Eating! Food is always good!

Dear Mom and Dad,

Wanju Wild Food Festival 2013-bamboo steamed samgyeopsal

   Emily Post would have a heart attack teaching me etiquette.  Seriously, a different fork for every course?  Not to mention all the extra spoons, plates, bowls, and all the blah, blah?  All I can say is that she must not do her own dishes!  And the whole “tear your toast into pieces before buttering”?  Really??  I hate bread crumbs in my butter.  I can’t stand having anything except butter in my butter.  As for all the crumbs all over the table,that’s definitely not my cup of tea! 

     There have to be some rules, right? Because without some sort of order there would be chaos and nothing would be accomplished by anyone.  Left is right.  Fork on the left, spoon and knife on the right.  Don’t double dip.  Don’t lean your elbows on the table.  No slurping your food.  Eat with your mouth closed.  Don’t talk with your mouth full.  Sit up straight.  Mom, I'm hearing your voice in my head as I type…^-^


    As with everything else here in Korea, I’m learning a new way of dining.  My first meal was with the elder of my meeting and his wife and our workers.  We had bulgogi at a very good restaurant in Jeonju at the Hanok Village.  I had to demonstrate my skill and dexterity with chopsticks.  I can use chopsticks.  Not with as great of dexterity as a lifelong user, but I will not starve.  Noodles and long slippery foods are tricky and provide my dining companions with great hilarity at times, but again, I will not go hungry.  Learning to use my rice spoon with my left hand to hold the noodles - now that takes practice!  Well my first meal, I learned that there is no “left is right”, no precise placement (at least for everyday meals) of spoon and chopstick.  Everything else is “Let’s eat!”  and the older the average age of the table is, it becomes "Don't get in my way!"

Natalie and I enjoying duck and banchan in Gwangju

     There is some passing of dishes…If you know the name of it…  Generally it is “eat a bit of this, then a bit of that, then a scoop of this and snag that before it’s gone.”  Most restaurant meals consist of the central dish surrounded by small dishes of very small servings of “banchan”.  Banchan are side dishes.  Side dishes are very, very important in Korean dining.  Many meals can consist almost entirely of banchan and they must be limitless at a restaurant.  If you want some more of something, just say “Yogi-yo!”, which means “(Come) Here, please” and hold the dish you want replaced.  Oh, and there usually are no plates.  Or if there are, they are very small, about the same size as the banchan dishes: imagine a tea saucer.  Everything is shared.

     By shared, I mean double dipping with your chopsticks is…wait for it…OK!  Using your own spoon to eat of the communal soup bowl is…OK.  Flipping meat or garlic on the grill is…well not really ok, but just because the spitting juices kinda hurt that close.  But grabbing it off the grill is…ok!  Using your hands to wrap your meat in a lettuce leaf is…great!  Popping the whole thing in your mouth in one bite is …fantastic!

  Slurping and the eating with open mouth thing is mostly ok too.  I was told one time by one of my Korean co-workers, a very elegant and professional looking woman, that I didn’t make sounds when I ate.  We were eating neang-myeong – cold ice water noodles, which are fantastic during summer time.  But they are long, very long noodles and it is very soupy.  I think she was worried that I didn't like it.  My co-teacher explained to her that it was rude to make sounds during eating in Western culture and that I was just being polite.  She was satisfied with that.

    Sit up straight is mostly the same, except when you sit on the floor.  Many traditional

Eating spicy nakji in Seoul (octopus)

restaurants will have sections (or maybe the whole restaurant will be that way) were there is floor seating.  The tables are about a foot high, often with a grill set in the middle.  The restaurant provides seat cushions for a little comfort and you may sit with your legs crossed, stretched out in front, to the side, one propped up.  (Almost) Anything goes for seating style.

     And, finally tearing things apart, well, there’s not much bread served here.  Really not even in the Italian restaurants and Western style restaurants I’ve been in.  Except at Outback Steakhouse.  Mmmm…steaks… Ah!!  Sorry!! Back on track!  So the whole cutting your food

Shabu-shabu

Shabu-shabu meat and veggies

etiquette is different.  Mostly because most food here is already bite sized – or rather chopstick sized.  Or steamed to the point where you can cut it with your chopsticks.  Which is why steak makes me salivate just hearing the word... 

Nokcha (green tea) jjajjangmyeon

      So, I told you about the very long noodles, right?  There’s a very handy solution to that here.  It’s a little known secret called –use a pair of scissors…  No! Really!! Just grab your kitchen scissors and cut your noodles in half or thirds or quarters or however many times you need to.  Sometimes those scissors are used for really long kimchi leaves and when ever long strips of meat come out for the grill (remember the middles of restaurant tables often come with grills) as the long strips of meat grills ever so nicely; when it is almost done, start cutting the long piece into short bite sized pieces to be wrapped into your lettuce leaves.  And again, it’s all because of the handy dandy, ever-so-useful scissors!  They're for more than just paper and cloth now!

Love you and have a great day!
ME ^_^!!!