Korean Food

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Korean food. When I arrived in Korea for the first time a few years ago - I discovered that although I like spicy food what I consider spicy food and what Korean people consider "spicy" are two entirely different things. I like Tex-Mex food and spicy chili but I don't like red pepper paste. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that one of the fundamental ingredients in Korean food seems to be red pepper paste and chili flakes.

I quickly learned to ask "매 워요"? [May why oh?] "Is it spicy?" of Korean people and if they said "네" [nay] "yes" or "조금" [Cho-gum] "a little" I learned to avoid that food like the plaque.

I used to watch the Korean cooking shows and I'd see them making what looked to be a lovely dish but as a final step they would add a cup of red pepper paste or a cup of chili flakes and then I would turn the TV off in disgust. Since for me they would have just ruined the wonderful fresh vegetables by burying the taste under spices that burn the tongue and make you sweat and your nose run.

That said there are a few Korean foods that are spicy that I actually enjoy eating.

This is a photo of Dduck-boo-key. It is rice cake and pressed fish in a red pepper sauce. It is a favorite food of children. They buy it in paper cups and eat it with a toothpick. Street vendors always seem to sell it near schools and private academies and they do a brisk business with the children. A cup of it costs about 500 won [or about 50 cents Canadian]. It is very spicy but quite delicious and filling.

One other Korean food that I enjoy is called Dwegi-kuk-bop. It is a soup made from thin slices of pork and it has rice and sometimes noodles in it. It is a wonderful food to eat in the winter and, also, when you have a cold. It is spicy and makes your nose run so it sure does help clear up the sinuses.

In Korea there are always a lot of side dishes when you order food. At the top of this picture is Kim-chi [the national dish of Korea]. It is fermented cabbage in a hot red pepper paste. Imagine sour kraut with a hot red pepper paste on it. Next [the square shaped food with the red/orange sauce] is ggag-du-gi. It is a radish kimchi. On the left is something that looks like grass but is actually called jeong-gu-ji. It looks like some kind of edible grass to me and when mixed into pork soup it serves to add color and fiber to the soup.