planet guide regarding the practice of silver chopsticks

It is said that the kings, ever vigilant about security, would insist on using silver chopsticks as silver would tarnish in the presence of toxins. The tradition caught on and was passed down to the common people.

Restaurants provide napkins for you to rest your chopsticks on. Just like in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan – it is not customary to tip at the restaurant or bars. A buzzer is used to inform the server you need something – order your food, more drinks or anything else you may need. The check is always paid at the door.

Moving onto one of my favorite topics – drinks. It is considered bad manners to pour your own drink. Always keep an eye out for your friends – to see if a refill is necessary. I enjoy this cultural difference a lot – it almost provides a feeling of companionship. Being aware that someone is looking out for you and being expected to vigilantly watch after your comrade – it provides some unspoken bonding.

The only bad part is – you might have an overgenerous friend who often gets you too drunk for your own good (cough, Corey, cough).

Soju – I drank night after night of soju. Soju tastes like a mixture of water and vodka. It's not as strong as vodka – secretly condoning you to take just one more shot. In the end, it only provides the same results – a drunken evening.

The second night in Korea – Corey and I decided to have a beer taste test. I closed my eyes just as he cracked open 4 large beers. We shared the same opinion in that Prime was the best tasting beer followed by O.B. I researched the initials for OB and it stands for Oriental Brewery. It seemed the most common beer to drink was one named Hite. After our mini testing - we went to a bar called Charley's. It was there he taught me the game titanic. You place a shot glass into a cup of beer. Then - one person pours a bit of soju into the shot glass. You keep going back and forth until someone sinks it. If it sinks - that person has to drink the glass full of beer and now a shot of Soju. I won both times - well, maybe not the second time - but Corey was a gentleman and chugged both times.

The last spot we hit on this night was an absolutely swarming night club. We danced and took shots and had a Heineken - or atleast - so I'm told.

Our 4th night out – we checked out a place Corey often goes to so I could try the Korean rice wine called makgeolli. It's served chilled – so chilled there were tiny piece of ice. It is inside a caldron bowl and served with a large wooden spoon/ladle. It was decent tasting and got me drunk pretty quickly.

Except for a Heineken, a shot of tequilla and a pitcher of Miller's – we kept it all strictly Korean.

Food.

It seems the most Korean food I ate – aside from the side dishes – was a bowl of bibimbap. It turns out – it is Corey's favorite dish and it definitely turned into mine. There are different versions and I tried three of them while in Korea.

The first one I tried is called sanchae – made with vegetables only. You add in rice, red pepper taste sauce (gochujang) and mix it all together with your chopsticks. This one had an egg in it as well. After mixing with the sticks, you eat with a spoon. Absolutely delicious.

The second version I tried is called dolsot - the main difference is that it is served in a hot stone bowl. While mixing everything together – the egg cooks up in the bowl.

The last version I tried was served with some sort of fish – where I took it out and placed it into Corey's bowl. Any of these can be served with meat as well. I am already having a craving for it again.

And STREET VENDOR FOOD!

The first one we went for we actually received quite the performance from the men making it. Even more intriguing is that they did it all in English for us! The name is ggultarae – and it appears like many long strands of white hair. Each time the man stretched and moved them – they split exponentially creating many, many thin pieces of this thread stuff created from honey. All the while it was splitting – the men were performing a bit of a show – saying 2 then 4 and now 8 and 16 and 32! They went way past the thousands counting and counting. From there – these threadlike strings are turned into small balls. You can purchase many different flavors. They were delicious as well.

The second street vendor food we went for – were things that were shaped in a circle like a cookie. The texture was that of fried dough or similar to a donut. That is how Corey first explained it to me. Inside of these circular, doughy, fried food is cinnamon! Yum! It was so good, I still have some of the cinnamon that came oozing out of the bottom all over the front of my jacket.

The last street vendor food I had was something white on a stick that was very chewy. On the outside were many nuts. All these foods were yummy.

Of course, there were many foods, that as a vegetarian I couldn't try. For example, octopus tentacles, snails, and skewers of meat. Most noteable – even though I did not try would be beondegi or in English – silkworms. I did want to try but never built up enough courage to give it a go. The smell of them was pretty horrific and Corey said they don't taste much better. I only could think of New Zealand and the silkworm cave tour I went to with Ferris.

One great Vegetarian story.

I have found it interesting on how people perceive vegetarianism in Japan. I have received some interesting questions and a lot of confusion on just what is a vegetarian. The most unique dish I received occurred in this most random place in Seoul. Corey and I picked a random restaurant and climbed the steps to the top. We entered into an Americana styled pub with an American flag with three girls in thongs bent over. Random old beer bottles from around the world, Native Americans loitering the walls and license plates. The name – Indi Jones. That is – according to the restaurant signs. According to our check, it was Indi Zones.

In Korea, when you order a pitcher of beer – you are expected to order food as well. However, if we're in a restaurant with no pictures – it is tough for me to order anything. Additionally, neither Corey nor I speak or read Korean. The restaurant owner understood when we said “no meat”. He said, “nachos?” and we said sure.

We sort of got nachos. It was a plate full of tortillas. On top of the chips was squeeze cheese, rainbow sprinkles, and chocolate. He also brought out a small serving of salsa to dip them into it. At first, we were really confused, we wanted to laugh but the owner was watching our reaction. Clearly, he said okay, and whipped something up in the back – because nothing else they offered had no meat.

He also charged us like $12 or something for the plate. My memory is failing – but I am pretty sure the bill was $25 with out pitcher of beer. It was something outrageous for what we ordered and what we received. That is creativity at it's best.

Sorry about the wierd font changes - I wrote it on word at work and now it's all wierd when I transferred it onto my blog.