한국 음식

Today's post is about our adventure with Korean food. First as a disclaimer, we really haven't been all that adventurous yet. Baby steps! Almost all of our excursions into Korean cuisine have been accompanied by a guide who could read, speak and understand Korean. Neither one of us is brave enough to order without assistance. Consider it training wheels. Those of you who know Fred know he will try almost anything. His resistance is due to the fact that food here tends to be very spicy. A Korean friend told us that Daegu is known for its spicy food...well, and fried chicken! My fear comes more from concern about what I might be eating than how spicy it might be. I don't like to eat food that resembles the creature from which it came. In other words, I don't like body parts to look like body parts! I especially don't like eyes to be looking up at me from my dinner plate. So maybe this will be the first part of a two part post. Maybe I will update you on our experiences with Korean food again toward the end of our mission. Of course that is making an assumption that we will get a little braver as time goes on.


Korean King meal.
 

A young Korean friend  took us to a very traditional restaurant. We sat on cushions on the floor. You do not order from a menu. They just bring the same food for everyone, with one exception. People of honor (in our case old people) receive a special main dish. The meal begins with lots of appetizers/side dishes. I mean LOTS. The small serving dishes you see are for everyone to share. If you empty one they will bring another with the same amount. The dishes included dried fish, anchovies, kimchi and more. Our special main dish was rice porridge, which had no flavor whatsoever. Oh to be a kid again!

Sister missionaries at Ashley's Buffet.

Beef and Leaf

We took these two missionaries to lunch at the place of their choice. The Korean sister picked her favorite, an American food buffet. It was a very nice place but I think promoting it as an American food buffet is false advertising. I didn't recognize most of the food. The sweet Korean sister put away about 4 full plates of food. She loved it, until she accidentally got something that was super hot. You should have seen her eyes roll back as she frantically waved her hand in front of her mouth. I am so glad we didn't try that dish. If it was that hot for her, we would have cried.  She was fine after downing a few glasses of soda.



This was a very nice downtown restaurant, a Korean barbeque. The Americans have nicknamed these kinds of restaurants beef and leaf. This is also a buffet, except you fill your plates with raw meats, greens and other veggies. You cook your own meat on a small stove in the center of your table. You grill the meat and any veggies you want to include.  When they are done you wrap them in a green leaf (lettuce or mint), spread bean paste on it and dip it in a sauce. They also have rice, bread and some fruit. It's all you can eat and boy did those missionaries eat.


Zone conference! (This is held every six weeks when we meet with missionaries in our area for training) I knew for sure we were in Korea when we were served a delicious meal of bulgogi, kimchi and rice for our lunch. Bulgogi is thin sliced meat, usually beef or pork. It is marinated in pear juice, soy sauce, minced garlic, diced green onions and sesame oil. Then it is grilled. Kimchi is simply raw vegetables (most often cabbage) soaked in salt water and seasoned with spices before fermenting. It is usually served cold. I have tried it several times and like it, though it can be a bit spicy.


Saturday evening was so beautiful and cool. We decided to go for a walk down town. We also decided to bravely order our own dinner from a real Korean restaurant. In a narrow alley behind our apartment complex are several very small places to eat or to order food. So at the end of our walk, we decided to get some take-out close to home. We bravely ordered.... fried chicken. Sorry for the let down. It was quite an experience even then. In fact it was pretty comical. We couldn't read the menu, there were no pictures, the cook didn't speak English and as you know our Korean is less than limited. Finally an English speaking Korean customer came to our rescue. Fifteen minutes later we left with our box of fried chicken and a side of pickled radish.

This is a picture of  a common menu board you see outside restaurants.
Next time we will find a place where we can just point! Baby steps!!