I'm a lady who lunches - Korean food


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Asia » South Korea » Busan
February 28th 2013
Published: April 15th 2013
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school samgypsalschool samgypsalschool samgypsal

pork, rice, kimchi, lettuce and hot pepper sauce, with a chocolate cookie for after :)
I didn't know what to expect from Korean food when I arrived, but it's been a delight! My school lunches in particular are amazing and I have tried so many different things with them. First I had to get used to only using chopsticks and a spoon, which took some time. My school uses flat metal chopsticks, and the first time I had lunch it took me 30mins to eat everything! However I quickly got used to them and can tackle most things now apart from de-boning fish which is still a messy process!

School provides lunch for the teachers for about w63,000 per month, which breaks down as roughly w3150 per meal or e2.42. Amazing! And they always serve fresh vegetables mostly cold or raw; fish, tofu or meat; and often fruit as well as the ubiquitious sticky rice and kimchi. Our lunches are usually reasonably well balanced and filling, and sometimes it's my main meal of the day. I've tried some random things including acorn jelly (weird, no taste) and tiny dried out anchovies and walnuts in a sticky sweet sauce. My only gripe sometimes is the sheer amount of sticky rice. Korea doesn't do wholegrain unfortunately, so I only try to eat half. This means I also avoid eating multiple carbs (noodles and rice together), and anything made of shaped glutinous rice including rice cakes and tteokbokki. It's all about willpower!

As well as amazing lunches, school will often randomly give us a snack. If I go into the teacher's office after 3pm there's almost guaranteed to be cake lying around. And we get pizza, corn dogs, fruit, porridge, and other tasty treats sent to us now and again.

We also eat out quite a bit at school. If the kids are away on vacation or field trips, then we eat out in Jangan village, paid for by the most senior teacher. For such a tiny village there are a huge variety of restaurants! School seems to prefer either fish or vegatable dishes. One of the first places we went to often served Kalguksu, a plain chunky noodle broth with spring onion and sometimes courgette. Simple and satisfying, with enough kimchi to provide the spice.

The first time I was taken out for lunch we went to a seafood restaurant near Busan and we had a banquet. I couldn't even count how many dishes
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random school lunch out
were served they were never ending! And so much of the seafood looked so foreign and strange, but of course I had to try everything as the other teachers were piling stuff up on my plate. I mostly ate the vegetable dishes trying to avoid anything too weird but was caught out with one dish. The teacher beside me pulled a long black thing out of a pot, and proceeded to cut it up with scissors. Then she placed a black lump on my plate and showed me which sauce to dip it in. I'm pretty sure it was a type of eel and it is the singularly most disgusting thing I have ever put into my mouth! It was impossible to chew and tasted like tar, I kept trying to put more kimchi in my mouth to lessen the taste to no avail. I don't know how I didn't gag when the time came to swallow but I managed!

One wet winter's day when the kids were on holiday, I was packed into a car with five other teachers and driven to a restaurant at the top of the village. There was an overwhelming smell of soju in the car! We went inside and through our smartphones and voice translators, I was told that we were getting Haejangguk. This I was able to look up - it's basically a spicy ox-blood soup that apparantly is very good as a hangover cure! Well that explained everything! It's still the closest to eating meat on a meal out with school as I've came. The ox-blood came congealed in a rectangular lump in the broth, which I broke up with my chopsticks, but it tasted meaty and was the perfect meal for a cold wet day!

I remain hopeful that one day we will be taken out for duck or bbq. Other fishy dinners include fish sashimi at Hallowe'en, steamed monkfish after the sports day, and blowfish soup after the Christmas show. Another school peculiarity is the lack of drinking! From the impressions I've got from other GET's, their teachers almost order the soju before the meal, but we hardly drink at all. Maybe it's because our school is out in the countryside and everyone has to drive home after.

But my favourite lunch in Jangan, and possibly my favourite Korean meal, is Chunggukjang. We go to a restaurant
ChunggukjangChunggukjangChunggukjang

my favourite - soybean soup, rice, fresh vegetables to be mixed in the big bowl together, with various side dishes of cold vegetables and fried mackeral.
across the road from the school. Basically we get a bowl of raw mixed vegetables and dried seaweed, rice, and sizzling hot soybean soup. We drain the beans from the soup and add them to the veg, and add the rice aswell. We then mix everything together and add hot pepper sauce to taste. It is delicious and so healthy. We also have a wide variety of different side dishes, mostly cold vegetables, and a piece of fried mackeral each. Sometimes we'll also get a savoury pancake, and a cold ginseng drink for after. We're gone there so many times but I'll never get bored of it!


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KalguksuKalguksu
Kalguksu

noodle soup with some vegetables, kimchi cabbage and radish on the side
Steamed MonkfishSteamed Monkfish
Steamed Monkfish

post-sports day lunch out
HaejanggukHaejangguk
Haejangguk

spicy ox-blood soup - hangover or winter cure
school lunchschool lunch
school lunch

rice cake and mandu (dumpling) soup, Korean pancake, kimchi, cold veg and rice.
mmnnnnmmnnnn
mmnnnn

seaweed soup, mixed bowl of rice, mince and vegetables, with yoghurt and sides
what a mixwhat a mix
what a mix

meaty soup, raw veg, pork slices, rice and pineapple.
Spaghetti day!Spaghetti day!
Spaghetti day!

spaghetti boglanaise, rice, crab claw soup, acorn jelly, and flavoured water.
deliciousdelicious
delicious

rice, 'army' soup with tofu, noodles, kimchi and hot dogs, spicy tuna bake, tiny dried anchovies with walnuts in a sticky sweet sauce.
snack time!snack time!
snack time!

corn dog and hot chocolate


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