tea diaries ~~~~~ groooooovy

I realized that although I've been here a few months, I've never once wrote extensively about Korean, food, although it is one of the most enjoyable parts of living on this side of the world. Sooooo ... here ya go. :) As you probably know, rice is the main dish at every meal, in fact the phrase "pap mogassoyo?" or "did you eat?" literally means "did you eat rice?" Koreans like to wrap meat in leaves, that's what the traditional "Korean barbeque" restaurants in the States usually focus on, and it certainly is delicious. They cook it right at the table for you, and you wrap it with lettuce, sesame leaves, or cabbage (very healthy!) But here in Jeju we get a lot of raw fish, which we dip in go-to-jawn (spicy red pepper sauce). Kimchi is the most important vegetable dish, it's pickled cabbage in go-to-jawn paste - and its freakin' fantastic. There's lots of different kinds of kimchi, cabbage is the basic one but radishes, spring onions, and a lot of Chinese vegetables that don't really have English translations get kimchi'ed. One of my favorite things that my host mother makes is a kimchi'ed cuttlefish ... I guess strands. Strands of cuttlefish. It tastes a lot better than it sounds. Koreans also don't have their own plates of food (except for bowls of rice) ... they put all the side dishes, meat dishes, even soup sometimes in the center, and you take what you want. It is then customary to save the rest for the next meal (no food waste). What a beautiful system. :) Yes, as you see, I've fallen in love.