Food for thought

The other week I spent twenty four hours basically fantasising about food. What I'm going to eat when I get back home, where I'm going to go etc, etc. I was in a daze for a while, not quite hallucinating but transfixed. I even made a list, and it's a long one.

I really like Korean food though and it's availbility and the longer I've been here the more I've grown to love it. There's a wide variety of dishes that I enjoy eating even though I am not as adventurous as many of my co-workers. I'm going to miss a lot of the things I eat week by week here but it will be great to be able to return to my former habits.

Not surprisingly my students have a lack of knowledge about what Westerners actually eat. When I ask them what they think my favourite food is their guesses are usually pizza, hamburger, hot dogs and fried chicken, essentially the majority of the fast food served here under the Western banner.

One of my former managers at my current academy told me she lived in London for one year studying English and said the only thing to eat there is fish and chips.

Koreans love sauce

I'm still baffled by the apparent addiction of most Koreans to add sauce to almost everything. It's a personal choice but I just don't get it. Sure some things taste better with sauce or some kind of dressing but surely not to the extent that we find here. I'm tempted to suggest that sauce covers up a lack of flavour rather than enhancing it. I don't think I've ever seen a Korean eat chicken without some kind of sauce - and Koreans love chicken.

You usually find that the sauce in Korea comes in two kinds, sweet or spicy - which leaves a lot of things tasting a little similar. I know sweet sauces on salads and other things isn't just a Korean thing but it is found here more than I'm used to. Here we find my co-workers salad along with the sauce she was eating it with. The sauce is strawberry sauce and I can't imagine I'd ever put that combination together. My co-worker liked it so maybe it really was good but I think this is one Korean habit I won't pick up.

Chamchi jjigae, Korean comfort food

I'm at home as I write this, getting better but sick and have been for the past 36 hours. Of course I can't take the day off work - my employers really don't like that to the extent that they sometimes send out emails telling us that even if we are sick we must go to work.

I have a cold, not flu. I'm not dying but still it's never a nice feeling is it. I am convinced that my students have passed it onto me once again. They openly sneeze and cough without covering their mouths no matter how much I tell them off. I find their hygiene awareness disappointingly bad. Some of my students even need to be reminded by me to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

Right now I am eating my wife's Chamchi jjigae (참치찌개) which is a dish you can find available on many many street corners. My wife didn't really cook much before we started dating but she now cooks more and more and is getting better. Her Chamchi jjigae is my favourite. It's not too difficult to make but you need the right kimchi, which we get from my mother in law. My wife makes it without tofu. What is Chamchi jjigae? My wife's is basically tuna, kimchi, water, leeks and sometimes chilli peppers plus some secret seasoning which she doesn't know the English translation for. It really hits the spot and hopefully will help me feel better. You know Summer is ending when you get a cold like this.

Korean food delights: Part 3 삼 계탕

It's been a long time since I wrote about trying out some new food here. The other week, after talking about having some for over a year I finally got to try out some samgyetang. For those of you who don't know, samgyetang is essentially a chicken based soup containing ginseng, rice and other ingredients. It's mostly a full chicken without the insides, boiled in broth with some vegetables and of course, ginseng.

Samgyetang is a popular dish in Korea and can be eaten all year round but is famous for being eaten by many in Summer. It is said to boost stamina during those very hot months by replacing lost nutrients that you may be sweating out. Many Koreans eat this dish at Chobok, Jungbok, and Malbok. Chobok traditionally represents what is thought to be the first really hot day of the year, Junbok the peak and Malbok the ending of the intense Korean Summer.


I can't say for sure if it did boost my stamina but the first thing I noticed when I walked into one famous place in down town Daegu was the smell. The aroma of ginseng was striking but not overbearing. It took some time to get used to it but it was never unpleasant.


The price of the meal was ₩10,000, roughly £9 and the portion was quite large, indeed I didn't manage to finish all of mine. My wife happily wolfed down all of hers though. My initial impression was that it was a little bland but after adding some much needed salt it tasted surprisingly refreshing. Of course it is always nice to have chicken soup, wherever it's from.


For me there was a little too much rice in my portion to really enjoy it fully. I like rice but this took on a consistency similar to the Korean dish juk, which is a porridge like meal. When I was ill here in 2006 I had to eat that for about five days and the memory is not so pleasant and I think this prevented me from enjoying my meal to the fullest.

Overall I would really recommend anyone here trying samgyetang. It's tasty, cheap and refreshing on a Summer day. I know I will try it again. You can learn more about samgyetang by checking out Wikipedia.

Perplexing Korean store banner

I don't know what to make of this bizarre combination...

Korean food delights: Part 2 삼겹살

Practically everyone in Korea has tried eating galbi (thin cuts of marinated meat which is then barbecued) at least once, but a similar dish here is considered by many people to be almost as good. Samgyeopsal or 삼겹살 is thick fatty pork slices which you cook alongside some vegetables just as you would galbi. This meal is similar but different to bacon. Similar to bacon found in North America but different from the bacon more popular in the UK. Samgyeopsal translates to three layers of meat (visible before and after cooking). It has taken me quite a long time to acquire a taste for this but recently my girlfriend and I stopped by a local restaurant to try and the experience was much better than the other times I'd tried it.

First you place the meat onto the hot plate where you barbecue it with some vegetables. As you can see there is a lot of fat on the meat, which on one hand adds some flavour but on the other makes it a little too greasy for some people.

Here you have a slice of it nearly ready to eat. You have to cook this a little longer than galbi.

A view of what you see on the hot plate. Here there is 삼겹살, mushrooms, kimchi, potatoes and garlic all cooking.

After the meat has cooked you can either just eat it, or as most people do you can wrap it up in lettuce leaves with other vegetables then eat it. Here I have some spicy sauce which compliments the meat, and some mushroom and garlic too.

This really is the best way to eat it but it's a little messy at times.

As per usual there are many side dishes with your meal. Koreans love side dishes. Me, I don't usually care for them but as always you are given a selection with whatever you order and wherever you go.

Proof that I am in Korea.


So the meal is over and the restaurant is about to close with the staff eating their meal before going home. As you can perhaps see, the place I went to here is bigger than most restaurants in Korea. thankfully here you can sit down to enjoy your meal unlike some places. While this is not my favourite Korean meal by a long way, it is a very popular one here and there are many places where you can go and eat this.

Korean food delights: Part 1 해장국

From time to time friends and people I've met or taught have asked me what Korean food is my favourite. Over the years I have changed my opinion, but still love the things I did when I first came here back in 2005. I now have a definite favourite. A few months ago a restaurant opened up near my workplace called 뼈큰 청진동 해장국. It's open 24 hours a day and sells different Korean dishes, many of which are very good. The restaurant sells something called 해장국, or haejang gook which is essentially a soup dish.

I have tried many meals at this place and my favourite without a doubt is 뼈큰 전골. this translates roughly to a casserole dish using pork backbone with spinach, leeks, mushrooms, rice cakes all thrown into soup. It might not sound nice or even look good but it's very very tasty.


The meat is already cooked but you crank up the heat on a gas range and wait for the meal to come to the boil. After simmering for a short while it's ready to eat. You place your meat into a bowl along with the vegetables and soup and separate the meat from the bone. There can be quite a lot of bone and it can be messy, but eating is worth the wait.


For me the soup is the best part. Very rich, flavoursome and a little spicy too.


This meal is very filling but for some, like me, there is more to come if you so wish. My girlfriend and I always order some rice which is fried in the pan that the meal was cooked (of course most of the soup/meat has been removed) with a few vegetables and seaweed. Koreans love rice but to me just eating rice is not enough, it has to go with something else. I place this rice in a bowl which I saved some of the soup and create a new dish which again is very good


Like every other Korean meal there are several side dishes but here I love the kimchi. I've never liked kimchi until this place. It's crunchy, spicy and tasty. Like most Korean meals this is cheap and tasty and has some nutritious value too. Definite value for money and always satisfying