Wednesday, June 30, 2010

My first month in Korea!



The first thing that caught my attention was the food!!! You definitely have to come to Korea with an open mind, because you never know what you are going to eat. You walk by restaurants and see your dinner swimming around in fish tanks. I don't know the names of the fish I have ate or the names of the restaurants because they are in Korean. The fish I have ate have been fresh and delicious! Leaves and lettuce are a popular way to eat the fish and meat. It is definitely a lot healthier than a tortilla!

Kimchi has become one of my favorite side dishes to eat! It is a traditional Korean dish
made of vegetables with varied seasonings. It is mostly made with cabbage and other vegetables such as radish, green onion, chive, and cucumber. I think it tastes better grilled! Soooo good!

















I am still getting used to my food staring at me as I eat it! I love to eat animals, I think they are deeeeeeelicious! I love eating cows and pigs! Usually, when I eat an animal, I don't know what part I am eating! I would like to keep it that way, except Korea wont let me! Let's start with the little salty shrimp that you put in the soup to give it some flavor. They are delicious but it feels like they are looking at you saying, "Don't eat me, please!" Because their eyes are still on them!!! I even made a little stupid song about them: "Little shirmp little shrimp, how salty your are, little shrimp little shrimp!" If you know me, then you know that I am a dork and that there is a dance that goes with it as I sing. LOL

The next strange thing was having the entire head of a fish in my soup! I have had fish stew, but the bones and the head were removed. I have also had an entire fish that has been grilled so the head was still attached to it. I'm defiantly not one to get grossed out easily, but when there is a huge head with eyes and an open mouth floating around my soup, I can't say I'm eager to start pigging in! Despite the floating head, the fish was really good!!!





























Allow me to introduce to you to my next accidental snack, Beondegi. Beondegi
are a popular Korean snack usually served at a restaurant or bar. Beondegi mean"chrysalis"
in Korean. In other words, catepillar or silkworm pupae in cacoons! Disgusting right? I think I just threw up in my mouth! Yuck! Well, let me tell you about another blond moment I had. It was my first day in Daegu, so my soon to be coworkers had a welcoming dinner for my friend and I. I had just had a burger from Burger King (gross, I know, but my tongue needed a break from spicy Korean food) so I was stuffed and not hungry. I sit on the floor and immediately start to evaluate my coworkers. Everyone is eating, drinking and having a good time. Being the new girl, I just sat back and observed everyone and answered my curious coworker's questions. Since I wasn't hungry, I looked at the other options on the table that I could munch on. I see these small brown oval shaped things inside a small bowl. Without any hesitation, I scoop up a handful of these little things that look like nuts or candy. I place them inside my mouth and start chomping away. Immediately, I recognized that they were definitely not candy!!! They were really chewy and dry! As my taste buds and brain begin to process these strange things, one of my coworkers yells, "EWWWW you like silkworm?" of course my response was "NO! Is that what this is?" LOL Everyone began to laugh including me, but I was really thinking shit I just ate an f-ing worm!


One of the things that my co-worker Ally and I have been doing is trying the food at our local restaurants. Neither one of us speaks Korean so we never know what we are ordering, we just point at something on the menu. Luckily, everything that we have tried has not killed us or made us sick. One day, we went to Home Plus to buy our groceries. Ally loves to go through the food section and try ALL of the free samples! Most of the time we never buy anything, except for this one day. I walked over to look at this bag of sauce and immediately the sales lady packed one up for me without me even asking for it. Shopping at Home Plus is one of the funniest things to witness because EVERY product has a sales person on a microphone announcing how good their product is and the killer deals they are having (At least that's what I think they are saying! LOL) as they give out free samples. Anyways, I look over at Ally and ask him if we should try this and of course he said, "Yes!" without even knowing what was in the package. Well it turns out that it was octopus (I obviously didn't learn my lesson with the silkworm)!!! Once again, I have had octopus before in ceviche but the head was removed and the tentacles were cut into little pieces! Not the octopus at Home Plus! These little slimy things looked like they were still alive! They looked disgusting and tasted really chewy, especially the head! But the sauce was tasty! LOL
Here is a video of us cooking it! Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. This is awesome Chelly! I love it! Hope all is well!
    P.S. Try stir-frying Kimchi with rice and scrambled eggs..Little ketchup & soy sauce..It's deeeelish!

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  2. Can I get a vid of the Salty Shrimp dance, please?

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  3. @ Jo That sounds delicious! I'll have to buy some next time I go to Home Plus, thank you!

    @ Rena lol Only special people get to see The Little Shrimp Dance! But, since you have seen all of my other stupid dances, I'll make an exception just for you! lol

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