Food-a-palooza

This is NOT a food blog, I promise. I have not the lexical wherewithal to describe cuisine and its taste in any more detail than "It was super yummy" and "Dude, it was awesome!" However, I can't help but share some images of the foodgasms I experienced this day.

First off, my boss's wife, who also works at the school as the Head of the Kindergarten Dept., took me out to lunch today. She apologized for not having done so earlier when I arrived and explained that the end of the month (which gets quite hectic) was keeping her from doing duties of the cordial nature. So, she took me out to lunch right around the corner form the school...to a Shabu Shabu joint.

Know what's better than Shabu Shabu? All You Can Eat Shabu Shabu.

BAM!

Know what's better than A.Y.C.E. Shabu Shabu that includes seafood (shrimp, baby squid, clams etc) as well as another side of the room that serves Chinese food? It all costs $14 per person. I would love/hate to see the damage Mike Liu could do here. So, yeah, this was a nice welcome to the school's staff :-)

Dinner was also super awesome (that's just a combo of my cuisine descriptor vocab). Today was the formal last day of the teacher I'm replacing at the school. She's a great educator and I've learned a lot from shadowing her these last couple of weeks. She's off to have her baby and then possibly teaching closer to where she lives in Suwon. So, the entire staff went out to dinner to say "thanks" and "goodbye." We went to a nearby bbq joint and the result was stuffage and gluttony: 6 orders of massive pork ribs and another two orders of the 3-layer pork....and that was just for my table of 3!!! I was impressed with all the ladies regarding how much bbq'd meat and rice wine was had this night!

I'm really enjoying getting to know my new co-workers. They are fun and always willing to help when I'm confused about what's going on (which was happening quite a bit). Gem is quirky, pervy and hilarious which is a great combo.  Nice face, Gem (in white)...

Julia is super sweet and funny (sitting in the corner here)...

Laura (the one in stripes who's doing her darndest to avoid the camera because she believes pregnancy should not be captured on camera) is a faboo and experienced teacher who has given me a lot of guidance as to what to expect and what I need to do.  Adi (in the black sleeveless shirt) has been a life-saver for my getting situated here and has been very giving of her time to make sure I was comfortable...

Gina, above in the faded orange, is sarcastic and open (woo hoo, a sarcastic Korean!!).  Becca, who is from my favorite country besides the U.S. (the U.K.) is going to be my shopping, rollerblading and reading-novels-in-the-park buddy. Becca was sitting in the corner opposite Julia and I did a horrible job snapping her. Apparently I was really only trying to get pictures of the food, imagine that. >.< I am sure I will have better pictures of Becca once we get our activities on.

The slew of other lovely ladies are the Korean teachers at the school whom I'm also getting to know (Hayley, Vera Ally, Joy, Christine and Elin). They are wonderful people and I look forward to hanging out with them more as the year goes on.

And now, food coma onset is in effect. Next up: the weekend filled with moving, shopping, and adopting a broken little kitty!

LIFE CHANGING IMAGES!!!!

So, I went shopping for some fruit tonight because I've been severely lacking due to the overabundance of otherwise spicy goodies of the decidedly non-fruity variety (see all previous photos of food). The local grocery store is located UNDER a hoity-toity department store. Yeah.

Anyway, as I was approaching the fruits and vegetables section, this is what mine eyes espied...also known as THE. BEST. GIFT. BOX. EVAR:

That's right. All Spam all the time. Other boxes with Spam had stuff that complemented Spam. Awesome.

On another note, I've been kinda missing pizza, especially since some people have been having First Class Pizza™ twice a week!! You know who you are, ya gluttons. It wouldn't be Korea if they didn't blasphemously slap some of their bbq style beef (bul-go-gi) onto something not theirs and then sell it. You know where I'm going with this. I found a pizza joint that did this very thing so I ordered it on half of it (left side):

Jumpin' Jehosephat, it was yummy! There goes the 5 pounds I lost (well, here comes, rather) from all that walking last week.  I leave you with the above images of beauty.

Until next time.
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Jen is currently listening to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIDN5a52pWk

The Perpetual Question and Country Bumpkins

So when I observed my first class last week, I introduced myself and asked the middle school kids if they had any questions for me.

A cute-as-a-button-round-faced-bowl-cut-having little girl with glasses raised her hand, eagerly.

"Yes, Kelly?"

"Are you married?"

"-.-"

The teacher of the class then advised me that it is usually the first thing they ask. Sigh.

"No, I'm not married. Thanks for playing. Any other questions?"

A little boy directly in front of me raised his hand into the air. Suffice it to say, he was adorable and was also donning a bowl cut.

"Hello, teacher, I am Ben and I am 9 years old."

I wanted to hug him and squeeze him and call him George.

"Thank you for introducing yourself so nicely, Ben. What is your question?"

"How old are you?"

"-.-"

The teacher turned to me and advised that that was the second most asked question.

"I'm 37 years old, Ben, Thanks much."

"Teacher! Teacher!"

"Yes, Ben."

 "My mom is also 37 years old."

I still wanted to squeeze him...but to a different end.

After we got those pleasantries out of the way, class went about as usual and I enjoyed watching the teacher-student interaction and thinking about what I needed to do to also be an effective teacher. I'm looking forward to this formal week of orientation so I can become more familiar with the curriculum and teaching styles of the staff.

On another note, this past weekend, I spent some time with cousins from my mom's side of the family. One (a police officer, named Chang-gyoon, male,age 41) I hadn't seen since I was 4 and the other (named Joo-hyun, female, age 38) when I last came to Korea in 1991. Since then, Joo-hyun had gotten married and moved from the relatively large city of Daegu to the hilly, green countryside of Chungcheon province. Chang-gyoon oppah*picked me up in Seoul and we both blindly went out into the country with only his car's navigation system to guide us. Here's what we saw along the way:

Yeah, boonies.

But pretty boonies

Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right. Anyway....

We finally arrived at my cousin's super cute, charming home. It rested atop a small hill, just past this...

A mountain ginseng farm. Sheesh. (p.s. it's also known as golden sansam, for really reals - that one's for you, fellow world of warcraftians).

So, just up the way was their quaint cottage, complete with swinging gate. I LOVE the old school look of the home's interior, especially the rice paper doors!

Their home, seemed to me, a place people would pay to come and stay for awhile, like a pension or a tucked away bed and breakfast. It was peaceful and lovely.

Below, from left to right, is my cousin Joo-hyun, her hubby, and my other cousin, Chang-gyoon:

Joo-hyun wanted to take me out to a seafood feast so we drove almost an hour into the nearest town and horked down on this spread. I can't even tell you what all the dishes are cuz, frankly, I had no clue what some of them even were...(those I did not eat)...

Dinner was finished off with seriously spicy seafood soup:

My portion had a big chunk of fish in it and after I cleaned off the bones, it looked like I was eating Alien Facehugger soup:

Chang-gyoon and Joo-hyun's husband drank a few beers during dinner so they decided it was better that we stay the night. Unfortunately, my cousin and her hubby were not prepared for visitors (since they never really have any) so we pretty much slept on the wooden floor with no bed roll or real mat of any kind. I thought I was Korean enough to handle it but I found out I'm a huge Western wuss-ball and I could NOT sleep on the hardwood floor. No position was comfortable so I just tossed and turned all night and listened to the crickets play their song outside the window.

The next morning, after a kick-ass meal prepared by Joo-hyun, we set off for Seoul again where I picked up my luggage. Chang-gyoon then drove me down to Pyeongtake where I will be staying for the next year or so. If it wasn't for him, I don't know how I would have gotten all my crap down here. It would have been much more of a hassle, that's for certain. He wouldn't even let me pay for anything...not even gasoline. So stubborn! I know, I should talk...but that means I know stubborn when I see it :-) I sneaked some bills into his glove compartment when he wasn't looking, though! Muahahahaha!

Since then, Chang-gyoon has called me every night to make sure I was not lonely, hungry, or had been robbed or abducted. It's extremely protective but also very sweet. It's nice to know someone has your back when you're in a strange land.

Next up: Teaching my first class!!

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*"Oppah" is the word for "older brother" which can be used for your actual older male sibling, other family members who are male and slightly older than you, or an unrelated male if  you have a liking for them and want to be cutesy -- this only applies if you're a young female.

Does Korean Food Taste Better in Korea? HELLZ YES.

So far, my foodie experience has been faboo -- as expected.  Thankfully, I heart Korean food and they seem to do that particular cuisine pretty well here in...well...Korea.

My uncle, before he left for Ulsan on Sunday (where he spends the weekdays at his hospital -- he has a home there), asked me what I wanted to eat most now that I was here. Before I could stop myself, I replied, "Samgyupsal."  For those of you who have never heard of it nor had it, it's a very thick (supposed to be, anyway) cut of pork belly that shows three layers of the meat: flesh, fat, flesh. "Samgyupsal" translates to "three layers of meat/flesh." At first glance, I suppose it could be thought of as just a thick cut of bacon but it's oh so much more, dear friends.  It's an uncured, juicy piece of porky heaven and a carnivore's delight (sorry, Sam). Nothing gets in the way of the unadulterated pork flavor, mostly due to the tender layer of fat.

We went out for a late lunch and so the restaurant was not crowded when we arrived. Maybe some of you have seen it, but while I was in the States, I had always cooked my meat on a flat grill of some sort. This table was fashioned with a polished metal disc that looked like a lid for a huge pot. I was pleased to find that the meat was cooked directly on top of its lightly oiled grandeur. The pork was cut super thick; way more thick than any I had ever seen back home. This made me a happy camper.

Served along with the meat, as usual, was an array of side dishes of the vegetable variety (some spicy, some not), different soups, salad, rice, lettuce and sesame leaves to use as wraps and cold buckwheat noodles to fend off the heat. I was in heaven:

Along with the pork, there were raw cloves of garlic and large slices of mushrooms and onions to slap on the grill in order to accentuate the meat as they co-existed and cooked together. I barely got my camera out in time to take this picture before we were about to annihilate the last remaining pieces.I know you wanna go get some now.  Go on...run to your nearest Korean restaurant and have at it. You'll thank me later.

Today, my lovely cousin took me to Insadong, largely a tourist area with many souvenir shops and rows and rows of street food, it is also a bustling arts. crafts, and pottery district. Even though it was raining pretty hard, people were still out in droves. I suppose when it rains this much, people just treat it like any other day.

I also got to see my very first Korean demonstration (protest):

I guess some property conglomerate bought land out from under some residents in order to build a huge mall (isn't that just the way?) and they were speaking out against it. No tear gas or rubber bullets were fired in the making of this demonstration.

There's a Starbucks here that is the only one in all of Korea that doesn't actually say "Starbucks" on the storefront. Because this merchant street is historical (it's 500 years old) and there have been protests to keep it from modernizing, the signage on storefronts are mostly, if not all, in korean....even if the store has an English name. So, this particular Starbucks location asked special permission to allow the name to be written in Korean, rather than English. The corporation obliged (please excuse my FOB pose...I'm being assimilated):

My cousin and I continued to make our way in the rain, weaving through a back street and tiny, narrow alleys, guided only by our noses. Finally, we came across a traditional sit-down restaurant. By "sit-down" I mean you sit on the floor at a low table, not in chairs. For a measly $6, I had eight side dishes and a delicious beef stew (imagine the yummy, meaty sweetness you get when you eat bul-go-gi -- BUT NOW IN STEW FORM!) served in a hot pot.  I am going to do my darndest to remember where this little hole-in-the-wall joint is so that when you guys come to visit me, I can take you there!

Yeah, that's just me at the low table before the food came. There is no picture of the food. I horked it down too eagerly to even think about taking a picture of it. I suck. If this was a food blog, I'd be ashamed.

Next time, on omgwtfbbqkorea, "Walking more in one week than I have in the past year and what the hell is up with that?!"