Once we got settled on the type of BBQ we wanted they started bringing food and lit the ‘grill’:
And they brought more food:
I have no idea what the flat thing is – but it was a swimming thing at one time. It was meaty and not bad actually. There are a lot of different kinds of unrecognizable fish here. Some I would not touch with a ten foot pole – much less eat. This one was not bad.
They used ka-wi (scissors) to cut the meats apart and cooked it for us:
It was beginning to smell good. I had no idea where we went from here but I was beginning to learn a lesson I will not forget. The lettuce on the side of the bbq is to put the cooked food on:
I found out that it is unlucky for me to pour my own drink. Etiquette says a person should never pour a drink from a bottle into his own glass and never allow another person in the group to pour his own drink. When someone else in the group has finished or almost finished his drink, one of the people in the group should top up his glass for him. If he has started pouring his own drink, he should be stopped and have it poured for him. Steve poured mine:
The waitresses kept his topped off. The Korean girls take very good care of the men – and the men appreciate it a bit too much if you ask me ;-)
Kimchi is the most popular of all Korean foods. It is estimated that 40 pounds of Kimchi per person is eaten every year in Korea. It is made of fermented vegetables, but most commonly cabbage. If you want to know more about it, here is a good link: http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/food.htm It is a very spicy dish and yes I tasted it. It tasted like… fermented cabbage with spices on it. In my opinion sauerkraut is an excellent first choice compared to this. Here is what it looks like - and there are many recipes for it:
Somehow I missed getting a picture of the most important part of this entire meal. The girls showed us that you take a leaf of lettuce (see the baskets in the corners of the table?) and start putting food on the them – more or less like a taco only using the Korean food. You start with the meat and add the desired ingredients. This was fine – but I am learning a new custom, smelling new foods (many of them at once even) and trying to figure this all out. The waitress could not understand us, but I think my… leeriness (?) made her think we didn’t know what we were doing. Ok, we didn't.
This is when the fun started. She took the leaf, dumped a bit of this on it and a bit of that, added some sauces and... She rolled it up in a ball and tried (literally) to stuff it into Steve’s mouth. Over and over she made us leaf tacos… whatever it is called… and kept trying to shove it in our mouths! I got overwhelmed quickly. Very quickly. I could not pause to catch my breath, the tastes and smells were overwhelming me and she was shoving food at me as fast as I could swallow.
Finally, other people started coming in (thank God!) and she got too busy to feed us. I must say, now I know what a baby feels like when you are shoveling food into their mouths :-(
We survived it, and I did like most of the food. At my own pace, I think I would have actually enjoyed it much more. It was certainly an experience. Now I know how to eat it, I will just have to find a place that doesn’t feel the need to feed me ;-) There was a TON of food – how can two people even BEGIN to eat this all?
Here we are at the end of the meal. This is the end of the day out with our taxi driver too – so we were windblown and baby fed so… well, you can see for yourself:
As I walked out the door, I thought to take a picture of our table. All that food. Wow. I loved the novelty of the idea of the Korean BBQ Steve, and I love being in Korea.
Since you went all out this year, Steve, next year a nice Olive Garden dinner of Chicken Alfredo in the USA would suffice.
See? An easy to please woman – isn’t that what you love about me?
1 comment:
looks like it was a fun dinner!
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