All You Need on Friday Night is Soju and a Band-aid

I took this photo at a Megamart supermarket in Busan.  This is one brand of Korean soju, a distilled "liquor" preferred by many Koreans.  I think it has about 20% alcohol and can do a whole hell of a lot of damage.  I don't know if the marketers of this product wanted to make it ironic or if they just thought "Oh, a band-aid would make a nice free item with our soju."  Either way it's quite hilarious.  If you've read anything about drinking culture in Korea you will find much literature on a phenomenon that people from the U.S. would call "binge drinking."  Binge drinking back home is commonly associated with college students and alcoholics but here it is common amongst many people who are of, and probably not of, drinking age.  Although I've seen some pretty wasted women, soju binge drinking is quite popular amongst men.  It is not uncommon to see people passed out on the street, in an alley, on a bench or pretty much anywhere in the wee hours of the morning.  Some of my friends told me that on Sunday mornings they make a game out of counting the number of pukes they find walking down the street.  I imagine the count could get quite high.  My favorite scene to watch is the group of five or six men aged 40-60 all in suits stumbling down the road, leaning on each other for support and/or carrying each other to keep from toppling over.  Often their efforts are in vain.  

I find that expats in Korea also love soju.  At least for about the first month they are here.  A little over a dollar a bottle, soju is a very cheap way to get absolutely sloshed.  I think I speak for many expats when I say that we quickly slow down on the soju drinking after our first worst-hangover-ever.  Some of us don't learn from our mistakes and have our second and third worst-hangovers-ever.  When in Korea.

This photo reminds me of the time the head teacher at my school came into work with a huge gash on his forehead.  Even though my coteachers and I were alone in the classroom they whispered to me that they knew he got really drunk the night before and they speculated that he fell down the stairs.  I don't know if the story was ever confirmed to be true but I think that's what the common notion was amongst the teachers.  The head teacher must have gone to see the doctor that first day because the second day he came to school with a bandage over his wound.  Stitches?  I don't know.  But I do know that he should have bought the soju with the free band-aid.

Korean School Lunch in Photos #2

Sorry, it's been awhile since I've written.  I started a hip-hop dance class which has been consuming some of the time I used to designate to keeping up on my blog.  Not a very good excuse but whatever.

So here is the second installation of my series of school lunch posts:
Top left: Cabbage kimchi.  If you're surprised by this just don't be.  I've had conversations before regarding whether or not there is one thing that I could eat for every meal everyday.  I guess if I had to pick something I bet I could eat potatoes everyday for every meal.  Even more so than kimchi they are extremely versatile so I could cook them in tons of different ways.  I bet you're snickering because the girl from Idaho says she could eat potatoes for every meal everyday aren't you?  Not funny.  Although I do love kimchi and have talked about it on various occasions on different posts, I know that I could not eat kimchi for breakfast.  I tried it at orientation and it does not make a very nice side dish to my bowl of frosted flakes.

Top right: Tteok.  Pronounced like "duck," in English this is called "rice cake."  Rice cakes come in many shapes and forms.  This tteok is prepared with steamed glutinous rice flour and then rolling into balls.  Red bean paste is put into the middle, which gives it a sweet flavor.  It is then rolled in colored and sweetened dried bean crumbs.  This is just one of the many "creative" ways Koreans eat rice.  I say "creative" with quotation marks because although, yes, it's a bit innovative, I don't necessarily like it or want to be eating rice for lunch in fifty-million different ways.  One, I don't need all those damn carbs and two, I don't particularly like rice that much.  When I first got to Korea I didn't mind tteok and ate it whenever any Korean shared it with me (which is often).  Now whenever I get tteok (which is still often)  I take a bite, act like its good, hide it and throw it away.  It's too late to tell anyone at my school that I don't like it.  I've already accepted and "eaten" way too much.  Plus I heard that it is literally a crime in Korea to not like tteok (like kimchi) and that you will go to prison for life if anyone hears you say it.

Bottom left:  This is a dried tofu soup.  I'm not sure what it's called as I'm going off of memory for this post because I lost my notes.  It's pretty much just pieces of dried tofu and some sort of spice without much flavor.  This soup doesn't have much flavor at all as it accompanies the next dish and is used as a way to even out the full flavor of the other dish.

Bottom right: Bibimbap.  This is one of Korea's signature dishes to foreigners who have eaten Korean food outside of Korea.  It is also very widely eaten amongst Koreans.  In fact, the first time I was exposed to bibimbap was during orientation.  The city where our orientation was held, Jeonju, is renowned in Korea for having the best bibimbap in the country.  I really enjoy this dish and I believe many other expats here to as well.  The dish is essentially a bunch of mixed vegetables served on top of rice and topped off with chili pepper paste.  The veggies used in this bibimbap are zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, spinach, and mushrooms.  As most of you back home know, I do love my veggies.  This dish is super healthy and filling and can be prepared with whatever vegetables you like.  There is also a version of this dish that is served hot. The rice becomes a bit fried and it's really tasty.

When watching Korean students eat all these vegetables it really amazes me how some Americans defend despicable school lunches by arguing that kids are picky and won't eat vegetables.  If this is universally true of kids around the world then why will Korean kids eat it?  I guess it could be because they don't have a choice at lunch and they can't bring their own.  If this is the case then I would argue that maybe that's how it should be done back home.  Obviously it is possible to give kids healthy, unprocessed, fresh food.  Why do we do it so much differently in the U.S.?  Just something to ponder...