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I found this blog while trying to look for the local Science Channel's website, and there are some good articles in it. I found the entry on December 7 particularly interesting slash funny. Czech it out:
http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2007/12/index.html
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Chopsticks
I wasn't very good at using chopsticks when I got here. I could get the food into my mouth, but not very skillfully. I thought that the chopsticks here would probably be made out of acryclic or porcelain or something, since disposable wooden chopsticks didn't seem like a good idea for everyday use. I was wrong, though. The chopsticks here are metal, and flat. That made it really hard for me to get used to them. They kept slipping, and I kept crossing them instead of grabbing the food. And as I found out the first night I was here, you're supposed to hold the chopsticks towards the top, not in the middle, where I always held them. I notice that small children hold them almost at the bottom, so I'm thinking your hand position could be a reliable indicator of your skill at using them.
I've gotten a lot more practice since I've been here, so now I'm pretty good at chopsticking. I'm developing a chopsticks callous on my middle finger, actually. And now that I'm correcting papers and writing out my lessons every day, my writer's callous has returned on my ring finger. Oh, boy.
I've gotten a lot more practice since I've been here, so now I'm pretty good at chopsticking. I'm developing a chopsticks callous on my middle finger, actually. And now that I'm correcting papers and writing out my lessons every day, my writer's callous has returned on my ring finger. Oh, boy.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Korean Food Part Two
The last entry is not to say, of course, that I don't like Korean food. There's a lot of stuff I like.
Had I written this a couple days ago, I would have said that every Korean food item presented to me in pattie form was great. This was until yesterday, when one of the side dishes at work was some sort of deep fried oyster pattie. The first time I ever had oysters was on Thanksgiving, when they were added to the stuffing. That was okay. But the two times I've eaten oysters since I've been here... Eating oysters makes me feel deeply violated.
But oysters aside, so far I like everything that comes in a pattie around here. This includes meat patties, fish patties, egg patties with vegetables, deep fried potato patties, and a number of patties I couldn't identify or can't remember.
Another Korean food I like is called mando. It's kind of like Korean raviolo. Circular pasta is overstuffed with vegetables and/or meat and folded over. I got a huge bag of it when I first moved in a month ago, and I'm still working on it. I finally got myself a steaming tray, so I can cook them properly. I've been boiling them. I don't recommend it. Wet.
Bulgogi is also good. It's just seasoned (with sesame, soy sauce, garlic, etc.), shredded meat. It means "fire meat." Wikipedia says over a quarter of foreigners in 2007 claimed it as their favorite Korean food. I might agree.
I've been greatly confused about the vegetables here. They seem to use a lot of leafy greens, but not spinach, and sprouts, which I know nothing about anyway. A popular sprout is pictured below. I don't know what it's called, but the end looks like a corn kernal, and the sprouty part looks like a noodle. These are okay. Sprouts, whatever.
A popular Korean food is pibimbap (aka bibimbap), rice mixed with vegetables. "Bap" means "rice," and I don't know what "pibim" means, but it doesn't mean "vegetable." It wasn't in my dictionary. The vegetables include the sprouts above, carrots, some leafy greens that I can't identify, and variable others. Scrembled eggs are also usually included in strips. It's served on a plate all separated, with a container of that stupid stupid red pepper sauce, and you're supposed to mix it all together, adding as much sauce as you feel right about. I actually tend to like it without the sauce. The natural flavor of it all works well. I think it's the eggs that really bring it all together.
Korean barbecue is great, as we all know. A couple times I've gone with Heather and her family to this barbecue joint by her apartment complex. As with all barbecue joints, there is a large grill in the middle of the table, and you cook your own meat. The servers bring a bunch of slabs of pork (I'm not sure if this places specializes in pork, or if that's just what the fam prefers), along with the perfunctory side dishes. This includes kimchi, zuchini, and squash, which are also cooked on the grill, plus sauces, cucumbers in vinegar, shredded lettuce with some sort of strawberry yogurt topping, and these large translucent leaves in water. Koreans like to take leaves of various sorts and wrap them around things. It's cool.
It occurs to me that after I've actually learned all the names for these foods, I'll look back at my descriptions and think myself silly.
Had I written this a couple days ago, I would have said that every Korean food item presented to me in pattie form was great. This was until yesterday, when one of the side dishes at work was some sort of deep fried oyster pattie. The first time I ever had oysters was on Thanksgiving, when they were added to the stuffing. That was okay. But the two times I've eaten oysters since I've been here... Eating oysters makes me feel deeply violated.
But oysters aside, so far I like everything that comes in a pattie around here. This includes meat patties, fish patties, egg patties with vegetables, deep fried potato patties, and a number of patties I couldn't identify or can't remember.
Another Korean food I like is called mando. It's kind of like Korean raviolo. Circular pasta is overstuffed with vegetables and/or meat and folded over. I got a huge bag of it when I first moved in a month ago, and I'm still working on it. I finally got myself a steaming tray, so I can cook them properly. I've been boiling them. I don't recommend it. Wet.
Bulgogi is also good. It's just seasoned (with sesame, soy sauce, garlic, etc.), shredded meat. It means "fire meat." Wikipedia says over a quarter of foreigners in 2007 claimed it as their favorite Korean food. I might agree.
I've been greatly confused about the vegetables here. They seem to use a lot of leafy greens, but not spinach, and sprouts, which I know nothing about anyway. A popular sprout is pictured below. I don't know what it's called, but the end looks like a corn kernal, and the sprouty part looks like a noodle. These are okay. Sprouts, whatever.
A popular Korean food is pibimbap (aka bibimbap), rice mixed with vegetables. "Bap" means "rice," and I don't know what "pibim" means, but it doesn't mean "vegetable." It wasn't in my dictionary. The vegetables include the sprouts above, carrots, some leafy greens that I can't identify, and variable others. Scrembled eggs are also usually included in strips. It's served on a plate all separated, with a container of that stupid stupid red pepper sauce, and you're supposed to mix it all together, adding as much sauce as you feel right about. I actually tend to like it without the sauce. The natural flavor of it all works well. I think it's the eggs that really bring it all together.
Korean barbecue is great, as we all know. A couple times I've gone with Heather and her family to this barbecue joint by her apartment complex. As with all barbecue joints, there is a large grill in the middle of the table, and you cook your own meat. The servers bring a bunch of slabs of pork (I'm not sure if this places specializes in pork, or if that's just what the fam prefers), along with the perfunctory side dishes. This includes kimchi, zuchini, and squash, which are also cooked on the grill, plus sauces, cucumbers in vinegar, shredded lettuce with some sort of strawberry yogurt topping, and these large translucent leaves in water. Koreans like to take leaves of various sorts and wrap them around things. It's cool.
It occurs to me that after I've actually learned all the names for these foods, I'll look back at my descriptions and think myself silly.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Korean Food Part One
Nothing can really prepare you for the amount of rice Koreans eat. It’s hard to imagine and practice eating the same thing three times a day, in large amounts. And a plain thing at that. Even in Kenya they had a small variety of staple food, and didn't eat the same thing for each meal. But in Korea, it's rice and kimchi, morning, noon, and night.
When I was staying with Heather the first two weeks I was here, I was eating breakfast and supper at her place, and lunch at work. They tried to accomodate me as much as possible, and not give me the same thing all the time, which was nice. But I was still overriced.
And they still love the stuff. If you ask Korean kids what their favorite foods are: "Rice!" "Kimchi!" Blech.
The Korean way of meals is to eat your own bowl of rice, and share kimchi and numerous other side dishes, which are placed in the center of the table. In restaurants, you typically get a bowl of soup, and often at home soup is part of the meal, too. Having just two or three parts of the meal like we do is kind of boring for them, I think. Maybe it's because they have to eat all that rice. It all balances out.
Speaking of balancing, I have no idea how the hell all these Koreans aren't wicked fat. If each meal consists of one bowl of rice, which measures about a cup, that's six servings of carbs per day, just with that one thing. They also eat potatoes, noodles, and baked goods. I've never had so much trouble keeping a decent diet. I guess everyone gets enough exercise in these parts.
Evidently the only spice in Korea besides salt is red pepper. If you look at this link, you'll notice the first four spices are hot or red pepper, and most of the others are just different versions of salt:
http://koreanfood.about.com/od/spices/a/CookingSpices.htm
I freaking hate red pepper right now. Even though I'm at my own apartment now and I mostly buy food that I would buy in the US, I still eat too much of that stupid stuff. At work, they have a service that sends a bowl of rice and six side dishes to work, and lately three or four of them have been laden with red pepper sauce. So I have a little trouble with work food. I've been lucky enough to have a light schedule at work so far, so I've been coming home and eating a meal between my first set of classes and when the food comes to work. Starting next week, though, I will be in class almost straight from 1:30 to 9, and won't have time to come home for a snack. I'll have to bring something with me, I guess, because I can't go from 1 to 6 without food. I'd die.
The funny thing about red pepper is that Koreans think their food is too spicy for Westerners. Countless times Heather or her family has warned me about the food I'm about to eat, and then I start in and have a hearty inside laugh about how not spicy it is.
There is some occurence of curry around here, though. Heather's mom made me rice (really?) with curried chicken and vegetables a couple times, which was wicked good. I also get bowls of ready-to-eat vegetable curry soup at the grocery store.
When I was staying with Heather the first two weeks I was here, I was eating breakfast and supper at her place, and lunch at work. They tried to accomodate me as much as possible, and not give me the same thing all the time, which was nice. But I was still overriced.
And they still love the stuff. If you ask Korean kids what their favorite foods are: "Rice!" "Kimchi!" Blech.
The Korean way of meals is to eat your own bowl of rice, and share kimchi and numerous other side dishes, which are placed in the center of the table. In restaurants, you typically get a bowl of soup, and often at home soup is part of the meal, too. Having just two or three parts of the meal like we do is kind of boring for them, I think. Maybe it's because they have to eat all that rice. It all balances out.
Speaking of balancing, I have no idea how the hell all these Koreans aren't wicked fat. If each meal consists of one bowl of rice, which measures about a cup, that's six servings of carbs per day, just with that one thing. They also eat potatoes, noodles, and baked goods. I've never had so much trouble keeping a decent diet. I guess everyone gets enough exercise in these parts.
Evidently the only spice in Korea besides salt is red pepper. If you look at this link, you'll notice the first four spices are hot or red pepper, and most of the others are just different versions of salt:
http://koreanfood.about.com/od/spices/a/CookingSpices.htm
I freaking hate red pepper right now. Even though I'm at my own apartment now and I mostly buy food that I would buy in the US, I still eat too much of that stupid stuff. At work, they have a service that sends a bowl of rice and six side dishes to work, and lately three or four of them have been laden with red pepper sauce. So I have a little trouble with work food. I've been lucky enough to have a light schedule at work so far, so I've been coming home and eating a meal between my first set of classes and when the food comes to work. Starting next week, though, I will be in class almost straight from 1:30 to 9, and won't have time to come home for a snack. I'll have to bring something with me, I guess, because I can't go from 1 to 6 without food. I'd die.
The funny thing about red pepper is that Koreans think their food is too spicy for Westerners. Countless times Heather or her family has warned me about the food I'm about to eat, and then I start in and have a hearty inside laugh about how not spicy it is.
There is some occurence of curry around here, though. Heather's mom made me rice (really?) with curried chicken and vegetables a couple times, which was wicked good. I also get bowls of ready-to-eat vegetable curry soup at the grocery store.
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