Fermentations

My first Korean food adventure occurred Friday night after classes. The other foreign teachers took me out for a “Welcome to Ulsan” meal. It was a truly appreciated gesture and a good chance to get to know more about my fellow expats. Bruce, the expat leader of the pack, has been teaching at E.L.C. for 2 ½ years and is pretty much the go-to man for anything and everything. Kristen, my fellow American compadre, has only been around for 2 months while Leslie and Doug (married Canadian couple) are fresh off the plane as well having been in Ulsan for only one month. Being around Kristen, Leslie and Doug gives me much hope as they seem to be adjusted and functioning well despite their short amount of time here.

They led me through Ulsan University’s campus to the hip-hopping part of town known as the university district. My senses were overwhelmed from the delicious smells coming from an endless number of restaurants, the flashing neon lights lining the streets, and the bustling, young crowd found in this area. Feverishly trying to take mental notes of all the suggestions on where to find good coffee, ice cream, smoothies, Italian food, pastries, etc on our way to the restaurant I was certainly glad to get to our final destination so my brain could have a rest. I have no idea what the name of the restaurant was we stopped at but since there was a picture of a cartoon pig on the banner above the door I decided to call this place Mr. Pig. (side note: I tried to find the restaurant again the next day and much to my disappointment discovered many restaurants with cartoon pigs on their banner in roughly the same location….hmm, rats…going to have to be more creative with my observations before naming).

At Mr. Pig Bruce ordered and before we had finished settling our small table was covered with little dishes filled with peculiar looking veggies and sauces. Bruce explained that these side dishes vary at every place but some assortment will standard with any order. We had been given green onions, kimichi (fermented cabbage covered in red pepper paste), regular slightly cooked onions, red pepper sauce, fermented sweet radish, garlic, salt/pepper/oil mixture, and fermented bean soup with random veggies. (side note #2: putting the word fermented in front of anything automatically makes it sound nasty when that is not actually the case)

As I tried the little side dishes I was given a lesson on Korean eating and drinking customs. Koreans eat rice with a spoon (that’s the only thing they use it for…crazy, I know). Never leave your chopsticks in your food. Never pour your own drink, others are constantly refilling each others’ glasses. Pour with your left hand (or was it your right?) if you know the person well, otherwise use both hands. Accept with both hands. Always refill glasses oldest to youngest in the group. Etc, etc, etc…basically amounting to: I’m definitely going to offend someone when I go out with a group of Koreans. It is what is it.

The grill in the middle of our table began to smell good and hot so the rest of our meal was brought out to cover the remainder of the open space on the already crammed table. That was a plateful of raw bacon-looking strips of meat, rice, and fresh green leaves. Bruce began cooking the meat on your table grill as Leslie demonstrated how it all works. Take one large green leaf, cover in red pepper sauce. Add onions, garlic, rice to your liking. Top with the freshly cooked meat and wrap into ball. Fit entire ball into mouth at once. Hmmtasty!

Also, during dinner I had my first Soju experience. Soju is the alcohol of choice in Korea. Why? It is very cheap and very strong. But as you can guess, not very tasty (tastes like a combination of vodka and gin). It comes in a normal looking beer bottle but is 20 proof. People drink it from shot glasses but because of the custom of constantly refilling glasses it is easy to lose track of the actual amount consumed. Or so I’ve heard. Bruce thinks he once had around 4 bottles of Soju throughout an entire night resulting in an embarrassing blackout situation in which he had to be carried home. Moral: For the sake of my safety and my liver, I must be careful with this refilling business.

A table full of food and drinks totaled approximately $2.50 per person. Not bad, eh?

A new week has begun and I’m looking forward to all it holds!