Tastes of Korea

Ask a Korean what their favorite food is and you will always be disappointed. Rice and Kimchi! However, Korea offers some of the best meals I have ever eaten. Much like meals ought to be, most Korean meals are episodic. Patrons dine on the floor at a low table, where your entrée is cooked over coals from a wood fire. Plates and bowls are brought to your table in rapid succession and the servers seldom leave room for even one more plate. There exists, in contrast, quite a delicious bit of take out food. Seeing as my roommate and coworker is a quintessential American, I was introduced to the latter first.

Snacks and Takeout

On one of my first days, we had coffee for a noontime breakfast. I had a cafe mocha (카페 모카, which transliterates to ka-pe mo-ka). A few hours later we went out to get chamchi (참치; tuna) jumokbap (주먹밥) -- a ball of rice filled with tuna and either coated in a seaweed "dust" or wrapped in seaweed. The word jumokbap literally translates to "fist of rice" and it is a Korean adoption of the Japanese Onigiri, except never with raw meat. Koreans cook their food. We went back later to the same place for chamchi gimbap (참치김밥) and lamien (라면).

Gimbap looks a bit like a sushi roll. However, it is filled with crab, eggs, cucumber, carrots, spinach, and pickled radish. If you've been paying attention you would know chamchi gimbap contains tuna, but it also contains sesame leaves and you will sometimes see American cheese or mayonnaise in specialty gimbap (gross). Lamien is simply Ramen noodles. R and L are the same letter in Hangul (Korean writing), the difference in pronunciation comes from location. First and

last places make the sound L. Dakbogi (떡볶이) is a very popular snack. Consisting of slices of thick rice noodles in a spicy red chili sauce with strips of fish paste, the noodles are a bit chewy. It is difficult to describe the consistency without referring to rubber. The fish paste -- which is basically waste parts of a fish -- is perhaps the only redeeming taste. The few vegetables are easily overpowered by the chili sauce and the noodles are far too thick to absorb enough flavor. Another snack, mandu (만두), looks remarkably like a potsticker, but mandu is delicious. Mandu is also the only Korean food I know how to cook: remove from freezer bag and fry.

Meals

As for formal dining, for a few thousand Won one can get a series of dishes and food cooked right in front of you. For your main dish, you typically get a choice of the following: (1) Bulgogi (불고기; literally "fire meat") - beef strips. (2) Galbi (갈비; often called Korean BBQ) - Korean short ribs -- usually pork -- that are sometimes marinated in soy-sauce. This is absolutely the best tasting meal I have ever had. (3) Samgyeopsal (삼겹살; literally "three layered flesh") - very similar to uncured bacon and extremely fatty.

After ordering, the barrage of side dishes begins. You will almost certainly be brought kimchi (김치), which is fermented cabbage. I know what you are thinking. Fermented cabbage, yum!

Can't go wrong! However, red kimchi is extremely flavorful and varies in its spiciness. Some kimchi will knock your socks off. If you don't like one recipe of kimchi, you may like the next. A large degree of variability exists for both crunchiness and spiciness. The spiciness very successfully masks the brine flavor. With practice one becomes better at determining their favorite kimchi ingredients -- whether red chili, ginger, garlic, cucumber, or fish sauce, all are quite nuanced. Easily the best kimchi I have ever had, geotjeori (겉절이) is fermented ever so slightly on the way from the kitchen to the table. Alternatively -- or additionally -- you may be brought white kimchi, which is fermented cabbage in brine... and not much else. It is utterly bland. You will also be brought some sort of pickled radish, which is certainly an acquired taste. Unquestionably, you will be brought an endless supply of onion salad (파무침), as well as garlic, gochujang (고추장) -- an absolutely delicious red chili paste -- and a plate of leaves (perhaps with some mild chilies). On this leaf plate, the red leaf lettuce is called sangchu (상추) and the spade-shaped leaves are kaenip (깻잎), which incorrectly translates to sesame. The kaenip leaf tastes bitter and is not very good by itself; however, in the melody of flavors kaenip may be your percussive guide. It isn't uncommon to get squid salads, succulent crab, potato salads, or yogurt salads with you meal. These flavors compliment all of the spice on the flavor and all tend to bear a richer flavor. Rice typically must be requested.

Before you can finish dabbling in the half a dozen side dishes, or banchan (반찬), your meat has probably cooked to perfection. So shake the excess water from a leaf of sangchu and place a leaf of kaenip on top of it. Line the center with whatever meat you have chosen, a few slices of garlic, and a dollop or two of gochujang. Fold and enjoy! :)