First Impressions of Korean Culture

Hello again, loyal blog readers!  I'd like to talk this time about some of my first impressions of Korean culture.  Like any talk about culture should, I'm going to begin by talking about… FOOD!!

Pictured: FOOD!

닭갈비, with aprons!

It seems like one of the immediate  goals of our wonderful site coordinators, Uncle Simon and Haejung 이모, is to make us try as large a variety of Korean food as possible, as fast as possible.  Although they still have been protective of us in the areas of spiciness and … well, raw-ness.  We have tried so many I can't list them, but a few of the highlights are 비빔밥 ("bi-bim-bap") that I described earlier, 자장면 ("ja-jang-myun") which is a noodle dish with mild brown sauce with onions and other veggies that is apparently a staple of college students, and 닭갈비 ("talk-kal-bee").  닭갈비 is my favorite so far; it's a chicken dish where they make it right in the pan in the middle of the table.  It is spicy with chicken and vegetables, which you pick out and wrap in a lettuce leaf before popping in your mouth.  It is just the right amount of spiciness that it makes you sweat a little and clears the sinuses, just like a good batch of salsa.  Afterward, they mix up the leftovers into a some delicious fried rice.  As I mentioned, Simon and Haejung were protecting us from this level of spiciness, but I was impatient for it, as I'm from New Mexico and am no stranger to spicy food.  So far, that hubris has only gotten me in trouble once, when I ate a spicy pork over rice dish (I can't recall the name) that was so hot the two Korean friends I was with couldn't finish it.  But I did, and my stomach was a little angry at me afterward.  It's good to know your limits, right?

Metal chopsticks!  Spoon!
Cute ducky holder!

I should also mention that the traditional silverware that we eat almost everything with here is a pair of metal chopsticks (hence the blog title, yeah!) and a long handled spoon.  Everybody here has been impressed that we are able to use these chopsticks, I guess they've never run into such skilled Americans before.  As I've said before, my own skills can be attributed to Jason Knight, one of my good college friends that I saw eating popcorn with chopsticks.  It's a brilliant way to eat snack foods without getting your fingers messy (Cheetos, anyone?), so I've been doing it ever since.

Tofu on the left (not cooked yet), curry on the right. Yum!

We've also had a few cooking lessons with Haejung 이모!  These have been a lot of fun and we've learned a few dishes we can make at home, and they're super tasty!  We've learned 접채("jop-chey"), a dish with cooked vegetables, sweet potato noodles (clear, not orange as you might think), and soy sauce.  The colors of the vegetables involved are very important, we're told; you have to get the right balance.  We've learned a delicious tofu recipe, which is nice because tofu is very cheap and it's got lots of protein.  Finally we've learned to make Korean curry, which is extremely tasty, and extremely yellow.  Thanks Haejung 이모!

Eating our delicious homemade dinner!
The person you don't know is Sue Makin, she's working at Hannam now.

Interestingly, the only bad food experiences I've had, despite having eaten all manner of things my mom would be proud of me for trying, are when we've gone out to eat with American friends at places serving western-style food.  The cheese isn't quite right, the pizza is sweet, and the pasta is drowned in cream sauce.  We've been to one place that was a bit better, but it was expensive.  The lesson here, I think, is to eat like a Korean when you're in Korea!  That I can handle, but it is nice to have a few comfort foods around the house for when we want something a little more familiar.  So far our go-to jar is peanut butter.  There is a brand new McDonald's that opened nearby, but we've agreed to avoid it until the worst of the homesickness sets in...

I should have taken this pic before
I ate any, but I couldn't resist...

For dessert, we've had everything from green tea lattes to spicy noodles to ice cream waffle tacos.  But by far my favorite so far has been the coffee shaved ice at a coffee shop near our house called Deli Roti.  It is a scoop of coffee-flavored shaved ice on top of a layer of sweet cream on top of some other, milder shaved ice (vanilla, maybe?).  There are bits of oreo on top and cornflakes around the edges and you pour milk over it.  And then, dig in!  So good.  There are plenty of others, often just bought for low prices from street vendors: puffed rice cylinders (kind of like Golden Crisp, but less sugary), pastries with tasty filling, lots of fruit, and of course, 떡("ttok").  떡 is a traditional Korean rice cake that can come in many forms.  My favorite is a chewy casing around a tasty filling, but there are also little bars of it with beans embedded inside, larger fluffy cakes that are tasty when still warm, and many more I haven't tried yet, I'm sure.  I've gotten the impression that Koreans can make pretty much anything out of rice.

Uncle Simon making his famous banana coffee "slurpees"

I was planning to put all my cultural impressions into this post, but I've noticed it's pretty long already, and I've only talked about food.  While that's probably the biggest section, there's still so much more!  I'll go ahead and split it up into two or three posts that are more digestible (*snicker*) but don't worry, they'll come one right after the other.  Thanks for reading!