Some Culinary Culture

The astonishing thing about visiting a foreign country is often not the differences (one expects those), but the similarities. Korea is a culture of daily contradictions. Or so it might seem. There is a constant blend of old and new, eastern and western culture. I have noticed this especially with regard to food. For instance, Starbucks is located on just about every corner right next to a traditional Korean restaurant, and if you go to Outback Steakhouse, they serve you kimchi with your meal. Subway is popular, but Koreans believe it's only snack food. One can't have a full meal unless rice is involved. And I recently saw a jar of peanut butter on sale for 15,000 won (about $15)! Something like that makes for an interesting kind of culture shock.

Of course, I've had my share of non-American food adventures, too. I eat anchovies ("little fishies" is what my host mom calls them) for breakfast every morning. I am told that they are a good calcium supplement. But the other day my host mother burnt the little fishies, so I had to suffer through a morning without them. It was rather tragic. She did quite a good job of burning them. They were completely black, as was the container she cooked them in. So I ate Korean-style omelets and a piece of toast with strawberry jam.

I also eat various kinds of raw fish, caviar, and dried squid. The dried squid is a very popular snack, although rather salty. Fermented bean soup comes with nearly every meal in a restaurant, as well as kimchi and pickles. I am getting used to that. But what I especially enjoy are sesame seed sticks. They are quite safe and tasty.

The height of my culinary bravado came the other night when some of the staff invited me to go out for live octopus. I had to teach late, so some of them went ahead and ordered before I got there. I rushed over, but they had already eaten almost all of it. The three pieces or so that were left were no longer moving. So I only tried one piece of dead raw octopus. It didn't taste too bad when dipped it in sauce. (But I was rather disappointed, so there are no pictures of the octopus here.) Apparently, octopus is really fun to eat when it's alive. They told me it suctions to your mouth as you try to eat it. You have to chew a lot, I guess. Eat or be eaten, as the case may be. Such is life...