Fears and Foods

“Food can be very transformational, and it can be more than just about a dish. That’s what happened to me when I first went to France. I fell in love. And if you fall in love, well, then everything is easy.” – Alice Waters

I did some scary things this week. 

Admitted to myself that I've lost weight and need to buy new summer clothes (which you'd think would make clothes shopping mentally easier but doesn't really). 

Went with Hayley and got my hair chopped off at a Korean Hair Salon (complete with an orange juice box, and hair machine thingies that probably came off an alien space ship).

Actually looked at how much money I spend on food in a month (your girl eats out too much). 

AND decided that it would be better to start talking to other human beings in Korean more often than I have been (a horribly necessary decision). 

And amidst all that, Wednesday was Buddha's Birthday, and it being a holiday I went and ate a giant pot of seafood with the usual squad. Food has become a key part of our friendship, in fact our group chat's soul purpose is to discuss the next foods we're going to try. The chat is named "뭐 먹을까?" which means basically "What'll We Eat?", a crucial question when faced with all the possibilities of Korean cuisine. 

We've (read, I've) been wanting to try a seafood house here for a while, so when this holiday came we were ready to go. But it came (as does most of my life here) with an adventure. Hayley and I were chilling at the bus stop waiting for the bus when a man came up to us and tried to chat with us. This isn't 100% uncommon. Especially when he said he was a vice principal at a middle school in the area. I've had people from schools come up and chat with me before, making soft attempts at recruiting, so once he said where he worked it seemed fairly clear what he wanted. Until we stood up to go get on the bus and heard the telltale "cachick" of a picture being taken, and saw him quickly making his way down the street. 

As we settled onto the bus, Hayley said she saw him lowering his phone from pointing at us when she heard the shutter sound, but can we say 100% we were what he was taking a picture of? Maybe not, but it's not unlikely. Stolen pictures like that aren't uncommon...it's actually gotten bad enough that many phones here are designed so that they have to make a shutter sound when a picture is taken. Ideally to make it harder for sneaky picture taking because they have to avoid being caught. But in practice I'm not sure how much of a deterrent it is. 

In hindsight maybe should have bothered me more in the moment. It bothers me more looking back. I could have chased after him, demanded to see his phone, and if that went at all smoothly tried to make sure if there was a picture, that he was deleted off everything it might have possibly backed up to. Mostly, what we did is probably the wisest. We never say which school we work out. Tell white lies about class room sizes and work locations. Don't give exact information about how long we've been in Korea, in the area, etc.. And then just live life normally. Hayley and I's conclusion was to prepare for the worst so we can assume the best.  

It was what it was, and we were on a bus headed towards our language exchange dudes, so it wasn't long before it was tucked away into the "worry about at a different time" corner of our brains. Especially considering once we got to the restaurant we had other things to worry about. Like finding where we're supposed to eat. Restaurants in Korea are amazing to me. They can fit anywhere. Look like anything, and if the food is good, it just doesn't matter. This place was in a basement of a large building, with no windows and was probably about the size of a basketball court. Which isn't big when split into half a room for ground tables, and one big western style table in the other part. 

It felt old, it felt a titch worn down. But the food was amazing. MJ had not only reserved seats, but had gotten ahead of time and already ordered. Most places here have one or two featured dishes that you go there to eat, so we weren't surprised but what he ordered. The size however, was another deal. 

Apparently, the prettier the shell, the more expensive? Don't come for me, but it honestly all tasted about the same.

My mom made stir-fry for a family of 9 in a pot slightly smaller than that (it certainly didn't have the same depth), and Hayley and I looked at it and fear sending chills down our spines. We were slightly consoled when MJ reminded us that it's 99% shell, but it was an intimidating sight. It was delicious though. I learned how to pick the meat out of clams with my chopsticks, and apparently they don't have those crab shell cracking things like in the states. We watched with amazement as our friend took a nice bite of the crab, chewed it down, then spit the shell into the handy dandy bucket sitting to the side for just that purpose. 

I've seen crabs eaten like this in anime and other Asian cartoons, but I always thought it was exaggerated. A quick observation of the other tables around me reassured me that this was just how it's done. So that's how we did it, and let me tell you, once you can figure out how to get the crab with your chopsticks, it's a lot easier to use your teeth than a shell cracker (or whatever they're called, I'm from Iowa, we do pork, not seafood). 

Under all the shells was a bed of soybean sprouts, and later they added some thin slices of beef with more greens. It was really delicious. I should have taken a picture. I didn't, so you'll have to imagine it. 

But all that wasn't enough for our guys, so they added noodles to it as well. Which was actually really cool. The noodles were brought out on a plate in a pile of neatly sliced floury dough, and then poured into the pot where they cooked in the broth of the soup for about 5-7 minutes before MJ said they were ready to eat. 

He was wrong, they weren't quite ready. But it was still delicious. 

We eventually made out way out of the restaurant, where I found to my amazement that I still felt a little hungry. But considering the bulk of the meal was broth and greens I shouldn't have been surprised. MJ was clearly feeling the same, because he treated us to some doughnuts from a vender in the market outside of the restaurant. 

Yet is a meal in Korea complete without a visit to a cafe afterwards? The answer is pretty much always no. I can't say I'm unhappy with this particular part of food culture here. Especially with Corona still keeping a lot of places to play closed, cafes have started to fill the social void. The fact they've managed to do so well is incredible to me, especially in the face of the government's mandate that only groups of 4 or smaller can eat together - a mandate that's been in place since November/December of last year. 

So we chilled at a giant table we normally would get glared at for taking because it's obviously meant for 6-7 people, but we were the biggest group allowed there, so it was easily our spot. It was also a victory for me, because I successfully remembered which drink was for the grapefruit "ade", and man, on a near 80's day, it was perfect. 

I'll admit, I stirred it before taking the picture...

It was a fun way to spend our last vacation day before summer vacation which is sometime in July/August. I'll admit, I went home and slept for about two hours before waking up in a food coma daze to greet the beginnings of twilight. I think I went back to bed? Probably watched a show and then went to sleep again if I know myself, but that evening is all a haze buried in the middle of last week.

Overall, a good time, good food, good people, and a nice change of pace. 

-Shayla

Typo disclaimer: My editor lives in a foreign country and teaches kids English everyday. Unfortunately, after being there almost a year, she's adopted their grammar, some spelling, and general disregard for punctuation. I've found her to become increasingly unreliable. She's me. My editor is me. So sorry, call it your participation in my cultural experience.