Eating in Korea

Some of you have asked what we eat.

Nick the Adventurous might say "We try all kinds of Korean and fusion foods."

Elisabeth the Bold might say "I like trying all kinds of things except for really spicy stuff which makes me feel kind of sick so I try not to eat the really spicy stuff but I have tried lots..." (and so on).

Sam the Willing might say "I have tried some things and would like to try more."

Sherri the Hesitant might say "I have noticed a variety of foods in the grocery store."

David the Reluctant might say "I ate 4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch today."

We usually eat American-type food at home (spaghetti, pancakes, grilled cheese), but all of these have slightly different flavors than we're used to.  We've been to McDonald's once (very similar to the US, except no free refills, drinks are served in re-usable cups, and trash must be separated).  We also went to a nice restaurant (Black' Smith), where Elisabeth and I shared a gorgonzola pizza with a side of honey; David had a cranberry cheese pizza with a side of lemon; Sam had pasta carbonara; Nick had steak with tomato and mozzarela (see picture).

In plain language, this is string cheese.

Cheese - especially hard cheese - is very hard to find. We were delighted to find string cheese, though its name makes no sense to me (see picture), and it's not cheap (about $10 for 10 pieces).  We can get mozzarella, grated Parmesan, brie, and Camembert in the stores, but to get cheddar, we need to go to another town about 90 minutes away.... A man recently asked me for a favor and I agreed as long as he paid me in cheese.  : )



We went to a marshmallow roast in honor of an ex-pat girl's 11th birthday. Most of the kids had never had marshmallows or roasted stuff over a fire, which made this a special occasion.

Necessary items for a marshmallow roast.

So, a marshmallow roast requires 3 things.  (1) Marshmallows (an ex-pat had a contact at the local Marine base who could get her marshmallows for the occasion); (2) fire (nicely contained in a Weber grill); (3) sticks (plucked from the forest or crafted from taped-together wooden chopsticks).

Oh, and pale stringy things (see picture). Those are dried squid bits.  Because OF COURSE you'd bring a dried squid to an 11-year-old's birthday campfire, roast it on a stick along with the marshmallows, then rip it apart and share it around.  One kid loves this as a snack and she suggested I eat a tentacle (they're the best part, she claimed).  So I did.  It was chewy, like beef jerky in texture, but with 10x the salt and a strong fish flavor.  It must be an acquired taste.

Sam and I were the only ones who thought the squid-at-a-birthday-marshmallow-roast was both horrifying and incredibly funny.

A dried squid, just picked up from your local grocer's snack section.