Let's talk lunch (and snack), or at least look at pictures

Let's talk about Korean food and eating lunch at school! Now is as good a time as ever since our internet is actually working for the time being. School lunches are interesting. We were informed when we got here that there used to be an excellent chef, but he was no longer there. There is an older woman who is the school cook now and not having anything to judge against, I can't complain too much. 

Here at school there are several things served at different times. Typically breakfast is around 9:30-9:45am, before class starts at 10am. Breakfast is usually rice based, porridge or otherwise, but sometimes it will be sweet potatoes, rice cakes which are soft and chewy flat discs (a type of tteokbokki), or a gravy-like soup. Lunch is at 12pm, and that's where you see a good amount of variety with what is served, with several mainstays. Rice and soup are the big ones, as is kimchi which is served most days.

Snack is more varied, sometimes you get fresh fruit (persimmons, grapes, apples, etc), tteokbokki, rice noodles, leftover cake from a birthday party, rice balls, toast with sugar, various snacks in little packages, pot stickers, cereal, seems like there are a lot of different things.

 Part of the interesting thing of eating here is that things are different (and free lunch, who can say no?) , and most of it is good, but there are some things I have not acquired a taste for. But for now, I give you lunch and snack!

Cookies and grapes. Grapes are interesting here since a lot of times the outer "shell" isn't eaten, you just eat the inside and then spit out the seeds (though that isn't even always either).

This is a pretty standard lunch. There is (L to R) kimchi, seasoned dried seaweed, chicken, rice, and egg soup with bean sprouts.

I could eat this stuff all day, every day. When we get back I am going to be raiding Asian groceries so I can have seaweed for a snack.

This is what you do with it! Or one of the things you can do with your seaweed anyway.

This snack includes pot stickers (steamed), cherries, and pancake pieces which is one of everyone's favorite snacks.

Another typical lunch, that's tteokbokki, some sort of gel type thing (close up below), kimchi, rice, and soup with tofu.

I'm not sure what this is, it's different though.

Toast with sugar for snack!

Teensy, salty little fishies with lunch. The kids like to add them to their rice for flavor.

There's soup with the processed fish (I'm really not a fan of any of the fishy soups, or the processed fish, rice,  shredded potatoes, some sort of chicken nuggety things(??), and the teensy fish.

Rice balls for snack with seaweed pieces.

These noodles are delicious and I want to eat them forever.

Those are mushrooms up to the left, with spicy tofu, rice, chestnuts, and chicken soup. The rice eventually ended up in the soup once I fished out the skin.

These are a typical thing too. I think it's an egg base with some sort of flour(??) to thicken it up along with wild onions.

Bean sprouts aren't an unusual sight.

This lunch has a beef (??) based soup with potatoes or turnips, rice, pieces of dried fish (they're actually kind of sweet), and processed fish, guess what part I didn't finish?

Seaweed soup for this lunch. I didn't like it a whole lot at first, but I do now. Then you have rice, the egg with  the onions, bulgogi of some sort and the corner there has some sort of sweetened octopus or squid.

Seaweed soup, or miyeok guk, it's so good.

Bulgogi, I think.

Now that I understand a little more (after doing a little research), these are savory kinds of pancakes known as jeon.

Something with lots of legs, not a fan.

Lunch this time? Kimchi, a sort of potato salad type thing with just mayo (ick!),  more dried fish, rice, and a soup with a variety of things including mushroom, bits of beef, etc.

This was an interesting drink/snack. That's a small ice cube in the picture, by the way.  I'm pretty sure this drink was rice based and in a way it sort of reminded me of horchata, though it wasn't as good. It was sweet with a slightly thicker consistency. I'll have to figure out what it's called.

These are all familiar lunch items. Tofu, a mix of squid and onions (closer view below), rice, and soup with tofu.

This is a closeup of the squid. Isn't that a cute little tentacle there? It was actually pretty good.

Rolls for snack, and yogurt. Sarah is eyeing hers up in the background there.

Let's see here, for this lunch we have kimchi, a type of seaweed, some sort of pulled meat, rice, and an egg soup with tofu.

I wasn't sure what they were at first, but I've gotten to try chestnuts while I've been here and I really like them. They're delicious.

This snack is bread with jelly. A favorite of the kids.

Kimchi, kimchi, kimchi! It's a good thing I like it, I actually love having kimchi now.  Then you have egg with seaweed, rice with seaweed (seeing a theme?), and soup with salmon (canned, I saw it in the kitchen) and various things.

I'm not sure what these are called, but they're a sweet rice cake and each of them had different flavors  (the outside is different and the inside color is different too). Can't forget the cup of milk to wash them down with.

A close up shot.

This lunch has cooked chestnuts (they were kind of sweet), the savory pancakes or jeon, rice, and seaweed soup.

Another tasty snack, noodles with a broth (sometimes the fishy broth, which I don't care for), noodles, and I like to  have kimchi on the top of mine for added flavor.

You know it's fall when you get pumpkin soup for lunch.

Zach was a big fan of this lunch. Beef based soup, rice, kimchi, a sweet/spicy chicken, and egg s (with cheese, I think).

So I think it's safe to say I've given a pretty thorough recap of lunches here at school at this point. I will do my best to keep an eye on new and different things to try and to share with you. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. Korean cuisine is certainly an adventure, at least at first! Then you settle into routine and you like what you like and don't like what doesn't taste good. :)

Of course, you can go to one of the many pastry shops, the more fast food places such as Lotteria or the Western McDonalds, or the more traditional if you like that too. It's just nice to have so many options based on what you're interested in. We're hopefully going to be hitting up Saboten tomorrow for lunch which is Japanese.