I'll Think Twice Before I Try That!

One thing I have found since moving here is that Koreans love some strange and odd food. I just can't get over how different their food is from ours. Very few things are familiar. There are a lot of shops and restaurants that have American cuisine, but Korean cuisine is not like ours at all. 

I knew a lot about the Korean culture from reading about it and also from hearing from Chris what he experienced last time he was here. Since his last time here, many American places have opened: McDonald's, Papa Johns, Dominoes, Outback, KFC, pretzel places, coffee shops, waffle places (Koreans LOVE waffles apparently), hamburger places, etc. However, it's different. Dominoes is expensive (we're talking $35 for a pizza) and the pizza has odd stuff on it-corn, shrimp, even mayonnaise. McDonald's is okay, but the fries taste a little different and they have menu items that cater to Koreans, which is understandable. In Alaska and Hawaii, I remember their menus being a little different with local things that we don't have in the lower 48. I haven't been to Outback, but their steak is shipped in from Europe, so it is expensive. Want mexican? Sure! You can have that, except the menu has kimchi tacos and kimchi fajitas.

So when we go to the local places, I can't help but wonder what in the world Koreans like about some of their foods. 

Koreans have this thing called red bean paste. It is in everything!  From what I have gathered, it is some form of bean (Azuki beans). For sweet things, they cook it in honey and I just hate it. The texture and the thought of a bean being sweet just grosses me out! In our local cafe, it's mixed with cream and put into a sandwich. You find it fried in a type of pancake (think fair food) and sprinkled with sugar. It's made into a hot paste that is added to all kinds of meals. They love their red beans here!

 Wants some Cheetos? You can have those, but you won't find the type we have at home. We found these and actually really enjoyed them. They are not fried and they are not cheesy. They are sweet and from what we could figure, it's some sort of barbecue. It was light and there was no powder all over our fingers. The kids really loved them and want us to get them again! This small bag was $1.25. Expensive for such a small amount.

 We have also seen a lot of sweet potato stuff. The few times I've tried Korean food (I don't care for the smell or taste of 99% of what I've tried), sweet potatoes are always in it. They even make a purple sweet potato doughnut that looks like a small purple sweet potato! We haven't tried it. I don't care for doughnuts here in Korea. They don't use flour like we do (sandwiches like what we eat are very rare here), so any pastry out there has an different type of flavor. They also don't do "sweet". Their sweet stuff is not sweet by American standards. It has saved us a lot of money and calories since we don't purchase a lot of their desserts from the cafe' across the street from our apartment. :-) (That other thing in the picture to the right of the doughnut is 2 mini hotdogs in a bun, with ketchup on top and it just sits in the non-refrigerated section of the store. Something tells me that can't be safe!)

 I am afraid to try Korean restaurants. I can't read their menu, I don't know what they are serving me and I hate kimchi. Koreans eat it at every meal. There are over 100 types of kimchi and I have only liked maybe 2 I tried. I don't want to go into a restaurant and insult the owner when I don't eat what they put in front of me. Speaking of restaurants, or any other type of business actually, they are small mom & pop shops. Everything on this side of town where we live (the older area), is a small business. Businesses line the streets everywhere, people sit out on the side of the street selling things like light bulbs, bug and mouse traps, food...anything! There are also food trucks everywhere that sell things like rotisserie chickens, Korean foods and produce. The restaurants have pictures outside their doors to show you what they serve. You see a lot of seafood dishes and apparently Koreans love octopus (or squid if that's what it is). YUCK!  Oh, and their Korean-style fried chicken is really odd-chewy, crispy and slimy. Chris likes it, but I just can't handle it. It's just so different.

So these are the types of things that keep me from going out and trying new things. Chris has told me that I'm just a person that doesn't care for Korean foods and he is right. I am open to trying some things, but nearly everything I have tried is something I don't like. I do like a few things and I constantly just eat those over and over again. Chris always goes out and brings the food back home. He LOVES Korean food. LOVES! So, he gets what he wants (it's usually a very healthy, vegetable only filled food with lots of raw veggies that he brings home and it stinks!) and I heat  up something  like soup for the kids and me. 

Koreans eat much healthier than Americans. The majority of them are very thin people and their diet is mostly veggies and rice...and then fish or pork. They have their foods, we have our foods. I just can't stomach the majority of their stuff. Sorry, Korea!