Eating in Korea...

I have decided to write about various things I have eaten, mainly because I have done nothing of interest or note in the past two weeks that warrants a blog. I am supposed to be updating this pesky thing twice a week, but such is my laziness that I barely manage to produce a paragraphs worth of activity in a seven day period.

A few things. Never bother ordering a steak in Korea. Koreans are pretty good at cooking Korean food, but the majority of the western style places are woeful. I went to a steak house in my first week here and got a meal that would barely pass the grade as a Red Cross handout in a war torn, third world nation.

However, Korean food is pretty cheap and generally I like it. The main side dish that comes with everything is Kimchi. Fermented cabbage that everyone I know loves. I don't love it. In fact I'd say I rather dislike it. It tastes like...erm...cabbage that has fermented a bit.

Now feast your eyes upon this local dish...



The soup looks like something that has just been pumped out of the local sewage works, but surprisingly it does not taste bad at all. In fact it doesn't really taste. But it is cheap and it does have bits of unidentifable, chewy meat floating in it, so I'm a regular buyer.

The bulk of eating out involves ordering meat and cooking it on a grill that sits in the middle of the table. Galbi is pork, and my current favourite is Galmagi which means seagull. Some Koreans have told me it is actually seagull and others tell me it is actually pork or beef (they don't seem to know). But I prefer to think that it is seagull as I hate seagulls and feel that I am getting a long overdue revenge on their kind.

My complete lack of Korean can be interesting in restaurants with no pictures and obviously no English. I ordered a starter that turned out to be raspberry wine. Best starter I've ever had.

I went to a seafood restaurant with Little Spoon and the waiter brought us each one white glove. I've never been told to dress like Michael Jackson to eat, but I'm open to new experiences so the glove went on. We had apparently ordered shrimp and apparently you wear one white glove to eat shrimp. The food was good and the glove was outstanding. In fact I am tempted to take a glove with me to all restaurants from this day on.

I have yet to eat dog, but I have eaten pigs intestines, fish head soup and of course those bastard seagulls.
Now despite not being a fan of Kimchi, it is not the most unusual side dish. That honour goes to Beondegi, which are silk worm larvae that are deep fried. And here they are...



It is difficult to describe their flavour, but I will try. Fucking vile. They taste exactly as I imagined a silk worm larvae to taste and believe me that has been something I have thought about many a time over the years.



I would have spat the rancid little things into my hand, but I didn't want to stain my glove.

In summary; seagull, raspberry wine and gloves are good. Larvae, Steaks and Kimchi are bad. Most westerners disagree with my views about Kimchi but then again most of those people don't like to wear a single, sparkly glove when eating, so their opinion is not to be trusted.