Seaweed soup? But I have a test tomorrow!

안녕하세요 여러분 (Ann-yeong-ha-se-yo yeo-ro-boon)

Hello everyone!

Picture I took of one of my favorite Korean foods: 찜닭 (jjim-dalk)
It is a delicious chicken dish with vegetables, a sweet/spicy sauce
and potato noodles. 

I hope you all enjoyed last weeks post. I really enjoy Korean baseball and am a bit bummed the season is pretty much over. However, I am excited for the fun activities that the fall and winter will have to offer (such as hiking and snow!).

This week I wanted to focus on a topic I think everyone can enjoy: food! Specifically, I want to talk about a few foods I find to be the most culturally important or most interesting. What do you think is the most tasty or important food from your culture? Since I am half-Mexican, I think that for me, tamales are the best (especially the ones my abuela made for me). 

The first food I want to talk about is kimchi!! I asked my Korean suitemates what they thought the most important food to Koreans is and everyone answered that kimchi was it. In fact, my friend Eunji even said that a meal would be incomplete without some kimchi. For foreigners, kimchi can be a little hard to get used to. I remember when I first tried it, I was a bit shocked by how sour, juicy, and spicy it was. Although I liked the taste, it was something I had never experienced before, so it took a few times before I could really adjust to it. 

A couple different kinds of kimchi varieties. The most popular is the cabbage
kimchi (top left)! The kimchi on the top right is one of the few varieties
that are not spicy. 

Kimchi is generally a spicy fermented cabbage, meaning once you are done making the kimchi you let it rest for days or even weeks until it becomes sour. It is served as a side dish (or 반찬 ban-chan) with pretty much every meal you can eat in Korea. Did you know there are over 100 different kinds of kimchi? Kimchi is definitely the most staple/well known dish in Korea and I highly recommend you give it a try if you get the chance!

A picture I took of  a meal I had in Korea for breakfast.
Can you spot the kimchi in this picture?

The next food I will talk about is seaweed soup (or 미역국 /mee-yeok-guk). It is traditionally eaten on your birthday or when you are pregnant because it is very nutritious. What do you usually eat on your birthday? Are there any special dishes your family makes for you that day? 

Seaweed soup I had for breakfast.

Seaweed soup is a little salty and very tasty but there is a kind of funny reason why you might not eat this soup on certain days. In Korea, they believe that because seaweed soup is "slippery" you should never eat it when you have a test coming up. My friend Jiwon explained that if you eat a slippery food like seaweed soup, then you will "slip"/fail your test. Though she did also say that it is an older way of thinking, and younger people may not care about the myth as much. Though the myth sounds silly I can see how it makes sense too. Actually, next week is week 8 of the semester which means we have the big midterm tests for all our classes! So, I kind of wonder if my Korean roommates will be eating any seaweed soup. What do you think?

The last food I will talk about is rice cake ( or 떡 /tteok). Similar to kimchi, there are over 200 different types of rice cake in Korea.Considering they've been making rice cake for over 2000 years, it makes a lot of sense! There are spicy rice cakes, sweet rice cakes, rice cakes with nuts, and so many more. There is even a rice cake called the half moon rice cake (or 송편 song-pyeon), that is eaten during the Korean version of Thanksgiving (called 추석 / chu-seok). Just walking down the street in a typical neighborhood here, you can probably see at least 1-3 shops specifically for rice cakes! It is definitely my hope to bring some rice cakes for you all to try when I meet you upon returning to America! 

A picture of some of the varieties of rice cake you can find at
local rice cake shops/stands. 

This is 떡볶이 (tteok-bokㅏ-ee) or spicy rice cake. It is one of the
most popular dishes in Korea. Not only is it super delicious
it's also really cheap and easy to share with friends. The rice cakes
are the long tubes that you see floating in the 떡볶이 sauce!

Of course, these three foods do not even begin to cover the vast amounts of food available in Korea, but I hope I was able to provide a small taste of Korean cuisine. I absolutely love Korean food, and I highly encourage everyone to try some if you ever get the chance! 

Of the foods I've talked about today, which one do you want to try the most? 

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and make sure to leave your name in the comments too! If you have any questions or ideas for future blog posts, please let me know as well. 

Until next week, 안녕 (annyeong)/ goodbye!