Foodie Adventures in Korea

This time of my life is a time of many changes in different ways. The day I left Ireland I was a vegetarian. The day I arrived in Korea I ate my first bit of meat in 11 years.
I was having a plate of warm kimchi soup in the airport motel and I put what I thought was some kind of Korean vegetable in my mouth. And then I began to chew. Slowly I began to realize, hey this isn’t a vegetable, it’s some kind of meaty type thing. I have just eaten meat for the first time in over a decade. Weird. I still have idea what kind of meat it was and I will never know but that was a strange moment for me.
In my first week here I threw my vegetarianism to the preverbal curb. I now eat the fishies, but not the meaty things. (I’m a pescetarian, one of those who wander in the in-between world. Neither fully veggie nor fully omnivorous. )
It would have been nigh on impossible to stay a vegetarian in this country. They put meat or fish in just about everything. Seriously, they really love their animal-based products
And since I eat lunch in school, which by the way is incredibly delicious because my school does really good food, it would have been too much hassle to stick to my old habits. It would have resulted in me consuming only sticky white rice for lunch and god knows that I would not have been a happy waygook. An empty belly is never a good thing.
Plus, I think it’s better to just go with the flow when you’re living in a new country rather than rigidly sticking to what you know. I have to admit that I am liking the new food I’ve tried.
I have been introduced to Sushi, beautiful glorious food of the gods! I never know what I was missing out on. The pretty little parcels of fish and rice, delicately dipped in the mixed wasabi and soy sauce. The pink picked ginger, the tangy pickles. It’s heaven on a plate.
The Korean food is pretty darn good as well. Gimbap is one of mine, and everyone else favourites. Rolls of rice and vegetables, egg and fish and just about anything else you care to throw in, all wrapped in seaweed and then promptly devoured. It’s really addictive; once you start eating it it’s hard to stop. You have to hide it from yourself in order to stop eating it.
Another thing I’m loving is the Andong specialty foods. They have a famous salted mackerel, it’s fishy and flaky and tender and so tasty.
On a side note: One of my most unusual experiences here was appearing in a salted mackerel commercial. One of the strangest invitations I have ever gotten, I have to say. Although it was great fun and we got a free dinner. Finally, my dream of appearing in a commercial for a salted fish product has come true.
Other foods I have been partaking of include the staple Udon and Ramen noodles. The Udon are thick and chunky soft noodles and they are far superior to the skinny Ramen. At school they sometimes have a kind of cabbage dipped in flour and fried. I call it floury cabbage stuff but I’m sure it has another name. It’s unique to the Andong area so you mightn’t find it everywhere in Korea.
I have also had the opportunity to make traditional Korean sticky rice cake using a giant hammer. It makes a loud noise if you hit it right, which is really satisfying.
Another of the more peculiar foods they have here is the fried silkworm larvae (i.e. maggots). Chewing on a maggot was whole new experience I have to say. And, surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. I have really stuck to my going with the flow philosophy.
A whole new food world had opened up to me here in Korea and I can’t wait the keep exploring this new culinary terrain. Who knows what I will taste next (dum dum duuum) ……….