nom nom nom

I thought I'd do a post on Korean food, since it is what I eat for almost every meal and you all with have to deal with me eating it all the time when I get back. In almost neighborhood there is a restaurant that sells the Korean version of "fast food". It's sort of like the American Diner, me and my friends always go to them after a night out, or I pick up takeout on my way home from work. Here are some of my favorite foods to get at a place like this...

Kim Bap (김밥)
Kim bap is Korea's version of sushi. Kim means seaweed and bap means rice in Korean. I call it ghetto sushi because of the random things they put in it. Kim Bap doesn't have raw fish in it like sushi, instead it has fried egg, veggies, fake crab, ham or spam, and then something you choose. My favorites are tuna (참치 chamchi) or cheese (치즈 chee juh). When I say tuna though, its like the canned tuna you eat on a sandwich at home.. and the cheese is just like Kraft Singles. Hence, why I call it ghetto sushi.

Jjigae (ㅈ지개)
Jjigae is a spicy soup that comes in many variations. My favorite is Kimchi Jjiage which is spicy broth with kimchi cabbage in it. It also usually has tofu and zucchini in it. It's pretty spicy and has a lot of flavor to it, so for cabbage soup it's actually really enjoyable.

Bi Bim Bap (비빔밥)

Bi bim bap is probably my favorite Korean food, which seems to be true for almost all foreigners. Bi Bim means mixed vegetables and Bap means rice so it translates to mixed veggies and rice. Basically it's a bowl with rice on the bottom, topped with veggies (the traditional being mushrooms, spinach, carrots, radish, lettuce, zucchini, soy bean sprouts, and cucumber) and then with a huge dollop of spicy bean paste hot sauce, and finally a sunny side egg on top. The way to eat it is to break the egg up and mix the whole bowl up really well so when you take a bite you get a little of everything. This dish is pretty spicy as well, which I why I love it.

Mandoo (만두)
Mandoo is a Korean dumpling. They are really delicious and Koreans eat them plain or sometimes put them in their soups or with ramen.

Ddokkbokki (돜봌이)
Ddokbokki is Korean rice cakes in spicy sauce. When I say rice cakes I don't mean like quaker oats. Rice cakes are rice ground down into a paste and molded into things, kinda like pasta. They're chewy and have an interesting texture. This is one of the only Korean foods that is really just not good for you.

Kimchi (김치)

Kimchi is the most famous Korean dish. Koreans are more proud and protective over this one aspect of their culture than you can imagine. Kimchi is a crunchy vegetable (traditionally cabbage) fermented in really spicy sauce. My favorite isn't the cabbage kind, but instead made with raddish. Basically what I have learned is that kimchi isn't really a main food item, but more of a way to break up the meal. It's sort of like when you go to a perfume store and they make you smell coffee beans in between perfumes to clear your pallette. Kimchi works kinda the same, it's a crunchy and spicy pause in between main food dishes.

There is obviously more Korean food than this, these are just a sample of the kinda things I eat on a regular basis. I would venture to say that these foods are the college kid's diet because they're all really cheap. A roll of kim bap costs me 2,500 won ($2) and a whole bi bim bap costs me 5,000 won ($4). Eating in Korea is really cheap. I actually really love the food here, which I am happy about. Happy eating in America.