Life in Northern Ireland had always been
about the food. To me at least, anyway: The fish and chips, the fry-ups, the
sweets, the burgers and the vast, vast quantities of bread. It’s what I knew.
And although I’d always prided myself on being open to new food types, I was
never going to be prepared for what I found in Korea. I had no idea what Korean
food even was, honestly. The best thing I could do was to focus on all the
Chinese food I had enjoyed and hope it was similar to that. They’re pretty
close to each other, right?
You see, I’d only ever been in a handful of
Western countries so I had no idea what to expect from any Eastern countries,
never mind Korea. It was a place that had only been a name in my head up until
this point. So my initial culture shock was fairly pronounced and it took me quite
some time to settle. But as challenging as the language and culture was, it was
the food, and my need to eat lots of it, that caused the biggest concern. I
mean, the place I was staying in didn’t exactly have a lot of English speaking
people.
It wasn’t a problem initially as my new
boss and other teachers took me out to eat a lot, but I was so overwhelmed by
this new world and the food sitting in front of me that I never actually stopped
to ask what it was I was eating. Even asking what one of the dishes was called
would have been helpful. Ah, the benefit of hindsight.
So, on my first day of actual work, I ventured
out to eat by myself. Shouldn’t be too hard, I thought. Of course, the fact
that I was in a remote and quiet part of the country hadn’t really occurred to
me. At least not as yet. It hit me like a train the instant I sat down though.
I’d chosen one of the corner booths in a
place with a bright orange sign that I’d seen a handful of times already. Not
just here, but in other parts of the town. A chain restaurant, I suppose. I’d been brought here once on my first day and
it seemed to be cheap and relatively tasty. Though the main reason I was here,
and the main attraction, was a pull out menu each customer was handed as they
walked through the door. Although it was in Korean, to order you simply had to
tick a box and hand it to the waitress. No language skills required. So to my
relief, food was a guarantee. The type of food, however, would be almost
completely random.
60 items, more or less, greeted me as I
stared at the menu. On the plus side, meal types were divided into categories.
Well, it would have been a plus had they meant a thing to me either. Food
roulette it was then. I figured starting at the top would be my best bet, but
all the items in the first category looked suspiciously cheap. Side dishes
perhaps? I skipped to the next category and selected the fourth item, picked up
the sheet and waved it in the air. One of the waiting staff arrived with a
smile on her face, her neat, orange uniform matching the sign outside. She said
something to me in Korean. I grinned back wordlessly and thrust the piece of
paper towards her, pointing at my choice. Still smiling, she looked at the
paper and then yelled some instructions to the kitchen staff in the back.
Then it was time to play the waiting game.
What arrived was actually pretty good
though- a mixture of spicy sauce, rice and vegetables which I really enjoyed. Success!
But I wasn’t one to rest on my laurels and order the same thing every day. That
would never do. I could use this as an opportunity to sample some of the
delights of Korean cuisine AND learn the language So, I took a copy of the menu
home with me in an attempt to unlock the meanings of the arcane symbols that
covered it. Obviously, this translated into it sitting in my wallet
indefinitely and coming to the restaurant, and menu, with no new knowledge at
all. So with some inevitability, I ended up playing that game of food roulette
for the better part of a year.
It was certainly a baptism of fire into the
world of Korean food, but happily I ended up discovering and enjoying a lot
more than I could have reasonably expected to. Not to say that there weren’t a
few unfortunate choices. Ice noodles may be refreshing on a cool day for your
average Korean, but wouldn’t have been my first choice. The dish was basically
cold noodles in an iced bowl of spicy tomato soup. Which sounded like the sort
of ‘minimalist’ cooking of my student days, the big difference being that those
meals tended to be hot. Most of the time, at least.
All of this had a big impact on my love of
Korean food in general though and within a month of being home, I missed it
terribly. But I’ll always remember the first bowl of random food set in front
of me and the thrill of expectation at my next random meal. I would still have
a hard time identifying half of the things I ate though.
Glad to see this blog is back! :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a few culinary adventures I had in Japan too. I'm thinking we should actually come up with some sort of food roulette game.
I'll get working on it.
Thanks man. I'll have something up later this week too. Keep me posted on your food roulette plans!
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