As Momma and Poppa Wood are arriving in Korea in less than two weeks, I've written this post especially for them; to inform and in some cases warn them of what's in store.
First of all to dispel a popular myth: everybody eats dog in Korea. When I first arrived I admit that I expected to see puppies lining the shelves at the supermarket and filling the meat section of the menu. I pictured myself ordering a medium rare Alsatian with a side order of fried Labrador. On the contrary, I haven't seen dog on a single menu, I haven't been served it at lunch time at school, and they don't sell dog ready meals at the supermarket. Some Koreans do eat dog, but it's a speciality; it's only sold in special restaurants and it's only eaten for special occasions. I'm told it's served as a soup, it smells terrible, and is extremely good for the skin due to it's high collagen content. Yum.
Fish and pork are the most commonly eaten meats in Korea. Most of the beef is imported from Australia and is extremely expensive.
This is pork galbi. Delicious marinated pork that you cook yourself on a grill in the middle of the table. Galbi is eaten by wrapping the pork in lettuce with onions, garlic, and samjang sauce.
Beef galbi. Pork galbi's inferior, less delicious brother.
Korea is a country of sharers. If you like your own plate with your own personal dish I suggest you go elsewhere because in Korea meals are a free-for-all. An excessive number of side dishes that you have neither ordered nor want, will be brought to the table and placed at random.
This is hanmari, chicken and onion broth. Very bland. Also cooked at the table on a built-in stove. Korean's are big on making you cook your own dinner even in a restaurant.
It's hard to survive in Korea if, like me, you don't eat fish. There are so many seafood restaurants around, almost all with tanks of live fish at the front. Odeng (fish curd) is in everything. You can also order a live octopus and eat it still wriggling at the end of your chopstick... if you like that sort of thing!
Ddokbugi - glutinous rice cakes in spicy sauce.
Patbingsu is somewhere between dessert and breakfast. Crushed ice, milk, sweet red beans, cereal, tinned fruit and rice cakes. It' not bad, but give me a piece of toast any time.
Bondeggi - tastes like what you imagine bugs to taste like!
Perhaps most important for my parents: BOOZE! From left to right:
- Beer. You'll generally only find lager in Korea. Max, Cass and Hite are main brands. These big bottles only cost a couple of quid but they go flat within minutes and generally taste terrible. You can find IPA's and dark ales (mainly in Seoul) and they're likely to cost a fortune. In Cheonan you pay over £4 for half a pint of IPA.
- Makoli. Rice wine. Comes in different flavours: nut, strawberry, etc. I can't stand it, Ric loves it. I find it tastes both chalky and tangy. #shudder#
- Soju. I once heard a comedian say that a soju hangover feels like you've drank all the evil in the world distilled through the devil's arsehole. I tend to agree. It's a 20% proof spirit that is ridiculously cheap to buy. It's almost flavourless and does the job of getting you drunk pretty quickly. The next morning though... my Lord! No wonder Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world!
- Raspberry wine. Korean wine is bad. Very bad. Like normal wine mixed with golden syrup and Ribeana.
- Cass red. Beer. Extra strong.
Korean tasty bits:
- Jayukbokkum - spicy pork and veg, my favourite school dinner.
- Mandu - dumplings. Possibly the best food in Korea.
- Paajon - Pancake made with spring onion and carrots. Yummy. But sometimes it has scary squid tentacles in it.
Not so tasty Korean bits:
- Kimchi - whoever decided that rotting cabbage fermented in vinegar and chilli should be Korea's staple dish deserves to be shot in front of their family (Jeremy Clarkson style)
- Tentacles - disturbingly common: as a dried snack, in soup, in pancakes, deep fried in batter...
- Full fish heads - my least favourite school dinner. Why would anyone want to eat fish heads??
- Cold noodles - noodles good. Noodles served in a bowl of iced vinegar baaaad!
