Food and drink

I’m getting really accustomed to the local cuisine. Most foods are amazingly good and healthy as well. Most days people eat out at least once. Different kinds of barbeques are the most common, but there are also many different kinds of soups and rice dishes. Usually there are several different cups from which to eat and often the food is prepared in the table. I really like it, because it turns a plain meal into a communal dining experience.

Breakfast. Soup and rice. Yum.

Ok, so don’t judge me, but I ate dog. Yes, that’s right: I took a bite out of little Lassie, Snoopy, and RinTinTin. Before you go all ballistic on the Korean people for slaughtering your pets, remember that cows are considered sacred by the Hindus, Jews and Muslims won’t touch pork with a stick and Finnish people mix blood in their pancakes. Every culture views foods differently, so who is to say what is ethical or normal and what is not. And Koreans only eat it on special days and there are many Koreans who have never tried it, so it’s not an everyday snack here either. But anyway, I really wanted to try it, so I made Ted take me to a dog restaurant. The delicacy was served as stew, cooked on the table with leaves and pepper sauce. The meat was cut into small pieces and it looked a bit like roast beef. But it had a sort of brownish fat on it and when you ate it with the leaves, it felt like you were chewing on fur. So I have to admit I didn’t really develop gusto for the canine culinary delights. But it was definitely worthwhile.



The dog, el perro, le chien, koira, hund.
Pre-cooked. Cooked. In mouth.

I went bicycle riding with Ted and his friends along the Han River. It was really nice and a good way to see the city. Afterwards we went to a restaurant to have samgyupsal, which is one type of Korean barbeque. It was great meeting Ted’s friends and hanging out with Korean people. They didn’t really speak English, but we had a good time anyway. They told me things like (read the following in a bad Korean accent) “You are very handsome boy”, “When I saw you, I think you are actor” and “You are in very good physical shape, yes”. I’ve always been a sucker for compliments, but getting them from a bunch of married 40-year-old men could be described as somewhat disturbing. But it’s just the way the people are here. It’s really odd being the center of attention all the time. Wherever I (or another Westerner for that matter) go, people stare all the time. At the Gyeongbokgung Palace all the kids on their class trips shouted “Hello, hello, what’s your name” at me, on the bus a lady came to ask whether Sandra (one of the interns) and I were dating, I’ve participated in three student interviews for English their class and a fat kid started screaming in the middle of the street “American, American!” when he saw me.

Ready to go bicycling along the Han River.

Since so many of the Koreans seem to view us foreigners as “foreign”, it was really lucky that I met Otto (the Finpro trainee guy) back in Finland before I left. There are almost ten Finnish people here, which has been fun. We’ve been eating out and going out a lot, and meeting tons of new faces and making new friends. Though Koreans are really friendly, many of them don’t speak English that well, and let’s face it: hanging out with your “peers” is refreshing once in a while. Korean people like to drink quite a lot and an essential part of every dinner is of course soju. It tastes more or less like a mixture of water and vodka. One bottle costs 3000 won (less than 3 €). Korean beer is quite smooth and even I manage to swallow some of it. So it must be good for beer.

A Korean food stand. Instead of beef jerky they have squid jerky (featured on the bottom right).

I spent a day with Sarah, another one of the interns, and she introduced me to one more Korean specialty: ice-cream and red bean sauce. So yes, you eat beans with ice-cream. It was actually really tasty and sweet. They even serve it at Burger King, it's so ubiquitous You learn something new every day. And you know usually the two basic flavours are vanilla and chocolate? Well, here it's vanilla and green tea. I don’t what it is with Koreans and their ice-cream, but one for some reason cherry tomatoes are considered to be a fruit here. So they are served in fruit salads, cakes... and even in ice-cream. The ice-cream tasted like frozen ketchup, not really my thing. But despite this horrific setback, all-in-all, it’s been another great week. I’ve had something new to do every day and there hasn’t been a boring moment to speak of, except at work :).